Crazy collection of short stories.These stories usually start with the inspiration from a picture, and the pictures are supplied, free to publish, from Unsplash. I recently learned that C.S. Lewis was inspired to write the Narnia tales because when he was a boy he had an image in his head of a faun holding a bunch of packages, standing next to a lamp post. I find that starting the story is the easy part.
Sample, from "Mrs. Frost at Tea":
She sipped her cooling tea, thinking back on George. He had been the first. Matilda was very helpful, even efficient. All Mrs. Frost had to do was to begin telling her friends that George had gone on a business trip, to the continent, and wasn't expected back for some months. Then she'd let it get around that perhaps he'd met up with someone, somewhere in Italy actually, and wouldn't be returning at all. Her friends were respectfully sympathetic, pretending they didn't know he'd run off, pretending that Mrs. Frost was expecting him back, perhaps next spring. But, of course, he wouldn't be coming back. No one expected him. That worked out well.
That awful American solicitor was next. He was a horrible man, snooping around with his suspicions. When his company sent someone else looking for him some days later, Mrs. Frost simply said, yes, they had spoken, but no, she hadn't seen him for quite a few days now. But, by the way, did they handle problems like missing paintings? It seemed that right after that solicitor had stopped by, one of her very valuable paintings had disappeared. The company said no, that was outside their realm. They never returned.
The fragrance from Mrs. Smythe's hollyhocks returned. Very pleasant. Perhaps today would be a good day to pop across the street. She could ask if Gertie's supply of fertilizer was getting low. Mrs. Frost had a good supply of compost going, that might help. But Gertie had her own supply, too, Mrs. Frost remembered.
