Chapter 001

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

--- Buddha ---

Chapter 1

     After fifty years of skulking about in the shadows, seen only by conspiracy nuts who wanted to see a bogey man, he was there. He was right there where the nuts said he was all along. He was watching as the big, steel blue car made an agonizingly slow left turn in front of the last tall building on the edge of the city and began it's slow roll down the slight decline. Though the crowds began to thin noticeably, there were still dozens of people sparsely distributed on the brilliant green grass on either side of the street. Some waved, some held cameras up to their faces, and some just enjoyed the bright afternoon sun while they watched the President passing by. This was the prologue to a horror that Kathryn “Kat” Hodges, like millions of others, had seen before. She had little desire to see any of it again. She turned off the old Kodak Sound 8 projector, stopping the images before the big Lincoln Continental passed the Stemmons Freeway sign.

     As she watched the footage, she recalled her early teenage days when her family lived in Fort Worth. In those days, her father was a postal worker in the big white Terminal Annex building, across Dealy Plaza from the infamous Texas Schoolbook Depository. This must have been footage that her father took, while he was at work on that awful day. Why had she never seen this film before? Despite the things that she wondered, like most Americans of her age, she'd seen more footage of this event than she cared to see and had no desire to see any more. But her boyfriend, Doug, had an obsessive interest in this terrible bit of history. If you simply mentioned the event, he could be counted on to go into a two hour dissertation on why Lee Harvey Oswald could not possibly have acted as a lone assassin. She thought he might like to have this little piece of history so she rewound the film from the take up reel and put the film back in the tin, on top of an index card sized sheet of paper. She unplugged the old projector, put the cover back on it and put the projector and the film tin back in the box that held what she concluded was the 8mm camera that had actually shot the film. She would give it all to Doug.

     Speaking of Doug, she thought as she looked at the clock, why he isn't he here yet? He'd promised to come over and help her clean out the old, gray, two story house. It was difficult emotionally as well as physically for her to clear out her dead mother's house. She decided to go upstairs where she could see Doug when he arrived. She had made significant progress in the basement and she didn't particularly want to keep seeing that box from the 1960's. It reminded her of an awful time in her life. Upstairs, she put on a pot of coffee. She usually avoided coffee at night, but after being up for more than fifteen straight hours, tonight, she made an exception. With the coffee brewing, she went to work in the living room. That's where she found her cell phone, on the coffee table where she'd left it when she came in with her arms full of banker's boxes. She picked up the phone and saw that she'd missed three messages. A quick check revealed the reason Doug hadn't arrived yet.

     The three messages were all from Doug. He called three times and sent two texts asking her if she was at her mother's house yet. Only then did she remember that the plan was for her to call him when she arrived. Then, he was going to drive over to help with the house clearing. She called him back right away.

     “Where have you been?” he demanded, “I've been worried sick about you.”

     “I'm sorry. I forgot that I was supposed to call you. Somehow, I got it in my head that you were just driving right over when you got home. I was downstairs wondering where the hell you were. I was ready to chew your a*s good.”

     Her contrite tone brought a chuckle from Doug and his annoyance vanished.

     “Are you finally ready to give in and admit we're old?”

She smiled. He couldn't see the smile, he could certainly hear it in her voice.

     “Never,” she said, “if old age takes me it's going to be kicking and screaming.”

     “You're old enough to retire and I'm a year older than you. I'd say old age already has us both.”

     “Are you coming over here to help me, or are you just going to sit there and call me old?”

     “I'm going to get something to eat and then I'll be right over. Do you want me to bring you dinner?”

     “Where are you going?”

     “Anywhere you want me to go.”

     “I wouldn't mind one of those hot roast beef sandwiches from Enzo's.”

     “Call and order it, by the time I get there it should be ready. Hey, can you order me a meatball sub too?”

     “Will do,” she said.

     “Now don't forget to call.”

     “Shut up!”

     Doug chuckled and flipped his phone shut.

Reviews

[mikeduty]

A few MINOR and I do mean "minor" things jump out at me.

1) Spell check missed something. In Chapter 5, you have this line: “I don't think so,” she finally yelled over the running water, “I don't have any autumn church clothes here. All my church cloths here are summer clothes.” (see where you switch from cloths to clothes?)

2) I TRY (but often fail) to keep my writing "tight" and not use any unnecessary words (why use 2 words when 1 will do?) I have a tendency to use "now" and I saw it once here. . . "with the coffee now brewing" Do you really need "now" here? Does "with the coffee brewing" work just as well? "The flashing of headlights" How about just "headlights flashing"? (this puts your sentence in the active voice too)
3) Also with the coffee brewing line, you and I have talked about "haditis" and how I was taught not to use "that". (This of course preferential) but. . . "This must have been footage that her father had taken, while at work on that awful day." (Try "This must have been the footage her father took while at work on that awful day".) I'll give you a pass on "that awful day" because its stronger than "the awful day". AND " a quick check revealed the reason that Doug hadn't arrived yet" You can just say " a quick check revealed THE reason Doug hadn't arrived yet"

[Creepy Swine Guy]

I like it all ... thank you very much. :^)

[Riding the Rainbow]

Really into this story..Can't wait to read moreeeeeeeeeeeee

[W.V. Bard]

Random critiques: The first sentence shouldn't talk about the boogey man it's offsetting. Then when she packs up the camera, it takes too much description. Cut "Having thought about Doug," and just go to how Doug should have been there already. Also cut the description of her day: it's a runon sentence.

Now that's the only flaws I could find in the story, I really like the dialogue and how it shifts to Doug's actions at the end very subtly by describing how he hangs up. I've read through probably only three stories fully and yours is one of them; I can't wait till the next instalment!

[Creepy Swine Guy]

Thank you kindly. I found much of your critique to be useful and implemented those suggestions. The only one that I'm struggling with is the very first one.