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400 Boys and 50 More

Page 86

by Marc Laidlaw


  The silver car whispered away.

  The house was small, but it had all the comforts and conveniences. He unpacked his suitcases and put his clothes away; found a bottle of very old whisky and a box of very young cigars, but these were not what tempted him. He went out onto the terrace and gazed over the gardens. He was braced and waiting for the aimless soundtrack to make one more offensive squawk when, suddenly, it stopped. The sounds of island night crept in. It was bliss. The landscape was sparingly painted with light, evocative as a dream. He saw hints of buildings through the trees, the glow of ornamental ponds, white coral pillars, miles and miles of gardens. A distant spire that must have belonged to the composer, now retired for the night. In the absence of music he felt he could finally think, could finally imagine what might take its place, what this garden truly needed.

  “The finest, fullest flowering,” the Patron had stated, and indeed it was true. The place was in full bloom. But every garden needed pruning, and a blossom deserved to be lopped before its prime had passed, before its petals fell.

  He set his black bag on the table, thinking of tools he had always wanted but never bothered to acquire, never daring to think he might get to use them. But that could come later. For now, he had all he needed to get started.

  He took out his prize set of shears, edges gleaming, of pristine surgical steel.

  I’ll begin with that composer’s horrible, hideous, ragged-nailed fingers, he thought, looking off toward the dark house of sound, imagining notes that were very sweet indeed.

  * * *

  “The Finest, Fullest Flowering” copyright 2016 by Marc Laidlaw. First appeared online at Nightmare Magazine, June 2016.

  AFTERWORD

  One of the most famous techniques in film is the “dolly zoom” Alfred Hitchcock invented for use in Vertigo. At several key moments in the movie, while the camera pulls away from Jimmy Stewart, the lens zooms in. The angles skew, the mind boggles, the eponymous Vertigo ensues.

  Reading back through all my short fiction, seeing it gathered in one place, moving through it quickly as I compose it in the frame of this book, I have frequently experienced a kind of “time zoom” vertigo. Apart from my writing, there’s not much else to cling to when I get dizzy. A story-obsessed lad of the Sixties, I find it suddenly fifty years later, and I’m still thinking of myself first and foremost as a writer, still wanting to be an always better one.

  It’s what I’ve done. It’s what I do. I can’t see myself stopping.

  My thanks to all those who have been with me along the way, sharing advice, encouragement, support. My editors, my teachers in school and out of it, my friends, my family.

  And thanks especially to my readers.

  BOOKS BY MARC LAIDLAW

  AVAILABLE IN KINDLE EDITIONS

  Dad’s Nuke

  Neon Lotus

  Kalifornia

  The Orchid Eater

  The 37th Mandala

  400 Boys and 50 More

  Table of Contents

  INTRODUCTION: 400 + 50 = 51

  THE SEVENTIES: FAIL EARLY

  SPAWN OF THE RUINS

  TISSUE

  RATTLEGROUND

  THE EIGHTIES: PEAK OMNI

  SNEAKERS

  400 BOYS

  THE RANDOM MAN

  SEA OF TRANQUILLITY

  MUZAK FOR TORSO MURDERS

  SHUCK BROTHER

  FAUST FORWARD

  NUTRIMANCER

  THE LIQUOR CABINET OF DR. MALIKUDZU

  GOOD ‘N’ EVIL, OR, THE ONCE AND FUTURE THING

  LOAVES FROM HELL

  LOVE COMES TO THE MIDDLEMAN

  MIDDLEMAN’S RENT

  THE FARMER ON THE WALL

  BRUNO’S SHADOW

  YOUR STYLE GUIDE—USE IT WISELY

  MARS WILL HAVE BLOOD

  UNEASY STREET

  THE DEMONSTRATION

  HIS POWDER’D WIG, HIS CROWN OF THORNES

  THE NINETIES: FIRST-PERSON READER

  WARTORN, LOVELORN

  GASOLINE LAKE

  WUNDERKINDERGARTEN

  THE VULTURE MAIDEN

  GREAT BREAKTHROUGHS IN DARKNESS

  TERROR FAN

  THE DIANE ARBUS SUICIDE PORTFOLIO

  THE BLACK BUS

  MAD WIND

  TO LIE BETWEEN THE LOINS OF PERKY PAT

  NETHER REACHES

  TOTAL CONVERSION

  THE NEW MILLENNIUM: HALF-LIFE & LESSONS HALF-LEARNED

  SLEEPY JOE

  CELL CALL

  FLIGHT RISK

  JANE

  SWEETMEATS

  EVALUATION OF THE HANNEMOUTH BEQUEST

  AN EVENING’S HONEST PERIL

  THE VICAR OF R’LYEH

  LENG

  BEYOND 2010: OVER THE INFLUENCE

  POKKY MAN

  THE BOY WHO FOLLOWED LOVECRAFT

  FORGET YOU

  BONFIRES

  THE FRIGID ILK OF SARN KATHOOL

  THE GHOST PENNY POST

  THE FINEST, FULLEST FLOWERING

  AFTERWORD

  BOOKS BY MARC LAIDLAW

 

 

 


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