the river, he noted, had darkened.

i’m running a race! not really. anyone who knows me knows that i only run when chased. this, however is a literary relay.  the lovely Christine Zilka invited 10 bloggers to write 250 words (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction) on the theme “a stranger comes to town”. The first leg of the relay was gorgeously written by Wah-Ming Chang. Wah-Ming’s piece was so exquisite that i had a bit of page-fright. each person uses the last line of the previous writer as their first line. Here’s the link to Wah-Ming’s first leg:

Part One: Man and Ghost

i was endlessly inspired by my donated first line. i even have a soundtrack. i couldn’t get this song out of my head when i started writing. here’s my entry:

The river, he noted, had darkened. Or was it his imagination? It was hard to say in the tricky light of the full moon’s shadows. He felt like a fool. He had work, a fiancé and a life to return to in Brooklyn. He told easy, slippery lies about his extended stay in Mississippi after the funeral. He was desperate to leave, but desperate to stay–obsessed with a wild-haired woman named for the county he could not abandon. Alzada. Alzada. Alzada. From the moment he arrived, she was everywhere he was. Her spirit twined to his like smoke. After three weeks a local cousin sent him to a rootworker.

He followed the directives precisely. Wrote her name nine times in red ink on a torn paper, used a silver teaspoon from her kitchen to gather her footprint, mixed it up with hot foot powder and folded it into a packet that was to be his emancipation. The loud country silence swelled around him. Had the packet actually hit the water? He thought he heard his name and glanced back towards the gurgling river.  The old woman had been clear.  Walk away and do not look back. He had made it all the way to the crossroads of his freedom. Was this defeat or triumph? His heart did not care as he stumbled towards his lover’s house. His hand poised to knock, he saw her illuminated in the doorway, her face drenched with tears. I didn’t think you’d come.

next up is Stephanie Brown.

here is the entire relay team in order of appearance:

1. Wah-Ming Chang http://wmcisnowhere.wordpress.com/
2. Jamey Hatley http://jameyhatley.wordpress.com/
3. Stephanie Brown http://scififanatic.livejournal.com/
4. Andrew Whitacre http://fungibleconvictions.com/
5. Heather McDonald http://heathersalphabet.wordpress.com/
6. Christine Lee Zilka http://czilka.wordpress.com/
7. Jackson Bliss http://bluemosaicme.blogspot.com/
8. Jennifer Derilo (to be posted on http://czilka.wordpress.com/)
9. Alexander Chee http://koreanish.com/
10. Nova Ren Suma http://novaren.wordpress.com/