The Light is Low 2 - Naomi Wilde

Naomi Wilde has gone on a twelve day cruise* with her two friends, Skye** and Chantel**. On the morning of the last day, a diamond necklace is reported stolen out of a safe hidden behind a painting in the concierge lounge. 

Naomi is an artist and she often reproduces paintings that appeal to her. In the concierge lounge she had discovered a wonderful seascape that had captured her attention, and she found herself drawn to the painting to study the colors, texture, and technique used by the artist. About eight days in to the cruise, she had been filmed, by onboard video cameras, reaching out to touch the painting just as an electrical failure occurred and caused a power outage*** onboard the ship. When the power came back on,  and the cameras began filming again, Naomi was no longer in the lounge. Naomi is accused of the theft. 

I haven't figured out yet where to start the story.  I think It'll be right after the investigation when Naomi is telling her friends that she has been accused of the crime; then we'll flashback to the start of the cruise. Either that, or I'll start it with Naomi being approached by the police/FBI to begin the interrogation.     If either of you have an idea on how to get the story started, feel free!

We'll need to come up with a name for this, but I'm sure something obvious will occur to one or the other of us as we get into it. 

*  https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/itinerary/12-night-mediterranean-greek-isles-from-barcelona-on-vision/VI12BCN-128887955?sail-date=2019-07-29&currency=USD&wuc=USA

Vision of the Seas Royal Caribbean 12 night Mediterranean Greek Isles Barcelona, Spain | Monte Carlo (Cannes), France | Florence/Pisa (La Spezia), Italy| Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy | Cruising | Athens (Piraeus), Greece | Mykonos,Greece | Santorini, Greece | Cruising | Valletta, Malta | Cruising | Barcelona,Spain

** I'll play the part of Naomi.  Feel free to pick which of her friends to write from, also change their names to whatever you choose. You should develop their background/history, but let's say that the three became friends at University.   Do you have any preferences on which University? 

We'll probably also need these characters:

• Local Greek Investigator(s)
  
• FBI 
• The true thief (unless we decide that Naomi really did it!)
• Others?

I wonder if Tim or Brian or others will want to participate. Do you have email addresses for either, so I can send an invite?

*** https://www.cruiselawnews.com/articles/power-loss/   The Vision of the Seas is sailing on a 12 day cruise from Monday, May 14 to Saturday, May 26 to the Greek Isles, leaving and returning to Barcelona, Spain.  It was sailing between Mykonos to Santorini when it experienced power failure.

The Light is Low(er)

They call this the gloaming, this time of day as the sun sets low, glowing golden on the trees and mountains, lighting up glass windows and reflecting off metal roofs and antenna. The gloaming produces such a warm color, but belies the coolness in the air, which is crisp and chill, and likely to get colder as the day fades to night.

Natalie pulls her shawl close around her shoulders, hugging it to her hefty frame; blinded momentarily by the bright glare of sunlight reflecting off the windows of the house she approaches.

The house is old and run down. Tall weeds grow on either side of the pathway leading to the front porch; mostly concealing the wooden steps that creak in protest under her weight as she climbs to the landing.

The door is painted blue, but seems almost green in the brilliance of the light bouncing off it in this time of gloaming. The paint is peeling and bits of red show through. Natalie remembers when the door was red, back when she was but a child.

She nerves herself to lift the lions head knocker and lets it fall, once, twice, and finally a third time. Knock, knock, knock, it sounds, and it seems even the wind stills, as if waiting for a response.

Silence. No sound returns, no footfall approaches, no familiar call of "come in", or "coming," that Natalie expected. Just silence. She knocks again, liking the solid feel of the knocker in her hand. Like a summoning. But again, there is no response.

She tries the door knob, but it doesn't turn. It's bolted tight, which is unusual. Granny never bothers to lock the door when she's home, with the garage door open and her old Dodge Dart sitting in the driveway.

Natalie follows the porch past the old swing chair and pushes her nose up against the smudged window pane and peers into the living room. The room is dark, and Natalie can see it is empty; the old couch sagging, probably in relief that no one currently occupies its tired old frame.

There is a light at the end of the hallway, and sudden movement catches Natalie's eye. She wipes at the glass, trying to remove some of the dirt and smudges, unsure of what she is seeing. It looks like a shadow moving and undulating as if Granny is…

No!

Natalie is struck dumb at the incredulous sight, of this eighty three year old sprite, dancing with grace and abandon. Dancing as if she thought no one was watching!

test from Aisha!

This is great, Peggy! I'm just testing this idea of using the email to post to your new blog. Let's see what happens! x0x0x0

-Aisha 

The Light is Low part 2?

Checking to see if this will post automatically. If it will, that will be so cool! Thank you, Peggy, for putting this together :-)

Sent from my Verizon LG Smartphone

Test

Let's see if this really works. Did you ever speak to Tom about the idea that you had? Not exactly sure how to incorporate it, but it would be a start. I am so excited to be resurrecting the team story idea, we made a great collaborative team with The Light is Low. I'm going to bring my hard drive to Peggy's house this weekend to see if anyone can help me access the files which had been saved on my Mac many years aho, including my file where i transcribed the story from the RovingVails website.

Sent from my Verizon LG Smartphone

Re: Test

I've created a new blog where we can create a team story, and I think if you send your post to this email pjrockey.vail@blogger.com, it will post it to the site automatically.  This email will test that functionality. Let's see if I see it on my site. 

The site is https://vailstories.blogspot.com/

Terye/Aisha, I've added you as authors, in case you are interested in participating. 

I haven't started a story yet, so if you have an idea, go for it!

Vail Team Stories

Let's see if we can use this blog to create a team story. I'll get us started in the next post, and we'll see where it goes. It looks like I have to add you as an author to allow you to post here, so send me your email address if you're interested in contributing. Let's have some fun!