{"id":60,"date":"2010-10-07T13:22:55","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T13:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/index.php\/2010\/10\/07\/5mf8\/"},"modified":"2010-10-07T13:22:55","modified_gmt":"2010-10-07T13:22:55","slug":"5mf8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/5mf8\/","title":{"rendered":"Week Eight Winning Entry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prompt: command\"4769308007_92f2b99375\"
<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thaddeus Crowe was restless tonight.<\/p>\n

I was trying to catch up on my latest short story submission\u2013a steampunk genre Civil War piece\u2013when the moaning and clanking started again for the third time.<\/p>\n

See, Thaddeus was my very own ghost in the attic.<\/p>\n

I shut down the project as well as the laptop; giving writing up as a bad job for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I\u2019d better see what\u2019s bothering the old coot,\u201d I muttered to myself.<\/p>\n

Climbing the creaky stairs, I was surprised when my black and white cat, Max, hissed at me and ran off.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax!\u201d I called after him. \u201cIt\u2019s just the ol\u2019 man! C\u2019mon back!\u201d<\/p>\n

Be he was gone. I loved cats, specifically because\u2013 like me\u2013they never obeyed any commands. But the fur ball liked any opportunity to harass Thaddeus. Something was definitely up. I shook my head as I climbed the rest of the stairs to the attic.<\/p>\n

I opened the door to the large, unfinished space to find the shimmering, pale form of Thaddeus, dressed as always in what looked like an 18th century military uniform, staring mournfully out of the half-moon window overlooking the grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cSir!\u201d I said smartly. \u201cPermission to enter?\u201d He usually liked it when I asked to come into \u201chis\u201d attic.<\/p>\n

Thaddeus turned his gaze from the window and looked me over. I couldn\u2019t actually see him do it, as the apparitions\u2019 eyes were nothing more then hollowed-out sockets. It was just a feeling I got whenever I arrived in his attic space and \u2018looked\u2019 toward me.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, why not. Enter\u201d the ghost said in a melancholy voice.<\/p>\n

I furrowed my brow at the lack his usual barked command of either \u201cCome Hither, mortal!\u201d or \u201cGranted Soldier!\u201d Something was definitely troubling the ghost.<\/p>\n

I climbed into the attic, ducking a little to avoid whacking my head on one of the rafters, and let the door close behind me. I joined Thaddeus at the window, ignoring the chill that always caused my skin to crawl when I got too close to him.<\/p>\n

After a moment of awkward silence, I cleared my throat.<\/p>\n

\u201cSir, permission to speak candidly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo on then,\u201d said the ghost in the same bored voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat seems to be the trouble, Sir?\u201d I asked hesitantly. I\u2019d seen the ghost get upset only once in my four years in the house. It wasn\u2019t pleasant and I didn\u2019t want to experience it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cMmph,\u201d Thaddeus said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bad night, soldier. A bad night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd why is that sir?\u201d I asked relieved. Looks like I\u2019d be spared a \u2018poltergeist incident.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cTime for new recruits. I hate training new recruits.\u201d Said the old ghost dejectedly.<\/p>\n

The thought of another ghost in the house quite frankly annoyed me. I was already behind on my deadline. But I was also curious.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew recruits?\u201d I asked. \u201cWouldn\u2019t you like company, sir?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure,\u201d said Thaddeus. \u201cBut there is always the denial and the whining before acceptance. I hate that part. That, and the speech. I hate that blasted speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ok, I thought. I\u2019ll bite. \u201cWhat speech?\u201d<\/p>\n

The ghost sighed. \u201cWelcome to the spectral plane, newly departed. You are here because the afterlife wouldn\u2019t have you. You are condemned to haunt this world in ghostly fashion until the end of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t sound so bad,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d said the ghost seemingly more depressed. \u201cIt is. See, I can only say those words to a new ghost. Now I\u2019ll have to deal with the shock and the denial\u2026\u201d his voice faded away and he went back to staring out the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it can\u2019t be\u2026.wait.\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere it comes.\u201d Thaddeus mumbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo! I\u2019m not dead\u2026!\u201d I screamed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShouldn\u2019t have shoved all that white powder up your nose to write tonight, kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prompt: command Thaddeus Crowe was restless tonight. I was trying to catch up on my latest short story submission\u2013a steampunk genre Civil War piece\u2013when the moaning and clanking started again […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":59,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c41-5mfe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}