Read a little... ~ Bad Snake!

An excerpt & book cover art.

Alexis craned her neck to the window, restless eyes darting about in the clouds. “I don't know,” she said in a measured kind of way. “The clouds are dark and round, look like they're going to pop any moment.”

“Are you saying you can't make it to Isabel's christening?” Wendy said, in reply on the phone.

“I don't know,” She shook her head and the curls in her hair bounced about like frazzled appendages of a startled bush. “I don't want my new shoes getting wet – the suede will spoil.”

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded disappointed: “What do I tell Maurice if you don't come?”

Alexis then thought to check her – usually trustworthy – weather app. She poked the icon on her mobile phone screen. “Ahhhhh,” she let out a long moan, “it seems that the thunderstorm is blowing over, it's travelling westwards.”

“Well, that's good, isn't it?” Said the hopeful voice of her companion.

But Alexis further craned her head, window-side, eyelashes blinking at the dark and dreadful clouds. “But, it doesn't look good. I'm sure it's going to pour cats and dogs.”

“Are you saying you don't want us to pick you up this afternoon?” Replied Wendy, her voice ever so slightly frustrated.

In her neat and sparse house, Alexis heated up a can of tomato soup and thinly, evenly, spread butter on a soft piece of bread. No toast for her because the crumbs had a tendency to scatter everywhere and she'd have to carefully sweep up the debris from the counters and tiled floor. She didn't like doing housework but it had to be done. After wiping the microwave, inside and out with a wet cloth dipped in water thick with detergent, she carried the soup, bread and a cup of tea on a clean tray, into the living room. Once nestled on the settee with the food placed on the low table before her, she switched on the TV because daytime telly was the only company she had these days. As she dipped the soft buttery bread into the lukewarm soup, she couldn't understand why it was that way.

The afternoon came and went, along with it three or four TV programmes – so innocuous that they easily ran into one another leaving her in a kind of stupor and the urgent need for fresh air. She went to the window and craned her neck, blinking in the sun rays sent like golden spears through the noticeably lighter looking clouds. She gasped. She realised that it hadn't rained a drop after all. And she'd missed little Isabel's christening. She stepped outside into the back garden, a space filled with mainly over-grown grass because she was fearful of the lawnmower, like she was fearful of adverse weather. There was a patio area outside the back door, with the flagstones cracked and dandelions appearing in the wider cracks. She sat down on a wooden two-seater bench. Feeling the need to shed a drop or two of water herself.

Notes

I hope you enjoyed the FREE art and story excerpt.

The following was artwork and an excerpt from one of the stories from The House of Gemma: Tales From The Treasury The Stories page - https://houseofgemma.neocities.org/stories

Forthcoming, the accompanying short story collection by Faith McCord.