Free Write--The spiral staircase

 

It was 8° centigrade with wind between 65-90K an hour. We wanted to do the Free Write within the warmth of Mille et Une's tea room fueled by Earl Grey tea and hot chocolate. Next week's will be more of a challenge with each of us in a different country. 

D-L's Free Write - Looking Downstairs

Nine-year-old Leah lay flat on her stomach looking down the spiral staircase. 

Since they'd moved into this modern house three years ago, she often snuck out of her loft bedroom to watch the goings-on below.

Parties were especially fun to watch, although one time a neighbor, who was drunk, threw up on the rug.

Her mom had acted as if it didn't matter, but when every one had gone home, she complained so much and so loud that Leah's father told her mom to shut up.

Sometimes her parents watched TV and ate popcorn. Leah could see the screen. More than once naked men and women crawled over each other. 

The last year or so, she could watch and listen to her parents fight. Sometimes her father threw stuff. A vase disappeared. A picture frame had to be replaced.

Lately, the arguments were almost every night and were louder and louder.

Tonight was the worst ever. Leah didn't sneak out of bed until it was quiet.

She didn't see her mom. 

What was her father doing scrubbing everything this late at night?

The smell of Clorox wafted up the spiral staircase.

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at: https://dlnelsonwriter.com

Julia's Free Write - The Stairs

Geometrical patterns as well as light and shadow were her "thing", that and numbers.

But this particular stairwell brought more the philosophical to mind.

Empty with no one in sight, neither up nor down. Would they be noticed!

And were they going up or were they going down? Where had the owners put their safe? Down in the cellar, up on the top floor?

Not your usual burglars, but rather friends looking to anonymously give them some cash to tide them over a bad patch.

Julia has written and taken photos all her life and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/  

 

Rick's Free Write  - The Staircase / Les Escaliers

Geoffrey peeked through the posts at the spiralling staircase and the floor below. He wanted so badly to go down there to see what was going on, but he was not allowed. 

The stairs were dangerous – steep and with narrow steps, especially on the inner part of each step. He had heard more than once when someone had fallen, then yelled out in pain. And there was the time when his father had dropped some dishes and glasses, shattering them all the way down les escaliers.

Even if he were a ‘normal’ 3-year-old boy, Geoffrey would have difficulty navigating such a hazardous climb. But he also suffered from a rare neurological disease which made it difficult to control his legs.

On occasion, his father would carry him down the stairs in his arms and put him in a wheelchair to roll him around the village so he could get some fresh air. It was a difficult thing, even for his strong father, and the climb back up to their living quarters was even more difficult. Plus, his father worked a lot as the owner of the restaurant on the ground floor.

Geoffrey wished the could live somewhere else, some-where on the ground floor where he could use the wheel-chair every day.

He leaned against the post and pulled a photo from his pocket. He misses his mother too.

 Rick is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices. com