The rain poured down in sheets outside. Thunder rattled my office window and echoed in my ears. The lights in the building flickered, and I briefly wondered if I should light my lantern. Before I could get up, a shadowy figure appeared in the pebbled glass of my door. My heart jumped as the door opened, and he walked in. Of all the private investigators in town, why did he have to come to my office?
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Brigid Kildare added a tiny glass pane to the lamp she was working on. When finished, it would be a two-level glass lantern shaped roughly like a flat-sided hour glass, but less than an inch in length. Her larger one, almost a foot high, sat on the bench. The design was one of her best sellers, but this one was special with tiny panes of crackled glass surrounded by a silver cage attached to a silver chain. Her blowtorch flared as she touched the flame to the solder, and she backed off to check the setting. It was the same as always, but the flame flared again.
The storms cleared away and the residents emerged to view the damages left behind. Trees had been uprooted, branches flung everywhere, shingles and anything that hadn’t been tied down (and a few things that had) all blown about the town. Though no single building had been destroyed, all of them had some kind of damage.
The worst of the damage, though, was at the south end cemetery. Unlike the other one in town, the one that stood on high ground, the south end one bordered the creek. The creek that even now was still well outside its normal boundaries.
“I told the council they shouldn’t have cut down the banks,” a woman wearing a long white nightgown said. “Look at this mess!”
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Image by athrasher
Good afternoon, Gloaming Gap Emporium. Betsy speaking. How may I help you?
I’m sorry. There seems to be some interference on the line; could you repeat that? Perhaps there is a problem with the phone lines.
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Despite her claims to the contrary, this image, dated 1901, from Wausaukee, WI, shows that Vicky quite clearly is older than she appears.
For the past twenty years, Vicky has worked in various areas of publishing including writing, editing, reviewing, acquisitions, and bookselling. Her own works in fantasy, paranormals and futuristics led to stories with Gloaming Gap, a place where anything can happen – and does.
