To the top of the Tree - #AMMC-DFQ

Hello,

I decided to participate in a Christmas anthology but I was stumped for ideas, today is deadline day and as usual I perform better under pressure, and so without further ado...here is my contribution to...

A Merry Minion Christmas: Assorted Tales from the Realm of the Dark Fairy Queen

 

To the top of the tree

 

Genre: ?  Author/Pen Name: Marjie Myers ebook: Yes #AMMC-DFQ

 

On the 1st December, the Hornby family get together and make Hornby senior’s stark home look like someone threw up Liberace’s wardrobe, and its a day he looks forward to. On the 2nd December the carefully place angel is always missing; turning up hidden in the branches or caught beneath the tree skirt. This year he decided to place a star on top instead and everyone wished him luck in keeping it there.

Chippy, the wooden toy soldier, had stood beneath the branches of every tree that Mr Hornby had, it was his job to make sure the baubles stayed sparkly and that the tinsel was hung evenly around the tree.

Chippy loved his job and when Mr Hornby had left the angel, Mirabelle, in the box, why his poor little wooden heart almost went up in flames. After marching, he decided that Mirabelle belonged atop the tree’

He opened the box,

"Mirabelle...Mirabelle..are you in there? the tree is decorated...Mirabelle..."

Mirabelle sprang out like a jack in the box with a look of sheer panic across her face.

"Mr Hornby can't’ have finished...how can he have finished when I hadn’t been unrustled?"

"He said the star won’t run away and hide like you."

"but..thats my place"

‘"o up there then"

"up there...i..i...its so very high..and the ground is so very far from up there"

"ok, then back in the box"

"but.. but...i wont see christmas, i wont see the lights twinkling in the evening or racing each other or doing fancy flash dances, I wont be able to listen to the flower fairies share their stories, i wont...oh Chippy, why do i have to be so scared of falling?"

"Dont be. I will catch you!. I believe that you can do anything, i know it in my grain. Why don’t you try and see?"

"Oh...its sooo high..."

"You have to trust me, I wont let you down mirabelle?"

"take my hand and I shall help you. You see, the first branch is the easiest,’ and he lifted her up.

‘the hard part is to keep going, when you doubt yourself, when you think you might go wrong, or when you have to trust someone else and yet you doubt them too, thats the hard part Mirabelle"

Mirabelle reached up and pulled herself to the next and the next branch. She felt spurred on to reach the next branch but she wasn’t sure how to get there, she looked down at Chippy and felt quite dizzy, and looked up at Glimmer sparkling in the night. She wanted to move on but felt like there was no way. Mirabelle felt like crying but something floated down in front of her, it was Mr Silber the tinsel, he gave a rustle and reached out to her and she realised he was offering to help and he pulled her up to the fourth branch.

All she needed was to have some faith and a little hope and she could find a solution. Looking around, she wondered how she would climb the next two branches, when she saw a bauble glistening in the light and had an idea. She would have to ask for help and that wasnt something that came easy to her.  

"erm excuse me Orb, could I swing on you up to the next branch? I am aiming for the top but I cant get there alone, will you help?"

"yes...would you help me?"

Mirabelle was taken aback to be asked for help, no-one ever asked her for help, instead they laughed at her and mocked her saying ‘who ever heard of an angel who is scared of heights?’, they never thought she had much to offer.

"of course Orb, what shall I do for you?"

!Can you see, on my top is a hoop with a soft silk ribbon running through it and beside that a sharp pine needle is sticking into me, it's terribly annoying putting up with a prickle like that all day."

So very carefully Mirabelle removed the pine needle for Orb.

"Ohhhhhh..that is much better,now climb aboard and lets get swinging.’"

As Mirabelle leapt off, she realised that she might not reach the branch but she did...just. She was hanging on by her fingertips, she told herself not to look down, but she did and instead of feeling scared, she felt very safe indeed. Standing at the bottom of the tree was Chippy, smiling and ready to catch her, and when she saw Orb still swinging she caught her reflection in his coat of glass. The angel she saw didn’t look scared, as her grip began to loosen she closed her eyes expecting to free fall and was surprised when something grabbed her and pulled her up to the top branch. When she opened her eyes she saw it was Glimmer.

He had climbed down a little from his place on the tree to help her, even though he must have known why she was there, and her heart felt so full she thought she would burst  

For the first time she took in the view from the top of the tree and saw how beautiful it was. Mirabelle hadnt realised, she hadnt want to see it before, she looked down and blew a kiss to Chippy and then turned to glimmer and gave him a smile. She had made it, she had overcome her fear with the help of her friends, they had believed in her, taught her not to be scared and given her hope, and here she was at the top of the tree to stay.

On the 2nd december Mr Hornby came downstairs, he half expected not to see the star on the tree, but it was. He smiled as he headed to the kitchen, then he stopped, removed his spectacles and gave them a clean, put them on and looked back at the tree.

