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14.8.14

ONLY AT WEEKENDS - 100 word fiction

ONLY  AT  WEEKENDS

Eustace was a mild-mannered minister whom everyone liked. His elderly parishioners looked forward to his visits and the school-children enjoyed his slide-show talks, but at weekends he became a different man.

On Saturdays he locked his study, sat at the desk he had inherited from a long line of fire-and-brimstone preachers, and wrote furiously. His congregation cringed when he stormed into the pulpit on Sundays and scoured their souls of hidden sins with his sermons.

Afterwards they filed out of church in subdued awe, asking Eustace what inspired such eloquence, but he wasn’t ready to confess to being a ghost-writer.

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Thanks once again to Rochelle  http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/  for this week's Friday Fictioneers' photo prompt.
This picture immediately made me think of my father - he used to write his sermons at a similar desk, although Pa needed no ghosts to inspire his sermons. 
If you follow the link on Rochelle's blog you can read what the photograph meant to other writers.


33 comments:

  1. Is there no bottom to your well of ideas, Liz?

    I love the way you write!

    Helen

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    1. Thank you, Helen, and I hope the well won't run dry while my writing hand still works!

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  2. That desk would inspire some very serious works, I imagine!

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    1. It looks awfully battered, though - if it was mine I'd give it some TLC.

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  3. Is this post a confession? :-)

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  4. Hmmm, must find a desk like that. It has all sorts of possibilities!

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    1. All those drawers without handles must hide some secrets.

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  5. Ah.. the brimstone of the past preachers talking.. a little bit Jekyll and Hide here..

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    1. Could be = that hadn't occurred to me. I was thinking more of actual hauntings.

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  6. Voices from the past scouring sin from today's souls. I loved the name Eustace--a perfect fit for this story.

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  7. Thank you Russell - it's a grand name, isn't it?

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  8. Dear Liz,

    A ghost writer? Would that be a Holy Ghost writer? ;) Nicely done.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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  9. :D Nice one, Rochelle - that hadn't occurred to me!

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  10. "scoured their souls" I can hear him ranting and raving! Kudos,

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    1. So can I Alicia - thanks for commenting on that phrase.

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  11. I like Rochelle's comment of the "Holy Ghost" writer.
    Good story.
    Maybe we all are a little different people on Sabbaths.

    Randy

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    1. Some of us go to church, others have a big breakfast!

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  12. 'scouring' sins sounds so ... well... painful. Nicely done.

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    1. Perhaps pain is the only way to cleanse a soul?

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  13. love where you took this... i can almost envision Eustace writing furiously on the desk. i'd love to own an antique desk. just imagine all the secrets that it had heard and witnessed over the years! :)

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    1. I hope one day to inherit my father's desk - it's still there in Mum's flat, waiting!

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  14. Loved this! It was a great fascinating read. I now have this vision unfolding in my head - which is good thing --- and that line "ghost writer" ---- brilliantly woven in!

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    1. Thanks Pat - that line was a happy afterthought - ~I so nearly wrote something else!

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    2. Sometimes things just work themselves out - in ways unexpected :)

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  15. Must be a very spirited Ghost writer. Nicely done.

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  16. I picture said ghost rider in a long tailed coat, a bible under his arm, standing on a cliff in the desert, the blazing sun setting behind him. Not bad for 100 words. Thanks for the image.

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    1. With a Western tune playing in the background? Except he's a ghost WRITER - but who am I to deny you your own interpretation? :~)

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  17. Dear Lizy, Absolutely perfect and I love the name Eustace! Where do you come up with your ideas? Brilliant, just brilliant! I love Rochelle's Holy Ghost Writer note too. You are very interesting and such a talented author! Nan

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    1. Thanks Nan - I knew his name had to be old-fashioned and my late mother-in-law's crossword solver's book has scores of useful names!

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  18. Liz, I bet no one fell asleep during his sermons. I think we need a little more of that. There are too many boring speakers. Humorous and well written. :) ---Susan

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    1. They wouldn't dare, would they? My own father's sermons were a hard act to follow.

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