Free Write - Red and Green Chandeliers

 

Three writers: One prompt, three very different free writes.

Prompt: So much red. So much green. Seven enormous chandeliers.

D-L's Free Write

Paul and Anne stared at the ceiling which was painted with lords and ladies dancing.

"Look," Anne said. "Seven red and green chandeliers."

"Wow," Paul said.

Boring, thought their 15-year old daughter Emma. She was so tired of being dragged through stately homes and historical sites.  Never have college professors for parents.

She wandered out of the room into a smaller chamber. Smaller was relative with its canopied, four-poster bed and a fireplace that could hold another queen-sized bed.

On the bed was the most handsome boy she'd ever seen and who was asleep. He stirred.

"Who are you?" they asked together.

He rolled off the bed as she explained. "Our campground has tennis courts and two pools, but oh no my parents drag me here."

"Which campground?" he asked

"Three Pines."

"Me too. I'm Evan. Want to play tennis when we escape this?"

Maybe, Emma thought, the vacation wouldn't be so bad after all.

Rick's Free Write

So much red…

I had never seen so much gold leaf in my life. It was layered on nearly everything in every room. The red fabric wall coverings. The decorator vases. The railings of the staircase. (Though not the blood-red carpet on the stairs or the dark red rugs through the hallways.)

We were visiting the Winter Palace of the Czar in St. Petersburg, courtesy of our hostess who had arranged the travel papers to get us into Russia and an apartment for the week (displacing her son). We toured other palaces and museums as well, all full of gilt and vermillion trappings. Two places a day, in fact. The itinerary was exhausting.

When we got to customs at St. Pete (formerly Leningrad) airport, I was concerned, as an American, that they would not allow me in the country. After being permitted to cross the line, I was concerned they would not let me leave. (This was a few years ago – before Putin started kidnapping American journalists to hold them for ransom.)

As we walked through the palace on a private tour, we entered a long rectangular room, obviously used for the type of ballroom dancing scenes you would see in biopics. More red. More gold. And, as I looked up – seven enormous chandeliers. I wonder if the dancers use them as a guide for where to twirl? 

Julia's Free Write

It was enormous, I’m tempted to say cavernous, this room.

He looked around, tried to take in the wealth, then tried to imagine.

There was all the red; if he took that would things end badly?

But oh the gold was so tempting – harder perhaps to smuggle out.

Looking upwards, he counted: seven gigantic chandeliers: the crystals on only one would bring a very good price, but without the equipment there was no way that he could access any of them.

Then he saw it: a small mosaic low on the floor with about 20 rubies.

In a flash his multi-purpose flat metal tool was out of his collar (the metal detector had only been waste-high and he carried no back pack) and pried the jewels loose.

Into his chest sling and he was gone – a cool million. And no b bloodshed!

It was later called the heist of the decade.

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

 

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