(Lafayette Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana | Save Our Cemeteris Jean Mensa Google Maps)
The black lettering penciled into the attractive blue bottle proclaimed that the Scotch was first introduced to the world in the year 1824. Francesco poured a generous swig into an exquisitely customised glass, and lifting it against the yellow glow of the light swirled it around. The glistening effect never failed to warm the deepest recesses of his heart.
On the 8th of February every year, Francesco canceled every appointment, grave and trivial. A violation of this sacrosanct tenet in the words of his trusted secretary, Amelia, would trigger an “existential crisis.”
Waking up before the sun, Francesco would drive himself to the Lafayette Cemetery and sit in a pensive and penetrating vein before a grave that had an unmarked tombstone. This was where the old gardener was buried. His GOD who transformed him from an orphan into a man of reckoning.
The whiskey in the evening was a vent.
(Word Count: 150)
This has been an edition of What Pegman Saw
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9 comments
A good take on the prompt. Your story has pace and thoughtful content.
Thanks Much!
I surmise from your related posts that Mr Francesco is a recurring character. You portray his ritual very well. I think the length and complexity of your sentences befits the “gravity” of the occasion. I love the phrase “grave and trivial, ” just one example of the musical quality of this piece.
I do think it would benefit from a few extra commas to add clarity, though. 😊
Thank you so much for your invaluable comments. Will keep in the mind the employ of commas.
Interesting ritual, and I like all the details! Hmm… I may be over-thinking this, but if it’s really an “existential” crisis, it makes me wonder exactly what this “gardener’ made him into, and how this ritual maintains it! (Granted, I’m likely to see magic rituals in just about everything!)
Ha ha! Thank you so much for your comments. I was just extending the piece from an earlier one that I had written about Francesco and the gardener. In case your curiosity is piqued, here goes:
https://blogternator.com/2018/10/10/mr-francescos-altar-of-peace/
Interesting!
Liked “grave and trivial” and “pensive and penetrating” especially.
Thank you so much!