I stand motionless as a moving stairway carries me down, down, down.
A tunnel envelopes me. To my left and right, behind me and before, people stand in silence. Motionless like so many statues, seemingly unaware of others that surround them.
The stillness is disturbed by a sudden rush of wind. A distant rumble becomes a roar as a silver snake rattles to a halt before me. A row of menacing doors hiss open, like hungry gaping mouths. I watch as a surging mass makes its escape, buffeting me in its frantic bid for freedom.
‘Mind the gap’ commands an echoing voice.
I am carried forward by a throng, seemingly eager to be swallowed up. We cram against each other like sardines in a can. A jerk. I grip a post. We sway as one, this way and that, that way and this. Nobody speaks.
We are deep underground. My body is here, but it yearns to be above in a bustling street where folk are going about their lives oblivious to what is happening beneath their feet.
‘We are now approaching Angel’, utters a langid voice.
‘Mind the gap’, it says.
I stand motionless as a moving stairway carries me up, up, up.
Once again it was time for the annual Produce Prizegiving Event, a celebration of all things home grown and edible! In the fluttering marquee Mrs Green’s gooseberries stood proudly alongside Molly’s marvellous marmalade. Freda’s fabulous fruit cake sat between Tom’s tower of tomatoes and Mr Cox’s ramrod cucumbers. Sally’s strawberry and cream fancies, Screams as she calls them, appeared scrumptious and Miss Penelope’s petit-poi looked like tiny green jewels. Beneath the benches were sacks of spuds and piles of parsnips.
However, self-centred Cedric Dobbs’ carrots were well past their best, his lettuce limp and his apples knocking on a bit. Whilst he he claimed his exhibits were the best in their class, it looked like his entries had lost to their rivals once again.
Sadly, the prize giving ceremony was spoilt by Cedric’s heckling. True to form, he complained when John James’ beetroots were judged the best and jeered when Mr Jackson’s jam was named the fruitiest.
“A curse on your cauliflowers and a blight on your beans” he yelled at the assembled crowd. There were sighs and groans all round.
Police Constable Potter who’d dropped by to ensure everything was fair and square, put down his glass of Mr Winstanley’s winning white wine and escorted Cedric out doors.
Master of Ceremonies Major Mason regained his composure and resumed.
“Dear friends, it’s time to present this season’s top award, the coveted Silver Spade for the Village’s Finest Garden”.
The head judge handed him an envelope. The marquee fell still. A hush descended.
“The award goes to…oh…erm….”
The Major fanned his face with the slip of paper.
“PC Potter, would you mind popping outside and bringing back Cedric Dobbs?”
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Thanks to Brenda for hosting The Sunday Whirlwhere this week’s given words are – sighs siren knocking still centered lost slip doors true screams beneath and curse. I used all but one!
Baaamy farmer Arthur was sporting a new pair of specs, “every time I drank a cuppa’ tea, ate soup or watched a saucy scene on the telly the old ones would steam up, so I went into town and got myself these; which reminds me I was on a train once and looking at some pictures of my missus on me phone, the guy sitting next to me was peering over my shoulder so I said ‘that’s my wife, beautiful isn’t she?’, and he said, ‘you should see my wife’ – I asked if she was beautiful too and he said ‘no, she’s an optician’, I thought that was quite a good joke – at least I hoped it was!”
“I was thinking about Tom the other day”, said Babs, “the guy that drove those steam trains, he’d come in here with black smudges on his face stinking of smoke and order a pint of the ‘black stuff’, as he called it, I remember the time he came back from the toilet and said, ‘Guinness is wonderful, it goes down black as ink and comes out in a stream of gold!’ “.
Having overheard something about smoke, knitter Pippa was telling her fellow knitwits about the other night when her husband offered to make them something nice for their wedding anniversary supper, “I was a little nervous because last time he tried cooking he almost set the kitchen on fire, anyway, after he’d been gone a while I began smelling something that took me back; I went to the kitchen and I couldn’t see a thing – ‘’this salmon’s making a lot of steam’, he said, ‘it’s smoke’ I replied, then he said, ‘oh, erm, yes, erm, I was actually making us smoked salmon’ – we ended up getting some fish and chips delivered!”
As per usual, Ted had taken part in a round of golf earlier in the day – actually it was more of an almost-round, be never manages all eighteen holes, “my self-esteem went up a notch”, he said, “I managed to hit the ball off the tee with my second swipe, it usually takes me three of four goes, I even got a hole in one – unfortunately it wasn’t the hole on the green, it was the manhole some blokes were working on the other side of the fence, luckily they were wearing their hard hats at the time!”
“Guess who I bumped into when I went to get my glasses fixed?” asked Colin, “everybody – you should respect people who wear glasses, they paid to see you – I asked my dad if he’d seen my sunglasses, he said no and asked if I’d seen his dadglasses – I saw a steam train today, I was chuffed – I got run over by a steam roller, I should be offended but I’m actually flattened – behind every angry woman is a man who has no idea what he did wrong – if a woman pushes you down a manhole, sewer – my sock’s got a hole in it, it it hadn’t I couldn’t put it on my foot it – he’s such a bad cook he uses the fire alarm as a timer – the Asian cooking contest was a Thai – I cook spaghetti just to pasta time – the marble statue had low self esteem, it was taken for granite……!”
After everyone had left Landlord Len was making sure everything was spick and span before heading upstairs to bed and as he watched steam rising from a bowl of hot water, just for a moment he was with his dearly departed Maggie in spirit; their favourite song stared playing in the background – ‘steam a little steam of me’, Maggie whispered in his ear – “you’re mist”, he quipped, “missed too!”.
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Thanks to Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge for hosting Six Sentence Stories where this week’s given word is Steam
I spend hours tending our garden. And what do you do? Nothing. You just sit there drinking coffee and watching me as I trim the lawn, cut the hedge and sweep the patio.
At least my plants appreciate me. I feed them, trim them, clear weeds out their way, and they thank me by blooming in every colour of the rainbow and more besides!
This morning I planted some campanulas in colourful clogs. I thought they’d like it, they looked really pretty. When I asked you what you thought, you just shrugged, grinned and said, ‘bootiful’.
I went indoors to wash my hands, I was only gone for a minute or two and when I came back out they’d gone. Walked away, leaving nothing but footprints along the path.
And what did you do? Nothing. You should have seen them go. You may as well have had a bag placed over your head, something I’m very tempted to do sometimes.
Why are you laughing? What did you do? You…you…you…grrrr!
It was the trip of a lifetime and I will remember it for years to come.
I treated myself to a seat in first class on the flight out, the first time I’d ever turned left boarding a plane!
My hotel was amazing, the perfect place to relax for a few days. I owed it to myself, a respite away from the trials and tribulations of home. Peace at last.
I went for a stroll along the green rolling hillside embracing its beauty whilst connecting with none other than mother nature.
It was then it happened. I tripped.
After falling to ground I rolled down the slope, bouncing and bumping into trees and over boulders before falling from a ledge and tumbling into a rushing rocky river.
And so here I am, lying in a bed. Not my hotel bed but one in a foreign hospital. The only thing they have in common is room service at meal times!
Like I said, it really was the trip of a lifetime!
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Thanks to Brenda for hosting The Sunday Whirl where this week’s given words are – lifetime share relax connect place last class awe home will years trip.