After Hours

First gush of darkness blinded Dhee.

She closed her eyes to adjust vision. Opening them she found phosphorescent Grinchin, emitting green light, swaying its teardrop shaped body from top of the picture book pile.

Dhee waved. Grinchin said, “Don’t worry, QV. Just finish. Then you’ll carry me to the shelves for picture books.”

Obviously. Grinchin had no limb, hence, unable to move itself from place to place.

Just before the lights went off, Dhee had finished sorting books into heaps by categories. In front of geography shelves. For freeing the clutter thereof. A painstaking task. Nobody was interested.

Indexing those books and putting them on shelves by their respective indices remained pending. Dhee’s will was torn. She must leave the library somehow. It had already been closed. Otherwise, she could finish pending jobs.

Dhee opted for the latter; finished indexing all books; started shelving with picture books. As she finished there, Grinchin vanished.

It turned dark again. Dhee lost her path to geography shelves. She started circling around shelves of science, history and motor vehicles books.

She attempted reaching the volunteers’ closet, for fetching her purse and leaving. Changed course led her to another circle around biography, technology and fantasy books.

Perplexed, anxious, she touched a book on fantasy shelves. Glowfig jumped from it to floor, emanating pink lights. It started crawling along the aisles, on its head, with tiny tentacle like feet, attached, in billions, to its head, changing its color to yellow, then to cerulean, to pink again, at successive turns, leading Dhee to stacks on floor.

Remembering what happened with picture books, Dhee left the fantasy heap to be organized in the end. Pacing through the aisles, organizing books to their respective shelves, Glowfig asked, “How have you ended up alone in the library, QV?”

Dhee explained, “It closes at five thirty every Thursday. But closed at four today. They told me beforehand. Yet I couldn’t finish and leave timely.”

Glowfig was inquisitive, “Didn’t the lady in the glass box check before leaving?”

Dhee asked for clarification, “Ms. Garfunkel, the librarian?”

Glowfig confirmed, “Yap.”

Dhee reported, “She closed and left the library in hurry for attending an emergency city council meeting.”

Glowfig reflected, “Geography shelves, certainly, needed time and attention. You couldn’t notice gradual drops in footsteps… buzzes….”

Dhee sounded sad, “Did. But….”

Her guesses were correct. As soon as she finished with fantasy shelves, Glowfig was gone. She still needed to reach volunteer’s closet before leaving.

Dhee dragged her feet to the end of isles of fantasy books. All along, dark woolly formless Ghooshfus, a wizard of black magic, tried to blow her towards adult section, filled with horrors and thrillers. Ghooshfus could have frozen Dhee into a graphite lump.

Fighting tooth and nail with Ghooshfus, she took right turn to technology books. Libot greeted her by flashing its white laser headlight thrice and cooing in a metallic voice, as if, it was waiting for her. It shouted at Ghooshfus, “Shoo.”

Even Ghooshfus was scared of Libot’s advanced technological acumen. Also, of its powerful body of metallic barrel, moving smoothly on wheels, lifting, dropping and moving things by levers tucked in its body.

It asked, “Why didn’t you call for help, QV?”

Dhee murmured, “No access to landlines. I don’t have a cell phone..”

Libot questioned abruptly, “Why?”

Dhee informed, “I’m dependent on my husband and we’re on temporary Visa. So, spending thriftily.”

Libot digressed, in front of fantasy shelves, “I don’t like Ghooshfus. His world is full of blood, death and kidnapping. Crimes and criminals. Violent creatures.”

Libot’s words were music to ears of Munchkins from “The Wizard of the Oz”. They applauded. So did the goblins from Tolkien books and Harry Potter’s owl, undermining conflicts in their own worlds. Glowfig joined the pacing in gratitude.

Dhee asked, “Why are you calling me QV?”

Libot explained, “QV stands for Quirky Volunteer…. for your silent meticulous dedication.”

This conversation awakened the whole picture book section. Grinchin teased, “Here comes Glowfig from unreal world.”

Libot placed Grinchin on its flat barrel head.

Glowfig responded, “You visit that world at bedtime, every night.”

Libot tweaked closet lock and brought Dhee’s purse. They went to the exit then. Obviously, it was locked. Libot disabled the alarm, then, hummed in chorus with Glowfig and Grinchin, “Cricketycoo Thicketytoo Hm, Hmm, Hmmm.”

The keyhole expanded enough to let Dhee exit. She slipped a note of gratitude beneath the entrance.

Her husband drove in. She left with him.

Blurbs @ WEP Challenge #Long Shadow

 

Long Shadow (Flash Fiction) by Olga Godim : Paper mage Monette was called by Jane, John’s wife. The morning after John’s birthday party Jane’s house was filled up by worms. Monette cast her spell and rescued the house, Jane and John.

Thoughts on a Dying Evening (Poetry) by Denis Covey : A view of long shadow under setting sun unfolded like an impressionist painting. The urge for light and futile head smashing on shadow of continuing pandemic rolled like tear drops along the cheek. Sad and satisfying.

SHADOWS (Poetry) by Yolanda Renée : Hate is a shadow of love, when words of beloved ones wraps in companionship of piercing pain, pushes to lonely helplessness and eviscerate ones soulfulness of life leaving a shadow of liveliness.

Breath and Shadow (Non-fiction) by Nilanjana Bose : Light, shades and shadows trick mind, the visual sense. Humans, all along history, captured this visual sense in art. Oriental and occidental art captured lights and shadow in different extent. Western art used shadows more intensely. Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings moved from shadows to bright colors while the artist’s mind followed a reverse direction.

Monster (Flash Fiction) by L G Keltner : Laura the seven year old was playing with her shadow while the sun was setting, casting long shadows on tiny objects. Yet a return journey to one’s home help to turn back on one’s own monstrous long shadow.

