https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DP2ZCDQ1

My Dried Bones story in this anthology of slightly spooky stories! CW

I shuffle the cards,

and gaze at the stars.

Jupiter is next to the

moon, they say,

Saturn and Antares are

on the way.

But, twinkle, twinkle you are my star,

how I wonder where you are.

The Hanged Man needs some

attention now,

but I consider the Fool

and stare at that card.

As the moon goes down

and the sun comes up,

 know this,

I am the moon to your sun.

 Venus on the horizon is

fated to be impatient but

The Knight of Pentacles has not come. 

I reshuffle the cards and lay them out

straight and remember that

Jupiter follows the moon tonight.

cew

In 1957, when I was five, I went to the movies with my brothers and we watched the movie Beginning of the End about giant locust who invaded Chicago.

Looking at the movie clips now, I clearly see, the insects were put in a small miniature town so they would look big and their pictures blown up in size. The movie frightened me so badly I had to run to the girls room and hide there until the movie was over. It scared the bejeepers right out of me.

Silly you said? This is such a corney, unrealistic sci-fi movie. Sure you can say that, you’re not five years old.

Lately I have been shopping in my location Lowe’s hardware store. Usually I like that store and have shopped there many timed. That is, of course, until the Halloween Horror!

Not only are these characters horrible and gruesome, they are larger than life size and stand anywheres of six feet and above. What kid wouldn’t be scared to death! Wow. Thank you so much, Lowes, for putting the dollar sign in front of common sense and place the “Happy” back into Halloween! So much for it being a happy, fun holiday for kids!

cew

THE PORTAL – Courtney Webb

Jeremy Beans, age ten, lived in an ordinary house on an ordinary street. He had a mom, a dad, a younger brother,

Samuel, age six and an older brother, Tyler, age twelve. His friends at school

just called him Bean for short.

Samuel was kind of fun because he could be talked into playing games. Tyler was no fun because he was always gone Doing Things.

One day, on a Saturday, Tyler was gone with Dad, working on his school science project. Jeremy was home with Mom, Samuel and Beamer, their dog. His job was to get his room cleaned up. Probably the worst job in the world and the one he hated the most. He and Sam were in the living room and they still had fifteen more minutes TV time.

The doorbell rang, and he could hear his mom.

“I’ll get it.”

The door opened, and mom had a short conversation with the UPS man and brought in a brown paper package.

“Hum,” she said, walking to the kitchen table.

“Who’s it from?” Jeremy asked. He followed his mother. Samuel was crowding his elbow, looking too.

“Your uncle Al.” She frowned

looking at the package. “You know, the scientist.” She went to get a pair of

scissors. “It’s not Christmas or anyone’s birthday, I don’t…”

She opened the package and a brownish square fell out. She picked it up and looked at it, frown lines creased her brow.

“I don’t know…” She turned it over

and over. “I can’t see what it is supposed to be. A picture…? It seems kind of

heavy…”

Sighing she put the brown square down on the dining room table. Jeremy looked at it.

“Look, Mom. There’s a kind of design on this side,” Jeremy peered at the square.

“Maybe he is trying out some new art design or something. I don’t know, he always was a little weird,” she replied.

The telephone rang, and his mother turned her head.

“Can I have it, Mom?” Jeremy asked.

Distracted, his mother was walking to the kitchen. “Ah, sure. I guess.”

She disappeared into the kitchen and Jeremy could hear her talking to someone.

“What is it, Jeremy?” Samuel asked.

“It’s a…it’s a…hum. A kind of picture.”

“Let me hold it.”

“No, you’ll just break it.”

“No, I won’t!”

“Yes, you will, you break everything.”

“Aw…”

“And don’t start crying either,”

Jeremy commanded. “Come on, we’ll put it up in our room and I’ll let you help.”

They both walked the picture back to their bedroom. There was a little hook on the back of the picture.

“Sam, go get the small hammer and a

couple of nails from the drawer in the kitchen. Can you do that?”

