{"id":347,"date":"2020-09-30T14:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/?p=347"},"modified":"2020-09-30T14:00:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T21:00:36","slug":"the-trunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/2020\/09\/30\/the-trunk\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trunk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photo by <\/span>Weber VanHeber<\/a> from <\/span>FreeImages<\/a><\/p>\n

This was Kevin O\u2019Leary\u2019s night. Calculated to precision, today was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. His one chance.<\/p>\n

After he had arrived at the tree stand in the wee hours of the morning and concealed his motorbike under a large willow, he climbed the ladder and saw the glade below him glistening with tiny lights. A hum of activity floated up to his spot in the tree, and he knew that he was right.\u00a0 Once in a century, and tonight it was.<\/p>\n

Seamus was late again. When he finally arrived, Kevin had been standing in the tree for more than two hours watching and waiting. Seamus brought a thermos of coffee and powdered donuts but no apologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeen any yet?\u201d Seamus asked.<\/p>\n

Kevin shook his head and bit back criticism of his friend\u2019s late arrival. He couldn\u2019t piss off Seamus. He needed the car. \u201cNo, they\u2019re there all right. Those lights have been twinkling up at me. But I hear it starting to break up.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he spoke, a shadow broke away from the glade and began to skip down a trail heading to the river. Seamus grabbed Kevin\u2019s arm as he was lifting the rifle to aim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere! Did you see that?\u201d He jumped up and down, sloshing his coffee and spitting powdered sugar onto his chin. \u201cTake a shot, Kevin, take a shot!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin frowned and looked through the sights. \u201cKeep your voice down, idiot. And stop your damn jumping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seamus stopped jumping. Then he pointed to another shadow breaking out of the glade and heading towards the road. \u201cThere! There\u2019s another one!\u201d he hissed.<\/p>\n

Kevin lifted his gun, took aim, and fired. The figure was hit on an up-skip and dropped like a rock to the ground. At the sound of the shot, the lights in the glade disappeared, and the woods became silent, with the exception of Seamus\u2019 quiet cheers.<\/p>\n

Kevin grabbed his bag, stowed his rifle and scurried down the stairs. Seamus followed, and they were soon running towards the fallen figure. Kevin slowed to a stop before reaching it. Seamus, not looking, ran into him, and Kevin staggered forward, dropping to his hands and knees next to the body.<\/p>\n

He was close. It was green. The man was green. How had he not known this? And though small, the man was big for a leprechaun, the size of a large dog, perhaps, though it was difficult to tell with the body curled up like that. He had a large head with red hair and a red beard and skin the colour of fresh peas, a colour fading away even as he watched.<\/p>\n

He was going to make a lot of money. He hadn\u2019t thought it would be so easy, yet here it was, a leprechaun.\u00a0 And they weren\u2019t far from the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeamus, get the car, man. We are now in a goddammed hurry. If we don\u2019t get the body out of the woods before sunup, it\u2019ll disappear.\u201d He looked at the east and the glint of sunlight below the horizon. \u201cLet\u2019s get the hell out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRighto, Kevin, I\u2019ll bring the car to the road just over there.\u201d He pointed to the road and Kevin nodded.<\/p>\n

As Seamus ran off, Kevin stuffed the body into a sack. It was heavy for such a little body. Kevin hoped that the extra weight was due to pockets filled with gold doubloons. He knew some of the legends surrounding leprechauns but wasn\u2019t sure which were legend, and which were fact. His hands were shaking as he tied the bag with a rope and slung it over his shoulder.\u00a0 He saw brakelights on the road and headed towards them quickly.<\/p>\n

Seamus met him and beamed as he neared the road. \u201cGot her all ready, Kev. My sis doesn\u2019t know that I took it yet, but I\u2019ll have it back before she even knows it was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeamus,\u201d Kevin said, his voice rising. He stopped stock still, looked at the car and dropped the bag. \u201cWhere\u2019s your Volkswagen?\u201d<\/p>\n

Seamus looked confused. \u201cIt\u2019s in the shop, Kev. I borrowed Lily\u2019s car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin looked at the Smart Fortwo microcar. It was tiny. He lifted the small hatchback trunk to assess the space. As it opened, a cascade of books, clothes, empty water bottles and a gym bag came tumbling out. Even empty, there was not enough space. The body was too big for the trunk. Kevin knew he had a problem.<\/p>\n

The sun\u2019s rays peeked out from the east. \u201cWe have no time!\u201d Kevin began shoving the trunk\u2019s contents out onto the road.<\/p>\n

Seamus protested. \u201cAh, c\u2019mon, man, let\u2019s not be so hasty. My sister\u2019s going to kill me.\u201d He tried scooping the litter from the road back into the car, but Kevin knocked him aside and swept the rest of it onto the road. He picked up the sack as Seamus wailed and gathered his sister\u2019s belongings.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoddammit, Seamus, if the sun rises and the leppie\u2019s not in the trunk, we\u2019ll lose him. We\u2019ll lose everything.\u201d Kevin hefted the bag and tossed it towards the trunk, but it was heavier than he thought, and it hit the bumper before falling to the ground with a solid thunk. The bag opened, and the leprechaun\u2019s red hair and green hand poked out the top. Kevin grabbed the sack, shoved the head and hand back down and looped the rope around the bag.<\/p>\n

He hurled the bag towards the trunk.<\/p>\n

Sunlight streaked across the sky, casting its rays over the woods and then the bag in mid-air. The bag hung for a moment, suspended between Kevin and the trunk. And then it dropped, suddenly empty, onto the road. Kevin roared with anger and picked up the limp bag. He shook it at Seamus.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou lost it! You!\u201d He screamed and slammed his fist into the car. Then he sat down on the road, put his face in his hands and moaned.<\/p>\n

Seamus said nothing as he picked up his sister\u2019s remaining items and put them back into the tiny trunk.\u00a0 He noticed a shiny gold coin on the ground, looked at Kevin\u2019s sobbing figure, picked it up quietly and snuck it into his pocket. It ought to be enough for gas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Weber VanHeber from FreeImages This was Kevin O\u2019Leary\u2019s night. Calculated to precision, today was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. His one chance. After he had arrived at the tree stand in the wee hours of the morning and concealed his motorbike under a large willow, he climbed the ladder and saw the glade below him glistening with tiny lights. A … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[142,141,140,118,143,139],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shorts","tag-fortune","tag-hunting","tag-leprechauns","tag-shorts","tag-small-cars","tag-writing-prompts","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}