Wanton Step

10.27.2024

As much as I want to sit and write, I am equally drawn to Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew that I recently purchased (the original) as a nostalgic reflex based on my memory of confining myself to my grandmother’s sofa one blizzardy weekend circa 1985, mesmerized by Skeleton Crew’s first story, The Mist. I also remember my grandmother bringing me teacups filled with lemon and honey throughout the day, and a splash of cognac at night, to knock me out. I am curious to see what my twelve-year-old self found so captivating that weekend. I have my tea, honey, and lemon, but no cognac. Looks like I will be up for a while. Of course, I already devoured Stephen’s King’s newest short story collection, You Like It Darker, so it will be interesting to see how his writing evolved.

Finally, just by writing this little missive, I think I realize why I have created an entire short story around the odd incidents of my dog freaking out when she approaches the seventh step leading to my upstairs bedroom. My dog stops as if she banged into a wall, cries, turns around, runs downstairs, and then tries again. She stares at the stairs as if she is calculating a moment when she can safely pass, and then suddenly she makes a run for it, but with the same aforementioned result. She always tries three more times, but at the end of the final attempt, she whimpers and resorts to sleeping downstairs. However, last weekend the oddity of it all no longer annoyed me but haunted me (still does) and when something haunts me, I write. Either that, I might need to move…and here is where I take off with the scary fiction…Goodnight!