Characters Welcome!
Remember how much fun you had when One Sister’s Rant partnered with Monica’s Tangled Web and asked you to join in creating a story, based on a photo of a cat on a bench?
Well, here we go again!
Sort of.
This time we’re giving you the premise for a story, one that, with your help, is sure to evolve into an excellent adventure.
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Ed Yourdon
Picture if you will: a high school reunion on the high seas.
It’s been 20 years and anything can happen.
Mayhem, merriment, mystery—even murder!
And, the best part of this story?
You.
Because, to make this story come alive, we are enlisting you.
We want you to create a character, a member of the class of 1992.
So read the beginning of the story below, and then, before you start giving life to your character, be sure to read the rules!
What?
You didn’t think there’d be rules?
Of course there are rules!
Otherwise, how else would we end up with a story that makes sense and flows?
More or less.
So, are you interested in making this story come alive?
Then, read on!
THE BACKSTORY:
Twenty years have passed since the Class of 1992 graduated from the Gene Kelly High School of Performing Arts.
Some went on to find work in the theater, while others took different paths.
Some moved away and others remained in the sleepy town of Mojito.
Some were housewives and others became business owners.
Some married their high school sweethearts, while others remained single.
Yet, the Class of 1992 had one thing in common—none had seen each other in 20 years.
But this is about to change, because for one long weekend, they will come together to celebrate their 20th class reunion on a cruise bound for Barbados.
Love, lust, envy, jealousy, and regret will surface during the next three days and before they reach port, one will turn up dead: Lupita Davenport, wife of Thurston Davenport, III, who, as heir to the Davenport Pickle Company, is also known as the Pickle King.
THE RULES:
1) You will create ONE fictional character and be in charge of said character through the development of the story. However, if you do not follow up, Monica and I reserve the right to eliminate the character in a crafty fashion. Your character is your creation. She/he can have any description, career, life that you want him/her to have.
2) You cannot write the story lines of other characters. However, the story lines will overlap as other readers introduce their characters. If you do not like the turn your character takes at any point in the story, we encourage you to steer him/her in a different direction. You may not kill off your character.
3) All characters must be fictional (preferably from your imagination), and should be a member of the Class of 1992. However, you can also create a character who is a teacher, custodian, or anyone else who is affiliated with the school. Children and pets are not allowed on board. Sorry!
4) Please read the entries before yours, so as to continue the story line and keep your character in context. If the story starts to ramble, Monica or I will step in to re-steer its course.
5) Your character can be any gender, race, or nationality. He/she can be straight, gay, or bisexual. Diversity is encouraged! However, our blogs are rated PG. Keep this in mind when writing your story lines.
Note: This post will run for three days and you can post as many entries as you wish. However, we ask that you limit your entry to one to three sentences at a time, so as to give others a chance to engage in the story.
Finally, at the end of the three days, Monica and I will determine the identity of the murderer, from among all the characters created.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to keep your character from being singled out as the murderer!
Oh, and we would love it if you participated in both stories!
If you choose to do so, you can either create a new character in each story or you can use the same character.
If you choose to use the same character, remember the story line will be different over at Monica’s blog.
Please be sure to read the preceding entries before diving in!
Time to create your character!
The high seas await!
THE STORY
Bloodcurdling screams pierced through the ballroom as music continued to play softly in the background. The maid, who had come to polish the crystal chandelier, continued to scream as she looked down on the macabre scene in front of her. Lying face down in a puddle of blood, was a beautiful woman with skin, the color of caramel, and raven black hair. Her ball gown, a designer label, was torn on one side. A streak of light made its way through a door that had been left ajar. The bright light shone directly on the gold-colored name tag pinned on the woman’s dress. It read, “Lupita Davenport.”
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
gypsyroxylee.wordpress.com 
Elphie Glinda Smith poked her head around the door frame. One hand was pressed to her heart, and the other clutched both a camera and a Mimosa. She eased her camera into the doorway, snapped a picture with the flash on, which briefly spotlighted the shocking scene, and took a sip of her drink.
Meanwhile in first class cabin 255, Thurston Davenport is packing his suitcase. He needs to get off this boat! And now.
