Every Sunday at dawn, March through to September, the Balderton Brass Band met up for a musical jamboree in a residential area. Their tone-deaf conductor, Jimmy ‘Spring Chicken’ Gilbert, delighted in aggravating his neighbours.
The instrumentalists — all octogenarians or nonagenarians — preferred to exercise their lungs from a sitting position, to put less stress on their knees.
“We will have a concert soon,” said Jimmy, just to keep the pensioners sweet until he’d stolen their souls.
On the bandstand, his tail twitched in time to the music and his retractable horns zizzed beneath his toupee. Off to the next town soon.
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Friday Fictioneers: 100-word stories
Photo prompt: image ©David Stewart
Who is Jimmy? I wonder….Nice one!
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You may well ask who Jimmy is, but if you should come across him, he is definitely best avoided!
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Sounds like quite a show!
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It certainly is!
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Oh my goodness, this is very scary. Toupees are scary enough, but with retractable horns too? That’s diabolical! 😯
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LOL, Sylvia l:D 😀 And yes, I agree that toupees are scary. I’d much rather see a man’s bald head, than some pretense at hairiness.
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Oohh! Like Spanish Train! How very devlish of you!
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No retractable horns hidden under my hair, which is far too untidy for a toupee!
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Remind me to skip that concert! Well done 🙂
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Unless you’re tone deaf, as well as careless with your soul, I definitely would skip it!
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No wonder Jimmy is a ‘spring chicken’…what a deliciously wicked, wicked tale with a devil of a twist…LOVE this Sarah 😀 xxxx
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Hee, hee, hee. Glad you enjoyed my wicked tale (tail), Sherri 🙂 xxxx
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Haha, I did, very much, wonderfully wicked 😀 And hope you don’t mind, but I’ve tagged you for a poetry challenge, very similar to the one you tagged me for, but thought you would enjoy it!! The challenges are flowing at the moment!! http://sherrimatthewsblog.com/2015/03/27/loves-lullaby/ Have a lovely weekend dear Sarah 🙂 xxxxx
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Love this.
On the bandstand, his tail twitched in time to the music and his retractable horns zizzed beneath his toupee. Off to the next town soon.
Such a sweet, innocent image.
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Thank you, Susannah. Glad you loved this story 🙂
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I did. Hard to pack so much feeling into so few words. It’s truly an art Sarah.
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This is a performance I think I’ll try to avoid – toupees and retractable horns make me uncomfortable! Good story. 🙂
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And so you should. The owners of toupees and retractable horns are not pleasant at all D:
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I was looking for an ‘ole folks’ story…. not a permanent ‘kidnapping into eternity’! Nicely done.
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Was feeling devilish, so just couldn’t resist it!
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You succeeded!
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Hehe, devilish from the beginning to the end!
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Devilish, indeed 😀
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Brilliant, wicked, and oh so funny! It reminded of The Music Man, a story I’ve always loved. It’s about a small time flim flam man who cons a small turn of the last century Midwestern town into buying musical instruments and promises to teach them to play, even though he hasn’t a musical bone in his body. (Actually, it was starring Robert Preston, so he could really belt out a tune, but he never picked up anything more musical than a conductor’s baton in this story.)
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I’ve never seen The Music Man, although know of Robert Preston. Must look this story up – see if the film is on YouTube. Thanks for telling me about it, Naomi 🙂
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Dear Sarah,
I do hope you can find it. It has some really sweet moments, some funny stuff too, and now my sister and I have a running joke between ourselves, all about “The Think System.” If you do find it, let me know what you think.
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The film is on YouTube, Naomi. Not sure if it’s the same version or a remake, but will watch it at the first opportunity when life lets up and I’m allowed the time. Everybody needs me at the moment, which is better than not being needed — just rather exhausting 🙂
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Ha.. Somehow even the lesser demons in the hierarchy of hell can be succesful in their feats to steal the souls with sin. Murdering music is one of them.
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Methinks, there are plenty of humans who murder music, too!
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Dear Sarah,
Your ending helps us understand Jimmy’s devil-may-care attitude. Loved the image of horns zizzing through his toupe and his tail behind him. Could be a Twilight Zone episode. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
Thank you. Glad you liked the horns etc. I love the Twilight Zone.
All best wishes,
Sarah
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Dear Sarah,
A wicked good story this week. Loved the happy horned devil harvesting old folks souls from small town America. Well done.
Aloha,
Doug
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Dear Doug,
So glad you enjoyed this week’s spot of wickedness. Thanks 🙂
All best wishes,
Sarah
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ha ha- dance with the devil!!
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A zizzingly bad fellow, indeed!
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Oh, lovely catch at the end- zizzing horns and all.
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Thank you. Glad you liked it 🙂
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At least he’s keeping them happy until he’s ready to whizz off with their souls. Fun story.
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That’s true, Margaret. Better to die happy — I guess (?)
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Love this Sarah, it had me laughing even before I got to the wicked twist!
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Excellent, Andrea, to have made you laugh. I love it when people appreciate my rather strange sense of humour!
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