{"id":787,"date":"2023-03-20T22:29:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T22:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherylryan.com\/?page_id=787"},"modified":"2023-09-12T00:13:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T00:13:13","slug":"prologue","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cherylryan.com\/index.php\/prologue\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiction work(s) in progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 1, Holiday Hijinks<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin woke with a start. Instinctively he lay frozen on the bed, with the exception of slowly opening his eyes and looking around the room. He allowed the hairs on the tips of his ears to twitch, just a little. He lay quiet, listening, studying the sounds of the darkness. Nothing. He waited. Something had woken him up, he was sure of it. He allowed the end of his tail to twitch, just a little. His eyes were wide open now, the pupils dark and dilated and very, very big. His ears twitched and this time he didn’t stop them. His tail started to jerk and he didn’t try to stop it, either. He was curled into a ball, his chin on top of his feet, but his spine was ready to uncoil like a spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oof!” he heard. Merlin sprang onto the floor and was in the hallway in less than a second. He stopped, froze, and listened. Oh, there is definitely something going on downstairs<\/em>, he thought. Merlin slowly crept down the hallway, stopping every few feet to freeze and listen. Rustling. Thumping. Sliding. He reached the top of the stairs. Just go<\/em>, he thought. Down he ran with blazing speed, not making a sound. He slithered into one of his favorite hiding spots, between two plant pots with lots of leafy coverage from which to spy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cat had grasped the life stages and relationships of the two-legged, mostly hairless family called Mandy, Toby, and Ellie. The one called Uncle Lou was the biggest one he’d ever met. Like Uncle Lou, the figure in this room was in every way twice the size of Toby, a youngster. But unlike Uncle Lou, this one had very light skin and shiny white hair, which was also on most of his face. He was wearing a lot more clothing than the others and it looked incredibly soft. The stranger was pulling things out of a sack and placing them under the tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin grumbled at this. No one’s scolding HIM for being too close to the tree<\/em>, he thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know you’re there, Merlin,” a deep, soothing voice stated as the large figure continued to pull one item at a time out of the sack. Merlin jumped, startled. “You can come out. Santa has a present for you, too. I know how good you’ve been.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curious beyond belief, Merlin couldn’t help but emerge from the shadows. It was as if an invisible force was pulling him to\u2026 Santa? He’d heard that name before; in fact, he’d heard it lots of times but especially in the last few days. Wait, how did Santa know his name was Merlin? He thought he should be alarmed by this but he could not stop his legs from moving toward the giant. In the blink of an eye, Merlin was snuggled into Santa’s arms. This was the softest cradle Merlin had ever known. He gazed dreamily into Santa’s friendly eyes and purred loudly. Just when he started to drift into a blissful slumber, the smell of catnip reached his nostrils. Santa was dangling a fuzzy toy mouse in front of Merlin’s face! He put them both on the sofa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin batted the toy a few times before pouncing on it and rolling over and over with it. Santa ate his cookie, drank his milk, grabbed the carrots, and turned to Merlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Merlin. Merlin!<\/em>” The dazed cat finally looked at Santa. “Merlin, I want you to wear your collar all day and all night until midnight. Can you do that for me?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin blinked. “Good. Merry Christmas Merlin. I’ll see you next year!” Santa smiled broadly and added “ho ho ho” as he simply disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin blinked. What just happened here? Where was Santa? What collar? Ooohhh catnip.<\/em> Merlin poked the toy mouse and forgot all about Santa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Prologue, Upside Drowned (A Lucy Langston Mystery)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jimmy Parsons was surprised at the simple ease of Benny’s death. He’d expected groaning, or gasping, or\u2026 something. <\/em>But Jimmy had been looking right at Benny’s face, silently wondering how much longer it would be before his heart stopped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then it did. Benny was breathing, and then he wasn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lone tear squeezed from the corner of Jimmy’s eye but he felt both relieved and unsurprised. Benny’s brain activity had stopped a few days ago when he’d suffered a massive seizure. Jimmy was there, with Benny’s family, when they removed the life-supporting apparatus. They had all stood at his bedside, staring intently at the boy they already missed until the nurse gently reminded them that Benny could remain in this state for days, maybe weeks. Even then, they were all cried out. Benny had lost his life in the lake almost a month ago, as far as the people that loved him knew. Since then, they’d been visiting machines and tubes while Benny’s body lay unresponsive in the hospital bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jimmy met Mr. Adams in the hallway. They didn’t speak. Mr. Adams threw his arms around Jimmy and they both began to sob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know you loved him, son. It’s a terrible thing to lose your best friend like this.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jimmy and Benny were both fifteen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 1, Holiday Hijinks Merlin woke with a start. Instinctively he lay frozen on the bed, with the exception of slowly opening his eyes and looking around the room. He allowed the hairs on the tips of his ears to twitch, just a little. He lay quiet, listening, studying the sounds of the darkness. Nothing.… Continue reading Fiction work(s) in progress<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-787","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nFiction work(s) in progress -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cherylryan.com\/index.php\/prologue\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/cherylryan.com\/index.php\/prologue\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fiction work(s) in progress -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chapter 1, Holiday Hijinks Merlin woke with a start. 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