Last night I had dreams of a circus. For some reason the ring master seemed intent on me getting into the cannon so I could be shot out of it. Oddly my main objection was that the hat they gave me to wear was round instead of pointed. For some reason I was fixated on wearing a pointed hat with a green pom pom on the top, no pom pom, no cannon. Just thought I’d share since it is going to be bugging me all day long. So shall we start our morning writing prompt?
Huh. I kind of like this one. Not sure what sort of story it is going to be. It has the feel of a horror story in my mind, but possibly it is something else. I think it may have to marinate in the back of my brain for a bit before I find out what it wants to be.
Thursday, May 19th: She dusted herself off.
She dusted herself off. “Well that was unexpected. She slowly stood and tested out her body for injuries. There was a scrape on her leg from where the wooden floorboard scratched her when she fell through, but otherwise she was unscathed. Katie looked up and saw that there were no nails showing.
‘So it was just the wood that scratched me,” she decided. “No tetanus shots then, I’ll just have to clean it really well when I get out. The trousers are a loss though.’
Even though the cut on her leg was long and straight, the rips in her trouser leg was jagged and unrepairable. She sighed. She had only had the pair a month. “Still nothing broken.” She was trying her best to stay positive. Thus far nothing about this trip had gone well. She had expected a cabin and ended up with a tent. She expected a basic kitchen and ended up with a beer cooler and a charcoal grill. She had expected to spend time with her boyfriend, not be dumped three hours into the trip so he could spend time with her best friend, who she suspected he had been seeing for quite some time before the trip.
Still, she was here and there was no going back. She decided to make the best of it, even exploring the small shack near their campsite when she realized she was now the only one not paired off. The mud she landed in was soft enough to break her fall so she was filthy, but not damaged. She spotted a ladder bolted to the side of the wall. Thinking positive thoughts about the ladder holding her weight, Katie squelched over and began to climb. The later creaked and shed rust flakes on to her hands but it held. The metal was still solid under the flakes.
She managed to make it to the top and push up the trap door to get back into the floor above.
‘Figures the trap door was right next to the hole.” She climbed out and decided she was far more interested in getting clean than she was in investigating the rest of the little shack, she carefully made her way to the door. She stepped outside and felt the warm sun on her skin. She took a deep breath. The fresh air was tainted by the scent of mud.
‘Not good,’ she decided. She left the shack and began walking down towards the lake. She could hear splashing but it was a distance away. She tried not to picture the happy couples, including her ex and her bestie.
‘Or former bestie,’ she thought as she reached the water’s edge. She waded into the water and began to rinse off the mud. Once clean she would return to camp and trade out her wet clothes for some dry ones, but she wanted the close at least free of the bud before she hung them up to dry.
As she washed she wondered if she would be keeping her friend after this. It didn’t seem likely. She knew that everyone was relieved by her positive attitude but Katie decided that her positive attitude only needed to last until the end of the trip. Once they returned and everyone went their own ways, she suspected she would not be spending much time with Gina. Katie tried not to dwell on what might have been going on before Jeffrey officially ended it with her. It would only make her both angry and sad and that wouldn’t benefit anyone.
‘Admittedly I am mostly worried about it benefiting me.’
Realizing she was as clean as she was going to get and the cold water and cool breeze were making her shiver, she turned and headed back to the camp site. The others were still gone so she peeled her wet clothes off and slipped into some dry ones. The trousers were a dead loss but she still wanted them dry before she packed them away so she strung a line between two trees and hung them up to dry with the rest of her clothes. Still shivering, she decided to make a fire to warm herself up and give the others something pleasant to come back to.
Ten til Midnight 