Author: Mws R

https://thehauntedwordsmith.wordpress.com/2018/10/10/daily-writing-challenge-10/

Worth A Thousand Words (WATA)
For this prompt, simply take in the photo below and let it inspire you. Follow where ever it may lead and take us along with you.

Once a lover of fine things, Ecubog was a most selfish and prideful man. He did not care what something cost him, if he wanted it he would most definitely buy it.In his dark and lonely house he had wall to wall things , that through the years he had acquired. He proudly displayed them on shelfs along side one another.

I often wondered why he did that, when most certain he would never let anyone come by and see them. I guess he was happy looking at them all on his own. I met Ecubog while running the local merchant shop for my Uncle. Often he would come in to pick up something he had ordered from our catalog. He never said “Thank You” but he would surely tell you of the history behind the many expensive things he would buy. I have to say, I learned a lot listening to his talk. I was referred to as ” hired help” when he came in, never did he once use my name.

Anyhow, one day while I was working, I had several calls into the store, message after message asking if his special thing had arrived yet. I personally was getting tired of his fuss and rude repeated messages, so I answered the next few calls. He was so eager to get this “special” thing that he swore me to secrecy, lest I saw what it was. I was not sure why he asked me to remain quite upon any findings, but I sure was not going to get on his bad side. He was rather ugly when angered and I really did not want his anger towards me.

So when this “special thing” arrived I tried not to read anything on the outside of the package. I also needed help from the delivery guy to get this heavy thing inside the shop. I called Ecubog and told him of the arrival of this thing. He quickly hung up and it took him a whole ten minutes to arrive. After paying for his thing, he swore me to secrecy again. I must admit the curiosity was immense. I really wanted to know what he had bought. After bidding him good day  and thanking him for his patronage, I had an hour before getting off of my shift at the store. I went into my sales book and tried to look up the very thing he had ordered and wanted so very much.

After much searching I found the very thing he had purchased. It was rather ugly and made of cement, no wonder it was so heavy. It had a face on it and it looked like an old man who was stretched out on a platform of such. The more I looked at it, the more it took on a different understanding for me. I read the caption under the picture, it said, “Be careful wanting more than you deserve”. What on earth was the meaning for that ? My imagination figured that this face on this cemented sculpture was a person who once wanted more than they deserved. I imagined that they were frozen in cement, in a stretched out position. The stretched out position was to represent, a load of something so big his arms were stretched out so desperately, to hold, onto whatever it was.

This sculpture was most haunting to me. I quickly shut the catalog and went back to tending the store. Ecubog came in to the store more times in the days ahead, but I never got the courage to ask him, why he chose that particular thing to buy. I wish I had because weeks after he acquired this sculpture, he was found dead, in his basement. The apparent way he was found haunted the local police department covering the death. Rumor has it that he was found stretched out just like that sculpture that he had bought weeks before.

In my mind I assumed that he was a person who wanted more than he deserved and possibly his arms were stretched out unbearably far, because of the greed in his heart. I guess we will never know…

MwsR ❤