{"id":1165,"date":"2022-04-20T19:50:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T19:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2022-04-20T19:50:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T19:50:25","slug":"secrets-from-beyond-the-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/secrets-from-beyond-the-grave\/1165\/","title":{"rendered":"Secrets from Beyond the Grave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the use of her nail file, Fiona finally pried open the bureau drawer.\u00a0 It had been out of bounds for all of her childhood.\u00a0 Even now, she felt that she was defying her mother.\u00a0 She slid the drawer open with reverence and found the key to the glass cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even at this sad time, she felt a smile creep across her face.  The long felt desire of handling her mother’s favourite possession made her body shake.  She picked up the old lamp and held it close to her chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To her astonishment, a genie materialised before her.  It stretched and yawned, and finally opened it\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh that was a good sleep.  Hi Joyce,\u201d the genie paused \u201cYou\u2019re not Joyce, you must be Fiona, you\u2019ve got your mother\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slightly taken aback, Fiona replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMum died a few weeks ago, I\u2019m clearing her home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh. I\u2019m so sorry dear. Can I do anything for you?\u201d the genie asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?  Like granting me three wishes or something?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo that doesn\u2019t happen anymore, our Union put a stop to that.  Everybody always wanted to be rich, it was a big drain on our resources. Or they wished for us to undertake labour intensive work, our Health and Safety Representative wasn\u2019t having that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo what is it you actually do now?\u201d Fiona asked feeling slightly bemused<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur line of work is more of an advisory capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan you pick Lottery numbers or Grand National Winners?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo better than you can.  A Genie\u2019s role is to offer friendship, to provide a sounding board if you like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid Mum and you talk often then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly when there was no one else around.  It\u2019s only the holder of the lamp can see and hear us, and the golden rule is that they must never divulge our existence to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe never told me about you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had some great times together, we talked about everything, and of you of course, and how you were getting on. She was very proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a moment\u2019s pause, the genie asked<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI was wondering if you had packed up the television yet? Joyce and I would watch all the soaps, I wouldn\u2019t mind catching up on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiona smiled at the genie.  She thought that a sit down and a nice cup of tea with someone to talk to was what she needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you take milk and sugar?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the use of her nail file, Fiona finally pried open the bureau drawer.\u00a0 It had been out of bounds for all of her childhood.\u00a0 Even now, she felt that she was defying her mother.\u00a0 She slid the drawer open with reverence and found the key to the glass cabinet. Even at this sad time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,618],"tags":[7,103,14],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-magic","tag-her","tag-our","tag-she"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-iN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}