Potential
I step through the flower-pots and portable vegetation, picking my way up the weather beaten steps to the faded green front door.
A strange front door holds potential like no other thing. Serial killers know this; so do salesmen. Home invaders and religion hawkers are well used to the phenomenon.
You’ve tracked down your lost mother, or are picking up a blind date for the first time… the feeling won’t be alien to you.
Anything at all could be behind the door.
I knock on the wood panel, paint flaking against my knuckles. Three short reports.
After a few seconds, I hear sounds from within. Shuffling, muffled footsteps. The clattering of chains on the other side of the door.
There’s nothing to do but wait. The house will give up its secrets in its own time.
georgelondon
I liked this cuz. A stroll through… something… the pace is calm and everyday and… ‘ready’ without being poised to pounce. Well done on not reaching a conclusion for us!
I was actually tempted to pick this thread up with my piece instead of going for something unrelated – perhaps with whoever is inside the house or from your protagonist’s perspective. Felt a bit too presumptive. And then the other idea came and I went with that instead. :-)
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Nicolas Papaconstantinou
Aw, thanks, cuz… there is precedent, by the way, for stories based on other’s stories, so I wouldn’t worry about that!
But sometimes an idea just kind of grabs you, huh?
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georgelondon
Exactly. :-)
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Rivka Jacobs
Oh, another nice effort, short but to the point. What I find fascinating is how you’ve tapped in to the anxiety that we all feel when we stand on some strange front porch in front of a strange front door, but the last line reveals the narrator as someone, something else, as I read it. I mean, instead of the narrator being anxious even afraid hearing “chains” dragging to the door, he becomes patient and philosophical. The house will give up it’s secrets, making the reader wonder who is the more threatening, the guy behind the door or the guy outside of it.
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Nicolas Papaconstantinou
Glad you liked it, Rivka! You’ve taken away what I wanted from the piece, which is that you can take it however you like.
I can’t remember whether I intended the “chains” to be so loaded, but I like your read on it! I think I was referring to door-chains, so it’s fun to see it take on a life of its own!
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Woz
What a difference one letter can make eh? The plural: ‘Chains’ rather than ‘chain’ really opened up the world of possibilities – from innocuous to ominous – reinforced by the earlier character types. Pure class as ever my friend.
I guess good writing is often about the reader completing the story in their mind’s eye & becoming a part of it?
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Nicolas Papaconstantinou
Thankyou, sir! It’s half deliberation, half mischief, half accidental when I pull ambiguous wordplay like that out of the hat, so I’m never actually sure how it’ll go over!
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