3rd Victor Villasenor: Entries, Entries, Featured
Uncommon senses
The first cut is the deepest, so they say. And the first line? Well, that can heal, scar, tantalise or confound. It’s like the first flirtatious whisper, or the hint that launches a thousand rumours.
It’s electric, it’s homeopathic…it’s from Red and White by Kenneth Weene.
The great owl-scream of the white smoke whistle.
And again the sound pierced his ears.
The screak of metal on metal.
A lurch.
The boy was forced back in the wooden bench.
His breath caught and then released.
Lone Cricket watched through the dirty window as the train staggered from the station. He saw a man in a fancy checked suit and holding two cases talk through the grated window. He remembered the man who sat behind that grate — a small man perched on a high stool, a visor on his forehead even though there was no sun, his finger resting on the talking key, the one that tapped clicks and clacks along the singing wire.
A powerful beginning. . .
So, this is more than one paragraph. Does that mean we get to submit more than one paragraph, too.
I defer to Thorn, the Final Judge, on that one!
And I will refer to the manual.(Don’t you just hate having to do everything manually?) Oh wait! There is no manual! I just make the stuff up! OK. The idea of the contest is to demonstrate how you pull the reader in with your first sentence. You will be judged ONLY on the first sentence. If you would like to fill in a little space after that, either with an explanation of the story to come, or with enough text to give your first sentence a pedestal, be my quest.
Por exemplo:
“It was the best of times, it was the wurst of times”
Dante paid her the money, (expecting change, franc-ly) and asked for a doggy-bag.. The sausage was delicious, but it gave him heartburn. “I didn’t think you were the kind of man who’d own a dog,” smirked she. I don’t,” he retorted, “but in Paris it’s easy to find some stray for my left-overs.”
I’d sooner pass up my favorite flavored ice cream for a story or novel or poem by Kenneth Weene! He rates quite high on my list of mesmerizing authors.
Mr. Weene, what a great opener to put us in our proper places in our seats on that train. Before you start your magic there is that sound that lets the dance begin.