Today’s post is a short scene staring one of (many of) your favorite characters and in an effort to satisfy the JusJoJan prompt: “Penultimate” from Judy https://judydykstrabrown.com/ , as well as Teagan Geneviene’s latest writing exercise. Teagan asks us to: “Write at least a paragraph that has to do with a year 24. For example 1724, 2024, 2324.”
The director called Skippy over to his chair. “Skippy, we have a problem, and you might be the only person who can help us.”
“What kind of problem, Mr. DeVos?”
“In the parlance of the era of this play, you know, nineteen twenty-four, our resident sheik got himself plastered and upchucked in the street. Some John Law nabbed him and he’s under glass for a stretch and won’t be able to go on stage tonight. Do you think you can fill in?”
“And how! I’ve studied his role, Mr. DeVos. I’m sure I could go on for him.”
“Attaboy, but there’s a problem. We added a penultimate scene, you know, just before the climax. Your character meets up with some sheba. She gets him so balled up, he almost misses the train at the start of the final scene. I need you to get into character for that. Do you still think you can do it?”
“Posilutely. I’ll just imagine I’m dancing with Lulu. I’m a pretty good hoofer.”
“Lulu? Who’s Lulu? Ain’t no Lulu in this play. .”
“Lulu’s a flapper from the past. I met her at some ritzi party at some real swanky place. Man I could be her jelly bean.”
“From the past? Are you hopped up? How did you meet some kitten from the past?”
“I swear, I’m not primed or potted. I was at a party, and Lulu strolled in toward the end. I made her a drink, but she wanted to go out and get a cheeseburger. So off we went.”
“Well, you’re a bit of a pushover. What’s this woman like? Maybe we can add something to the character in this scene, so she encourages you.”
“Give her a bloody Mary and a bowl of horseradish to dip the celery in. She loves to do that.”
“That will be easy. The scene takes place in a speakeasy. Put on those glad rags and get a wiggle on. We have a dress rehearsal in ten minutes.”
In addition to the prompt, this post benefited from Teagan’s dictionary of slang from the Roaring Twenties — Speak Flapper, and from her serial story, Hullaba Lulu.
All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
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