The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters Chapter Sixteen: Watching

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters

Chapter Sixteen: Watching

The stranger sits by the window smoking a pipe and watching the comings and goings of people in the street. The snow that had fallen the night before has melted. The streets are muddy. A group of British troops marches through the main street. There are wagons from the nearby farms with farmers picking up supplies. Women walk along the wooden sidewalks wrapped in warm coats, chatting, and stepping into and out of the dress shop, the general store, and a restaurant where a sign advertises breakfast. The stranger notices a number of wagons pulling into the barn where he had bedded down his horses. Noticing how much deeper their wheel tracks are when they enter than when they leave the stranger grins. He looks down at the General. The sun is beginning to set. The stranger checks his pocket watch.

The stranger: “I wonder what they’re unloading.”

The stranger looks back onto the street. “This town is full of little mysteries.”

Story Telling – past and present

One of the things that I like about blogging a work is that it allows a certain amount of detachment from what you’ve done. And although this is the sixth or seventh rewrite I see places where I would like to make changes. Mostly small technical ones. There is one difficulty/challenge in all of this and that is writing in the present tense. It feels uncomfortable. Perhaps because story telling by its very nature is about some past event. Writing in the present tense is like observing incidents as they happen and reporting them. Story telling (in the past tense) is like being a sleuth, a Sherlock Holmes. Story telling (in the present tense) is like being a camera.

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters Chapter Fifteen: Montgomery’s Inn

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters

Chapter Fifteen: Montgomery’s Inn

By late afternoon the next day the stranger reaches the outskirts of York. There are people everywhere. Lots of excitement. And troops. Visible. The stranger finds a livery stable and boards up his horses. The blacksmith directs him toward an inn down the road. The stranger walks down the street. The crowds are getting heavier. There is excitement in the air. He steps into a small inn and asks for a room. As he enters his room, a young woman exits the room opposite. She smiles. The stranger does not.

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters Chapter Fourteen: Fire

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters

Chapter Fourteen: Fire

The General begins to growl. the stranger’s horse slows down. Seems upset. the stranger reaches down and pets the horse’s neck. The dog barks.

The stranger: “You can smell it, boy.”

The stranger looks around. In the distance he spots a flash of light. Inside the woods a fire has broken out. the stranger tests the wind.

The stranger: “We’re up wind. Should be headed the other direction. But…”

The stranger steers his horses off the road and moves farther away, taking a circuitous route around the woods. Later that day he sets up camp. Starts a fire. Lights up his pipe. The dog has curled up near the fire. The stranger stares into the flames.

Stranger: “Fire. Danger and comfort… Last night I had a dream, General. About the Queen of Sweden.”

The dog looks up at the stranger quixotically.

The stranger grins.

Stranger: “Beautiful blonde lady… Napoleon and the Queen of Sweden. They weren’t just dancing around the mulberry bush.”

The dog wines.

The stranger: “I know. You don’t like all that sex stuff. And there is a point to my dream, General.”

The dog turns his head to one side.

The stranger: “Even though old Napoleon was bedding the Queen of Sweden, it didn’t keep him from marching into Russia. Right in the middle of winter.”

The dog barks.

The stranger laughs.

The stranger: “You don’t have to get sarcastic, boy. I know why I’m here.”

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters Chapter Thirteen: The Early Morning

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters

Chapter Thirteen: The Early Morning

For a couple hours the darkness of the woods is deep. Filled with terrible emptiness. The only sounds he hears is the  horses breathing. Comforting. And the dog bounding through the snow. He reaches into his pocket and fishes out a pipe. He lights it up. The dog smells the smoke and looks up at the stranger.

Stranger to his dog: “He’s out there somewhere, General.”

Hemingwayit

I have been trying to write as little as possible in this series. I wanted the scenes to be sparce so that with the aid of the accompanying visual, the reader had to create much of the scene in his head. No great insight there but I had this notion that I would try and cut/edit down, Hemingwayit.

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters Chapter Twelve: View from a Window

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters

Chapter Twelve: View from a Window

Early the next morning the stranger goes to the livery stable to pick up his horses. Pulling the second horse behind him and with the General at his side he makes his way out of town. The streets are empty. The air is cold. The sun is rising. From the second floor of the hotel a blind girl watches him leave.

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters Chapter Eleven: Lovers

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters

Chapter Eleven: Lovers

Later in bed, the couple are naked under the bed sheets. Eunice lies on her side,  stroking the stranger’s chest.

The stranger: “What does your husband think of this?”

Eunice: “We have a business relationship. He protects me, and I… iron his shirts.”

The stranger laughs: “So he knows?”

Eunice: “Why are you here?”

Stranger: “Business.”

Eunice: “And what is your business?”

Stranger: “I find things that people lose.”
Eunice: “You are so… evasive.”

The stranger laughs.

Playfully Eunice slaps the stranger’s chest.

Eunice: “Why did you come here? To Canada? It is a long way from your home.”

The stranger: “I came for the clear skies and warm sunshine.”

Eunice: “It is winter.”

The stranger: “I was misled.”

Eunice sternly: “You are impossible.”

The stranger: “I came to find some property that was taken from my employer.”

Eunice: “Is this property so important?”

The stranger: “No. But my employer is a sentimental man.”

Eunice: “Are you sentimental too?”

The stranger rises from the bed and steps over to the window. He looks down into the street below.

Stranger: “How blind are you?”

Eunice: “I can see that you are headed into trouble.”

hard drive melt down

lost many operating programs…. lost years of work… going into the hospital for a medical maintenance… bad week all around

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters Chapter Ten: The Bath

The Property of Lee Harrison Peeters

Chapter Ten: The Bath

An hour later the stranger is sitting in a large bath, big enough for two, in the middle of a room. His clothes are hanging on the wall. A moment later Eunice, (long dark raven hair, full lips, large hips and breasts) enters the room with some towels. The stranger sinks into the water before realizing that the woman cannot see him. She puts the towels down on a table near the bath.

Eunice: “Would you like your back washed, sir.”

The stranger: “Yes, mam.”

Eunice gets behind the stranger and begins to wash him. The soap slips out of her hands. She begins to search around in the water for the soap. Her hands find what she thinks is the soap. She is mistaken.

Eunice: “I’m sorry, sir.”

The stranger smiles: “No. I don’t think you are. And I don’t think you’re as blind as your husband led me to believe.”

Eunice giggles.

The stranger grabs Eunice and pulls her into the tub.