Stories

Prompt #9 - Creative scene by @wildone

You run into school knowing you are late, again. You quickly stop at your locker and ditch your jacket and grab some books. As usual the halls are quiet during classes. You dash to your classroom, open the door and start on your explanation and stop. No one is there. No teacher, no other students. You leave and look at other classrooms, all empty. You check your phone and it is actually a school day and not a holiday or anything else. What's happening?

My entry for the 2025 Poetry Anthology - Diversity! Quite possibly a topic we can all relate to.

Another episode from the files of Detective Gennaro Saggio. Things have been relatively quiet. Orono, Maine has once again returned to being a sleepy little town. Detective Saggio is working Memorial Day, not looking forward to investigating the excitement caused annually by drunks.

There was excitement, but not the kind he expected.

We meet Bob, a sixty year old gentleman. All alone after burying his partner of thirty-seven years.

Joshua has a huge crush on the school athlete, Scott.

Unable to attract Scott’s attention, Joshua finds a way to visit his idol’s house on afternoons when it is vacant. However, one afternoon he runs into the family’s cleaner, who mistakes him for Scott. A strange relationship develops between the two.

When he learns that Scott and his family are going on holidays, Joshua makes a plan to stay over in the house, but one night, while alone in the house he encounters an intruder.

Elisa Davis was a somewhat odd child. Her brother tagged her with the nickname Lis, and it stuck for the rest of her life. Her parents figured out her oddness at a fairly young age. They’d be looking for something - a wallet, watch, car keys, whatever - and sometimes Lis would bring them whatever it was they were looking for. Usually though, she just told them where it was.

I know you’re probably confused right now. That confusion gets resolved in a later (but not much) chapter.

This is book four in the series, 'The Life and Times of Avery Noonan.' It will focus on Madeline, although the rest of the family will make appearances.

To refresh your memories, Madeline was born in Philadelphia, PA in May of 2034. Madeline, or Mads as she was known from a fairly young age, also has an unusual ability. This ability was quite unique and dictated the direction of her career.

I had the general idea quite some time ago, needing another psychic ability, it seemed like a perfect time to make use of that old idea. Keep the tissues handy.

Dalton is a very bright young man, who gets to live overseas because of his parent's work and learn additional languages. After seven years of living in Singapore, Dalton and his parents and baby brother returned home to Australia, where they settled down to a reasonably normal life, that was until they made a trip to BC Canada, to visit Dalton's uncle Oliver and older Cousin Tyler, and life takes a dramatic turn...

We return to Orono, Maine, where Detective Gennaro Saggio makes another appearance. This time, the killer is even harder to track down than was Parker Toliver, she of ‘The Fascinator Murders.’

Detective Gennaro Saggio’s first email of the new year announces a murder. Curiously, it is signed OOOI. The victim was a suspected arsonist, found dead in an abandoned warehouse. A suicide note was present, but the victim was handcuffed in a closed and chained tanning bed. The victim had previously been arrested, tried, and acquitted of first-degree murder, and arson.

Apparently, someone didn’t believe he was innocent.

We join Conrad after the death of his partner of 42 years.