Saturday 17 January 2009

Story Posts 4 & 5

4.

"I'm sure Uncle Dippel had far stranger dreams than you could ever have" said Alice. "There was that whole episode with the servant boy. And one Christmas, when Aunt Frieda was drunk she told me he'd worked for the Nazis during the war."

"Don't be stupid. Aunt Frieda's always drunk anyway."

Alice shrugged, and forced the claw end of the hammer between two pieces of wood.

"Wait!" I called out, but her mind was made up.

She yanked the hammer hard and went stumbling backwards as a shower of dust and splinters flew into the air. But she had barely even made a mark. Cursing, she tried again but still made little progress. Her face hardened as she wiped the dust from her face with the back of her sleeve.

"Bastard thing" she exclaimed. "You have a go."

My hand was shaking as the hammer was passed to me. I gulped audibly and moved towards the table.

There was a noise coming from the box, a kind of scratching and rustling. I could barely even bring myself to look at it, let alone go at it with a hammer.

But I didn’t have to. All of a sudden, the lid of the box popped up slightly - as though an internal catch had been undone. Then, in a few clattering movements, it was pushed aside and fell down onto the tabletop.

As I tentatively gazed into the darkness, the first thing I saw was a tiny pink hand reaching up towards me.

"No.... It can't be...." I said.

But so it was - there, lying on a glittering bed of styrofoam packing was a plump baby, no more than a few months old and surprisingly healthy-looking considering it's predicament.

"Hello Alice, Emily." Said the baby. "I expect you thought I was dead."


By hedgehog on Blogspot

5.

“Uncle Dippel?”

I had never heard Alice speak so quietly before. Her tone was lighter than the waft of her petticoats. But while she was the one shrinking back now and shaking, her pink shoulders quivering, her head swinging slowly back and forth - I leant closer. I was no longer afraid.

Apart from a rather baggy and sallow-looking nappy, the infant was naked. His flesh was smooth and rosy and gently folded; his little globe-like tummy almost glowed. He kicked his fat, little legs at me as if delighted. I noticed a light sprinkling of sawdust clinging to his perfect, pea-sized toes.

“For God’s sake, don’t touch him!” Alice hissed.

While there was an undeniable familiarity about those delicate features (something about the gumminess of that smile perhaps, or the frosty glint of those blue eyes?) the baby’s face was in no way an old man’s face. And he certainly didn’t smell like an old man, or a dead man, either. He smelt exactly as a baby should, as sweet and fresh as stretching bread dough. Intoxicating. When I reached out to lift him, I made sure to breathe him in.

And he was so warm against me; he fitted perfectly. My very own baby. Sure enough, it was the moment I’d been dreaming of for years.

Of course, Alice didn’t see it that way.
“Are you insane?” she sobbed. “What are you doing? Can’t you see what you’re doing?”

Then she was grasping for the metal rod beside the window - she twisted it so violently that the blind didn’t simply spring fully open, but fell crashing and rattling to the tiled floor. For several seconds, the kitchen was flooded with a light so glacier-bright that I could hardly see what I was cradling in my arms.



Your turn . . . Please end our blog story!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

And then contractions. Pulse, pulse, breath. My abdomen began to buckle and contort as the baby-being levitated out of my arms and up to the kitchen ceiling.

“My god Emily what’s happening?” screamed Alice with her hands clasped across her face.

The contractions slowed and I felt my midriff begin to expand. Sudden water weight clung to my hips as the muscles of my lower belly loosened then strengthened again.

The baby-being was growing downwards from it’s heightened position, first a thick neck then sprouting hairy arms. Wrinkles, creases, old thought lines breaking out across the face.

“Uncle Dippel?” Came my voice but it was shrill, that of a five year old.

“That’s me baby” grinned the now normal sized, naked old man stood in front of us.

Hair sprouted from his nose as my eyes swelled over. A red glow, fluid all around me, the thumping of someone’s heart. Cells dividing, a zygote embedding. Gone.

