Words by Grace E Hall

Waves splashed loudly against the docks as birds screamed in the salty breeze. The palisade of storefronts stood against the iron-grey sky and crowded down by the dock like anxious youngsters round a fire-place; they surrounded a great tangle of ship and sail and ropes that was the harbor, and the smell of fish was suffocating if you had not gotten used to it. There were fish everywhere; in piles in docks, overflowing from barrels; flopping out of the shallow water underneath. A particularly potent rack of them was set out below a sputtering yellow sign that read “EZ FISH”. A skinny spiderweb stretched between the sign and the dusty plank of the eave above; and in the web was situated the oldest, fattest, most wrinkly spider I have ever seen in my life. Wrinkly Spider was speaking in a slow, weedy sort of voice like an ancient cello, and balanced on the “E” in “EZ”, Currant Sturgeon, a younger spider, listened politely.  The Chief waved a spindle leg in the direction of the har...

The Strange Thing Note: This is the story that I read at our church's Celebration of Arts and Talents night. One of the strangest things I ever saw was not actually something that I saw, rather I imagined it. I imagined it on a hot day, and I was sitting in my room, thinking disconsolately of the intense summer heat. Ma was baking cookies which, though yummy smelling, did increase the heat in the house.   Then, I saw it - or imagined it - a dragon-like being, all-black, spiky, with a jagged club-like appendage on the end of its tail that made me feel small and easily squashed. It had great wings spread out like curtains against the night sky. It was towering tall even sitting on the ground as it was. Beside it was a figure, about ten years older than me, but it was dark and hard to discern her features clearly. She was about this high and wearing a long, stiff, uniform-like coat. Under her arm, she carried a black leather handbag and she was studying a map. The name emb...

I am sorry for the lack of posts.  I have been rather sick and generally not feeling well, but I greatly appreciate your support and forgiveness!  Hopefully, there will be more interesting posts in the future, but I wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about it.  Thank you all!