Photo by Paul Keheler
Anyone in the mood to write a story with me? Here’s what I propose. I’ll start us off with an opening sentence, and if you’re inspired to continue the story please write the second sentence in the comment box. This will be on a first come first written basis, so whenever you join in please build off the last sentence written in the comment box immediately preceding yours. We’ll go for the rest of April, the goal at the end of the month being a stand-alone piece of short fiction.
For the sake of variety, I’d like to limit each participant to 2 sentences per week, and if there’s a lull I’ll jump back in and add something. Other than that, there are no rules, feel free to take the story wherever you want to go. I’ll check in periodically and repost the story with the sentences created so far, and then at the end of the month I’ll post the entire piece for all to enjoy.
Here’s the opening line for April:
For those who knew her, or thought they knew her, the sight of Brenda Duplicki sampling face creams at the beauty shop on Dexter two days after her death came as something of a surprise.
Let the building begin!
More to the point, the Victorian frock she wore was unsettling, for age had muted its ebony folds to a dusty gray and the high white-lace color to a pestilent ocher.
Suddenly, the crowd of onlookers was distracted by a high-pitched scream coming from the back of the shop.
Brenda ran out of the front door and disappeared in the crowd…
But she accidentally left her purse on the beauty shop’s counter.
Tossed from it, a sprawl of Turkish gold coins, an asthma inhaler and a shark’s tooth capped in silver.
A passer-by, Hanley Spurl by name, idly studied the items on the counter top before his jaw dropped in astonishment.
The silver-capped shark tooth was the last item the private investigator needed to find to confirm Brenda’s true identity as the notorious antiquities thief, Suzanne Zhuravlyova.
But was this the original silver-capped shark tooth or just another imposter, inconspicuously placed in the path of Hanley Spurl that would lead him on another anonymously concocted chase lasting 7.23 years?