Samuel nodded and ran for the kitchen. Jeremy walked around their room trying to figure out the best spot for the picture. He finally decided to put it across from his bed, so he could see it. Then, maybe he could figure out what it was supposed to be.

Samuel came running back in with the hammer and two nails.

“Mom got them for me.” He held them out for Jeremy.

Jeremy placed the picture, the

hammer and the nails on the dresser. He pulled out a short pencil, made a

little X on the wall and hammered in one nail. He didn’t like the way it

looked, pulled it out and hammered in another one.

Samuel leaned on the dresser, breathless. Carefully, Jeremy picked up the picture, looked at the little hook on the back and pushed the picture over the nail. They both backed up and looked at it.

“Now what?” Samuel asked.

“Now…I don’t know. It’s just a picture. It doesn’t do anything.” They stood back and stared at the picture a moment.

“I think Mom is making some cookies,” Samuel said.

“What kind?” Jeremy asked.

“Chocolate chip.”

Jeremy put down the hammer and they

both made a beeline for the kitchen.

Later that afternoon, Jeremy was taking a light nap and heard a humming sound. He opened his eyes and looked around. What? He looked over and saw the picture was humming and glowing. He got up and went over to it. It started to turn different glowing colors. The colors were neon like and reminded Jeremy of glow magic markers; hot pink, vivid yellow, acid green, red-orange and a bit of navy blue. They swirled around each other.

He put his finger on the surface.

It was warm. With a zap! and pop! Jeremy was sucked into the picture. He fell

on a soft surface. Shocked and scared, he got up and saw he was on some green

grass in a misty clearing. Looking around it looked like the mist was beginning

to clear.

This is some kind of small forest. But where? Curiosity overtook him.

Walking through the forest he came upon a large lake. It was very blue. Large, fluffy clouds filled the sky. In the middle of the lake a huge water fountain sprayed water in every direction.

Jeremy gazed around himself in amazement.

Where the heck?

Then, slowly from around the other side of the fountain, through the water mist, he saw the outline of a large, masted ship. It was moving his way.

He realized his mouth was hanging open and shut it when, faintly, in a distance, he could hear Samuel calling his name.

I should get back to my room, Jeremy thought.

The next moment he was standing in his room. He turned around and around. The lake was gone, the ship was gone, the forest was gone.

He stared at his hands and then the picture and shook his head. Wow! This is something! The first instinct was to run to mother and tell her about the picture.

No, she’ll just take it down and give it to dad and then he will send it back to

Uncle Al. Maybe, not just yet.

Continued Part II

See more of Courtney’s writings on Kindle Vella.

https://kdp.amazon.com/kindle-vella

https:www.whitehouse.gov

The Biden-Harris housing plan will ensure a cap on rent increases by landlords to 5% per year. Big landlord companies like Camden Properties Trust, will agree to the guidelines or lose Fed tax breaks.

In a state where rent increases of 30% are common, the raging homeless situation is being constantly fueled by ever increasing price gouging by landlords and resultant evictions. This situation raises profits for landlords and increases burden on the public for continual needs and problems caused by the homeless. The site Accountable.us monitors the use of an app called Realpage that helps landlords to determine price hikes.

Currently the State Atty General for AZ is in the process of suing Camden properties and others for price gouging, unethical and immoral practices that are contrary to the common good. The office of Kris Mays, Atty General has also filed against Buenas communities for substandard living conditions not disclosed to new renters as well as failure to properly maintain their units.

Many apartment complexes are owned by out of state ‘investors’.

Then, owners are protected from retaliation from angry renters when faced with escalating rent and other problems, by a complex system of property management companies who never reveal the owners identity. Apparently, property owners learned their lessons well from the French Revolution. They can’t hurt me if they don’t know who I am or where I live. Thoughtful strategies. Meanwhile the rest of us are left with out-of-control costs of living and escalating homeless numbers.

So, good luck Chris Mays and Joe Biden. Maybe the tax payers can get a break! CW

About time. Good luck.