person in a hat reading

MLMM Saturday Mix Lucky Dip — Turned His Frown Upside Down

Fandango6 Comments

Mildred finished her bacon and egg breakfast, got dressed, put on her hat and coat, and grabbed her umbrella, as the sky was dark and threatening. A few minutes later she arrived at the church, sat down in a pew, opened her hymn book, and started singing in her always slightly out-of-tune manner. Poor Mildred couldn’t hit a musical note if her life depended on it.

When the church service was over, Mildred headed to the recreation center’s athletic fields where her eight-year-old grandson’s soccer team would be playing. Mildred got situated on the bleachers, and pulled out a pair of binoculars from her oversized bag, since she couldn’t see as well as she used to, and she wanted to focus on her grandson running up and down the field.

But shortly after the game started, the rains came. Middle tried calling her grandson, but he couldn’t hear because an airplane was flying directly overhead. Mildred grabbed her stuff and ran, as best she could, to where her grandson was. She pulled him to her under the umbrella to try to keep him from getting more soaked than she already was. He was not a happy camper because he had been looking forward to this soccer game all week. Then, when Mildred suggested they go to the local ice cream shop for a treat, she turned his frown upside down.

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Saturday Mix Lucky Dip, where the story cubes are musical note, person in a hat reading, aeroplane, umbrella, soccer ball, binoculars, and egg and bacon.

MLMM Saturday Mix Lucky Dip — Stranger on a Train

Fandango10 Comments

Detective Fred Morrisey had his eye on the mysterious man wearing a fedora and reading a book at the other end of the train car. After a while, the man put down his book, looked at his watch, took out a pipe, lit it, and started puffing away. Morrisey found this strange as the car they were in was clearly designated as a no smoking car.

As if on cue, another man stood up from the middle of the train car, walked to the back of the car, and handed a filmstrip to the man Morrisey had been watching. The other man left the train car through the door at the back, while pipe-smoker put down his pipe and held up the filmstrip to the light.

The train headed into a tunnel and the interior lights went out, leaving the passengers in total darkness for a few seconds before the lights came back on. The man Morrisey had been watching was gone.

Morrisey ran to the back of the car, pushed open the sliding door and looked outside. He saw footprints in the sandy ground leading away from the tracks. The train was going around a sharp curve at maybe five miles an hour. Morrisey figured the guy he was after had jumped and Morrisey decided to jump and follow the footprints.

Morrisey jumped, rolled on the ground, and just missed coming to rest on a spiky cactus. He stood up, brushed himself off, and started to follow the man’s trail.

It didn’t take long before Morrisey found the man’s body lying face down in the desert sand, a large knife sticking in his back. Morrisey searched the dead man’s body looking for the filmstrip he was handed on the train. It wasn’t on him. No wallet, no ID, no watch, either.

“Shit,” Morrisey said out loud. Then he thought, One dead body and not a step closer to the truth.

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Saturday Mix Lucky Dip, where the story cubes are knife, pipe, person in a hat reading, tram/train, stopwatch, filmstrip, cactus, and footprints.