I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and is ready to shake off the sleepy morning to face a new week. Let’s jump into it with our first prompt and see what story ideas we come up with. Fifteen minutes on the timer please and off we go.
I suspect Geoffrey is going to find something unexpected at the cabin. Not sure what, but something.
Monday, October 19th: Mist snaked through the trees.
Mist snaked through the trees. Everything below his knees was lost in it. Oddly when he looked up the fog swallowed the tops of the trees as well. There was only clear vision stretched between the two foggy areas.
‘Even that’s not entirely clear.’ He grumbled to himself. There were streamers of shredded fog dotting the cleared areas as though it was shredding in the middle but whatever was shredding it hadn’t yet made it’s way to the upper and lower edges.
Heading out to the cabin was not his normal tasks. At least it wasn’t supposed to be. It was Franklin’s job to check on the cabin and make certain it was secure and in good shape. It belonged to the family and while his grandparents once lived there full time, they passed. The family still used the cabin when gathering woodland supplies even though they lived in town, so it had to be maintained. With no one there full time, someone had to check.
With the recent storm a check was considered necessary. Franklin made an excuse as to why he couldn’t do it. Geoffry was late getting home and hadn’t heard the excuse. By the time he walked through the door, the task had already been reassigned to him. It was not the first time. It wasn’t even the seventh time this season.
In fact he wasn’t even certain Franklin gave an excuse this time. The family might have simply decided it was his responsibility. He knew that when he reached the cabin, he would have to air it out, search for things that needed to be repaired and clear out any storm debris that landed in the small yard and garden. It was not simply a matter of walking out to check. There was always something that needed doing.
He wouldn’t mind exactly if his taking care of the cabin translated into other duties being removed from his plate. But they weren’t. The family was more than happy to wait until he returned for his chores to be done. He would be berated for leaving them so long as well, while Franklin smiled smugly just out of his parent’s sight.
It had always been this way. Franklin was the eldest and the favorite. As he grew he became a newer copy of their father, while he resembled the men in his mother’s family. That didn’t earn him any points with her as she despised her own family and cut them off as soon as she married.
As Geoffrey walked the trail towards the cabin, the fog started to burn off even if the air remained chill and damp. As he walked he admitted to himself the real reason this particular chore felt so onerous. While he knew Franklin was favored he hadn’t realized until a few days prior when he heard his father speaking with the solicitor, that all of their property was going to Franklin.
While it was normal to bequeath the main house and the bulk of the property to the eldest son, other families doled out some inheritance to the younger.
‘And it isn’t like we have a lot of children to split it between,’ Geoffrey thought. It was just him and Franklin. There were no other siblings to claim a share of the estate. Yet he was to be given nothing upon their deaths.
He was working to maintain what would be Franklin’s cabin. Ever since he learned of this, and heard his father laugh and call him the family workhorse, his thoughts had been spiraling. Now as he walked into the woods, they grew darker. Staying no longer seemed like the best option.
He had saved some coin and knew he could find work in one of the cities.