Annie Drake is having second thoughts about having come on this cruise. She’s miserable with seasickness and sunburn, which makes her miss her hubby even more since they couldn’t afford tickets for both of them on the cruise. Curled up in the fetal position in her cabin she thinks this could not get any worse…
Lorie Abrams, Annie’s best friend all through high school stands over her, gently massaging her back. “I know you didn’t want to come, but let’s just make the best of this while we’re here, okay? Get up and come with me. Looks like you could use a glass of chardonnay. Guess who’s sitting at the bar right now, all by his lonesome…”
Midway through her pep talk, Lorie looks out the cabin’s porthole and notices the commotion taking place at the entrance of the ballroom. People seem to be grouped near the doorway and she spies one of the crew members waving his arms frantically at the growing crowd.
“I love you, Lorie,” Annie murmurs, grabbing her friend’s hand and kissing it. “You’re right. I’m going to pull myself together — What should we wear?”
Crew member Fred Bartholomew did his best to feign concern, while holding back the nausea he was feeling. He touched Lupita’s wrist and pronounced her dead, shouting to his mates, “Seal all the doors. No one is leaving until they are interviewed!”
Bella, this sounds like so much fun, but I can’t afford to play along right now. I’m up to my ears in a work-related project and feeling the crunch of time. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to play along the next time you and Monica dream up some fun!
Sherry Knowles was lying on the deck, meticulously maintaining the tan she had been working on for the past 20 years. Sipping a glass of red wine, Sherry vaguely head screams coming from behind her. But she couldn’t be bothered to find out what it was about, it was probably just some stupid reunion game.
Denise Diamond hustled along the corridor towards 225. Esmeralda Snodgrass, fat, spotty and hook-nosed had never had a chance with Thurston Davenport, but surely, all that lipsuction, dermabrasion, cosmetic dentistry and rhinoplasty was not for nothing? The tabloids thought it was for her fans, but in her heart, it had all been for Him; and she was not about to lose her last chance at happiness!
Reblogged this on Wine, Women & Wordplay and commented:
I’m playing along with this game! Come over and have a look!
Federico Alvarez Mendoza Santiago Perez, captain of the ship, looked down at the scene unfolding. What a bloody mess, he thought, as he tiredly ran a hand through his hair. For ten years he’d been captaining the Ruby Princess and never had there been an incident of this magnitude. Just as he was about to return to his office, he spotted the ravishing woman hurrying along the corridor. His eyes opened wide as he realized it was Denise Diamond, celebrity extraordinaire.
Carmen Calvados stood a little apart from the group gathered at the door of the ballroom. When she and Lupita set Thurston up twenty years ago, she’d called the dead woman friend. Looking at Lupita’s body lying in a pool of blood, she felt…nothing.
It was then that the coast guard arrived, and looking Captain Perez straight in the eye, demanded, “Take me to the body and gather all the witnesses!”
Carmen’s hand flew to her mouth to shut off his name. Raoul! Of course he had to be in charge of the investigation. How dumb to believe her luck had changed.
Elena, the ship’s nurse, drummed her fingers impatiently on the gurney. “There, there,” she told the hysterical maid, “take these. I’m afraid you’re in shock. These will help.” As the nurse handed the maid the pills, the door barged open.
Denise burst through the door, prepared to beg, if necessary. But she had the wrong room! Curse the vanity that made her leave her glasses behind! You’d think, after all that surgery, she would have had the laser work, but her eyes were her only natural beauty, the only part untouched; she couldnt give up the fantasy that he would look into her eyes, recognize her and say that he had always loved her. But this room contained not her lost love, but a cross-looking nurse forcing drugs down the throat of a half-dressed maid…
Susanna, red hair waving in the breeze, was only slightly inebriated as she made her way to the railing outside the ballroom. She positioned herself so that she could hear and not be seen. She noticed the pathetic Annie in her chair some distance away; she wasn’t in any condition to have noticed anything. The equally pathetic Lorie was distracted by Annie. No worries there.
It had all been so easy, really. The end of the Pickle Queen. The King was packing his bags, dry-eyed she was sure.
All she had to do was wait. And what would it take to get another gin and tonic with all this mayhem going on? Better to lie low…
As Annie Drake makes her way feebly through the maze of passageways looking for the ship’s nurse, she is concerned and confused by all the commotion. She tries to keep a low profile since she doesn’t really want her classmates to see her like this. As she strains to hear or see something to make sense of it all, she is practically bowled over by the ravishing Denise Diamond rushing by. “Hmmmmfff!” Annie fumes. “She was a b*#@% when she was ugly and she’s a bigger one now!”
