I produced The Screen and set it up in a corner, alongside the harpsichord’s soundboard, explaining that it would provide instrumental accompaniment, as long as someone provided chords and rhythm (though the more human input it received from the accompaniment, the more it could do in return). Skeptical, Jenny played a continuo-like set of arpeggios, […]
I shot up the fire escape after her. It wasn’t until the second landing that I found her – with the door. It was an old door, with elaborate wrought iron strap hinges – dark oak – the kind that might be side door to a cathedral. I put the key in the lock. […]
“This is a joke, right?” “We both know this address, Stan,” I replied, “So this key you picked up last Sunday . …” “Which was given to me last Sunday – with a note attached . .. .:” “Where said attached note now has the address of a bombed-out cinema – our favourite bombed-out cinema […]
Stan and I sat in the lounge, him in a comfy chair, me on a couch, idly strumming Gramfer’s guitar. I eventually worked out chords to Summertime Blues, playing and singing, as Stan sang along and said the spoken lines in the “Kingfish” voice. I must’ve played the song to death, but no one seemed […]
It could have been worse – much worse. I even laughed, in amusement and relief, when Ian and Stan finally stopped going around the Wrekin and told me who it was. After all, it might well have been Rufus the Doofus. Maybe somewhere, back in his distant past, his stage mother had crammed some piano […]
Bethany made no trip to the side of the road, during the drive home. Like the restaurant lunch Dad treated everyone to before we left, the return trip was uneventful. I was left to my own thoughts, wondering what could’ve happened to the imp. Just then, I heard a quiet giggle, and found the little […]
I sneaked out a side door when the service was over – I just wanted out, no slowpoke conga line past the pastor, certainly no handshake or other discourse with the pastor himself. What I really wanted to do was to run off and find Bethany, hoping she’d sort all this better than I could, […]
I awoke next morning to the sound of The Nine O’Clock News on the radio and the smell of eggs frying in the pan, chicken soup, newly sliced onion and freshly baked bagels. It was Sunday – and not just any Sunday, but Palm Sunday. I had to get ready for church quickly. I sat […]
We crossed the dining room and entered the lounge; Uncle Roddy and Auntie Gene were waiting, sitting in two comfy chairs. Auntie Gene stood and we ran to her. The demon saw her and transformed into his Paganini-vampire form, radiating the most charming visage of which he was likely capable; Auntie Gene responded with a […]
I’d no idea what to make of this, much less how to react; I’d also no time to ponder the situation for, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a long figure in black, crouched low, snaking its way towards us. Suddenly it was before us, rising to its – or rather his […]
