Monday, March 26, 2012

In 1000 Words or Less!


The time has come! Blog Hop hosted by Unicorn Bell! And the internets has been fixed! Sweeeeet. It was touch and go there for a bit. Been off line for almost a week, and I think my mind about exploded. Yipes. I'm really excited to see what everyone has come up with for this challenge so without further ado here is my humble offering to the critiquing gods.



The Tree House Tea

          The two small girls crested the top of the hill together, hand in hand, one with dark ringlets, the other a blond bob. They stopped and gazed across the field to the old tree house.
          Alone in the field, it had become part of the landscape itself, the house slowly being devoured by the living branches of the old tree. The two girls grinned at each other and raced to the foot of the half-rotten ladder, scrambling to see who could touch the old brass doorknob first. Breathless, Lacy flung open the door, her ringlets swinging. As usual, a feast was laid out on the low table in the center of the room. None of the children ever knew where the food came from; they just knew the rules of the Tree House Tea.

    Leave a card with a list of names to be invited in the Old Witches Stump on the New Moon. Then, on the Full Moon, your Tea will be served.

          It never failed. And it was always amazing!
          Cakes with sweet cheese filling! The thinnest cucumber sandwiches they'd ever seen! Tarts with every type of fruit imaginable! The aroma of fresh baked bread was heavenly in the air, almost dizzying! And the tea itself! Thick with honey and cream. You could almost bite into it! Lacy and Bree clasped hands and squealed, spinning around the table, careful not to touch anything. Then they settled down to wait for their guests to arrive.
          One by one the children arrived. Each one ooo'ing! and Ah'ing! over the beautiful spread. Lacy played the perfect little host. She was the one who'd placed the card in the Witches Stump. It was her right. She greeted each little girl and boy with a "Welcome to the Tree House!" and a, "Please! Find your seat, it will be Noon soon!"
          Bree busied herself placing teacups, sugar cubes and honey dippers in front of the children. She had noticed something odd though. Instead of the allotted ten chairs, there were eleven. And, on the back corner table, where they usually found a tiered silver tray of fondant cakes, there were eleven, single-serve bottles of rosy pink liquid. Around the neck of each bottle hung a card with the name of one of the children printed in a delicate hand. Soon, though, there was far too much chattering and laughing for Bree to worry about this change in routine.
          At precisely Noon the wooden cuckoo clock chirped twelve times and all the children looked to Lacy who promptly raised her hands and yelled, "Let the Tree House Tea for Lacy BEGIN!" All the children cheered and fell to eating the sandwiches and tea cakes with gusto. Bree , however, couldn't help but wonder about the extra chair and strange bottles.
          "Lacy. Did you see the new drinks?"
          Lacy glanced dismissively over her shoulder at the row of rosy pink bottles, glistening in the afternoon sun. "I did! There was a card on my plate that said to serve them last, so I guess they're for dessert..." Another girl pulled on Lacy's arm, demanding more tea, and Bree was left staring at the empty eleventh chair.
          Just then another child walked into the room, causing a stillness to fall. He was dark, had shy, downcast eyes and a well worn, tired look about him. The other children stopped eating  to stare at this intruder. Lacy looked around at her guests. "Please! Continue! It's fine. I invited him." She placed her hand on the new boy's arm and directed him to the empty chair, serving him tea herself. Bree followed and pulled Lacy into a corner.
          "This is bad, Lacy! I know he wasn't on the original list."
          Lacy waved Bree away and turned back to her guests, but there was a discordant note in the air now. Instead of being boisterous and gleeful the children began whispering and little fights broke out.
          At two pm the cuckoo clock chirped cheerfully. CukCoo! CukCoo! Lacy stood up and clapped her hands twice.
          "We have a special treat today! There is a bottle of Rose Water Soda on the back table, specially made for each of my guests. Please! Find your special bottle and enjoy!"
          There was a clamor of children pushing chairs of and rushing to be the first to see what this marvelous new treat could possibly be. Oh! The flowery scent of early summer! The sweetness of spring! The bright sparkle and bubble of eating snow in the winter! All caught in a bottle! Each child marveled and delighted and "Oh! Thank you so much for inviting us Lacy!" Then, in another rush of chaos and laughter the tree house was empty.
          Except it wasn't. The dark boy had stayed behind to hand a small envelope to Lacy. It was written in the same delicate hand as the name cards. He shuffled his feet and stammered:
          "I found it in my mailbox this morning. It has your name on it." Then he turned and rushed down the rotten ladder.
          Mystified, Lacy turned the envelope over in her hands and opened it.

