This was the first ever short story I posted at ATS and I thought, perhaps, another audience may appreciate it.

Old Scars.

Scars. Old Scars. They don't hurt anymore. Hell, not even new ones do it seems. They just ache. Achy, old scars.


Laying in the dark silent room. Internal clock estimates nearly an hour of sleep. That's a good nights rest anymore. I draw a deep breathe thru the oft broken, slightly mangled nose on my face. The cold air makes the crushed nasal passages throb. Creaking, popping ribs, sharp pangs here and there. I'm pretty sure the three on the left are cracked. Nothing to do about them now.

I roll my burning eyes under sandpaper eyelids. Neck and back twisted up like an old lightning struck tree. A slight roll of my shoulders brings the familiar feeling of crushed glass grinding in my shoulder joints. Hips, knees...easier to check off what doesn't ache.....well, that's a short goddamn list. Time to get moving, Death rises with the dawn. People are going to die today, a lot of them. Ours? Theirs? Me? Doesn't matter too much in the Grand Scheme of things.

I set my feet on the splintery floor. I recall it's covered in nails, broken glass and bits of shrapnel...meh, new scars. I shuffle across the floor in total darkness in the direction of the can, familiar bite of foreign objects tearing into my soles. I'll have to remember to pull them out before booting up. I turn on the dim, flickering light and catch myself in a dirty, cracked mirror. Bones poking at odd angles. Skin just a mass of old scars stretched across muscle and bones.

Just old scars.





The end?

It was the second night of November in 1966 on the dark rural backroad of Interstate 77 leading away from Parkersburg,
West Virginia, when two glowing eyes of light pierced the shadows from the overhanging leafless trees. Mr Woodrow
Wilson Derenberger was trundling along to his home after a business trip to Marietta, Ohio and was musing on the
device sitting in the back of his panel truck.

His destination was the small town of Mineral Wells, a title that had always been a point of light debate with his waiting
-at-home wife -Ruby. Some used two words, whilst others called it 'MineralWells'. Still, with headlights of Woodrow's
truck penetrating the darkness of the country road, he wasn't dwelling on controversial municipality identifications, the
thick-set fifty year-old was thinking if some adjustment should be required to the household appliance behind him.

You see, Woodrow was a sewing machine salesman and he had high hopes that he could expand his vending practice
out of West Virginia, something the resident of Wood County believed could make Ruby either hesitant or happier about
their future. Resigning himself to the itching censorious voice in his head that the sewing machine needed some tweaking,
Woodrow slowed his truck, pulled over beneath the stark trees and got out to perform his nagging task.

With his fastidious undertaking accomplished, Mr Derenberger climbed back behind the steering wheel and peered out
into the blackness of the November night. Ahead was something that hinted he might not be alone, illumination that
Woodrow took to be another vehicle and from the volume of the unusual radiance, he guessed that it maybe a big rig.

Driving on and thinking the lights could belong to police officers attending a crash, the salesman heading for home suddenly
found himself arriving at a situation where discussions on Mineral Wells' correct moniker would certainly take a backseat...
along with his sewing machine.

Woodrow would later describe the oddly-shaped effulgence-emanating object as certainly not any conveyance usually
seen on these provincial routes. He was stated the floating craft was like “an old-fashioned kerosene lamp chimney flaring
at both ends, narrowing down to a small neck and then enlarging in a great bulge in the centre” laid on its side. A shape
that some would suggest was similar to what was photographed near the planet Mercury by Scott C Waring in 2018.

To many, this bizarre encounter would be enough, but Mr Derenberger's night was just beginning. That was when a door
in the side of the craft opened, a humanoid appeared and walked to the right-hand of his truck and asked Woodrow to kindly
wind down the window. “He looked perfectly natural and normal as any human being” Derenberger would relate to Ronald
Mains during an interview on WTAP-TV in Parkersburg, West Virginia, on the day after the encounter.


