COLLECTED DRABBLES

2022 – 2026

by Crowmama

Marked

Jenny breezes into the apartment, unexpected, immediately focusing on Catherine’s bare neck.

“Wow! Must be some guy. You haven’t let anyone love bite you like that after Stephen.”

Catherine’s hand shoots to the must-be bruise. 

Marked.

Jenny’s right. Catherine’s hated physical evidence of a lover since forever.

Yet Vincent knows her need. Knows what evidence of him on-in her, of his ownership of her heart – even mostly, needfully hidden – does to her.

Mind back, hours before, his hands, his lips, his possession, sought after, welcomed.

Catherine smiles, drawing her collar closed.

“Mmmhhmmm,” she admits, but will offer nothing more.  

Pivot

Only a finger’s breadth of movement, a shift, and his world unraveled.

Caring for the children after an indeterminable week of work on both their parts had lowered defenses. After his illness, Catherine found every excuse to be with him, including volunteering to give the regular nursery crew a night’s break.

Morning broke with no real rest, and they collapsed on his bed and into sleep.

They woke much later to him curled around her.

Then, her hip pivoted, flush, beseeching, her back arched … lordosis, his suddenly woken mind supplied.

And his world unraveled, weaving itself again into her. 

Winterfest Online 2022

Father, Candy Bar, Catherine’s Apartment

The Crunchie Bar, his childhood favorite, lay before him, testament to his daughter-in-law’s sharp memory and willingness to scour the city on a mission.

Father, with careful fingers, tore the wrapper, broke off a piece, and took a bite. Smooth chocolate melted and honeycomb fizzed on his tongue, as it had done when he was six outside the sweet shop in Guernsey.

A small taste and celebration of home.

After he savored the delectable bite, he had to ask, “All right, why the bribe, you two?”

“I’m selling my apartment,” Catherine stutteringly began.

“Because we are buying a building,” Vincent finished.

CABB Challenge 2022: ‘…And No One Looked Twice”

Sleepy Hollow

“So?” Catherine asked, between licks of ice cream while strolling beneath golden tulip trees. Too chilly for it, really, but Vincent insisted on treating, and she’d dressed warmly enough – highway woman to his vagabond prince – to steal him away come any weather.

The entirety of Halloween could be celebrated, she reasoned, opening a world within a day’s ride – a divine morning at the Cloister’s Fuentidueña Chapel, a vivid fall picnic along the Hudson, an afternoon lighthouse tour, venerable cemeteries, Irving’s Sunnyside. 

This year, no more vicariously living in the Horseman’s world. He’d be surrounded by it. 

 “No words,” he replied, smiling.

CABB Challenge: 36th Anniversary of Beauty and the Beast 

Devin, a found wallet, The Brooklyn Bridge

The man left his shoes, strangely … and his wallet, not so strange.

To end life slipping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Why? The world beckons. A ticket to another life costs the price of a days’ commute in New York.

Leave! Try again! Become again!

You leave your I.D. and old shoes, like him, I guess.

You leave… everyone …

It’s wonderful… and awful.

*Devin pockets the wallet. Police need called.*

But to this black despair, this starless night, I swear…. never.

Everyone must arrive in the undiscovered country eventually. I plan on being an unwilling traveler.  

Winterfest Online 2024

Pascal, the underground river, a bright light

Jamie slept as Pascal stood watch at the river’s edge. Vincent had told them leave, but they’d only traveled far enough to tap out the worst message he’d ever sent — Winslow dead, Vincent gone on, alone. Now, Pascal peered into impenetrable fog, What if Vincent was hurt? Catherine dead? They couldn’t lose both Vincent and Winslow. Yet each dripping second of that forever night carved Pascal’s conviction that waiting had been right.

Then…
Movement …
Light …

A lantern held aloft… by Catherine, and behind her, Vincent poling a boat.
Their light would help them navigate the darkness.

Winterfest Online 2025

Joe, his office, a phone message

Joe swam so long in the sea of overwhelming work, he (almost) didn’t notice anymore. Glancing around the office, the least that taxpayers could buy, more familiar than home, scarcely cooled in summer, unbearably heated in winter… Why didn’t the work break him? How did he survive?

He punched the button on the answering machine with too much force.

Beep.

“Hey Joe, it’s Cathy. Graham and his lawyer took the plea. He won’t see the son he beat up until he’s out of college. It was late when the call came in. I thought you should know.”

That’s how.

Winterfest Online 2026

Olivia, Father’s desk, a box

Dusting in the Tunnels was no coveted job – pervasive, staggering.

Finding a box beneath Father’s desk dust free, puzzling.

“What could he be hiding?” Olivia wondered.

A peek inside.

Paintings, drawings, cards, from every Tunnel child, carefully dated and filed. Samantha, Geoffery, Jasmine, Ellie, Kipper… and older… Jamie, Rebecca, Pascal… Winslow, and here, her drawing – a rainbow above the Falls, a picnic with Sasha, Gretta… and Peter, her first friend, her first love.

So many gone, but all remembered, all cherished here.

Love lived in that prized keepsake chest.

It didn’t need it, but she dusted it fondly anyway.

Vincent, Catherine’s apartment, a colander

He never felt so inadequate to a task.
But she deserved his efforts, as poor as they may be.

The clam sauce was done, the linguini rapidly departing al dente headed towards mush.
Pasta was a frequent Tunnels meal but cooking for a brigade versus two–a very different task.

Her kitchen wasn’t bare.
Her utensils were everywhere, unfamiliar, and packed haphazardly in the few cabinets, forcing him to fish with a spatula and serving fork.
They were going to have to reorganize.

Catherine appeared surprised, smiling, dressed from court. “Thank you, Vincent! But I do own a colander.

“Where?”