Shame, Shame, Double Shame
You knew the Rules, You Played the Game.
And should those Rules you choose to Break
You Shall Have to 
Pay
a
Forfeit.

          Lacy stared mystified at the card. A forfeit? She knew the "Rules".  Don't invite anyone after the New Moon, but really! One boy! What harm could there be in breaking just one little rule?
          "Bree! Come look at this!" There was no answer. Lacy looked up from the card to the empty tree house.
          Except it wasn't.
           In the corner, over by the tea cake table lay the little girl with the blond bob. A half empty bottle of Rose Soda lay tumbled beside her outstretched hand and a thin trickle of blood inched silently down from the corner of her mouth. Her clear blue eyes stared sightlessly up at the ceiling.

28 comments:

  1. Spied me a few typing errors in the second paragraph (couldn't help myself), but overall very eerie.
    Can’t help but wonder if the same fate will happen to the other children. Naughty girl. She better run and tell’em quick.

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    1. I fixed em! Thanks! *Really* sometimes if you look at something too much you can't see it anymore. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and reading!

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  2. ooh, very creepy and in keeping with how fairy tales used to be (ie, not necessarily happily after after). Interesting how many of us has have a fairy tale theme. Loved your descriptions of the food and drink; I could almost taste it :)

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    1. Yah, I've always found old fairy tales to be just a tad bit creepy. Thanks for the input!

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  3. Ditto mshatch! I could hear the kids chatting in excitement and then falling silent when the new boy arrived. All very well done.

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  4. Everything was so festive and filled with glee.
    Then the interloper showed up. Well, not intending to be an interloper.

    Oh, how painful to learn there are consequences to breaking the rules.

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    1. I really liked the dark fairy tales as a kid. Must. Follow. RULES! :)

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  5. Creepy. One thing that confused me was it said tea was served on the new moon, but they're meeting during the day, not during the night...

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    1. The New Moon isn't necessarily just at night. The phases of the moon continue throughout the day as well. :) I was going with the belief that the Full Moon lasted for 24 hours and the New Moon the same. There is a lot of different opinions on this. But that's what I feel. So it is the LAW! HA!

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  6. good job taking us from playful innocence into cursed consequences!

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    1. Thanks! I enjoyed the blog hop! My first one *sniff* We grow up so fast! :)

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  7. @Charity, Not sure what happened to your comment...the Blog Monster ate it! Anyway...thanks! :)

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  8. Whew! What a ride this submission gave me.

    Great voice. Stupendous finish. Absolutely chilling. The writing style reminds me of CS Lewis with a touch of Stephen King.

    Good Job!

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    1. Thanks Huntress! heheh...you'll have to come by my blog during A-Z to see why this comment makes me giggle... :)*on 'K' Day...

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  9. Very cool. I was taken back to my childhood and the creepy fairy tales I used to read. The whole time I was waiting to see which rule she broke and what would happen. Good job:)

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  10. I love that your mind went along the same path as mine. I was *this* close to writing a story from this image, and it would have been embarrassingly similar to yours, though certainly less well told.

    Thanks for a nice case of mid-day heebie jeebies.

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    1. It's good to know that I'm not entirely alone in my psychosis... :D

      Mid-day heebie jeebies are always a good thing I find...

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  11. That was fxxx'd up. I will have nightmares now.

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  12. Ah, remind me not to accept any invitations to tea . .

    Wow; that was sinister. Excellent voice and pacing. I like how it starts out so sweet and innocent and gradually made me anxious about that 11th seating.

    Well done Alicia.

    ......dhole

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    1. Thank you Donna! So excited to see how everyone did for this fest!

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  13. Um. Started reading this and I was thinking it was jolly and fun and then BAM you got me good. Loved this! Totally reminded me of the Brother's Grimm with their really creepy stories? Like, I remember reading one about this kid who was turned bald by a pixie once when I was a kid. This was even CREEPIER than that.

    :)

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    1. I LOVE the Grimm Brothers! Their stories are great. Especially if you can find the Original ones that haven't been watered down. Talk about creepy! Thanks for the complement!

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  14. Wow! That was great. I was thinking I wanted one of those bottles and then boom. :-) Awesome descriptions, I felt like I was there.

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    1. Thanks Tracy! Tough challenge keeping it under the allotted number of words... :)

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  15. WOW - amazing storytelling. I got sucked right in and then WHAM - the ending punched me in the face. This was like an eerie dark Lewis Carroll fairy tale and I loved it. Fantastic entry!

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