Tuesday Tales: From the Word HARD

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. This weekly blog highlights the work in progress of a select group of authors. Each week, we write to a word or picture prompt. This week, our prompt is HARD. I’m continuing with my psychic romance/ paranormal suspense novel, Atonement. Enjoy.

Anca retraced her steps and entered the house once more. Voices coming from the kitchen indicated the women were busy baking. She looked around the foyer, the way she had a thousand times before, but this time everything from the painted white walls to the handwoven rugs seemed to have taken on new life. Was this because she believed and could see through the glow of magic? Why she could visualize the beauty of simple objects enhanced by spells and incantations? The room was really no different than it had always been, but she could appreciate it more in this new light. If there were secret passages leading from these rooms, surely, she would find them now?

Examining the banister and staircase with new appreciation, she was astounded by the fine detail of runes previously invisible to her. Was that a thunderbolt? The one a little father along was definitely a six-spoked wheel, and unless she was mistaken, the third was a ring with initials T O T. As she looked closer, she saw what appeared to be a tornado, dark clouds, and perhaps an eclipse … and was that a seal? The carvings were exquisite. How hard it must’ve been to bring that all the way to Salem in one piece, but as much as the item was gorgeous, it didn’t seem to fit the home of a Puritan. It was possible the family might not have been that way in Jersey.

Had they hope to be able to live freely here? When had they realized they’d simply traded one frying pan for another? Witch Trials had been prevalent throughout Europe for centuries before they’d come to Salem, so most likely that was why they’d fled.

Still, the Spanish oak tree from which the banister had been carved must’ve been massive. The workmanship on the spindles was meticulously done, and the wood polished to a high gleam. Why had she never noticed these things before? She’d been blind to far more than Hester’s presence.

Moving deeper into the house, she stepped into the recreation of the main floor of Hester’s home. While the kitchen had been changed and modernized, Aunt Selma, with Hester’s help no doubt, had recreated a close facsimile of the ghost’s home. Nothing in this room appeared to have been disturbed. The smaller items like the old prayer book and a book of proverbs were still there, next to an unfinished sampler and a pile of mending.

That’s it. Stay safe, and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.