Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press

If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.

• Richard Bach

Footsteps are heard coming up the stairs to The Attic Investigative Agency.

Dana: Who is it this time?

Bast points to the doorway. Debbie Sangwell, babysitter for Dana’s six-year-old son and daughter of Dana’s best friend, Marge, stumbles in.

Dana (joking): Rough night?

Debbie trying to get her breath: No. Must be the stairs.

Bast: We have an elevator.

Debbie: Yeah, right. Didn’t see it. Oh, this place looks neat. I guess you are wondering why I’m here.

Dana: And where’s David?

Debbie: He’s with Mom. She took him to the park. I’m not feeling that good.

Dana: You coming down with something?

Debbie: Oh no. Just something I ate for breakfast. I’ll be okay. I just wanted to check on the arrangements for Friday evening.

Dana: The reception starts at 7.30 p.m. so you can come over maybe around 7 p.m. or earlier. Hey, why not come for supper?

Debbie staggering a bit. She grabs the back of a chair: Maybe. But 7 p.m. sounds good.

Bast jumping up from his chair: Here, Debbie sit down. I’ll get you a glass of water.

Bast exits the agency office.

Dana, swivelling her chair around until she is almost knee-to-knee with Debbie: You look awful. Your face is pale. You don’t look like you’ve seen a ghost; you look like you are the ghost.

Debbie: I said I’m okay. Just something I ate.

Dana: Okay, just concerned. Okay, back to Friday night. David will probably want to come up here to see all the guests but there will be adult stuff talked about and to tell the truth, some of our guests may be old school and not take kindly to having the son of one of the business owners around. If it were up to me, I’d let him come in at the beginning, introduce him to all, let him look around a bit and then go back downstairs.

Debbie: Got it. I will keep him busy on the second floor, mostly in his room. We have a pile of books to read and… are the Randalls next door coming?

Dana: No, why?

Debbie: Just thinking. Maybe I could take David there to see Mr. Randall and his big train set-up downstairs.

Dana: Hmm.

Debbie: Before his bedtime. I could come here at 6.30 p.m. and take him over.

Dana: Hmm. Well check with Mr. Randall first.

Bast returns with a glass of water which he hands to Debbie. She leans over to grab it and almost falls forward. Dana catches her arms and helps her sit up.

Dana: You really don’t seem well.

Debbie: I’m okay. Just something I ate. Think I’ll go home and rest up for Friday.

Debbie gulps down some water, hands the glass to Dana and manages to stand up without keeling over: See I’m fine. I’ll give you a call before Friday or drop over before.

Dana: Okay.

Bast: Take care.

Debbie: I will. I’m going to have a little nap when I get home.

Bast. I’ll take you to the elevator.

Debbie: No, stairs are fine.

Dana and Bast listen as she goes down the stairs. Her footsteps sound like they are going at normal speed. When they drift off from the second stairway down, Dana turns to Bast.

Dana: Something is up with that girl.

Bast: I agree. You better speak to Madge.

Dana: Will do.

Dana’s cell phone rings. She picks it up

Dana: Hello. What do you want?

Bast’s cell phone starts ringing and he picks it up.

Stay tuned for next week’s post.

Meantime check out my books. The book at the top of this blog post links to Amazon. Click on Sharon A Crawford for my profile.

For those of us with Kobo’s, here is that link for the e-pub version. http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/beyond-blood-1 And check out my updated web page at www.samcraw.com and click on Beyond Blood. Scroll down to Sharon A’s Gigs to see where I will be appearing with Beyond Blood.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford