Who ever said writing was a lonely pursuit?
Prologue Part 1:
The Wrath of Annie Aldridge
A bottle of whiskey flew past Luke Haggert’s ear and smashed into the alleyway behind him as he opened the door to the Pocket-change Pub. It wasn’t quite the homecoming he was expecting after two years in prison, but when he saw who was doing the throwing it started to make a bit more sense.
The filthy pub was empty except for the menacing figure standing behind the bar. Annie Aldridge. The love of Luke’s life and quite likely the person who wanted him dead the most. “You get out of jail and the first thing you do is pay a visit to your crew?” she screamed as Luke narrowly sidestepped another flying bottle.
Luke had promised Annie two things: to marry her and to give up his life of crime. Two days after that he told her he was going out to buy wedding invitations buy instead ended up getting arrested while attempting to rob a train. In hindsight he probably should have called her with his last quarter when he was released that morning instead of spending it on the ten-cent taffy lady down the street.
A third bottle smashed in the doorframe, showering Luke with broken glass and rum. Not the rum, he thought. “I came to see you!” Luke lied before Annie could arm herself with another projectile. “Dalton told me that I’d find you here and I wanted to surprise you!”
As if on cue, Dalton Lane popped his head out of the back kitchen. “Is that you, boss?” Dalton said, dropping the papers in his hands to give Luke a bone-crushing hug. As Dalton’s massive hands squeezed the air from his lungs, Luke wondered if it might have been safer had he stayed in prison.
“I got the maps like you asked, boss,” Dalton said, pointing at the stack of tattered documents on the table next to them.
“Came to see me, did you?” Annie said as she reached for another bottle. It was difficult to tell in the dim light but Luke was sure her face had turned a deep purple. “You’re planning a job, aren’t you?”
“A job?” Luke said, feigning surprise with a nervous laugh. “Of course not! I’ve only been out of prison for five hours.”
Just then, a shaggy haired kid walked through the door and slapped Luke on the shoulder with grease-stained hands. “We’re going to need those security codes if we expect to pull this job off, Luke,” he said, as if Luke had never been gone.
Luke cringed at Mickey the Mechanic’s poorly timed entrance and greeting. But instead of hurling the whiskey at Luke’s head, Annie drank the contents, slammed the bottle on the bar and stormed off into the backroom without another word. Luke actually wished she had thrown it. A silent Annie was a far more dangerous thing than a raging Annie.
"If I'm not back in twenty minutes, I'm probably dead," Luke said with a sigh as he headed to the backroom to confront Annie.
Nineteen minutes later Luke emerged from the backroom with a painful goose-egg over his left eye. "I don't want to talk about it," he said, leaving no room for argument. Dalton looked relieved to leave it at that as well.
Your turn! Submit a
scene for the chance to win $200!
So what really did happen? That's up to you! Submit your scene in
500 words or less on what you think transpired in the backroom between
Luke and Annie. Have fun with it and the best entry will be posted on
Plot Party.com and win $200. It's your chance to
steer the plot any way you want!
Next: Prologue Part 2 - Charlie the Poet >>>
Copyright © 2007 Plot Party. All Rights Reserved.
Stay tuned on Sept 8th, 2007 when your votes will decide the future of Luke Haggert's train heist.
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Prologue Part 1
Prologue Part 2
Prologue Part 3
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The outcome of real-life events
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Charlie.
Unravel the mysteries of
Pocket-change Parade by solving Charlie's puzzles.