Woodrow Derenberger.                      The shape seen near Mercury.

However, considering the nocturnal situation, the extraordinary craft in the road and the arrival of a shadowy stranger in
a dark topcoat beside Woodrow's truck, one might think these were not an amusing circumstances. But the salesman's
visitor was grinning. Keeping his hands hidden beneath his armpits, the cheerful newcomer requested for the window
to opened via -as Woodrow declared, telepathically.

During this short parley, Woodrow believed he could see some kind of garment beneath the Stygian garment made of
glistening greenish material almost metallic in appearance. Maybe this distraction was the reason Derenberger didn't ask
the stranger why one needs laminated glass to be removed for extrasensory communication.

“He asked me to roll down the window and I done what he asked...” Derenberger would say during the WTAP-TV interview.
“...And this man stood there and asked me what I was called and I know he meant my name and I told him my name." As
the grinning pedestrian surveyed the anxious driver, he then asked  "Why are you frightened?", adding "Don’t be frightened,
we wish you no harm. We mean you no harm, we wish you only happiness"

Gazing at the incredible hovering craft waiting over the road and soaking in what this genial figure was saying, Woodrow
learned the stranger's name. “My name is Cold. I sleep, breathe, and bleed even as you do” he advised the perturbed
salesman from Mineral Wells. It would be later that Woodrow would learn his grinning night-visitor's full name and where
he was from. Indrid Cold, a space-traveller from Lanulos -which as most of you know is 14.6 light years from Earth and in
the Ganymede galaxy.

..............................

After reporting his encounter to the Parkersburg police the next day, it wasn't long before the local media enthusiastically
grabbed the story and cajoled Woodrow to elaborate on his previous evening. Accompanied in an interview for WTAP-TV
with members of the state police, representatives of the Wood County Airport, the Parkersburg Police, and surprisingly
a representative from the Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, Woodrow Derenberger endured a thirty-minute
bombardment of questions regarding the grinning man who only wished happiness with thought-waves.

When the interview aired, some viewers and listeners came forward with claims that they had also seen a figure matching
Mr Derenberger’s description of Indrid Cold. One caller reported that a man matching Mr Cold’s description attempted to
flag him down, but he was too afraid to stop. Other people claimed to witness lights and “fluttering vehicles” on the same
road Derenberger said he talked to Cold on and several witnesses reported they had seen Woodrow talking to a man on
the same road.


Woodrow in an interview.                                                                               The smile says it all.

Ruby Derenberger would be reported to have explained: "You should have seen him when he got home. He looked awful.
I thought he’d struck and killed somebody with the truck. He loves to play with the children, but not that night. I had to
shoo them out..." Continuing, Ruby added after Woodrow arrived home that night: "...He just sat there in the kitchen,
grey-coloured and saying, ‘You’re going to think I’m crazy,’ and ‘you’re going to laugh at me."
When told what had occurred, his wife did not laugh.
..............................

Alas like many news articles, the media brouhaha calms down and the microphones get packed away. But for Woodrow
Derenberger, Indrid Cold hadn't finished with him. The grinning man with hidden hands began to visit the sewing machine
salesman's rural home and with his new-found connection with the fourth estate, Woodrow regularly reported the sojourns.

As the months rolled by into 1976, his family would admit that they too had seen Cold and other odd happenings around
their home. These events included inquisitive locals showing up on the Derenberger looking for signs of the mirthful visitor
from beyond the stars. Eventually the toll of harassing phone calls and ridicule led Derenberger to seek medical attention
and it would have certainly been a relief when Woodrow's physician gave him a clean bill of health and found no evidence
of chemical imbalance.

With painful headaches and depression being a familiar companion for Woodrow through the following years, he decided
to write a book on his November night with the grinning Indrid Cold. 'Visitors from Lanulos' elucidated on the habits of the
Lanulosians and how they have no need of clothes and generally walk around naked, they have a fifty-six-person Guiding
Council whose members are elected every six months and on one occasion, took Woodrow to Venus where the residents
also shunned clothing.