“Hello Alice, I’m uncle Dippeldoppelganger, one of the new breed” Smiled the being, “And I gots to get me some action.”

The being stepped towards the door, shimmering in and out of existence, flickering back as a tiger, fading, returning as a loaf of bread, expanding to fill the kitchen, inverting to a two dimensional structure, shrinking into a single focused particle with a totality of mass then emanating outwards in concentric circles of light energy, then back to the old man of before.

“Shit damn got to get them kinks in the process worked through” Was the last he said before vanishing.

Alice at that moment would have found out if a kit were to hand, that she was pregnant with twins.

annie clarkson said...

I am very very entertained.

Megan said...

Me too, Annie - it's been so much fun!

Also - I've had another query - so, just to clarify, we're looking for the very last post now, my pieces are finished.
The end is up to you!
It's not too late get involved. The story closes at midnight on Monday. Can't wait to see how it turns out . . .
M x

Dansk said...
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Dansk said...
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Dansk said...
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Megan said...

This blog story is now closed - and complete!!!
Please return tomorrow to read our ending . . .
With enormous thanks,
M ( :

Dansk said...

But I wasn;t worried. I was content with my baby held warmly in my arms.

My sister however, did not feel the same way. She stood across the kitchen from me, her face as pale as her fancy Vionnet dress, glaring accusingly at me. Why didn't she understand? She never understood.

'What are you thinking?' she cried 'Its an abomination, put it back, get rid of it!'

Instinctively I held the baby tighter and backed away from her. 'No, I can't. I won't. Look how helpless he is.' I looked down into his deep blue eyes and felt nothing but love. Motherly love. This what I'd always dreamed of. 'I'm going to take care of him.'

'You're crazy.' my sister spat, her hand reaching out. She grabbed a kitchen knife from the sink raising it up in the air with its tip pointing down, dripping tepid sink water onto the floor.

'It's wrong. You must see that. Put it down Emily. Put it down now!'

Why did she not understand? Always telling me what to do. Bossing me around. No more, I thought. I had my baby and nothing, no one is going to take that away from me. I glanced around and saw the hammer resting on the table, out of reach. Then, my thinking became clearer, and I knew what I had to do. I looked down into the baby's eyes and saw understanding. I gently placed the him on the table and turned to face my sister.

'Put the knife down Alice. Please.'

'It's wrong.' she repeated. 'I have to get rid of it'.

Alice lunged forward towards the helpless baby, the knife catching the morning sunlight. I grabbed her wrists forcing the blade up above us, but she managed to get her other hand to the baby's leg, and yanked him off the table. My heart stopped as I saw baby Dippel flailing as he shot across the kitchen bashing into the cupboard door and down onto the floor. I was incensed. That poor baby. I grabbed both of her wrists and started pushing back and kept pushing. Her eyes showed no understanding, no understanding at all. They were wide open with bitterness and hatred. I kept pushing and then the hatred drained from her eyes. Letting go, I watched my sister drop to the floor and with the knife pushed into deep into her own belly. She looked up at me in surprise and tried to speak but no sound came out. What have I done? I dropped to my knees and cried

'Alice. Sister. I'm sorry... ' But it was too late. Her head drooped down, lifeless.

'Why didn't she understand?' I cried.

'You did what you had to. She would have never understood what we have.'

I looked round and saw baby Dippel on the kitchen floor, struggling helplessly to support himself as my sisters blood pooled around him.

'I just wanted us to be a family.'

'We still can. It was good that you only cut her body. We can still save her. We can still be the family that you always dreamed of.'

The horror of my sisters death flowed away, replaced by the warm feeling of understanding.

'Now quickly, go find a saw. We have to remove her head.'

Dansk said...

sorry megs - i saw a bad spelling mistake and i had to change it! i finished it before you're deadline i swear!

Megan said...

he, he - I know, I saw! no worries, you made it,
m x