On the plus side we do have new furniture for our son’s room now, and the dresser is already put together. Somehow that meant that I didn’t have quite as much time to write as I hoped to. Again.
I also did something I never do. That scene that had been bugging me because I set it all wrong? I went back and fixed it. I striked out everything that I didn’t want to keep instead of deleting it so that I wouldn’t actually lose any words but still.
But there is another hour left in the day until bedtime so I’ll try to write some more. Today I’m just regular tired, not as tired as yesterday. So far I have managed 246 words. (I probably should not write these blog posts so early but as I explained before wifi is turned off at 9 pm.)
I thought you might like a snippet from the work in progress. This will probably change until the whole thing is finished but at least you get to read something else but me whining about the lack of progress. Here’s the moment Karen finds the body:
I knocked on the door while opening it. If it was open Ms. Swinton was probably right around the corner and hadn’t closed it properly. Or she had a visitor who was supposed to leave soon but then I would have heard her talking. I wondered if I should have looked through the windows from the outside. I couldn’t just walk into someone’s house, couldn’t I?
But I really didn’t want to come back another time. Giving that necklace back would sit in my mind all day, until I could actually cross it off my list, and I was rather reluctant to have to even write it on a list.
I stepped back from the door and walked along the path that lead around the house. I could see into her kitchen windows from outside. Not something I should do, I knew but then something was definitely off here, and peeking into the windows was definitely better than just walking into her house.
The kitchen was rather dark form outside. It looked pretty old-fashioned but normal. Something was lying on the floor next to a small table in the middle of the room. Something big. Like a sleeping bag. Or a person.
Maybe Ms. Swinton was on her kitchen floor unable to get up again. Old people do fall all the time, don’t they? I decided that that was reason enough to enter the house. But why was the door open when she was in the kitchen? Maybe she had put something away and had planned to go out again right away, and hadn’t bothered to close the door.
She probably had already heard me with all the ringing of the bell. I strained listening, if she needed help she would call me, wouldn’t she? But then maybe she was unconscious.
I entered the dark foyer of her house. There was a staircase going up on the right, a door to the left that probably held a small bathroom, a coat rack and closet next to it, and then a hallway leading left. The kitchen must be going off that hallway. The first door couldn’t be the kitchen because there had been a frosted window right next to her front door.
I stepped in as softly as I could for some reason and called out, “Ms. Swinton? It’s me, Karen Cross. Is everything alright? I found something of yours.”
No answer. I followed the hallway and reached the kitchen door. The door was standing partway open. I went into the kitchen which smelled of dish soap and cake. Ms. Swinton still wasn’t saying anything.
“Ms. Swinton?” I walked over to her, and when I touched her arm she seemed oddly lifeless. A little cool to the touch but not cold. She lay slumped over on her side, and I couldn’t see her breathing. She must be unconscious. Her eyes were closed, she was not reacting to me in any way. I had never seen anybody lie that still. I felt for her pulse and couldn’t find any. This was not good. I listened for her breath, nothing. And she was a little too cold too.
I sat down on the floor hard. It seemed Ms. Swinton was dead and I was the one to find the body.
I really should have left that necklace alone. I should have called her on the phone. This was not what I had envisioned the day to be.