You know you’re a writer when you’re on your way to a restaurant for dinner, pass a mini-construction site and think not “ooh, I should avoid the yellow roped-off area” or “I’d better be on the look out for debris” or “gee, I’m really hungry, I hope we get there soon.” No, you think “I wonder what they found when they opened that up. Ooh, a body. No, a skeleton. No, a mummy. A mummified skeleton.”
I do tend toward the dead bodies, don’t I? I really should branch out my line of thought, or start writing mysteries.
Branching out, exercise 1:
Other things that could be found in the hole under the stoop:
Jacks
Treasure
An old lotto ticket
Barer bonds
Jewelry…engagement ring or locket with old photo.
Baby shoes
Key
What is my list missing?
A box of bad unread mystery books?
_____
That’s kind of sad. Are they remaindered books?
An envelope with papers. I saw that stack of bricks on the stairs and thought oh there’s a poem of symbolism in there.
Ooh, I love it! I want to read that story.
Maybe something disappointing like a smashed soda can or candy wrapper?
If I ever uncovered something beneath stairs, that’s probably what it would be.
1) Nothing. It’s a hole that leads somewhere.
2) Guns.
3) A mystery box.
4) A sack of money.
5) Liquor (preferably from the prohibition era).
6) A child.
7) A child that doesn’t look human.
8) A demon.
9) Jimmy Hoffa’s body.
10) Bones of an unsolved murder case.
Looks like you’ve got ten stories right there!