Finish the Fiction Story Contest - Week #36 - @bananafish
Spoon-fed Memories
by @calluna
“When I was your age, I was quite the wild one. Ahhh that look, that ‘sure granny’ look, well if you don’t believe me.”
The underpaid nurse attempting to spoon-feed the elderly lady sat, heaped spoon waiting for a pause between words.
“I had quite the adventure, back when I was twenty-two, I never told your mam about this one”
Susie suppressed a sigh, every resident took her as a different relative. They used a warm, familiar tone with her, looking into her eyes, and seeing those of another. She’d given up correcting them, not one of them could remember her name.
“It was during the war, your grandpa worked intelligence out of one of those top-secret northern bunkers, that’s where he got that compass you used to love playing with.”
There was something about never been seen as herself that was starting to eat at Susie. At first, she’d pitied them, unable to see things for what they were, but as time went by, every word spoken to her, meant for another, began to cut.
“It’s been two months since I'd had a letter from him, and well, you can imagine what I thought when a man in uniform knocked at the door.”
Finally catching a pause in the residents flow, Susie swooped in with a spoon full of buttery mash, beaded with peas. For loud, sloppy moments the lady chewed, and trying to draw on her compassion, Susie smiled, scooping up another spoonful.
“Well my heart dropped and I nearly fainted before he could speak. That awkward young officer grabbed my hands, looking me firm in the eyes, ‘He’s not dead Mrs Ellerton, he’s fine, I just need you to come with me’. I’ve never packed a bag so fast in my life!”
Susie quickly exploited the dramatic moment, dropped another spoon of mash, this time laked with stewed beef and gravy, into the open mouth. She used to hate herself for finding those too far gone to chatter away easier, avoiding the talkers, but despite her best evasions, she’d got stuck with conversational Mrs Ellerton today.
“We sped down those country roads, whizzing up north, in hours. He told me nothing on the way, offering only that Nick would tell me when we got there. I’d had no idea what to bring, and had frantically thrown everything I could think of into my bag, as we drove up I began to realise all the things I’d not thought of, but there was no turning back, I could tell by the way that officer gripped the wheel we were in a hurry!”
Mrs Ellerton wasn’t letting up, Susie glanced at the clock, her shift was due to finish in ten minutes, but she couldn’t go anywhere until the old bag wrapped it up. Putting the spoon down, she tried to fight the rising anger, and decided to try and get Mrs Ellerton to cut to the chase.
“So why had your husband had you brought there?”
My Entry:
“Because he’d time traveled to the future, and met you Susie,” Mrs. Ellerton stated in a stern schoolteacher voice.
Susie dropped the spoon with food, and made a face, as she noticed the twinkle in Mrs. Ellerton’s eye.
“Yes Susie. My Nick from World War II served in a top-secret northern bunker where they tested time travel.”
“Time travel?” Susie asked. And if Mrs. Ellerton hadn’t of addressed her by name for the first time she might feel at ease. Only the recognition of her person by the elderly lady inspired a belief in her story.
“Yes, time travel my dear girl. He will approach you one day, and ask for information that could decide the fate of Western Civilization . . .”
333
Twilight, and without a light, the streets of the village dimmed as Susie rode her bike back home after a day at the hospital helping older people.
As she turned a corner she nearly ran into a young man wearing an older style military uniform. He looked a little distressed, and apologized for being in the way of Susie’s bicycle.
“It really was my fault.” Said Susie with awestruck painted on her face. “You’re not from around here are you governor?”
“Well I should say so, although you probably wouldn’t remember . . .” The man said with a laugh.
“Say so?” Asked Susie. “Well, I’ve never seen your block around here, and I’ve seen a chap or two running around.”
“When it’s a different time, it’s a different place, don’t know Evelyn do you? She’d be, God, into her 90s about now or so I reckon.” Said the stranger.
“I take care of all the old folk up on the hill. What’s her last name?”
“Ellerton. She’s my . . . Grandma.”
“Mrs. Ellerton? You’re that bloke she was always babbling on about. Time traveler or something?”
“Can we keep it down this mission’s top-secret.” Nick said, and lit a cigarette that illuminated his face.
“OK Nick, only I’m sorry to inform you that she’s already passed. She always spoke proudly of you, and your family.”
“How long ago?”
“About two years, only once again my sincere condolences. We got to know each other.” Answered Susie.
“No bother, I’ll be home for dinner. Maybe even have her brought to the base to tell her how much I love her. Only that’s not why I’m supposed to be here. I represent the Allies. We’re trying to defeat the Nazis and they have a grip on Europe. Maybe you can serve your country and answer a simple question?”
“Yes, I’d love to!”
“Is the D-day invasion a success?”
“Yes it is. If you want, I can look it up on my phone and give you more information?”