And there on the tree, sat just below the star, was his angel.

 

FSF: Enrapture

Enrapture

All three of us were bound together by that beyond our reach; I was cursed to spend eternity enraptured by him, he was cursed to spend eternity enraptured by her and she was cursed to spend eternity without rapture.

Each of us driven by the desire to break the curse was prepared to do whatever it would take; we formed an alliance and searched every corner of our lands, following every clue, taking every mission, trying everything in search of the elusive cure.

Each year that passed left a scar that wouldn’t heal, and it wasn’t long until we were nothing more than mercenaries, barely resembling those people we once were.

We were all but resigned to our fate when we were summoned to the witch’s court and told of the cure, we only needed to do them one small favour and at last we would be free.

I couldn’t breathe.

Five Sentence Fiction is hosted by Lillie McFerrin, go check out the rest of the stories here.

Wednesday wonderings

Hello! So, here I am, another year older (as of yesterday) and another year wiser…*cough*splutter*guffaw*…anyway, its two weeks till nanowrimo starts and the story I thought I could use a couple of weeks ago has morphed from exciting to missable and thus I am back to the drawing board.

Here is a paragraph or so of the old story....

She stood shivering at the window, her feet rooted to the spot, her eyes widened to their maximum and her fingers gripping the sill. As she breathed, the window misted adding a natural eeriness to the image she watched before her, unsure if what she had seen could actually be considered real in the realms of reality, she gripped tighter as an expression of her thoughts.

It was the screeching of the brakes that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand erect as the bus stopped at the roadside. A figure emerged from behind the large oak tree at the streets edge, the face hidden, and she raised a hand up to the window to support her as she peered closer. She watched as the figure walked along the length of the bus to the backseat and it sped off up the street. At last she felt able to blink and relaxed ever so slightly.

'Sally poppet? Your nose is bleeding.'

Sally's hand flew to her face to check for blood and Bert was right, she was bleeding, but it didnt worry her as much as the realisation that she heard Bert (a lifelong mute) speak. Sally looked at Bert with new eyes, he wasnt Bert anymore but who was he?

I am pleased to also announce that my internet now works much better and so I can take part in flash fiction challenges again and of course write for Nano...I am still struggling with a christmas story for AMMC but you just never know! :)

I'll be back soon!

Update

Hello…are we still talking? I feel like the past few weeks I have been possessed by someone else and that’s why my blogging has gone by the wayside. I would like to say that its because I am reserving all my energies for Nanowrimo but that would just be an excuse. It is slightly true, I am reserving my energies for Nanowrimo and have been capturing images in my mind to use as inspiration and for a setting for the story. I haven’t drawn a mindmap, or wrote a list or ventured into any sort of planning but it is happening a little bit in my head.

I have a vague setting, and a ‘feeling’ that I want to portray throughout the novel and hopefully pass on to the reader. I’m not sure how realistic a goal that is or how likely I am to achieve that but that’s the plan. Storywise…I think the main character will be a woman, that there will be dark undertones, and I think it will be another mystery style story. The story arc and actual idea of what will happen, what the characters are called or where it will be set – I have no idea about.

Since moving I have struggled to make a space and find time to write. I have time but for some reason I am not using it for writing. That needs to change and I am hopeful that Nanowrimo will get me back in the habit (as the nuns say). I really want to finish my WIPs. I have about 4 that need to be finished and that should be my target to get them done by the end of the year.

In other writing news, I haven’t written much poetry lately, which must mean I am on an emotional even keel.

I am not surprised as the house is almost sorted since the fire, only the windows to be fitted today, and the burglary case is moving forward. The person whose fingerprints they found in my house and who had my stuff found in his house was released on bail and has to report back to the station on 15th October (my birthday) – the police will call me to tell me whether the CPS (crown prosecution service) will be prosecuting him or not.

The neighbour who caused the fire came over the other day (after our fence had been put up by the landlord in exactly the same place that it had been when it had been burnt to the ground) to tell us that the fence was over the property line (by about 2cm) and we better take it down or he will! I am sure you can imagine how exasperating it is to live next door to an idiot. I remember the police officer asking me if I was ok in my house, I guess some people feel uneasy after a burglary, I am not worried about the burglar but I am worried about the idiot next door!

In other news, I think we should bring back Telly Addicts, it’s an old British TV show from the 80s and is basically a quiz show about television….here’s a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vZ9zDIG70c …check out Noel reading a letter (not a tweet or email – lol!)

I just think with the amount of TV available now that there is so much you could quiz about. Maybe I should produce my own YouTube Telly Addicts. Who’s in? It also got me to thinking, after a long discussion with a friend, about my TV Heaven and TV Hell. I always think I watch so much and love so much TV but reality is I haven’t seen a lot of popular TV shows. Does it mean I have bad taste? Or good taste? My friend thinks I am an annoying TV viewer and that there is little correlation between the TV shows that I like.

What is your TV Heaven and TV Hell?