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10.4.14

MOONRISE - Friday Fiction

MOONRISE

The people carried their Virgen in solemn procession through the isolated mountain village, the priest celebrated Mass, and then it was fiesta time. An enthusiastic band played, smiling adults wove the formal sequences of centuries-old dances, and joyful children shrieked and played.

Later, Consuela presided over vast pans of paella, Jorge distributed liberal quantities of vino, and the mayor lit fireworks. They partied feverishly until moonrise, when suddenly there was nothing but silence.


The solitary hiker hoping for beer and tapas found only ghost-haunted streets, a pan rusted to holes, and bunting draped like icicles over a frozen plaza.


This second picture is the photo prompt from Rochelle's blog -http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/
where you will find a link to more 100-word stories


26 comments:

  1. Oof...creepy...

    At first I thought a volcano went off and incinerated everything, but you said "frozen plaza" which makes me wonder....was this a celebration to keep certain gods happy and it didn't work out?

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  2. You could be right, TCR - one can't always explain ghosts!

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  3. Very atmospheric. I liked this.

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  4. Great contrast between the festivities at the start and the scene through the hiker's eyes

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    1. thanks Siobhan - I hope the hiker had his own supplies to get him home!

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  5. Celebrations in a ghost town maybe. What a wonderful slice of life you captured, I find myself hankering for some paella now :-)

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    1. Real paella cooked in the open - you can't beat it!

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  6. Nice contrast between the happy build-up and the abrupt ending. I like that you ended it the way you did, rather than just having them be gone. I've got a yen of paella now, too.

    janet

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  7. Thank you Janet - can you imagine being that lone hiker?

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  8. Dear Lizy,

    This has a delightfully hollow ring to it. Great contrasts.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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    1. Thanks Rochelle - that bunting and the empty streets made the story for me!

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  9. I almost thought that they had celebrated so hard that the village was just sleeping... But it could have been ghosts as well. Coming to deserted villages has happened to me as well.

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    1. Eerie feeling, isn't it? Even just a ruined house has a similar effect.

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  10. It's the ultimate in ghost towns. Cool.

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  11. I'm wondering what would have happened if the lone hiker had arrived before moon-rise. Would he have disappeared along with them? It's probably a good thing he came in the daylight. Good ghost story. Well written.

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    1. Ooh - possibilities abound! Thanks PSJoshi.

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  12. A bit of a nightmare for the traveller. Or a time warp. Whatever, great bit of spookiness.

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    1. Cheers Patrick. I think I imagined a time-warp when I wrote it, but I can't remember now! Time has faded the memory.

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  13. How scary!Loved the haunted festivities idea -good for the traveler that he missed them by a whisker ;-) A cool story :-)

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    1. Thank you Atreyee - the hiker was lucky, wasn't he.

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  14. Liz, I'm trying to leave a compliment on your story, but it won't publish. I'll try this 2 more times, if it doesn't publish - I give up - but your story is GOOD! Nan :)

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    1. Thank you for persevering, Nan - you made it eventually!

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  15. Well done! I definitely felt the ghosts.

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    1. Thank you, Anon - perhaps next time you visit you'll leave your name so I can thank you properly?

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