Let's write a story.

We are all different here. We have different personalities, life experiences, values, attitudes and viewpoints on life. Some of us love a laugh, others are dead serious. Some brash and outspoken, others are different. We spend a lot of time bickering and arguing about anything and everything. BUt I thought it would be novel to combine our collective selves and write a story. It doesn't matter what it's about, where it goes or how or when it ends. Doesn't matter how many characters there are, how many places in the world it goes to or whether it's told in the first, second or third person or combinations of the three. It can chop and change. NO rules. Everybody gets a chance. I'll kick off. Please submit your text in bold italics. We might end up with another Pulp Fiction!

The closed, empty public bar of the Longshoreman Hotel stank of a combination of stale alcohol, pub food and tobacco. Not a pleasant combination to the tea totaling, non smoking, health conscious nostrils of the young bar assistant as she wearily heaved another load of dirty glasses into the electric washer. She had been doing this all day. It had been a long and noisy Friday Night at the LH. It was now 11.30 pm and all Valli Ravine could think about was her bed. The live music was still thumping through from the attached club but as usual she was the only one left in the public bar now to clean up. She paused and gazed through the bar windows to the blinking lights of the ships moving back and forth on the harbour in the distance. Her reverie was broken harshly by some very loud and vigorous banging on the locked door of the main entrance. "We're closed!...hours 11 to 11..Sorry! You can have a drink in the club" A deep rough male voice responded. "Yeah well we're not here to dance girly. We've got a private appointment with the publican. Open up now and go get Mr Quill"...Valli felt an immediate rush of indignation at the man's abruptness. She trusted nothing about this person behind the door "Well I'm sorry sir but I don't know anything about that.I can't just open this part of the pub without permission sorry. " The voice spoke again, this time with increased irritation bordering on belligerence.."Lady I told you we have a meeting with Quill.. You have MY permission now go and get the F@*&ing organ grinder sharpish. We don't want to talk to the monkey!"..........

(Do with it what you will. Just everybody have a turn. It can be as mad as you like and probably will be

Re: Let's write a story.

Valli thought quickly, she was employed as a Bar Tender, not a Minder or Diplomat, although she had a strong sense of right and wrong, the guys attitude at the door existed outside this remit, also, she had had misgivings about Quill's offhand attitude of late, the shady conversations on the telephone, the odd indirect questions from punters she had not seen before, now, more than ever, it was time for that career change, she grabbed her phone, coat and bag, and left via the Fire exit.....

Re: Let's write a story.

...but, in her rush and frustrated state, forgot that the stairs were under repair. Down and down Valli tumbled, with her short life flashing before her until, by a cruel quirk of fate, one of her arms became ensnared. "My god, the pain!!" she screamed inwardly as first she felt the snap of bone and then the sound of her own flesh tearing....

Re: Let's write a story.

Ouch, another laddered stocking, I'm feeling a bit bladdered to be honest, I shouldn't have had that schooner of amontillado especially after what Mr Quill said, so I grabbed me phone and whizzed through the contacts. Angelica, she'll be working this time of night, sitting at her desk dreaming up plots, we were blood sisters in the brownies together, she were OK till she got into black magic and class A drugs, went all goth on me, but now she's settled down, working as special investigator for a rightwing tabloid. Angelica, she'll know what to do. Dring. Shush it's Val, listen ...

Re: Let's write a story.

"Hi, you are through to Angelica" piped up the answerphone. "Your call is very important to me so if you want to speak about hard right politics then press 1. If you want to talk sexy press 2. If you want to talk about suing me for something I've written in the past about you then take a hike. If you want to say anything meaningful about life then phone a priest. If it's an emergency then hang up and ring 999. For anything else hold the line until I can be bothered to answer"... beeeeepp....

Re: Let's write a story.

So I pressed 2 for sex talk then chickened out, cut the call.
"Valli, are you there?" .... oh fudge it's Mr Quill, he can't see me like this, legs in the air.
"Be with you in jiffy Mr Quill, there's someone to see you at the front door"
I picked myself up, dusted myself down and walked chin up back towards the bar, feeling shaky but looking professional like I was taught on my hospitality management course. The front door was open, creaking in the wind.
"Hello" I said "is somebody there?"

Re: Let's write a story.

It struck Vali, that in her fall she had acquired an extra sensory power and strength. Her broken leg had miraculously mended and as she sauntered to the door to investigate who was there, she felt a prod in her head.
‘Where do you think you’re going to, young lady?’
She turned quickly to find Mr Quill, holding a gun to her head.
With one swerve, she somersaulted backwards, knocking Quill to the ground.
She got hold of his head and twisted it off his neck and threw it out of the door and into the harbour.
She stood up, patted herself down, stomped across the bar and screamed out.
‘Listen up you punks, Vali is now in charge of the joint, let’s get this show on the road’...

Re: Let's write a story.

"Oh no you're not" said the dwarf, lunging through the throng and kicking her square on the ankle, immediately disabling her superpowers, and she crumpled to the floor in a dishevelled heap. "As a magic dwarf I am master of all I survey, and I will decide what show is on the road and when, but first of all we all need a drink. I will have a cherry soda with a slice of lime and my mafia thugs here will just have halves of shandy, as one of them may have to drive later, so get back behind the bar Missy where you belong and stick to what you're good at! "

Valli dragged herself up off the stinking floor and headed for the bar. "We'll soon see who's in charge here" she said to herself, remembering the GBH date rape drug she always kept behind the bar for just such an occasion, "I just hope the hell we've not sold out of cherry soda"....

Re: Let's write a story.

"Hi Valli how you doing kid?"
"I'm scared Ange, I'm at the pub, the lights aren't working, the front door's been left wide open, and bossman seems to have disappeared".
"The last time I saw your boss I wanted to rip his head off and chuck it in the harbour".
"Oh god, I've just been having similar thoughts"
"Did you see Alfie? my boss went out to talk to your boss tonight, he's working on a tip off about illegals in the Longshoreman cellar, I told him it's rubbish".
Valli thought for a moment, "cellar, what cellar? I never saw one", she paused, "Hey! did you hear that, screaming, hello, Angelica are you there?"

Re: Let's write a story.

"Angelica, speak to me, those pills you said would keep me awake are giving me hallucinations about nasty dwarfs". But the line was dead.