I was walking through the panny in the tunnel under the road, it was a rite of passage. Girls didn’t usually go there, except me and Linda Wright. It was okay until we reached the bend under Heavitree bridge, then the darkness wrapped itself around us, like a coffin slamming shut.
There were rats of course, occasionally one would scuttle over our plimsoles. Even scarier were the eels, they slithered in noisy gangs with their ugly whiskers. We didn’t dare confess that the green stains on our clothes came from slipping on the algae covered pebbles. As I rose in the dark these memories came rushing back again.
Julia’s prompt for week 151 is . . . as I rose in the dark, and my piece isn’t fiction!
Lucid Gypsy 
The title is strong and details is more powerful. I enjoyed reading it!!
Dark and eerie and scary. Well done.
Oh, horrors! I don’t want to know what she’s doing there again. Very dramatic writing, Gilly.
(I’ve never come across the word ‘panny’ before.)
Oh I have been there,, great little tale.
Such great writing….
Dramatic writing from a raggle taggle gypsy, Gilly! But WHAT is a panny?The only explanation google gives is that it is a new form of key chain…..and that certainly doesn’t FIT with your prose.
Ick. Ick. Rats and eels, yet a daring story. What kids do and don’t tell.
❤ 😀
Even if it weren’t true, your writing absolutely makes its so! A great vignette from the past.
(I’m off into comment hibernation for a while: I’ve become addicted to this blogging process and I need to go cold turkey until I reshape my days in a slightly less addictive way. So I’ll talk again in a few weeks.)
My skin is crawling Gilly! I have to ask what a panny is as well!
I enjoyed reading this, great creative writing!
You are so good at concise, descriptive writing.
And since i’ve prob done more reading about England than any American EVER should, I can answer y’alls “panny” question
It’s a colloquial term for the stream that runs under that bridge, if I’m remembering correctly?
Naughty girl and brave. What was she doing there and what was she thinking? So many questions … that makes a great write. The questions make it a page turner. Your such a tease, Gilly. Perhaps, one day you’ll give us a more than we can handle. ❤
I’ve got the horrors too, Gilly! It was those eely whiskers that did it! 😦
You sure can give the creeps my friend. I am left wondering if my nerves can take such stuff.
Shakti
Creepy. Does that mean you were dead before? 😀