Rincewind Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 CLOCKING OFF By Ken P Duddle Tick Tock, the clock struck twelve. Pete looked around the surroundings and squinted but it was no use, without his glasses, Pete was blind as a bat. Short-sighted since birth he had always wore glasses, but for a reason he could not fathom out, over the previous two weeks he was unable to see with them. Why he was here was a mystery. All Pete knew was that the phone call he had received earlier in the day had intrigued him enough to venture out of his house for the first time in a fortnight. He tried to remember the events over the past 14 days but his mind kept returning to the same night. It was the night he had finally rid himself of his overbearing, nagging wife of 15 years. It was easier than he had thought. The planning had been set out and put in place over the past few months. A word here and there about his suspicions of his wife’s adultery and everything was perfect for the time when she would disappear. On the night in question he had suggested a romantic night in. His wife Mary, being an avid Mills and Boon novel reader was all for it. Pete had a vague recollection of arranging to meet a business client in a remote village in the Derby Dales, but could not recall if he had kept that meeting. The clock struck midnight. Through the night shadows Pete saw a figure move slowly towards him. The figure spoke in a whispering voice. ‘Hello darling.’ Pete stammered a reply. ‘Mary b-but it can’t be, you are dead.’ The figure laughed an eerie laugh. ‘Yes I am and it was you that did it.’ ‘But how are you here?’ ‘Let me explain my love.’ Mary’s ghostly figure moved closer to Pete. ‘You thought you had planned it all, but your one mistake was your habit of writing everything down. I found your notebook on that night with your detailed plan for murder, so I was prepared. Unfortunately for me, I was not prepared enough. Unknown to you I switched the wine glass you had put the arsenic in with yours but I had not counted on you also putting it in the after dinner coffee which you don’t drink. Your plan was good, not quite a Mills and Boon plot, but a nice crime one. I know you don’t remember your entire plan because your spirit has been confused and stuck in our house until I was allowed to get us together. Your plans I believe involved traveling to the Dales in my car with my body in, dump it in a quarry then meet your client at a nearby railway station. Then you would return home with the two-way you had bought. You would find me gone and it would be presumed that I had run off with my lover.’ Pete stammered, ‘Are you saying I am dead too?’ ‘Fraid so, and the clock you heard strike is St Stephens, we are destined to be in this graveyard together forever. Because we are both murderers we have to remain in Purgatory, but on the plus side I can now recall all the Mills and Boon novels that I have read and I will treat you to a daily recital.’ The clock struck twelve again and again and again. Goodnight. Don't have nightmares.
Trav Le Bleu Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 We should have a round robin of short bed time stories. Nice effort Ken.
Rincewind Posted 23 September 2012 Author Posted 23 September 2012 why didn't he just get a divorce ? Don't use logic. Besides it's a short story not a novel so you have to work it out yourself. There will be plenty of therories to answer your question.
Zingari Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 My best guess is there was some pre-nuptial agreement that if they divorced , she became the sole owner of the house, the possessions and all the money , plus he had to pay her half his wages and pension until he or she died . That's why he done her in
Rincewind Posted 23 September 2012 Author Posted 23 September 2012 My best guess is there was some pre-nuptial agreement that if they divorced , she became the sole owner of the house, the possessions and all the money , plus he had to pay her half his wages and pension until he or she died . That's why he done her in That's the norm isn't it?
Zingari Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 That's the norm isn't it? I thought his name was Pete , who's Norm ?
Rincewind Posted 23 September 2012 Author Posted 23 September 2012 Wrote it in the Weatherspoons in Oadby Saturday. Took me two pints to finish it. Done in rough in a notebook then copied it out late Saturday night. It is for a writers' group I go to on Wednesdays. The subject was something containg 'The clock struck twelve' Thought I'd done well to get it done yesterday. I normally write a piece in the Seasons restaurant (Clarence House - Age UK) a hour before the meeting. I don't know where the story came from. I just start off with a few lines and it carries on from there. I believe I have the imagination but not the creative ability to put down my ideas in the right way using correct grammar and knowing the subject. I do not write masterpieces but it is one of the few things I actually enjoy doing and feel I am OK at.
FoxesAreBlue Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 To be fair, I enjoyed it, so thank you.
Trav Le Bleu Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 I believe I have the imagination but not the creative ability to put down my ideas in the right way using correct grammar and knowing the subject. I do not write masterpieces but it is one of the few things I actually enjoy doing and feel I am OK at. Don't sweat the grammar - write as you would talk (unless you have a stammer. ) Then it will have a natural feel to it. Knowing the subject is always useful though - there's always some git who will tell you your story is impossible and proceed to explain why.
cambridgefox Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 The Clock struck 12 Tick tock the clock struck 12"fooking cowboy builders,if they had fixed it on the church properly it wouldn't have fallen,tut tut" Tick tock the clock struck 12"fook me is that the time,the football league show will be starting in 5 mins,I think we have time for a shag and foreplay before it starts"
Rincewind Posted 23 September 2012 Author Posted 23 September 2012 Don't sweat the grammar - write as you would talk (unless you have a stammer. ) Then it will have a natural feel to it. Knowing the subject is always useful though - there's always some git who will tell you your story is impossible and proceed to explain why. One reason why I keep my stories simple is that I do not do much if any research. Probably why I would not be able to do a novel. It seems easy but some writers spend more time researching than writing. Of course it helps if you have done the job you are writing about like John Grisham. Most of Stephen King's novels are set in a town based on where he actually lives and a few of the characters are writers or teachers. I have had no profession to speak of so I have to adapt my style to one of where facts have little to do with reality. I can then use the cop out, 'It was not based on fact.' It must be awful for a writer to publish a book then be told by some reader that some fact about a place or date of an event is wrong. But if the book is a best seller they would not care.
Webbo Posted 23 September 2012 Posted 23 September 2012 One reason why I keep my stories simple is that I do not do much if any research. Probably why I would not be able to do a novel. It seems easy but some writers spend more time researching than writing. Of course it helps if you have done the job you are writing about like John Grisham. Most of Stephen King's novels are set in a town based on where he actually lives and a few of them are writers or teachers. I have had no profession to speak of so I have to adapt my style to one of where facts have little to do with reality. I can then use the cop out, 'It was not based on fact.' I've always thought the same. I have an idea in my head for a cop story but I don't know anything about police procedures. That and the fact that I'm too lazy to write anything more than 4 lines means I'll never write a novel.
MooseBreath Posted 24 September 2012 Posted 24 September 2012 The clock struck twelve again and again, Pete threw a rock at his wife. The end.
MPH Posted 25 September 2012 Posted 25 September 2012 Wrote it in the Weatherspoons in Oadby Saturday. Took me two pints to finish it. Done in rough in a notebook then copied it out late Saturday night. It is for a writers' group I go to on Wednesdays. The subject was something containg 'The clock struck twelve' Thought I'd done well to get it done yesterday. I normally write a piece in the Seasons restaurant (Clarence House - Age UK) a hour before the meeting. I don't know where the story came from. I just start off with a few lines and it carries on from there. I believe I have the imagination but not the creative ability to put down my ideas in the right way using correct grammar and knowing the subject. I do not write masterpieces but it is one of the few things I actually enjoy doing and feel I am OK at. Ohh i read that wrong. I was about to say that One day Ricky Sappleton was dancing naked in the showers, the substitue for the game walked past as Ricky didnt a nice little move and that the..... yeah, anyway.
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