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This Show Case features five pieces submitted in response to our fifty-eighth Writing Prompt: Fancy. You can see responses to each prompt in the drop down menu for the Show Case page. Try an item. They are all delicious. We hope they stimulate your mind, spirit, and urge to write. Maybe they will motivate you to submit a piece for our next prompt, which you can find on the Show Case home page.
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I Am Not
by S.T. Ranscht
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The Country Lad
by Mimi Speike
‘If a country lad must have novelty, let him try London, as fine a place as any, and a quicker scurry home once he’s had his fill of fancy females and dainty eats.’
This was the advice given Sly by his disapproving relations when he’d announced his intention to see the world.
It was an exciting time to be young and full of dreams. The rigid feudal culture was crumbling. For an ambitious individual, the sky was, seemingly, the limit. He joined the throngs of rustics streaming toward London. It was the early 1570s.
The City of London, surrounded by walls built by the Romans around AD 200, was prosperous and splendid. Outside that barrier sprawled a shambles of tenements, brothels, ale-houses, dicing and bowling-rooms, the streets full of sellers of watered sack and potato brandy; nips and foists, the elite of cut-purses; the scooch, reaching with a crook, or if he was sleight, squeezing through a window to grab a treasure; low-rung pilferers with their money-making strategies; ambulating whores offering a ‘scamper’, a quick clip in an alley without the removal of skirts; urchins fighting and begging; other ill-intentioned weasels, gaping dolts new-come from the countryside, and a few upright sorts doing their best to go about their day unhindered.
* * *
If John Dee had inquired about Sly’s previous experience in London (the cat has touched on it in the memoir Doctor Dee is reluctantly committing to paper), below is what the reply would have been. The man did not ask. I take it upon myself to supply the answer.
“As a border bumpkin,” Sly would have said, “among my none-scant stock of conceits was that I should easily distinguish myself from the pushing multitudes and that, presenting myself with sufficient honesty, as I have done with you, sir, I should obtain a position with one of scholarly proclivities, that I might add to the knowledge I had accrued in the schoolrooms of my home district. Such was my wild dream of London, that soon proved to be the folly of the pertest simpleton.
“Dragged to London, not against my will, but without foreknowledge, I was set down by Bishopsgate and put to a legitimate commerce. I immediately formed a bond with a group of would-be thieves, would-be because they were yet inept at the trade. They were at once rougher and more tender than the Cumbrian louts I’d left behind. Also, more generous. They took care one of another, this was all the family most of them had. A less romantic sense of life than mine, and of their place in it, and no faith in any desirable future, was only to be expected. They had a signal with which they greeted each other. I mimicked it,1 and was, on the spot, accepted into — the Bishopsgate Bastards, they called themselves.
’Twas sweet Lucy Lattimore who taught me to dance a jig. She’d toot a pipe. I jigged, after a fashion. I got better at it as time went on. Tip your hat to the nice people, she’d tell me. I’d snatch a cap off my head, clasp it to my breast, and bow as prettily as any lordling born to the practice.”
“As you did the other night.”
“Just so. If were to set eyes on her again, what a joyful reunion that would be. She’s a young lady by now, but I’ll know her in an instant, I haven’t a doubt in the world. We did well collecting tips in a pot, but Lucy had a bigger idea. We began to roam the Strand, lined with inns catering to well-heeled visitors to the city, an area in which a stylishly-clad miss might be presumed to belong. What thing on earth equals me? her pretty pout said with enchanting arrogance. We employed a pinch-mouthed female in a starched uniform to be the nursemaid hovering over a precious child who prattled gaily about the party her Darling Mama had attended on the previous evening.
“Lucy wrote herself lines–Damn it, Caruthers! Mama must be up by now! I want to hear all about Lord Farquhar’s dinner, whom she danced with, what was said. The nurse would reply, Not yet, dear. I’m told she didn’t come in until 5 am. They put on a slick little skit, in which I figured to no small degree.
