by Mark Souza
***
Cupid’s Maze Tidbits
The primary inspiration for this story was a Halloween trip to Bob’s corn maze, a local favorite in Snohomish County, I’d made a few weeks earlier with my youngest daughter. The maze wasn’t that large. It, too, had maps at the entrance, but unlike Sean and Janet’s maze, there were plenty of landmarks for navigation. We live in hilly country with lots of tall trees. A tall cottonwood was our North Star back to the parking lot.
I thought it would only take half an hour or so, but I was wrong. Surprise, surprise, the map was useless after the first ten minutes. But we still had our cottonwood to show us the way out. After forty-five minutes of getting nowhere, I started using the trick of bending stalks at intersections to point the route we had selected the first time. It didn’t help. It took another two hours to find our way out.
It started me thinking. What if the corn was taller, the maze much bigger, and in a region without landmarks? What if it was a cloudy day without even a sun to use as a compass? And what if there was no one else in the maze, only the sound of rustling corn and impatient crows. Now, what if there was something else in the corn, something dangerous and deadly.
The beginning of the story closely parallels the trip I took with my wife (then fianceé) to meet her folks to announce we were engaged. I wrote the story during lunch breaks at work. When I needed names, I noticed a pair of coworkers talking. Sean was fine with being in the story. Janet will never forgive for making her dinner for a brood of hungry spiders.
About the Author
Mark Souza lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, two children, and mongrel beast-dog, Tater. When he’s not writing, he’s out among you trying to look and act normal (whatever that is), reminding himself that the monsters he’s created are all in his head, no more real than campaign promises.
Upcoming Titles
My novel Robyn’s Egg will be released in the spring of 2012
A collection of my short stories, Try 2 Stop Me, will be released in September of 2012
Other FREE short stories coming soon:
Appliances Included
Murphy’s Law
The Diary of Horatio White
Second Honeymoon
The Comfort Shack