“No trouble, thank you, too much information might change history. I’ll be on my way. Got to get home to Evelyn for dinner. I’ll tell her you said hello.”
And Susie watched Nick walk away gently into that good night.
Thank you,
Cyrus Emerson
Red Roses the audiobook for your consideration at the Voice Arts Awards (NYC), and the Grammys (LA).
https://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Red-Roses-Audiobook/B07F2LWHPN
Red Roses narrated by Kira Omans
www.kiraomans.com
Red Roses music by Rike Luxx
www.rikeluxxbeats.com
Red Roses sound by Pond5
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Also, available from The Author:
Fear and Loathing in the State of Jefferson - ebook
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B079R5KLPN&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_GsURAbAVDYNEM
Lost Angel – Introduction with Ray Manzarek of The Doors
https://www.downpour.com/lost-angel?sp=249812
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This post was submitted for curation by: @theironfelix
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This is a great idea. I like that you connected the two characters with time travel. It makes me wonder how Nick would have coped with all of it.
Yes indeed. Better than a ghost story in that regard.
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Great contest with amazing finishes!
Time travel... great concept. It seemed to me that Susie wasn't buying it but went ahead and played along.
This is so clever. Woven perfectly into the scene @calluna set up. It's also nice that "Suzie" is more likeable in your ending. Of course, being confronted with a time traveler might stun anyone into decency :)
Ha, ha. Thanks for the feedback. Tough to follow @theironfelix. Looking forward to reading your take on this.
I liked the 'conclusion' @theironfelix wrote. A very human touch.
It amazes me that, after the first test that went evidently well, the time travel was not used to solve the war with less bloodshed, for example by sending assassins back in time to kill Hitler and Mussolini before they took power.
Apart from this little flaw on internal consistency, a poetic and well-written ending!
Love conquers all Marco. LOL
Could explain it by saying they were testing time traveling. Never got it right. Did get one in there though. That's why they stopped.
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Of course, since I am the kin-
Sorry me matey, had to klop someone's lights out. Anyways, let's get to my take on this lil' ending here.
Of course the biggest component of this was the time travel aspect. Where I like to disagree with @marcoriccardi is that we have no clue of the time apparatus nor how it manages to fling people forward and backward. Yet if it's portable, I like to imagine this liken to ray-punk tech and say this is, as yah pointed out @cyemela, all experimental and they didn't nail down every lil' problem. A second thing is that forwards travel seemed to work fine, problem is whether backwards time works as perfectly... See considering the lack of any mention of Suzie's involvement, I like to think Nick either failed to bring this up other than D-Day succeeding (good on you to make Suzie not spill the beans of how bloody 'twas). Or it's a sort of Terminator self-closed time loop where it all works out and everything was predestined to happen somehow. If X was removed, event Y may still happen somehow.
Of course, I view time more in the sense of material flow manipulation. Id est, since if you forward travel, you manipulate matter to go faster than per usual which could lead to all sorts of things. But if you backwards travel, you literally reverse the flow to a point of time that had already happened but can be radically changed. In which case, if you survive having your matter reversed or forwarded, then you should technically be alive and at the age you did the material flow manipulation aspects. In which case, the Universe will care not but it will be funny to see how scenes play out without you being involved. (I like to humour some Mr. Bean-esque montage would ensue but backwards.)
Which to bring to oure lovely Nick, Nick seemed to fit my conditions for time travel (material flow manipulation) for forward travel, I wonder if his carcass will survive backwards travel. Id est, the real q I wonder before I consider that they experimented with a true time travelling machine. Because if this is a false time machine, then it's some convenient galaxy hopper that hops about galaxies in order for the user to not die suddenly due to an actual alteration in history. Which that alteration would prevent Nick from doing what he literally did and may "ghost" like Marty McFly in Back to the Past.
With the material flow manipulation, you only have to worry about manipulating material flow. Consequence with that: you'll never end up where you started manipulating material flow. Too many nuisances to worry about to perfectly revert the changes in the Universe, the only one you got and the only one you can appreciate.
This is such a clever ending, and skillfully executed in so few words! You keep all the threads separated, and weave them into something knew. The way Mrs Ellerton suddenly calls her by name, knowing her for just a moment, is a fairly accurate depiction of dementia, being jumbled as to who someone is, to suddenly being present, and slipping away again. this is just so beautifully written as well, going to confess, i had people staying all weekend, and snuck off outside for ten minutes, and managed to read this one, very much enjoyed it then, the time travel idea playing in my mind all evening. thank you! :)
You made me think for a moment about Sarah Connor. I greatly appreciated your elegance in the simplicity of the final question. You don't need a lot to change the direction of history.. just a whisper at the right moment in time. Bravo Cyrus, you're always an asset for this community!