Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the words were supplied by ME and found right here.

This week's words are:

1. hair
2. dissolve
3. concertina
4. candlesticks
5. ribbons
6. causeway

and/or:

1. wizard
2. bonfire
3. unload
4. beams
5. discarded
6. chocolate

Here is my story: 

(I skipped a couple of words, but they'll show up somewhere else eventually)

After going back to bed for a couple of hours, Eleanor and Harry stood in the back yard sipping hot chocolate and wondering what to do with the weedy shrub that still lay discarded by the fence.  "It hasn't rained in a while," said Harry. "The shrub is probably quite dry. We could have a bonfire." Eleanor said it was a good idea, adding "your mum could do one of her cleansing rituals over that whole empty space too, like when she walked around inside with a bunch of smouldering sage before we moved in." "I remember that," said Harry. "Banishing negativity she said. It seems to have worked, the house has a lovely feel to it."

"Let's suggest it to them later." said Eleanor. "It's time to get to the police station and tell them about my dream. That Merry Moose has to have some meaning to someone somewhere." "And we can find out if there's any news on who that skeleton was and how the murder happened."
"Why would be nice to know too," said Eleanor. They drove along the main highway, noticing a small causeway they hadn't seen before, a small faded sign pointing towards the sea read "Scenic Retreat". "Sounds nice," said Harry. "Might be a place to explore once we get truly settled in."

Senior Sergeant Nathan Turner took notes as Eleanor told him about the dream and said he would make inquiries about any shipwrecks, or indeed anything at all about the name 'The Merry Moose'. He'd get to work on his computer and send all the currently known details of the case to the city headquarters. "They have huge files of known criminals and stuff like that," he said. "I'll send you through to young Jack now, I believe he has a few things to tell you about what we've found."

The young evidence technician welcomed them to his large office which had reasonably comfortable chairs by his desk, along with several tables, brightly lit and covered with the small evidence bags he had taken from the scene. "I'm happy to tell you there is quite a bit of evidence in those soil samples," Jack said. "We even found strands of hair that may have been the victim's. If we can get DNA from those and match it to any part of the skeleton we'll know for sure the hair is his. These bags will all be going to headquarters in the city, they have a forensics lab there, run by Clarrie Kirby, he's a wizard with his computer and little bits of things he uses to drag DNA from things such as this."

"Clarence Kirby?'" said Harry. "About fifty with curly ginger hair?" 'Yes," said Jack. "Do you know him?" "I went to school with his brother, Richard," said Harry. Young Clarence got called Clock by his peers because of his initials. He never seemed to mind, always had his nose buried in science books. Won more than a few ribbons at science fairs, I recall Richard telling me."

 "Small world," said Eleanor. Jack began packing up his bagged evidence in a sturdy cardboard box, while Eleanor related the dream she had just told Senior Sergeant Nathan about. "That's interesting," said Jack. "I'll be sure to get a copy of that once he's typed it up and I'll include it with all this when it goes to the city. They can pass the word around and see if anything comes to light about 'The Merry Moose'. It does sound an odd name for a

ship. It's possible your mind fixated on the name and added it to the ship in your dream."

"Yes," said Eleanor. "The mind does find unusual ways to unload things. I once dreamed about a small clown playing a concertina and after all these years I still don't know what that meant." Harry looked at her in surprise. "You've never told me about that dream," he said. "Oh it was long ago," said Eleanor. "I was about twelve when I had that particular dream."

Jack moved a pair of tagged candlesticks that had been sitting on the small table just beside the door and placed the box of evidence bags in their place. "I'll leave this unsealed for now," he said. "I'll wait to get a copy of your dream from Nathan, then he can check the contents here and sign off the paperwork stating the contents and dates. There's a thing we call "chain of evidence" where everyone who comes in contact with this box has to sign and date the paper."

"I've seen that on the crime shows I like to watch on television," said Harry. It's a safeguard against evidence tampering." "Right," said Jack. "Now, is there anything else you can tell me? How long you have been living in the house? When you first came to this area? Why suddenly decide to rip out that shrub?"

"That wasn't a hard decision," said Harry. We've only lived in the house about a month and have been making decisions about the yard since then. My dad, Laurence, said he and Mum are downsizing to a smaller place and we could put his old gazebo in our yard, with that back corner being the perfect spot. So we had a gardener rip out the shrubby weedy thing and he found the skeleton."

"We haven't lived in this area before," said Eleanor. "Harry's parents have been here for several years and every time we came to visit, we'd say how lovely it was and we wouldn't mind finding a house here. Maxine actually found the house for us. She became friendly with a realtor when she visited a hairdresser in a small local town."

"It might be something we should look into ourselves," said Jack. "The nearest small town we know of is a place called Shark Cove, through the hills a bit and closer to the cliffs and a small beach area."
"I think that's the place," said Harry. "Mum said the hairdresser shop was called Curly Cuts. Does that sound right?" "We'll find out," said Jack. "I can see Nathan about sending someone over there  later today."