Needless to say, Ruby divorced him and soon after, Woodrow felt it prudent to move away from the area to escape his
notoriety. We cannot verify whether the disintegration of their marriage was due to Woodrow's out-of-this-world belief
structure or Ruby just didn't like her husband patronising with jovial off-worlders who allowed their privates to be on show.

Which ever, Indrid Cold has a lot to answer for.

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I see my avatar transferred from the previous site. New to this one. Hello everyone. Good to be back. I see some familiar faces already.

Untitled


I reached slowly to you
you felt my touch
I know you realized then
I loved you so much

I spoke slowly to you
you heard my every line
I know you heard me then
and knew a love like mine

I called slowly to you
you seemed to pause a bit
I know our life came back to you
those years were but a minute

I pleaded softly to you
but did you hear my cry
I know you didn’t then
but felt no reason why

I shovelled softly now
the neighbors must not know
you left me sometime in the night
I don’t know where’d you go.


Written on January 22nd, 1991.



I wrote this while going through a divorce from my first wife.

Newbie here.  I found the short stories forum.  That's a start.  I write only one page stories.  So, they're short. I've rarely shared any of my writings.  This is kind of a first.

SHE WALKS ALONE

She walks alone.  People moving swiftly by her, but not seeing.  The glare of a concrete jungle assaults her senses.  What have we, humans, done to ourselves?

The blanket of night is falling swiftly, filing up empty crevices that hide between the city's structures.  Shadows of the night, twisted shapes, formed by scant street lights, become the living.  A life of secrets, and the unknown.

Safe, she feels safe when she can't be seen, when she can't see.  She feels safe and alive in the darkness.

She walks alone.

Down familiar streets, past now darkened store front windows, with ghostly mannequins distant in their own thoughts.  A car rattles by with its man-made sound of metal, and rubber on a paved road.  She prefers the eerie, but natural sounds of night creatures screeching from alleys, and their rat-a-tatting claws on pavement.  The night is alive.

She hears a baby cry from behind a glowing curtained window, a drunk's roar of sadness, and passionate lovers moaning their song.

She walks on.

The air dampens and whirls around her as she moves nearer the ocean shore.  Waves lap and slam their power in continuous rhythm against the sandy beach.  Seagulls squawk to each other in the unseen distance as if they're squabbling over a midnight snack.

A pier juts out through darkness above the moving darkness beneath it.  A lone light, at the end of the pier, seems as if it's floating high in the sky against a dark background of scattered clouds, and distant stars fighting to be seen.

A single figure stands below it.

He walks alone.

A love story.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/...nd-mummies

I have been keeping an eye on all of the anciet artifacts that are being dug up recently. It has been about a  year since anything really interesting has popped up, so I thought I'd go ahead and share this.

• Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered an ancient cemetery that has stone sarcophagi, coptic jars and even a "Book of the Dead" scroll.

We Were But Children


I remember placing the coin down
it was oh so shiny
it reminded of the glint
of her eye when she looked at me
we were but children
but we felt so wise
and grownup
playing our little game of house
we were like adults
She was my wife
and I her husband
she greeted me each day
as I came from pretend-work
she had my supper ready
and mudpies were our whole meal
when we were but children

But us children grew up
I remember thinking new things
and having strange feelings
I remembered her simple ways
I remember liking them
But things change
and I changed
I was always far away
from where I grew up
(where we grew up)
I didn’t see much of you then
but I thought about you
did you think of me
I wonder sometimes
why did things turn out not quite
like we had thought they would
We were but children
I am an adult now
and you
are no longer with me
but as I glance up to the setting sun
I realize it is setting too late
for a part of me will go with it
I search for a disposal to
put my newspaper in
I’m through with it already
I caught your name in the small print
and I can still remember back
when we were but children.


Written on May 6th, 1989.


I most often write my poetry to reflect the mood I'm in at that particular moment.

