We met up with our lovely daughter at a shopping centre, roughly halfway between where we each live. We wandered about a bit, then we had a delightful lunch at Wagamama’s and then we wandered a bit more. We were in a shop selling household goods and furnishings, and I was looking at settees for no real reason because we have enough. I stopped and looked at some cushions… yes, cushions, and couldn’t help but feel that the design of their fabric was rather strange.
It took me a few moments before I recognised not only why they made me feel uneasy, but what they reminded me of and I was taken back to being a young but adventurous reader and came across John Wyndham. I may have heard his most famous book dramatised on the radio – certainly “Day of the Triffids” was made into a radio drama, and subsequently television series. In fact the cushion covers don’t really look triffid-like at all, but they just gave me an uneasy feeling, so I obviously didn’t buy them, but I took photos… and now they seem to be menacing me.
Of course I am being fanciful, but as usual I might use the images and my imaginings to write something. I don’t think I have ever written a science fiction or dystopian future novel, but I do like to challenge myself – so maybe I will, but it won’t be the killer cushions!!
On the other hand… I still haven’t started my piece for the writers group, a monologue this time. One of the writers has shared her story already as she isn’t able to be with us, and she has set the bar high. I’m dithering about what to write… I mentioned I was thinking about writing a reminiscence written as if speaking to a cousin who shared the story, and I might write that anyway. However, I don’t think it’s the sort of thing for the group, it would have been perfect when I ran a creative writing group about autobiography and memoir… But now… maybe… “Death by Killer Cushion“? “The Plague of the Soft Furnishings“? “Upholstery Uxoricide”?
Lois Elsden 