“Lucy’s brother manufactured a petite stroller in which she pushed me, a baby bonnet on my noggin. We drew bewitched females in droves. I’d allow myself to be hoisted and snuggled, emitting a sound those gathered round swore was Mama! As my charming mistress handed me off to one cooing fool after another, she acquired many a well-provisioned purse from ones not on their guard, as they would normally have been. That adorable child, a threat? Impossible! A golden goose for the Bastards, I was pampered as I’d never been pampered in my life.”
* * *
Well, now. How and when did Sly pull free of that cushy life, as he obviously did? That tale must wait. Here’s Hotchkiss, banging at the library door.
“Enter!” cries Dee.
The door is slid open. “The skiff awaits, sir. Shall I carry your bag down to the dock?”
“No thank you, Hotch. I have a few items yet to gather up. Tell the waterman I will be along directly.” Hotch withdrawn, Doctor Dee opens his carry-all sitting on the floor, packed for a stay in town, and hisses, “No more nonsense out of you! In!”
Sly has been told what’s expected of him; still, he balks. “Really, Doctor. Is this absolutely necessary?”
“I do not venture abroad in your company but for you be concealed.”
“You had no problem with my company the other night.”
“That was a performance. On the boat, our fraternization is likely to arouse interest I would prefer to avoid.”
Cats are said to be the companions of sorcerers. Dee is the Royal Astrologer. He is also one of the most important mathematicians in Europe. Mathematics, an equally mysterious business, is regarded by simples as a black art. He walks a fine line in terms of public perception.
Sly sighs, and climbs into the container. Dee instructs him sternly. “Mind you not sink your claws into my best caftan, making pulls.” Doctor Dee is dressed in a utilitarian fashion. He looks a tradesman instead of a renowned scholar. He’ll don the flowing garment favored by the ‘Magus of Mortlake’ — an artist’s gown, with hanging sleeves–when he reaches Seething Lane.
* * *
- Unable to execute the maneuver known as cock-a-shook, in which the thumb is poked up a nostril and the remaining digits waved contemptuously at an adversary, he’d inserted a claw in his petite nostril and twitched his remaining talons as best he could. Between the Bastards it had been a gesture of solidarity.
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Fancy That
By John Correll
Based on a true story.
Fancy that. Two years after her first jump, Gertrude prepared her own batch to make the plunge.
Just like her mother, Gertrude bathed in the pool above the cascade and waited for her beautiful collection. She suppressed anxiety with careful grooming. Even a new mother had to be presentable. Her tail swished as her fearless little ones gathered by the edge. They bumped and pushed despite the thirty-foot drop into a deeper basin below. But then, at two weeks of age, they had never heard of fear. And besides, Gertrude wouldn’t dare lead them astray.
Rushing waters ran cool this time of year. And sometimes, on boiling days, the pink demons climbed the cliffs and threw themselves into the frothing mists below. But since the harsh summer floods, the demons made themselves scarce. Nature’s rage dragged their bridges and paths halfway to the sea. And now, their longed-for journeys remained stalled. Waiting. Gertrude had nothing to fear from them since she knew demons could not fly.
She counted her brood. All Eight. Not a single soul lost. Not yet. But with the constant search for food, they would face the horrible hounds, the sharp-clawed cats, and the metal beasts swimming on solid sable rivers. Vulnerability ruled existence. Gertrude realized she would be a lucky duck if her horde managed eight in two months. But, first, her fluffy crew faced their biggest challenge: the journey to better food.
Gertrude stepped from her bath and approached the precipice. This historic place marked the spot. Directly below lay the rippling Prussian blue waters. Here, the ducklings avoided the murderous eddies of the churning falls.
Gertrude dried her wings and leaped without glancing back. She glided into the basin, gazed upward, and quacked, “Follow me.”
Baby Gertrude looked over the edge first. She stiffened, terrified. But her brothers and sisters pushed towards their mother’s call. They had to see, and Baby Gertrude became their first victim. Tumbling, somersaulting, with the grace of an amateur rock puzzled by gravity, she fell towards her mother. Splash. The pushing continued, and one gray-yellow fluff ball followed another. Until only the lonely, fat Charlie remained. His mother called again, but he hesitated. Would he be the bravest and leap on his own? Or would he remain lost, ready to become a hungry hawk’s meal?
