I don’t know what it is about autumn, but as soon as the temperatures begin to cool down (and cool here is around eighty-five degrees) I get very creative. Maybe it’s the upcoming NaNo, or maybe it’s the body’s natural response to the coming winter where everyone stays indoors for long periods of time. Either way, I’ve been dreaming strange dreams lately and turning them into stories in the daytime. This week’s sticky is from one such dream about Mackinac Island. If you’ve never heard of Mackinac Island, go rent the movie Somewhere In Time – it takes place there and the island hasn’t really changed at all. There are no cars, everyone gets around by bike or horse, and all the houses are old Victorian style. It’s a very charming island, but in my dream they quarantined the island from the mainland because of a plague (swine flu, maybe?), and 100 years or so later it was still quarantined. Turns out, being stuck on a small island like that for a century can turn a group of people crazy, and what started off as a nice horse-filled romp around the island became a dangerous escape from people who purportedly believed in Reason above all else.
Of course, the girl in this sticky IS reasonable, and she doesn’t choose death, but she gets herself in a load of trouble anyways. I’m still not sure what happens to her in the end – it may be a tragedy – but I’m pretty sure her own version of reason wins out over her crazy father’s version.
And if you are ever in the upper Lower Peninsula of Michigan, you really should visit Mackinac Island. Their fudge is the best in the world.