Fiction? …

 

She was furious. She had been cheated.  The hour of the meeting had passed and gone.  She had lost. Everything, Oh how she wished with all her heart and soul it could be different.     At that precise moment her mobile intruded rudely on her painful thoughts,  the music she’d picked for texts blaring out into the quiet room. The theme from X Files, one she’d picked so carefully, somehow now made sense, The Unexplained. She picked up the flashing mobile,  the intruder, and pressed the symbol for texts.   The latest one read  ‘Your meeting was successful, you have the contract. Please contact this office ASAP, Mr I M Handsome’     Her meeting?  What on Earth was going on?  Her hands shook as she thumped the arm of  her wheelchair, then struck at her right leg, held rigid in plaster, uselessly sticking straight out in front of her.   She hadn’t been anywhere, couldn’t go anywhere,  ever since the local ambulance had dropped her off a few minutes ago. The accident and subsequent visit to the ER was still a blur.   Hurriedly she clicked the symbol ‘phone’ against the text and was instantly greeted by a cheery voice saying “Handsome Publishers, how may I help you? “ she paused, panicking for a moment, then asked to speak to Mr Handsome, fully expecting to be fobbed off with the usual ‘ I’m afraid he’s in a meeting at the moment’  but no, she was put straight through.  A melodious deep and totally handsome sounding voice said her name and thanked her for attending the meeting, saying also (unbelievably in her ear) her work was just the kind to fit their criteria.  Her latest story, (he also named that too) was soon to be in print and he hoped she would have a long, happy and mutually beneficial association with his publishing house.   She sat, after the phone went silent, staring at nothing at all as thoughts raced each other around her head. Disbelief was uppermost, followed quickly by hysterical laughter, then sheer relief. She had a contract, money was coming in, her work was ok, then finally the thought uppermost, how on Earth had it all come about?   Sneaking into the background of this latest thought there came again the music from X Files,  another text, this time ‘unknown’   ‘Your wish was granted, payment within 30 days please.  Souls are in short supply and high demand’  

LadyP©2014

Mayhap I am a soulless being,  I must be more careful with my wishes… I wonder how many I have left?  xx