“OMG! Check out that outfit! Have you ever? That Denise Diamond never did have class, did she? Imagine us wearing something so gaudy! Remember the old nickname everybody called her? Desperate Denise. Always needing to make a fashion statement.
Finally, Sherry decided to get up from her perch. She was hungry and was in desperate need of some french fries. As she approached the dining room she realized there was no way to get in. Her stupid classmates were blocking the door! But wait… there was a police looking fellow in there. What was going on? She began to back away slowly when Denise plowed into her. Sherry turned to see Denise looked like a crazed rhino. She wasn’t surprised, that’s how Denise always looked to her, even in the movies. She quickly regained her composure and said, “Do you know what’s going on in there? I’m starving.” Denise screamed “I don’t know, you bitch! All I know is that my chance at true love is gone forever!”
Annie’s head is swirling. It’s all too much and she rushes to the deck for air. Her whole body starts to heave and she covers her mouth with both hands as she makes a mad dash for the railing, but doesn’t quite make it…”No, no, no!! Oh my God!” is her last thought as she vomits at Susanna’s feet…
Falling to her knees Annie tries to focus through the bur. What’s this? Is that blood she sees on the fiery red-head’s Jimmy Choos?
The nurse, irritated and disgusted with the sniveling maid, steps out on the deck for a breath of fresh air. She slowly takes out a cigarette hidden in her bra and curses as she realizes she has left the matches in the office. As she turns to go back, she sees two women pulling each each others hair, screaming obscenities. She hears one of them shout, “You fat cow! Did you just hurl on my shoes?”
Annie’s head jerks back hard as the drunk and outraged Susanna grabs a handful of her brunette bob, screaming obscenities. The scene resembles a bizarre take on the cat-fight brawl which always simmered beneath the surface, but never quite materialized, between Ginger and Maryann on Gilligan’s Island.
As Susanna lifts one glittery gold-wedged foot to plant in Annie’s side, the girl-next-door unexpectedly grabs it, pulls, and twists, laying out the ferocious femme fatale and removing her shoe at the same time.
Meanwhile, Lupita remains dead, lying on a block of ice in the dining room. A tablecloth covering her. Who could have done such a thing? A woman loved by all. A mother…hard worker…who performed a mean rumba. As Lupita leaves her body and zooms toward the bright lights and pearly gates, she screams “I’m not ready!”
Sherri-Lyn Pye held her nose, trying desperately not to sneeze. Then she heard Raoul’s voice. She shrank back further under the table, curling her reed-straight body into a ball. ‘Please. Please don’t let him see me,’ she prayed.
“Carmen! Why didn’t you return my calls?” She stopped toe-to-toe with her lover. Ex-lover.
“”I saw you, Raoul. Last week with Sherri and Lupita at the Tropicana. Did you think I wouldn’t find out? How long have you been seeing them? Are you into threesomes now?”
“Carmen, it’s not what you think. I…”
“Raoul!” The deep, booming voice of Captain Alvarez Mendoza Santiago Perez sliced through the tension filled room like a knife! “I’ve got two women engaged in a cat fight on the Lido deck, another snapping pictures and spilling her drink everywhere, Bartholomew fighting off the crowd singlehandedly, and the dead woman on ice in the dining room. What the hell are you waiting for?”
Annie rushed into the room clutching Susanna’s gold-spangled, ‘blood-spattered’ shoe. “Look!” she exclaimed, out of breath.
Everyone looks at her like she’s interrupting something important.
“What could be more important than this?” she wonders. She starts to think she might be in one of those scenarios she’s seen in movies where you don’t know who to trust. She doesn’t know who to trust.
Where’s Lorie??? She needs to find her friend…
Denise ploughed on, unaware of anything but the burning in her heart (unless that was indigestion; she really had to stop having oysters and gin for dinner). Unseeing, she smacked into the back of the Captain, interrupting his bellowing at Raoul. As he turned and grabbed her, she felt a jolt that had nothing to do with his rough handling… Lupita, having done a neat about-face with pike at the peartly gates, had found a new body in which to extend her time on earth.
Denise/Lupita’s hand flew to clutch the flashy crucifix that hung above her surgically enhanced breasts. Her thumb circled the centre of the cross while her glazed expression danced across the faces in front of her. Carmen knew that gesture so well. It was Lupe’s signature move. Their eyes met.
