The first time she had stood, unnoticed, on the street corner, the city had barely been a hamlet. Now the rush and bustle of a metropolis surrounded her: the neon lights and constant hubbub buzzing like flies in the periphery of her vision.

She had stood on this spot on the same day each year for centuries. She waited from dawn to midnight, never knowing when he might appear. It always rained. At least now she had an umbrella to disguise the fact that where she stood, the rain did not fall. And she was rather fond of the warm glow that shone from the streetlamp through the red canopy overhead.

He always appeared without warning; blink and you would miss it, concluding that there had always been two figures huddled under the red umbrella, not one as you had previously thought.

A mere moment pressed together: no words exchanged, just a gaze that held myriad emotions and a million unspoken thoughts, and a thick, parchment envelope, sealed with red wax, passing from the hands of one to the other.

And then he was gone and she would turn and walk away, the heels of her boots making no disturbance in the puddles on the street.

“You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable,” she pleaded. “Something beautiful and full of monsters.”

Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Inspired by Erin Morgenstern’s Flax-Golden Tales, I have decided to embark on my own creative writing blog series, “Wild & Improbable Tales”, as a way to write more freely and more frequently. At least once a week, I will choose a card at random from The School Of Life‘s ‘Small Pleasures’ box and use the image and/or writing on the back to inspire a short piece of creative writing. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.