For the month of April, fellow author, Thea Atkinson is streaking through 30 blogs and flashing us a piece of fiction. I generously offered her a space today so she could expose a piece. My blog will be back to normal tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy and follow the links at the end to see who she flashed yesterday and who she will flash tomorrow. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know if you enjoyed the streak, and you are welcome to tweet it or share it on Facebook. You can also follow the chain through twitter with the hashtag #blogstreak
After the Angel
By Thea Atkinson http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/
The bats came shortly after midnight: the tenth plague come to claim us firstborn and newly dead for a God I never believed in. I felt them, the bats, their rush of wings. Heard their keening, clicking voices navigating, searching out the right spirit to clasp in their beaks. A bat for every firstborn child, every firstborn cow, every man with a firstborn of his own, and they carried us into the night. They swept us across the sands so close sometimes I felt plumes of dust rise to coat what was left of me.
I wondered what I would look like should any living soul be able to see me in the blackness of night's heart. Would my hair still cascade over my shoulders like black oil spilled on tile? Could my breasts still inspire men to dole out a week's labor for one hour of my time--pay me extra to pretend I loved him -- if only for those sixty minutes? Would the man who knew me and loved me still offer his life for mine? I hoped he could forgive me, that man, for telling him his life had no value this night. That what it was worth to me would be valueless to the god who took me to purchase his own.
I'd been trained to understand worth, and I knew that once again I had been bought.
Except this time I was weighed with cattle and pharoahs alike -- and found of equal value.
After the Angel
By Thea Atkinson http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/
The bats came shortly after midnight: the tenth plague come to claim us firstborn and newly dead for a God I never believed in. I felt them, the bats, their rush of wings. Heard their keening, clicking voices navigating, searching out the right spirit to clasp in their beaks. A bat for every firstborn child, every firstborn cow, every man with a firstborn of his own, and they carried us into the night. They swept us across the sands so close sometimes I felt plumes of dust rise to coat what was left of me.
I wondered what I would look like should any living soul be able to see me in the blackness of night's heart. Would my hair still cascade over my shoulders like black oil spilled on tile? Could my breasts still inspire men to dole out a week's labor for one hour of my time--pay me extra to pretend I loved him -- if only for those sixty minutes? Would the man who knew me and loved me still offer his life for mine? I hoped he could forgive me, that man, for telling him his life had no value this night. That what it was worth to me would be valueless to the god who took me to purchase his own.
I'd been trained to understand worth, and I knew that once again I had been bought.
Except this time I was weighed with cattle and pharoahs alike -- and found of equal value.
April 3 Sarah Barnard http://www.sarahbarnard.co.uk/blog/
April 5 Larry Enright http://fouryearsfromhome.blogspot.com/
April 5 Larry Enright http://fouryearsfromhome.blogspot.com/
I'm following Thea's streak with interest! ;-)
ReplyDelete"weighed with cattle and pharoahs alike -- and found of equal value."
ReplyDeleteI love that phrase. I've followed the streak so far and it's fascinating, loving the variety.
nice
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea.
ReplyDelete