As last year, I’m participating in Loren Eaton’s (I Saw Lightning Fall) Advent Ghost Stories 2010. It has to be a mere 100 words and is supposed to be eerie in some way. I hope you like my short and thanks Loren for inviting me (and the world) and hosting this again. Fun stuff. Click here to read the other participant’s tales.
The Witness
Bleak midwinter? No. It’s the only time I feel even a little bit free. Otherwise I’m smothered, alone. At least I can see their beautiful faces during the holidays. At least I’m forced out of my box to witness their subdued celebrations.
Ten years ago, Christmas Eve. I was coming home, eager to share what I’d found with my family. In my haste I crossed a wizard.
On our tree an ornament hangs that my children love to scrutinize. It’s baseball sized, appears as a silver mirror. They wonder why it feels so magical. They don’t know that I’m inside.
Lovely-creepy!
If the children break the bauble, will the father tumble out?
Good story in so few words!
Oh, quite clever! I like the sadness in this piece.
How sad. I’d say it’s a lovely story, but that doesn’t seem appropriate. Poor guy.
Nice voice; I like the mirrored bulb to illustrate this and the fantastic premise of crossing a wizard; I feel like I see enough of his brashness in the voice to imagine him pushing the wizard too far without realizing it.
Man, man — that last line really got me, S.D. Such a perfectly balanced little story. Well done.
Such sadness; and heartbreak. All such curses should have a time limit . .
……..dhole
Very nice! And creepy. I’ll have to do this next year. This is the first I’ve heard of it.
That is soooo sad.
Creepy. Another one trapped inside a globe. Damn those wizards! And I wonder what it was he had found. Maybe next Christmas he can break free.