tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63025651218521734762024-03-13T23:35:51.024-05:00Caroline E Willisdirtycarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414721562876577708noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6302565121852173476.post-13181788919509331462011-10-21T17:06:00.000-05:002011-11-18T15:54:29.739-06:00Looking for a Writer?Hi! I'm a writer with experience in technical writing, instructional design, journalism, creative writing, and blogging. If you'd like to know more, please, look around!dirtycarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414721562876577708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6302565121852173476.post-61436122334604664212011-08-02T16:01:00.000-05:002011-11-21T16:05:55.169-06:00The Green, First 1000 Words“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked Chloe for the hundredth time.<br />
<br />
She rolled her eyes. “Emily,” she whined, stretching the vowels. “You’re totally gonna get us caught.”<br />
<br />
I shook my head. “I’m just nervous because I don’t know the rules out here. I did this all the time at home,” I lied.<br />
<br />
I flipped the fake ID over in my hands. The photo was a girl who looked vaguely like me but with curly hair; her first name was even Emily. I wondered how Chloe had gotten them so quickly. I didn’t ask, because I didn’t want to look stupid. I wanted college to be different from high school. I wanted to be the sort of person who knew how to drink and make friends and get fake IDs.<br />
<br />
I slipped it into my purse. My real ID was back at my car, along with my guts, apparently. I looked up at the marquee over the Student Union Cinema; last summer’s horror flick was playing. “We could go after the movie,” I suggested hopefully.<br />
<br />
She snorted. “Sure, along with the fifty other kids from our orientation group. That won’t look suspicious at all. Look, are you coming or not?”<br />
<br />
She crossed her arms and waited for me to decide. The dying sun was behind her, so all I could really see of her face were her bright, annoyed eyes.<br />
<br />
“Alright,” I sighed.<br />
<br />
“Jeez, it’s not like I’m twisting your arm. Give me the ID and go watch your stupid movie.” She grabbed at my purse, but I pulled back.<br />
<br />
“I’m serious, okay! It’s just been a long day. Believe me, I need a beer.”<br />
<br />
She gave me a long look. I’d never had beer, but it was what people said, when they’d had long days, so I said it. I’d only ever had grape-flavored vodka at Bobby D’s graduation party, a month before, and it had tasted a lot like cough syrup. I hoped beer tasted better than that.<br />
<br />
“Come on, then,” she said.<br />
<br />
Chloe picked leaves off of a line of young maple trees as we walked to Malloy Hall. At orientation they told us that Malloy Hall was named after one of the founders of the university, and that it was the highest point on campus; more importantly, its archway was the quickest way out into the city. We went through the arch and its stone lions, and I rubbed their noses for luck when Chloe wasn’t looking. On this side of the arch, the trees were huge, ancient oaks that grew in loose clusters of twos and threes, as if gossiping. They looked odd against the buzzing lights of the city.<br />
<br />
“What was that?” Chloe asked.<br />
<br />
“I didn’t see anything.”<br />
<br />
“It was probably some guy going to piss behind a tree.” She shook her head and started down the steps. She stopped so suddenly that I ran into her. “There he is again!”<br />
<br />
I looked up, but whoever it was had gone. Chloe crossed her arms and scowled.<br />
<br />
“What a creeper. I think it’s a girl.”<br />
<br />
“Yeah?”<br />
<br />
“Whatever.” She started stomping down the steps. I tried to catch up with her and tripped. I bumped and slid down to the sidewalk, where I landed in a heap on top of my bag. Chloe was waiting for me at the bottom, slouching and listless.<br />
<br />
I looked up and realized my mistake. Chloe had smallish hazel eyes; the girl staring down at me had huge eyes and they were so dilated you couldn’t tell what color they were. They were just big, black orbs. That didn’t blink.<br />
<br />
I swallowed.<br />
<br />
“What is the hold up?” Chloe yelled from the road.<br />
<br />
I looked back to the girl. She flinched. I grabbed my bag and stood up. She stared at me and took a breath, like she wanted to speak. I glanced away to see if Chloe was still waiting; when I looked back, Chloe’s double was gone. I laughed, but it sounded nervous and lame, even to me.<br />
<br />
“I think that girl was on drugs,” I said, when I finally caught Chloe at the intersection. “She was dressed like you.”<br />
<br />
Chloe shrugged without uncrossing her arms. “Whatever. You have to ignore people like that. They’re just trying to get attention.”<br />
<br />
I nodded. “Oh, yeah.” I didn’t know what she meant, exactly, but it sounded right. I glanced over my shoulder, but then we had the light and we had to run and the girl was still gone, so I made up my mind not to worry about it.<br />
<br />
We walked the rest of the way in silence, me struggling to keep up with Chloe’s open stride. I caught glimpses of things, bums in suits and cars painted like houses and stern, angry bicyclists; all absent from the list of things my mother told me to fear about the city. I was surprised by how much light there was in the growing darkness; an orange streetlight reflecting off broken glass in the sidewalk made me think of walking on stars.<br />
<br />
Chloe stopped at the corner to examine the street names. We were by a fountain with a sculpture of woman covered in vines; I waved at the sculpture, and Chloe snorted.<br />
<br />
“It’s this way, space case.”<br />
<br />
We turned left, walked past an indie cinema, and arrived.<br />
<br />
“The Green,” Chloe read aloud. Its windows were a tangle of green neon tubes. “Supposedly, if you get drunk enough you can see a face in all that.”<br />
<br />