Well, dammit, where did the sniveling Annie come from? Susanna pushed herself up slowly. Annie never had any guts years ago, so why is she so combative now? Despite the bump on her head and resulting grogginess, Susanna realized that she was wearing the only piece of evidence that would tie her to the messy Jimmy Choo Annie had helped herself to. What the hell. She reached down, took off the other one, and pitched it into the sea.
Let Annie try to prove whose shoe she had taken…
Sherry was reeling from her encounter with Denise. “What the hell just happened!?” she thought to herself. As she peered into the dining room windows she saw a body underneath a tablecloth. Who was that!? There was still blood on the floor and Sherry noticed that a foot was sticking out. The perfectly manicured toes and star ankle bracelet gave it away. It was Lupita! How could she possible be dead? She had been lying with Sherry just two hours ago as Lupita discussed leaving her husband. Could he have known?
Finally, the hunger and the endless glasses of red wine took over Sherry’s digestive system and she ran to the edge of the ship to empty the contents of her stomach. This just couldn’t be happening!
Raoul felt his impatience growing. Who did Captain Federico Alvarez Mendoza Santiago Perez, aka McSexy of the Seas, think he was to talk to him in such a fashion? The nerve of the stupid Spaniard! Straightening his shirt collar, Raoul made his way to the Lido deck but was intercepted by the camera toting woman.
“Madam, what is your name?” The woman took a sip of her drink before replying, “Elphie. Elphie Glinda Smith and who might you be?”
“That, madam, is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you are not allowed to photograph what might be a possible crime scene.”
“Possible crime scene,” Elphie replied, “You’ve got a dead woman bleeding out on the ballroom floor, for the love of Pete! And look! This photo shows someone fleeing the crime scene!”
As Raoul peered at the camera’s screen, he saw a human shape holding what appeared to be a bloody candlestick.
Susanna turned back from the railing, wiping a hand across her mouth, and met Carmen’s startled gaze through the window of the lounge. Carmen stepped back and made for the corner bar. Why had Susanna thrown her Jimmy Choo overboard. The woman would kill for those shoes…unless… Oh my God! Forget the drink. Where was Raoul? Bounding through the swing doors, she ran smack into Susanna.
Held firmly in the arms of Captain McSexy, Denise was discovering a whole new level of meaning to ‘internal struggle’. Her quest for Thurston was still there, but now, it seemed she would have to fight for her own body first. Lupita had claimed it and seemed determined to make the most of it, as, against what was left of Denise’s better judgement, she enthusiastally pressed Denise’s enhanced attributes against the Captain’s frogged and braided front.
Sherri-Lyn peered out from under the table. The white-draped figure of Lupita remained where it had fallen. Sherri-Lyn shivered. Why had she done it?
Elena, relieved that the maid had finally passed out from the sedative she’d been given, rushed to find Lola, the zumba instructor. It was way past their coffee break and she was already starting to feel the caffeine withdrawal. Just as she was about to enter the fitness room, she saw a woman crouched under a table.
As Elena came closer, she heard the woman say, “Why did she do it?”
Following the woman’s gaze, Elena stopped dead in her tracks.
Her nana had always told her she had “the gift,” but she had never believed her.
“Child,” her nana had told her, “you can see dead people, only most of the time, they ain’t as dead as they seem. Their bodies might be gone, but if they meet an untimely death, their spirit wanders, looking for a new body; a live body, one they think might help them finish what they have left to do.”
The rustling of the tablecloth brought Elena out of her reverie. She heard the woman under the table say, “Did you see her go into the body of that movie star woman? How did she do that? Why did she do it?”
Elena could only stare at the starlet Denise Diamond whose body had now been possessed by Lupita Davenport.
“My God, what is your problem?” Susanna snapped at Carmen. Carmen gave Susanna a knowing look and then stared pointedly at Susanna’s bare feet and exquisite pedicure. “Like the color? It’s called Bloody Well Done, in case you decide to visit the salon. I’d be shod except that idiot Annie threw up dinner and a bottle of red wine on the other one.” Susanna stared pointedly at Annie, leaning against the passage wall holding the befouled shoe. Susanna’s eyes swiveled back to Carmen. “Can I interest you in one Jimmy Choo with vomit on it?”
