Okay everyone, last writing prompt of 2021. Let’s make it a good one. Set the timers and let’s see what kind of story fifteen minutes gets us shall we. Ready, set, Write!
Interesting. Not absolutely brilliant, but interesting enough that I might come back to the idea at some point. Not an entirely horrible way to end out the year.
Friday, December 31st: The closet was stuffed full to bursting.
The closet was stuffed full to bursting. I stared at it a moment and then looked at the coat in my hand. It was a winter coat and as puffy as a down comforter. At the moment I doubted I could manage to slide a windbreaker into the closet. The winter coat was a lost cause. I closed the closet door. The door fought back and I had to lean against it to add my weight to counterbalance the press of the garments it contained. It worked and the door snicked closed.
“I’m just going to lay this on the bed in the guest room,” I told those waiting in the living room. “It will have more space there.”
“Oh you don’t need to do anything special,” our visitor called. I was already on my way down the hall and waved my dismissal of her claim away. Let her think I was being extra protective. It was probably better than letting our closet eat winter coats. Especially winter coats with wealthy owners. Who showed up unannounced. While trying not to look wealthy.
I frowned to myself as I lay the coat on top of the coverlet. The coat wasn’t much to look at. It was fairly standard. At least three identical ones were hogging a lot of the space in the front hall closet at this moment. It wasn’t name brand. It wasn’t anything that would excite interest when the owner was walking down the street. Care had also been taken care with the boots. They were heavy boots designed to protect the feet from all sorts of inclement weather and would keep toes toasty warm on a visit to the north pole. They were carefully smudged to look as though they were worn and not as high end as they were. The tags that would have proclaimed their brand name on the heel were removed, but I could see where they were carefully cut. I could also see where the snow their owner tromped through to reach our house wore off the shoe blacking that had been dusted over the surface to make them look like old and worn boots.
I couldn’t actually blame him for his caution, this wasn’t a neighborhood where one flashed wealth. At least not if one wanted a quiet and pain free existence. But the illusion was at best, skin deep. Once the coat was removed, a rather nice suit appeared. While it would take stripping the man to check the labels, there was no mistaking the tailoring of the garment and the quality of the fabric. Such things weren’t usually seen in this part of town, even worn on the people slumming it for the night.
And this was no party boy.
I smelled trouble. I knew I wasn’t alone. When I walked back to the living room everyone had a look of polite wariness. The man was a guest in their home so they would be polite. He was brought by their cousin Karl so he would be given the benefit of the doubt. But wariness was called for. He wasn’t just a big fish in a small pond. He was a different kind of fish from those who normally swam in their pond. Everyone but Karl was treating him with the polite distance, waiting to see why he was there.
Karl showed no signs of wariness. But then he never had been very perceptive. He was laughing about something and helping himself to the offerings on the tea tray. As he reached I caught the flash of a new watch gracing his wrist. No one had seen Karl in a while but wherever he had been, it had been profitable. This didn’t set my mind at ease.
Ten til Midnight 