The Village, Episode 149 – Spring #50WordStories
Spring is not visually apparent, but there is a sense of anticipation which seems to permeate the village.
Alice, for instance, appears far more animated than during the winter months.
The edge of the woods exhibit a faint sheen of green from the tips of emerging leafbuds.
Life is returning.
The Village, Episode 148 – Lady Stode and The Vicar #50WordStories
‘I am concerned for my husband, Reverend.’
‘Is he ill?’
‘He is possessed by delusions.’
‘But I am sure I saw him this morning.’
‘Yes. He seems rational, but he believes there is a large white beast roaming the grounds.
‘And is there?’
‘Certainly not.’
‘I had to ask.’
‘Of course.’
The Village, Episode 147 – Mr Snell #50WordStories
Mr Snell is planning to buy his own portrait.
He strokes his large well-polished head as he sits near the counter, staring at the painting.
It is unsigned or else the signature, like half his paintwashed face, had been dragged into some other reality by the effect of the rain.
The Village, Episode 146 – At The Tea Rooms Royale #50WordStories
‘And he always asks for this Solomon Callow?’
‘Yes, Nora. There’ve never been Callows at my house.’
‘It’s all very queer, Miss Josephs.’
‘But why does he keep coming back?’
‘Perhaps he’s a ghost.’
‘A ghost? He didn’t look very ghostly. Had a tie on.’
‘More tea?’
‘Go on then.’
The Village, Episode 145 – At The Dawsons’ #50WordStories
Gawpers are drawn to murder scenes, often bringing their own brand of strangeness.
The Dawsons, having only just returned home, missed the vast majority.
Some remain like stubborn stains.
A woman, owl-like in her window-reflected spectacles, flaps in, leaves a wreath at the gate,
Stares in.
Swoops away.
The Village, Episode 144 – Taffeta Bostock #50WordStories
Taffeta Bostock keeps a dream diary.
She found the empty journal one day in the Ponderosa Cafe.
She kept it, convincing herself that someone had dreamed up the book for her to find.
She chronicles her dreams now, which are both complex and colourful.
Lighthouses and Policemen’s torches feature prominently.
The Village, Episode 143 – Spring #50WordStories
Spring is not visually apparent, but there is a sense of anticipation which seems to permeate the village.
Alice, for instance, appears far more animated than during the winter months.
The edge of the woods exhibits a faint sheen of green from the tips of emerging leafbuds.
Life is returning.
The Village, Episode 142 – Dinner At The Manor House #50WordStories
It was perhaps Poultice whom Theydon found most fascinating; an inscrutable character whose thoughts and emotions had been sealed away beneath a veneer of servility.
Theydon wondered if the British bred butlers for such traits in the same way they bred sheepdogs and Jack Russells.
Poultice would be a pedigree.
The Village, Episode 141 – At The Elderly Crow #50WordStories
‘It will be Spring soon.’
‘Yes, Albert,’ said Phyllis.
Now and again Albert stated the obvious, not out of any desire to initiate a conversation but as some kind of minor eruption of his volatile thoughts.
‘Another one, Albert?’ she asked, taking away his empty glass.
‘Aye. Go on,’ he replied.
The Village, Episode 140 – Millicent Hyde #50WordStories
‘Millicent Hyde.’ A voice in a dark room.
There was no response as there was no one there to respond.
Scratch of a match. A dwarf candle is lit.
Her name is put at the top of an empty page in a notebook.
The candle is extinguished.
Silence takes charge.
The Village, Episode 139 – Dinner at The Manor House #50WordStories
Bois is intrigued as to the purpose of this dinner.
On these occasions there are usually ulterior motives involving business or romantic affairs.
It was difficult to see the possibility of either.
The vicar seemed lost; the Colonel drunk.
Sir Adrian stared into space as if awaiting some final guest.
The Village, Episode 138 – At The End House #50WordStories
Ralph does various jobs around the village; helps out at the cafe, window cleaning, clearing gutters,
He was bitterly disappointed not to get the pizza delivery job.
Marguerita was nowhere to be seen.
She would have taken him on.
Mr Deep had found someone else.
Plots sprouted like vicious weeds.
The Village, Episode 137 – Dinner at The Manor House #50WordStories
Cluedo, thought Theydon Bois at the sight of the vicar at the dining table.
If I discover lead piping in the conservatory I shall insist that he leave.