The captain pulled away from Denise, no, Lupita, and said, “Excuse me, but I have work to do. This reunion is over and we’re changing directions immediately and headed back to shore.” Just as he said that, the ship hit rock and ran aground. A look of dismay came over the captain’s face as he added, “Oh dear. I believe we’re sinking. All hands on deck!”
“No! I can’t die here! Not yet! I have things to do!” Denise wasn’t sure whether it was her words or Lupita’s coming out of her mouth, but she had to agree. Her darling Thurston was free, finally and now… hang on. If Lupita was possessing her, and she finally got her hands on Thurston, that would mean… that would mean Lupita had won AGAIN! No! She couldn’t let that happen! That wretched Lupita had never been worthy of Him. Denise would be damned before she let her use her self-made body to get him after death. She’d get her out of her body if it was the last thing she did…
Susanna really thought she had fixed the problem. No longer was she in debt to Denise for that professional leg-up Denise had given her years ago. Now here they were, stuck on a rock. All because the captain couldn’t unglue himself from Denise and do his job. And what was Denise thinking? Couldn’t she see that indulging the captain needed to wait?
Raoul watched with disbelief as he saw the two women jump off the boat and swim toward a protruding rock. Captain Federico Alvarez Mendoza Santiago Perez was a worthless sea captain; all looks and no brains. Passengers scurried everywhere at the announcement of the sinking ship. Crew members struggled to pacify the crowd as they prepared to launch the emergency dingies. Raoul kept a close watch on all the passengers. One of them was the killer and from the photo from Elphie’s camera, he had an idea who the culprit was. Suddenly, the sharp shrill of a whistle interrupted the chaos. Lola, the zumba instructor screamed as she pointed out to sea. “Thurston Davenport is getting away!” Everyone stood frozen as they witnessed a flustered Thurston aboard one of the dingies, in the company of someone dressed in head to toe black.
Annie feels her heart sinking along with the luxury ocean liner. The only two people in the world she trusts at the moment are her husband, Michael, and the long lost Lorie. Luckily Michael, a survival fanatic, had supplied her ahead of time with emergency information on how to phone him from out at sea, just in case…
Michael instructs her firmly to stay away from the other passengers, since there’s no way to know who to trust. His commanding voice and attitude calms her down slightly as he talks her through the process of creating a personal flotation device by removing her pants, knotting them at the ends and waving them in the air above her head so they fill with air. Then, he tells her to push the waist end under the water which traps the air inside and creates a flotation device she can hang onto.
Finally, he tells his wife to lay low and hang on because he ‘knows people’ from his years in the service and he’s sending help…
Annie quickly wraps her ‘evidence’ and her cell phone in a random plastic bag, stuffing it into her waterproof hip pack, she tugs modestly at her pink panties and enters the water, trying to be brave.
Carmen rushed to Raoul’s side. “I know who killed her! It was–” Raoul clamped his mouth over hers. He couldn’t afford to let her say anything out here where everyone could hear. Somewhere in that attempt to shut her up, the kiss changed. He groaned. “God, I’ve missed you.” He lowered his mouth again, pulling her hard against his body. Something hit them hard and together they tumbled into the churning water.
Denise’s hand flew to her mouth at the sight of the faithless Thurston fleeing, without her and with some other… person? It wasn’t even clear it was a woman. Her other hand landed with a slap on top of the first. Was that why all the surgery had had no effect on him?
Inside her though, someone else seemed even more outraged. Denise felt a burbling inside her, as though her vital organs were boiling, like shrimp in a pot, then, with a bellow, Lupita left her and shot like an arrow towards Thurston’s boat, trailing glittering sparks behind her.
Left alone in her body, alone in every way, Denise, ever aware of an audience, chose a smooth spot on the rock and fainted.
Captain Federico Alvarez Mendoza Santiago Perez saw Denise Diamond faint and land with a thud on one of the rocks. Realizing he’d have to jump in and wet his newly gelled hair, he cursed her to hell and back. Nevertheless, the last thing he needed to add to this wretched voyage was another death.
In the meantime, Raoul struggled to keep Carmen afloat. She was floundering so much, he was afraid he’d have to knock her out or they’d both drown. Searching for something that could act as a flotation device, he let out an expletive as he realized Elphie’s camera was still in his pocket. The evidence of who the killer was, destroyed by the sea water.
