Rock, Paper and Scissors

Drabbles

1. The Mysterious Yodeler

On a cold, dark night while the entire town snored peacefully under their covers, one soul dared to rebel against the sandman’s wishes. The fourteen-year-old sat at her desk under the glow of a single fluorescent lamp, working tirelessly at her task. She took a cotton bud, dipped it in an anti-coagulant solution and held it over the fragile object. Like a detective dusting for fingerprints, she pressed the cotton bud along the frame in successive hops with the care and precision of a forensic expert.

Who is this mysterious figure?

We do not know yet.

What is she doing at this unearthly hour?

We do not know that either.

Somewhere from the hollow of her dark room, the clock struck two and the subtle sound rang in her ears. She paid no heed to it. Instead, she laid down the cotton bud and picked up the fragile object. She held the Polaroid against the light, squinting at her handy-work.

“Hmm,” she murmured to herself complaisantly. “Something’s still missing-”

She inserted the picture into a laminated cover, picked up a black marker and scribbled along the edges.

A touch of innocence on cherry red lips

Leslie’s eyes glinted in the light reflected from the glossy cover. She stocked away the picture into a brown cardboard box and stretched her arms, tired from all the work.

Outside, the lone sound of a cat mewing tragically cut through the silence of the night.

Who is this mysterious yodeler?

We do not know yet. This reporter would have cared to find out but it would have been a dangerous mission. For now, he’s signing out.

By The Jazzy Dazzle’s special correspondent,

Kingsley Miller