The cat stretched out her legs, dug her claws as hard as she could into lap she was on, then went back to sleep with a very contented purr.
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Notes:
1. Written on October 7th, 2024
__________Tales From The Town
Tales From The Town #192: Matches Of The Days
1. The Old Game
“Urgh, why do we have to play football again,” Claire said, as she stood near the goal (but not actually in the goal) with her hand up waiting for someone to pass her the ball so she could kick the ball into the goal as hard as she could. “I hate football.”
“Because the only ball we have left is the football,” Tina said, passing the football carefully away from Claire and over towards Ethel who wasn’t very near the goal at all and also didn’t have her hand up.
“Someone threw all the other balls down the well,” Ethel added, as she passed the ball nowhere near Claire even though she was quite near Claire and all the way over to Daniel instead who was miles away and not even looking.
“Including the football,” Claire said proudly. “So where did this one come from?”
“I found it in a bush,” Daniel said as he jumped over the ball and then ran round it in a circle for some reason before dribbling all the way back towards Claire and then he stopped and ran around it in a circle again then jumped over the ball once more just for good measure.
“What bush?” Claire asked, not looking at the ball any more but at Daniel who she was talking to.
“The football bush,” said Daniel. “Where the footballs live.”
“There’s no such bush,” Claire said.
“There is,” said Daniel, as he booted the ball past Claire while she was distracted and into the goal, and then out of the goal, because there wasn’t any nets up in the goal, so it went flying straight into the bush behind the goal (that Claire was near ((but not actually in)). “It’s that bush,” Daniel added, who then did a little dance.
“Urgh,” Claire said, her head dropping in despair as she trudged off to get the ball (out of the bush (behind the goal (that she wasn’t even in))). “I hate football so much.”
2. The New Game
“I’ve invented a new game,” Claire announced, when she came back with the ball, several minutes of grumbling later. “It’s much better than stupid old football. Right, Daniel, you go and stand over there.”
Daniel went and stood over there.
“And Tina and Ethel, you also go and stand over there,” Claire said.
Tina and Ethel also went and stood over there.
“And now I turn around and boot the ball over there,” Claire said.
Claire turned around and booted the ball all the way over there, as far away from everyone else as possible, and they all watched the ball as it bounced over the fence, and then ran down the hill, and then rolled into the road, and then a car hit the ball, and the ball went flying across to the other side of the road, and then a truck coming the other way hit the ball, and the ball flew back across to the first side of the road, and then a bus hit the ball, and this time the ball exploded.
That was the end of the game.
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Notes:
1. Written on September 29th, 2024
__________Support An Accumulation Of Things
If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi. Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). Thank you!Tales From The Town #191: In The Basement In The Bookshop
In the basement in the bookshop you could find: the science fiction books, the fantasy novels, the fairy tale collections, the folklore compendiums, pamphlets of poetry, artists’ manifestos, dissidents’ diaries, and the shelf full of sale items with torn covers and tattered spines. There was even a comfy old armchair, and occasionally a cat, but never, of course, anyone else at all.
Eleonora never told anyone this was where she spent every lunch hour, It was her own secret den, an oasis all to herself in the middle of an endless desert of days of despair.
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Notes:
1. Written on September 19th, 2024
__________Support An Accumulation Of Things
If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi. Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). Thank you!Tales From The Town #190: The End (Of Summer)
You’d never think you’d miss it when it was gone, Agnes thought. But there was no sound more forlorn than the last few desperate cries for attention from the ice cream van before it accepted its fate and settled down for its annual hibernation.
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Notes:
1. Written on September 20th, 2024
__________Support An Accumulation Of Things
If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi. Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). Thank you!Tales From The Town #189: Nostalgia Is The Yearning For Times And Places You Never Actually Liked At The Time
Antoine looked out of the window of his new flat above the chip shop, staring at the sea and the beach and the mist and the sky with a feeling of ever so slight wistfulness. It was nice having running water and a kitchen and a fridge and a bed that wasn’t filled with sand, but sometimes he missed his old cave.
He missed the mermaid. He missed the sounds of the sea. He missed the campfire. He even missed the crabs occasionally, sometimes, maybe.
“Your new flat’s the best flat ever, Dad,” Claire said, eating her second portion of chips of the day already and the day wasn’t even finished yet by far. “So much nicer than that stinky old cave. There’s not even any gulls stealing our chips!”
“And it’s right next to an arcade!” Daniel said, as he counted out various 2 and 10 pence pieces from the pint glass filled with coins Antoine had forgotten to hide before they came round today.
“And right next to another, slightly more expensive, arcade!” said Ethel, as she counted out the 20s and 50s and pounds, piling them all up into nicely precarious towers all over the table. “We only need another 7,000 prize tickets and we can win something that almost looks like a pokemon but which isn’t a pokemon at all.”
“It’s something even better than a pokemon!” said Daniel, his eyes wide with absolutely astounded wonder that such a thing could exist.
“And it’s opposite the bookshop,” said Tina, running her fingers over the gold embossed lettering on the cover of the book she’d just bought. Not that gold embossed lettering was important, of course. Books were all about the content, and it was entirely coincidental that the book she’d really wanted for months just happened to have gold embossed lettering on the cover. But they felt so nice. And looked amazing.
“I do kind of miss all those naughty crabs, though,” Daniel said.
“Me too,” Antoine agreed.
“Yeah, those crabs were great,” said Ethel.
“The way they’d scuttle about all over everything,” Tina said.
“And pinch us with their claws!” Daniel said.
“I don’t miss them at all,” Claire said. “We all hated those horrible little crabs and you all know it! Don’t even try and pretend we didn’t because we did. All of us.”
“I didn’t,” said Antoine, weakly.
“You did, Dad,” Claire said. “You hated them the most out of any of us!”
And that was that. Claire was right and they knew it and they hated it. So no one ever mentioned the crabs ever again.
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Notes:
1. Written on August 17th, 2024
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