Bois was seated opposite a bespectacled egg-headed man.
‘You’re not a Professor. are you?’
”Fraid not, sir… I’m a Colonel.. Colonel Mayo.’
The Village, Episode 136 – At The Warburtons’ #50WordStories
Mrs Warburton studied her husband as if suddenly discovering a new perspective on a favourite book.
He stirred his tea, engrossed in ITV’s ‘Rosemary and Thyme’.
Mrs Warburton thought it unlikely that two lady gardeners would encounter murder in every garden they worked on.
That hadn’t occurred to Mr Warburton.
The Village, Episode 135 – La Flambee Malaise #50WordStories
The owner of La Flambee Malaise is content to let it run at a loss since he believes his restaurant to be a centre of gastronomic perfection and ingenuity.
Miguel the chef feels he does not need a surname. His exploits are spread abroad like beluga caviar on fame belinis.
The Village, Episode 134 – Mr Guntrip’s Dream #50WordStories
Mr Guntrip dreams of small Venezuelan men dancing in a disused marble factory while he himself searches an infinity of small rooms for marbles which may have been left when the factory closed.
As it grows darker the world becomes gradually black and white.
He draws marbles on moonlit walls.
The Village, Episode 133 – At The Elderly Crow #50WordStories
‘It will be Spring soon.’
‘Yes, Albert,’ said Phyllis.
Now and again Albert stated the obvious, not out of any deesire to initiate a conversation but as some kind of minor eruption of his volatile thoughts.
‘Another one, Albert?’ she asked, taking away his empty glass.
‘Aye. Go on,’ he replied.
The Village, Episode 132 – George and Nora #50WordStories
‘Cut me thumb, Nora. look!’
‘Oooh.. How’d you do that?’
‘Anchovy tin.’
‘What were you doing with anchovies?’
‘That’s hardly relevant.’
‘I think it is, George. If you hadn’t been experimenting with anchovies you wouldn’t be sliced open.’
‘I just fancied an anchovy.’
‘Just the one?’
‘Aye. It were nice.’
The Village, Episode 131 – At The Ponderous Thimble Hotel #50WordStories
Although Jeff puts the TV on, he and Gwilym will just stare at each other for hours.
Often it’s ‘Come Dine With Me’.
Jeff suspcts Gwilym likes it.
‘Twats Saesneg!’ says Gwilym suddenly while Jeff is distracted.
‘Does that mean ‘turn over’?’
The dummy nods imperceptibly.
‘Welsh Channel Four then!’
The Village, Episode 130 – In The House of Obi Wan Kenobi #50WordStories
In the house of Obi Wan Kenobi a figure emerges from darkness, darts across a dim corridor into further darkness.
After a moment there is the sound of flushing followed by the running of taps.
At the bedroom window the cut out Obi Wan Kenobi is silhouetted against the night.
The Village, Episode 129 – Joyce #50WordStories
When she was alive Joyce was a dressmaker.
She once made a wedding dress for someone from Crossroads. Her picture was in the Witheram Herald.
Business boomed until two years later when The Herald announced she had electrocuted herself with a hairdryer.
‘DRESSMAKER’S TRAGIC END.’
No picture this time though.
The Village, Episode 128 – At The Ponderous Thimble Hotel #50WordStories
The Dawsons had been avoiding public places. A Witheram Herald reporter had pursued them for a week but got bored.
They therefore hadn’t realised that all interest in them, apart from Nora’s, had evaporated.
Pippa imagined an army of papperazzi in waiting. There was no one.
She was oddly disappointed.
The Village, Episode 127 – Val Doonican’s Pebbles #50WordStories
After Mr Warburton’s famous pebble collection went viral on Youtube, then made RudeTube and Loose Women, he was forced to deposit his pebbles in a bank vault.
Loose Women reported the next day that Val Doonican’s grave had been stripped of its pebbles.
They were all on sale on e-bay.
The Village, Episode 126 – An Invitation to Dinner #50WordStories
‘Sir Antrim and Lady Stode would be honoured by your company for dinner at The Manor House, Saturday 26 March at 7.30 pm. Black tie. RSVP.’
Theydon stroked the card, ignited a slender cigarette.
‘The Detective and the Stately Home.’ he thought. ‘How does one endure such a cheap cliche?’
My Life in The Bush of Shepherds 