Susanna had had enough. Time to let the hapless Denise take care of herself; if she didn’t have the sense to take care of herself… well, there wasn’t anything Susanna could do about it.
Susanna could take care of herself. Back in her stateroom, she changed into a head-to-toe black thermal swimsuit. Cruise ships made her nervous; too many of them met with strange ends.
Susanna slipped into the water, her black suit making her almost invisible…
During all the chaos, Enrique Perez laughed as he made his way to his cabin and muttered, “Maldita mujer! These bastards better not even think about questioning me. I’ve got a mother of a headache from those damn tequila shots and I’m tired of being blamed every time something goes wrong. Maldita!”
Holding Carmen in a well rehearsed lifesaver’s grip, Raoul side stroked toward the rock where two women clung.
“Thurston got away. He roared right past us.”
“Yeah, the killer escaping from the crime scene.”
“I don’t think so,” said Raoul, settling his body protectively around Carmen.
“Photographic evidence from Elphie’s camera proves it was a female at the scene. Thurston’s off that particular hook.”
“You’ve got proof?” A mad light lit the woman’s eyes. Raoul considered the lanky wet hair hanging in rat’s tails around her face, mentally lightening it. Was she the woman in the photo?
Just then, Raoul remembered the camera was water-proof! How could he be so stupid as to think the evidence was destroyed? Of course, Elphie, always the practical one, bought herself a waterproof camera, seeing how she’d be going on a cruise! Yes, now he could confront Carmen and make her sing like a canary. Or, at least, confess. Soon all would be resolved!
The captain, meanwhile, seeing the last of his ship sink into the ocean, crossed his fingers in the hopes that all had managed to escape before the ship slipped into the ocean. This is worst than the Concordia, he thought. I wonder if the cruise line will let me keep my pension. In any case, shaking his fist at the survivors of the high school reunion, he swore he’d never allow the Gene Kelly High School for the Performing Arts to hold another reunion on this cruise line. As far as he was concerned, the whole lot of them were bad news. To think, when Lupita Davenport had first embarked on the ship, he found himself smitten! Well, look where that got him. Bubkis.
Thurston steered the dingy into the harbor. Movement in the black body bag indicated that the person inside was coming to. He hadn’t wanted to kidnap the maid, but she was the only one who had seen the killer. He had watched enough CSI shows to know that the husband was always the prime suspect. The maid was the only one who could testify that he wasn’t the killer. After all, she saw him come into the ballroom as the killer exited the backstage door. Thurston wiped the sweat from his brow and reassured the maid that everything was going to be okay. Anchoring the dingy, he shouted out to a fisherman. “Help! We need help! There’s a killer out in the ocean and we know who it is!”
Did Thurston really know who the killer was or was he covering his own tracks? Meanwhile Enrique Perez was wondering what was in Elphie’s camera that might incriminate him. He had nothing to hide, the only reason he was seen leaving Lupita’s stateroom was because she wanted to borrow his Manolo shoes. Who was on the picture, a woman or a man dressed as a woman? Enrique began to panic. Let’s face it in every movie the pinned everything on the Latin homosexual, the town hussy and kill off the African American, these clichés are killing me, he thought.
The siren of the Coast Guard alerted the passengers that help was on the way. Captain Federico Alvarez Mendoza Santiago Perez, still bearing the weight of Denise Diamond, gasped for air.
Enrique Perez looked at the fainted woman and thought, “Maldita! Why does she get to be embraced by the hunk?
Raoul whispered to Carmen, “Don’t say a word!”
Annie squealed as she saw Lorie drift by on a fun noodle.
Sherry winked at one of the members of the Coast Guard and asked, “By any chance, do you have any sun tan oil?
Sherrie-Lynn covered her face so Raoul wouldn’t see her.
Elphie demanded, “When am I getting my camera back?”
Elena, the nurse, looked around and wondered if the maid had drowned.
Susanna, in her head-to-toe black thermal swimsuit, remained camouflaged by the dark, murky water.
Back on the dock, Thurston and the maid spoke to the investigating officer for the Coast Guard.
As Lupita heard the maid identify her killer, she exhaled.
Doing an about face, she walked toward the light.
Thanks so much for inviting me to participate in your story, it was such a busy week I just didn’t have time, but please keep inviting me! Thanks!!! Lisa
Lisa, we missed you! But of course I understand. Rain check? :)