Kirtinagar – the City of Deeds (Flash Fiction) by Sanhita Mukherjee : Ruh has a secret. She is in conflict with her mother and ancestors. Yet she carries on with the family under the long shadow of her secret.

 TheLynching (Flash Fiction) by C. Lee McKenzie : Bart was a protective father. He sought revenge on violator of her daughter Nell. Yet, he chose to forget the evening when he was out for head hunting.

Me and My Shadow (Poetry) by Elephant’s Child : A shadow always moves ahead, lighter, freer, and eluding the person whom it belong.

CAST A LONG SHADOW (Flash Fiction) by Kalpana : A wrestler Hindu priest of Ayodhya dreamt of Shri Ram narrating about his birthplace. The pious priest fancied a temple at the very birthplace of Shri Ram. He appealed to the District Magistrate. But the District Magistrate declined the priest’s proposal to prevent riots. The priest came up with a plan for manipulating tolerance of liberal egalitarian society.

The Banker (Poetry) by Susan Rouchard : A moonlit night. Benches, streets and other objects under long shadow. A man in long coat, a whore, a cat and Mr. Hacklebaum. The death waited and watched for the right opportunity.

Long Shadow (Flash Fiction) by Jemima Pett : Bobby spent his lockdown sunny days digging sand pit in garden, or climbing trees. His sister annoyed him in countless tormenting ways. Yet her mother asked him to be more involved with his sister. Also, long shadows spoke to him about sad scary dangerous matters of life unfolding truth about how his father died.

Long Shadow (Flash Fiction) by Sally : Fred was a fireman living alone at his workplace endangering his life every now and then, amidst great physical discomfort of heat, cold, lack of running water, proper bed. His great-great grandson Ryan is a fireman, too. But his work is much easier, and his world is much more comfortable.

The Long Shadow (Flash Fiction) by Pat Garcia : Jamie was ready for presenting a strategic plan in the field of space aeronautics. Yet she noticed a long shadow beside her own. The shadow belonged to a man and Jamie did not find him creepy. At the end of the day, the mystery of the man and his shadow were unraveled.

Blades of Grass (Flash Fiction) by Jemi Fraser : Toya missed her Granny. She tried to make duck calls by blades of grasses. She failed. The heap of rolled blades was full of her memories with Granny. She carefully picked them all and moved on.

Choices (Flash Fiction) by Dixie J. Jarchow : A witch her cat and a young girl. The girl wanted the witch to kill someone. Instead, the witch made some transformations and solved the girl’s problem. Yet the witch did not overwhelm the girl with mastery of witchcraft and made the girl feel responsible for her decisions.

Long Shadow (Non-fiction) by Rebecca Douglass : Life and loss of life cast long shadows on everyone related to a life. Often those shadows seem to be outcomes of decisions. Yet, life, in general, goes on under two different kinds of long shadows, of life, of loss of life.

The Deserted Railway Station (Flash Fiction) by Bernadette Braganza : A railway station without spec of any creature under setting sun. A man arrived there and dropped a heavy bag. Then he started digging. Suddenly a shadow appeared by him. Presently, there rests relic of what happened then.

A Royal Request (Flash Fiction) by Christopher Scott : Five years after the previous episode took place, the protagonist returned to England. Wary of world travel, intending to settle in the native land, yet eluding the gallows and enjoying life, his return was a response to the Royal Request. This time he acted to destroy monsters along with their progeny.

On with the show! (Continuation of The Yadira Chronicle) by Naught Netherworld Press : King Qweh was being criticized by Yadira. From interdimensional spaces, some people were eavesdropping. Qweh’s sycophants were held hostage by Nyarlathotep, Yadira’s father. These people were particularly curious about the royal opinion on Gerry.

LONG SHADOW (Flash Fiction) by Sonia Dogra : In Rumsu, a village in Himachal, on verdant valleys surrounded by mighty mountains of the Himalayas, lived a mother deserted by her children. Her children left her like feather shed by jujurana (Western Tragopan). The father of the children wished to make money from the feathers. Mother tried to return it to the bird so that her children would return to her.

Untitled (Continuation of Lisa and Pierce’s Story) by D M Hanton : Lisa met Pierce by the wall on the street. They were transported to the hospital. Then the girl who called the police on Pierce appeared and things went weirder.

Untitled (Non-fiction) by Jamie of Uniquely maladjusted but fun : Statistics about relationship between abortion and crime. That too, in specific types of crime. Mention of Levitt and Dubner’s one and half -decade old earth-shaking book Freakonomics and argument about whether there should be options of abortion and birth control. There are reminiscences of a visit to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

A Growing Flame (Poetry) by Toinette Thomas : A moan from under shadows of Monsters. A groan against proud oppressors. A promise of revolution brewing by the corner. Sound of footsteps of gathering mass.

Untiltled (Poetry) by Karen Sather : Sunshine and shadows goes hand in glove. One can attempt an escape form one’s own shadow and realize the futility of the endeavor and clings to the shadow.

With You I Could Steal Horses (Flash Fiction) by Carol Stolz : An epistolary fiction about sharing lives with loved ones and keeping secret guarded from them. The long shadow of secret and keeping something that way from loved ones affects relationships. Yet sharing such secrets can shatter shared love and lives, too. It is about maintaining the delicate balance.

Custody Chain CHAPTER FOUR – UMBRAGE by Roland Clarke : Urien went back to home from hospital. Tesni was there with him. Sparkle and Kama along with their uniformed colleagues stayed on vigil for the intruder to return. They already knew that the intruder masked the surveillance system. However, they succeeded in catching the intruder. Urein’s secrets were partially unearthed.