Opening Lines and a song

Here are a couple of openings for stories. If you want the whole story, you have to beg.

1. When Dan got assigned to type Dr. Cozen’s thirty thousand page biblical study manuscript it was the worst day of his life. Why, oh why, did he brag about being a champion typist? Who cared if he out-typed everyone but the teacher? He could have kept it to himself.

But the day he had to start typing the theological drudge was the same day that Mr. Tinsley’s lion got loose. 

2. Dan’s family had grown accustomed to the question “Where am I?” after five years of Granddad’s presence in their home, having come from the Nebraska sand hills to the mountainside Ranch. That, along with the daily queries concerning the whereabouts of his long-dead cousin Mabel in “Mussoura” and the sod house he’d built in “Nebraski,” framed the reality in which he moved. His brain riddled with plaques, distant memories bubbled up constantly, but the last two decades were gone forever. Dan was just sixteen, perplexed to see him so confused.

But the question, “Is it okay if I wipe my nose with this tissue?” caught Dan off guard.

Theme 221: Awakening

And still more…

Here are two more compositions. The first is a hard-hitting thing I call, “Four Rooms,” or, sometimes, “Four Conversations,” and the second is one of the saddest songs I ever wrote. I call it, “When You Are Old.” I couldn’t ever write words to it, beyond, “When you are old, and lie next to me, and your skin is cold, I’ll take your hand, I’ll hold you tightly, wishing you’d carry me into the sunset with you.” Hope you like them.

Theme 38, Four Rooms
Theme 40, When You Are Old

Maricie’s Song

Many years ago I wrote a novel called Miracavira, an enchanted land where I ended up under bizarre circumstances. When I was tragically whisked away, back to earth, I left behind a very sad situation that only I could fix. Maricie, a love interest in Miracavira, was given a song to sing that would bring me back from across the divide. It’s a picture of the tragedy, and it goes like this:

Maricie’s Song, from Miracavira