Writer's Block - James Norris
She stares blankly at the monitor. The illuminated rectangular screen returns her gaze, taunting her.
Seconds tick by. Nothing.
Minutes pass. Still nothing.
No movement, no inspiration, no words – just the flashing cursor on an empty page.
She longs to hear the click-clack of the keyboard, as though that sound were the conduit for all manner of wondrous things.
Click-clack, clickity-clack, the elegant carriage, all ivory trim passing by her window in times gone by.
Click-clack, clickity-clack, the evening rain on the tiled roof. Watching, listening. Cosy and snug by the fire within.
Click-clack, clickity-clack, the devious mouse scurrying across the kitchen floor to its secret hideaway. What treasures does it keep beyond those walls? Oh the mystery! Oh the intrigue!
The click-clacks are the sounds of her many-faced muse, all at once – the muse that is warm to her touch, the muse that keeps her awake at night, the muse she can never catch. How can this be, she wonders? How can the world fall into place and, at the same time, fall out of place from such a thing? The knowing and the unknowing. The conscious thought and the unconscious dream.
Her eyes widen, her gaze softens and she loses herself in that boundless nether realm where all possibilities are within reach.
Transported, she finds herself by the honeyed milk of ancient Rome, brimming in gold-plated saucers. Servants brush her hair in tender strokes and carry her on a bed of silk to recline above the throne of Jove. Oh, what bliss!
And then, as though jolted awake by the snap of fingers, she returns. The inspiration she needed has arrived. A moment that sends lightning through her body and stands her hair on end. It comes to her like a devil at the door, the impetus to strike the keys as though her life hangs in the balance.
“Mittens! Get away from there!” the human roars from the doorway, its face gnarled and twisted. Its footsteps thunder towards her like a hailstorm.
Her paws scurry over the keyboard. Sdxnhu7y fdsjhmu786
Ne’er truer words written.
James Norris was the winner of June’s Lockdown Flash Fiction competition in our Pen & Pixel email newsletter. Subscribe to Pen & Pixel for more competitions, including our monthly #RightLeftWrite.