Tough choices for one so small. Gertrude screamed, and Charlie paced on the edge. Then he slipped. He bumped, tumbled, and another awkward stone soared. Splunk.
And then, waiting for their next quacking adventure, eight healthy ducklings assembled on cool Prussian blue waters.
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Planets
by SL Randall
Urbana,
Section 1,
The Basics.
Urbana is the oldest existing planet, created to house the Korezei* [the eternal Labor Force] and provide everything necessary to set up a new universe. The Department of Creation is the first to deploy from Urbana and begin the task of studying the Universal Singularity Emergence or USE. From there it is determined how the galaxies, nebulas, space dust, stars, matter, gravity etc, will be used to structure the universe. Each universe emerges uniquely from its singularity. Some explode scattering matter far and wide. Some trickle and some flood. For a full range of recorded Universal Singularity Emergence or USE.**
Throughout the life of the universe, the Korezei research, explore, populate, build, and maintain the universe using material released at inception. The DNA found in all species, originates from the Korezei but has long since been replicated rather than extracted from the existing population. DNA also has its own propensity to evolve, and change based on its current environment. The Korezei population is infused with new versions of DNA as new citizens relocate to Urbana from the new universe.
Urbana is constructed from polypropylene, a highly flexible, yet rigid plastic. The polypropylene used in Urbana’s construction is a blend of composites and other propylene materials to ensure it could withstand weathering, ozone, extreme heat and cold and most importantly intense gravitational pressure, especially during wormhole transits. Some of the composites include ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (PP/EPDM) blends for high impact resistance, elasticity, heat resistance, ozone and weathering. Polypropylene/polyamide (PP/PA) blends used for stiffness, toughness and abrasion resistance and Polypropylene/carbon nanotube (PP/CNT) for electrical conductivity, thermal stability and mechanical strength.
As the Planet transits each universal death and birth, it is protected by its structure and by two Eternals, Lehbo Schuy and Minz***. Officially they are Stellar Serpents. The Korezei regard them as harbingers because they only appear in the skies of Urbana twice during the life of a universe. Their task is to detach Urbana from its stellar orbit and transport it through a wormhole to the next Universal Inception, where they maintain Urbana’s gravitational integrity until the creators can fashion a new star in the new universe, for Urbana to orbit. Once this process is complete, the serpents riddle the new universe with wormholes as they explore, returning at the end of the universe’s life to start the process over.
The topography of Urbana, minus the structures built by the Korezei, is completely smooth. There are no mountains, rivers, or canyons on the surface. The interior of the globe is a multilevel warren of mechanical structures, housing power plants, turbines, and edible fungus farms. The Korezei who inhabit the interior call it Lower Urbana. At one time all Urbana’s citizens mingled together, but as the surface developed and grew upward, the Lower Urbanese began to seclude themselves below. It is rare to see a denizen from Lower Urbana on the surface.
The surface structures rise to the stratosphere. The surface Korezei run the Under Urbana Dark Market as well as provide sanitation, refuse gathering and disposal, building maintenance and off-track betting.
The next level is Mid-Urbana. The home of Urbanese bureaucracy, dive bars, educational system, and the service industry.
Upper Urbana is home to the wealthy, the Strato resorts and interstellar docking ports and security system. Looped around the planet is a hollow ring which slowly rotates in opposition to the planet. Its main use is as a handlebar for Lehbo Schuy and Minz during the wormhole transits. The rest of the time it is used as a view port of the cosmos and the planet, as well as housing shops, casinos, and fine dining. Beathens are particularly drawn to the fancy dining establishments. It is constructed of the same polymer as the planet.
The Chapter continues with descriptions of the various regions on the planet…
Footnotes:
*Korezei — See “The History of Everything,” Chapter 65, Section 5; The Korezei: The Eternal Labor Force, by Yetarīki Mihuru.
** The Universal Singularity Emergence or USE — “The History of Everything,” By Yetarīki Mihuru, Chapter 1, Universal Inception.
*** Lehbo Schuy and Minz — See “The History of Everything,” Chapter 65, Section 3; Guardians and Stellar Serpents: by Yetarīki Mihuru.
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I Do Not
by S.T. Ranscht
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