I shrugged. She shrugged. We went in.dirtycarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414721562876577708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6302565121852173476.post-32694342788117241462011-08-01T15:54:00.000-05:002011-11-21T15:58:04.762-06:00Dragon Baine, First 1000 WordsKalli was damned uncomfortable.<br />
<br />
The carriage was stifling. She’d crossed the desert before she could walk, and yet this green country could choke her with one badly made carriage. “I don’t understand, Fareed. Why would anyone build a carriage this way?”<br />
<br />
Fareed was as calm as ever. “They enclose their carriages to keep out the rains that so often come, and the cold in the winter. Some have a second, open carriage for summer, but it is considered a luxury. It is possible the Academy does not own any.” Kalli exchanged a look with Fareed’s baine, a coyote named Janan. Janan was lying on the floor, panting with the sticky heat.<br />
<br />
Far above the carriage, Kalong sensed his human’s mood. *I don’t know what you are complaining about, Kalli. The air here is wonderful.*<br />
<br />
*This from the baine who can shoot fire out his mouth. And you’re flying, you fool.* Kalli flexed her whiskers, hoping to sense a break in the weather, but the stagnant air of the carriage prevented her from feeling much of anything. *Kalong, tell me this moisture will be gone soon?*<br />
<br />
*Sorry, I don’t have much practice reading the weather this far north. It feels stable, though.*<br />
<br />
“We have arrived, Kalli.”<br />
<br />
Suddenly it was hard to breathe. “Fareed-” The stately older man smiled.<br />
<br />
“It’s just another journey, flameling. You’ve been living among your mother’s people your whole life, partially because of your father’s love and respect for her memory. Give your father’s people a chance.” He kissed her gently on the brow. “We will miss you, and you will make us proud.”<br />
<br />
Kalli stared at him, eyes wide to stop the tears. It had finally caught up with her; she was leaving everyone. Her distant father; Fareed, her uncle by honor if not by blood; all the aunts and cousins they visited along the trade routes. And the worst of it was that she didn’t understand what she was leaving it for. She clenched her fists.<br />
<br />
Fareed watched her reach the edge, and pull back. He’d watched over Kalli since birth, when her father was nearly comatose with her mother’s death. It was a pleasure to see the woman she had become, to see her draw on that inner strength and calm her temper. He knew she didn’t accept their reasons for sending her away, and even as he kept the secret, he admired both her intuition and her control. It would keep her alive, if it came to that.<br />
<br />
Kalli glanced out the carriage window and saw a page waiting. “I’ll miss everyone, Fareed, but I’ll miss you and Janan the most.” She smiled, and if it was not quite a happy smile, it was at least not shameful tears. Kalong spoke to the driver’s sparrow baine, who spoke to the driver, and he stepped down to open the carriage door.<br />
<br />
She turned and met Fareed’s eyes one last time, then stepped out of the carriage. When she looked up, she was startled to see Kalong chasing the page around the courtyard, galloping like a puppy.<br />
<br />
“Kalong!” He turned to look at her and ran straight into a wall. Kalli couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry, he looked so awkward.<br />
<br />
“It’s all right miss!” The page peeked out from behind a bust of some dignified old man, a small red eyed frog perched on his shoulders. “He told Moll here it would make you feel better!” He blinked, once normally and once with what Kalli guessed were frog eyelids. Kalli just shook her head.<br />
<br />
“If you would be so kind, Kalong, I believe we need to meet the Dean?” Kalli glanced behind her, grinning, but the carriage was gone. Suddenly Kalong was beside her, a glowing red presence at the edge of her vision.<br />
<br />
*Let’s not be late, then,* he said, cheeky as ever. <br />
<br />
Lord Rupert, Dean of Studies at the Royal Academy of the Kingdom of Erne, was annoyed. He’d misplaced the letter recommending his newest student to the Academy, and while he did not strictly need it for this introduction, Lord Rupert never misplaced things. He liked things to be organized, and organization did not lead to truant letters. He’d already checked his office exactly three times while his baine watched in silence. Nothing seemed out of place, but the letter was unmistakably gone. He sighed and fingered the hem of his perfectly pressed robe. A brash knock at the door announced the return of Paul, the most rambunctious of the Academy’s pages.<br />
<br />
“Lord Rupert, Dean of Studies, and crane Shella, may I present Miss Kalli of Aeson, and the dragon Kalong!” he announced with pride. Kalli curtsied.<br />
<br />
“Yes, thank you Paul. Please, do be seated, miss.” Kalli sat slowly, a little uncertain in the full skirts of her northern style dress. Kalong sat beside her, looking like a footman at attention, or a particularly well trained dog. Kalli stifled a smile and kept her face properly demure.<br />
<br />
Lord Rupert was somewhat surprised at her appearance. He’d studied the customs of Aeson, and had fully expected her to be wearing the embarrassingly revealing feminine garb of that country. Instead she wore a green satin gown with traces of golden vines embroidered around the hems, something any court beauty would be proud to own.<br />
<br />
“I see your father has prepared you for life in his native country?”<br />
<br />
Kalli bristled at his tone. “As much as a humble merchant might, my Lord.”<br />
<br />
The Dean dismissed that with a wave of his hand. “While certain niceties of class are observed at the Academy, we pride ourselves on admitting the most talented students of any origin. However, that has not previously included foreigners. I must admit, I’m a little uncertain just what to do with you.dirtycarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414721562876577708noreply@blogger.com