{"id":1441,"date":"2019-09-07T01:12:34","date_gmt":"2019-09-07T01:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=1441"},"modified":"2019-08-31T18:16:44","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T18:16:44","slug":"lonely-lou-by-karen-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2019\/09\/07\/lonely-lou-by-karen-walker\/","title":{"rendered":"Lonely Lou by Karen Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After listening to long long tales of woe all day at her job, Karen Walker comes home and writes short short fiction. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Lonely Lou<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing\nin Lou\u2019s smoky, sweltering apartment, Officer Berg fanned his face with his\nnotebook as his partner Munroe tried a new approach.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow\nare you feeling? Anything going on that\u2019d make you hear sounds?\u201d Munroe\nasked.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berg\nrolled his eyes, mumbling about the psychobabble being taught to recruits these\ndays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bubbles\nof saliva popped at the corners of Lou\u2019s mouth. \u201cI\u2019m telling you there\u2019s a\nwailing coming from next door. The sound gets loud, and then it stops. Like right\nnow.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd\nthe three other times we\u2019ve been here this week,\u201d Berg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nold man dropped into his chair, jostling a little table. A remote fell to the\nfloor. \u201cI\u2019m not nuts!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure\nit isn\u2019t your TV? Some crime show?\u201d Berg smirked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo!\nSomeone\u2019s in agony in there. Maybe being held hostage. You have to\ninvestigate!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munroe\nspoke slowly. \u201cLou, we told you yesterday we found nothing next door. The place\nis empty. We don\u2019t want to come back again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nthe officers stepped into the dim hallway\u2014\u201cWait! Wait!\u201d Lou calling after\nthem\u2014Berg pointed to Munroe. \u201cTake one more look that way. I\u2019ll go this way\npast the \u2018wailing door.\u2019\u201d Leaning in, his ear almost touching the door\u2019s\npeeling red paint, he grumbled: \u201cThere. I\u2019m investigating.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nlong, ripping, tormented cry pierced the door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello.\nPolice. Open the door!\u201d Berg yelled, pounding.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwailing rose to a scream. \u201cOpen it now. Police!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nMunroe sprinted back, calling for back-up on his radio, Lou peeked into the\nhallway. \u201cYou hear it!\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berg\nkicked and kicked the door. Crack by splinter, it weakened until, with two last\nbooming hits by Munroe, the lock snapped. Guns drawn, they stormed into the\napartment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lou\nchuckled as he sat down with a tea. He listened to the wail and smiled. Then,\npicking up the remote, he pushed the device’s volume button and faded the sound\naway. Next door, Berg and Munroe were shouting. Outside, tires were screeching\nand sirens blaring as strobe lights whipped the building. Lonely Lou settled\nback. His show had finally begun.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After listening to long long tales of woe all day at her job, Karen Walker comes home and writes short short fiction. Lonely Lou Standing in Lou\u2019s smoky, sweltering apartment, Officer Berg fanned his face with his notebook as his partner Munroe tried a new approach.    \u201cHow are you feeling? Anything going on that\u2019d make … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-nf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1444,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions\/1444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}