Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Writing Is Loud

You remember that I do this prompt writing right before I turn out the light, right? Last night Durwood came to bed at about the same time so he was lying there, quiet, with his ear pressed to the pillow while I wrote. I lay on my stomach with my pillow stuffed under my chest and write in my notebook which lies on the bed. I can hear the scratching of my pencil but don't pay much attention but last night when I closed my notebook and reached to put it on the night table a little voice beside me said, "Writing is loud." "Sometimes," I said. And then we kissed goodnight.

January 11--Kunz Lochner, Armor of Emperor Ferdinand I. He had expected to feel invincible but instead he felt beleaguered by the sounds coming from every direction. Even though the armor had been custom made for him, Fred couldn't get it settled right. He'd twitch the breastplate only to shift an arm guard or one of the articulated plates on his thigh would dig into him and his leg would go numb. He hoped he still had the reins in his left hand. He couldn't feel them and his helm didn't let him look down and check. It was a good thing that his charger, Ajax knew what to do because he wasn't really steering the horse, he was just hoping to stay on. Fred was sure that Ajax didn't respect him anyway. The big white horse would turn away and try to shove him off balance when he'd arrive at the stable each day even though Fred brought an apple for the beast. Ajax liked his page, Gerhard who crooned to the horse and decked him out in his own armor similar to Fred's. Fred was convinced that Gerhard had poisoned Ajax's mind against him and taught the horse maneuvers to make him look like a fool, but Gerhard always smiled and tried to help Fred make the horse behave. Damn, this lance was heavy. Wasn't the parade nearly over? Being crown prince was no fun at all, just wait until he got to be emperor.

Poor Fred, sucks to be him. Cool looking armor except for the disks of metal protruding from his armpits. I don't know what those could be for. Nice engraving, though, and it's not dented so he must not have had to be in battle in it. Maybe the sun will shine for a minute today. That'd be good.
--Barbara

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