Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family
rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to
write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration
(quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind.
These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat,
irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if
anything comes of them.
H Trope: graveyard
Current Event: http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-arts/2011/04/playwright-unearths-morbid-tale-of-local-celebrity-grave-robber-10087.html
Some Background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_snatching
And Some History: http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/newspaper-clips-1880-1889
Let’s just say
this is a bit AFTER the season one would usually talk about grave robbery…or a
bit before (if you believe some of the tales about what happened the Jesus the
Christ).
BUT – in this day
and age of rumors of cloning and genetic engineering, it BEGS the “what if” of
science that might lead to horror.
The patina of
science laid over a horrific story – like Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in
which “Experts, scientists, and the United States military do not know the
cause, though one scientist believes the cause to be radioactive contamination from
a space probe that exploded in the Earth's atmosphere” – gives me the
framework for you to play with this idea:
Your parents work
in a biological research lab in a wealthy suburb and while you know where they
work, you don’t know exactly what they do.
You stumble across
a website one of them flagged about someone named Herman Webster Mudgett and
you do some checking and find out he was both a grave robber and a famous
serial murderer from the Old West.
A few days later,
Mom and Dad tell you they’re flying out to visit some relatives you’ve never
heard of out West. They’re gone a few days and return with one massive
suitcase. They set it in the entryway and then head for bed without much of an
explanation except, “We’re might tired, kiddo. See you in the morning.”
Once they’re in
bed, you check out the suitcase and notice that it’s got frost on it. It’s not
locked, so you open it and check it out and there appears to be a rather large,
metal canister in it. Mom gets up for a drink of water and you shut it and you
make your way to bed after enduring a hard hug from her.
A few months
later, Mom and Dad announce they’re pregnant…
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