2 - photograph

10/01/08 • -1 min

do you believe in x

Kristine ventures into the woods to photograph monarchs and turtles. She sleeps soundly.

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On a calm afternoon, Kristine deftly made her way through the woods. Camera strap over her shoulder, she navigated through the dry brushery that crunched in time with her step. In only a few days, the school year would begin again. Kristine still had at least a year's workload ahead of her until graduation, but her mind was occupied with a more distant achievement. A scholarship for photography at Queens U. Hell bent on fleshing out her portfolio, she used the opportunity of her parent's last outing of the summer to venture into the woods to photograph wildlife. Wanting to ascertain a true variety of shots, Kristine resolved to spend the night in the forest.

After hours of kneeling silently by a toppled oak watching a monarch butterfly and waiting for it to take flight, after perpetual ages of leaning over a boulder trying to flawlessly capture a turtle basking in the sun, she retired to a small clearing to erect her pup tent. Meaning to only rest until true night set upon her, she set her watch to wake her at 11:30.

The beep...

Kristine ventures into the woods to photograph monarchs and turtles. She sleeps soundly.

you may stream the story here

right click + save as for the mp3

The beep...

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1 - fingers

A tale of mail, and the man receiving it.

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It is only after I have been at my new flat for some months that I begin to receive mail other than bills and offers to enter prize draws. One of my first personal envelopes contains a scrawled message from an old acquaintance with whom I was friendly many years ago. I am distressed to read that my friend is deeply unhappy, and I am disturbed further to read that if he receives no reply to the letter I hold in my hands he will feel compelled to chop off one of his fingers with a kitchen knife. Days pass, full of inconsequential incidents: until a small parcel arrives. The postmark indicates that it is from my friend. With trepidation I open it.

Underneath the brown wrapping paper is a little box which bears the return address of my friend. There is also a stamp on the box, but other than this the package proves to be empty. I open up the box, but the space within is likewise vacant. A sense of relief floods briefly through me, and my days once more assume a comfortable aspect.

One week later, another identical parcel arrives. It too is empty, and I insist to myself that I will write to my friend. Time drifts past, and eventually I have ten empty parcels. It is on a Friday that I realize what I have to do.

With what I feel is admi...

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3 - frau trude

A retelling of an old Grimm fairy tale.

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Once upon a time there was a small girl who was stubborn and wild. Whenever her parents said anything to her, she disobeyed them.

One day, with a ruddy, immodest face wound tight with spitefulness, she went to her parents and said “I have heard so much about Frau Trude. Someday I want to go into the woods see her house. People say such amazing things are seen there, and such strange things happen there, and I’ve become very curious.”

Her parents strictly forbade her, "Frau Trude is a wicked woman who commits godless acts. If you go there, you will no longer be our child.” But the girl still paid no attention to her parents.

On a blue, moonless night, the little girl snuck down the creaky wooden stairs of her little house ever so slowly. A little hand clutched at her face as if it would crack wide up without her iron grip holding it together.

As she scampered out of the front door, not even bothering to close it behind her, her bare feet slapped against the wet cobblestones of the darkened street. She could barely contain her self. She giggled and laughed all the way down the road. After much walking, she reached the wide path between the tall, tall trees. Thick branches hung over the little girl as she hopped into the forest, the stones growing colder beneath her feet. She was walking blind in the forest, without even the dark blue glow of the midnight sky above her.

As the little girl walked further a...