Yes kids, it's that time of year again! The time when the veil thins and all sorts of energies reach across the breach in an attempt to garner our attention. When they do this it is best to ignore them- they feed off the energy that your interest provides and the more energy they feed off of the stronger they can become and the more exciting (and sometimes frightening) acts some of them can perform- and they might just make themselves at home.

As we approach the full moon (Oct. 28) you may notice an increase in paranormal/interdimensional activity. Currently there are loud popping and snapping noises going off with absolutely no cause all over the apartment and have been increasing in frequency. Things move of their own accord, whispering voices confuse communications- yeah, all of that is happening.

The activity will begin to "die down" when the moon begins to wane. The important thing to remember is unless you wish to invite permanent house guests the best thing you can do is IGNORE the activity, the less energy you feed them the better. Don't even speak of them aloud as it also feeds them. Don't be fooled by "friendly spirits". They are all friendly until they aren't.

Also if you don't have any idea of what you're doing just put the sage, blessed salts and holy water down. Most likely the situation will resolve itself in a few days and you're likely to make a mountain out of a molehill, a scary damned mountain at that!

Thank you for attending my Ted Talk...

Hope I'm doing this right -- my first time new thread.  I just recently moved and came across some of my writings.  I write "one page stories" and some poetry.  I've only previously shared my writings with a small writers group.  This is a huge step for me.  Here goes . . .

WHEN DID I

When did I?
I remember soft skin, a smile, a laugh
Being held, comforted, and soothed
When did I first become aware of being in this world?

Crying, hunger, afraid
A warm suckling, tummy full
Sleepy now, cooing, sounds of a lullaby
When did I first become aware of hunger in my world?

Bright light, warmness on my skin
A blanket on grass, a breeze on my cheek
Laughter and swinging in the park
When did I first become aware of the sun and wind?

Run, skip, hop
Wheels turning, knees pumping peddles
Climbing jungle gyms
When did I discover the usefulness of limbs?

Giggling, running away
A shy smile, and shy eyes
Holding hands, a gentle squeeze
When did I discover young love?

Deep passion, longing
Strength in embrace
Joining together as one
When did I experience true love for the first time?

A feeling of oneness
Energy shared, united
You, me, we, simply are
When did I know all is connected?

Quote:Why I'm divorced

That morning......


I went downstairs for breakfast hoping my husband
would be pleasant and say, 'Happy Birthday,' and possibly have a
small present for me.

As it turned out, he barely said good morning, let alone 'Happy Birthday.

I thought....well, that's marriage for you, but the kids.... they will
remember.

My kids came bouncing down stairs to breakfast and didn't say a word.
So when I left for the office I felt pretty low and somewhat dejected.

As I walked into my office, my handsome boss, Rick, said, 'Good
morning, lady, and by the way Happy Birthday!' It felt a little
better that at least someone had remembered.

I worked until one o'clock, when Rick knocked on my door and said,
'It's such a beautiful day outside, and it is your birthday, what
do you say we go out to lunch, just you and me.'

I said, 'Thanks, Rick, that's the greatest thing I've heard all day. Let's
go!'

We went to lunch. But we didn't go where we normally would go. He
chose instead a quiet bistro with a private table. We had two
martinis each and I enjoyed the meal tremendously.

On the way back to the office, Rick said, 'It's such a beautiful
day...we don't need to go straight back to the office, do we?'

I responded, 'I guess not. What do you have in mind?'

He said, 'Let's drop by my place, it's just around the corner.

After arriving at his house, Rick turned to me and said, 'If you
don't mind, I'm going to step into the bedroom for just a moment.

I'll be right back.


'OK.' I nervously replied.

He went into the bedroom and, after a couple of minutes, he came
out carrying a huge birthday cake, followed by my husband, mykids, and dozens of my friends and co-workers, all singing 'Happy Birthday.'


And I just sat there...

on the couch....

naked.