Spring '06 - Expensive Gifts

-- Subtitle --

Of Euros and years, which has the greater value?

-- Description --

Expensive Gifts is a forty minute audio story by M. David Romney.

-- Excerpt --

Manolo followed the light down the corridor and past the plain wooden door, into an anteroom covered in Persian carpets and a mass of exotic clutter. The worn wooden furniture was missing most of its brass studs and its brittle satin upholstery was cracking at several seams. The incense burned in a large dish centered on a low inlaid table. There were no windows. The light came from a stained-glass stand-lamp in one corner of the room. He heard faint singing, and though he could make out the sounds the words meant nothing to him.

Turning around, he rang a large brass bell hanging beside the entry, with a small plaque marked Ring for Service mounted next to it. Despite its mass, its gentle chime was no louder than the fragile tinkle of a silver dining bell.

-- Author's Comments --

"I lived a pair of years in southern Spain. There's a peculiar atmosphere to Andalucia, as it's called, and a particular way about the Andalusians who people it. In Expensive Gifts I found a chance to tell a story that crosses cultural divides, but which plays in its particulars on the quirks of one very colourful culture.

"Some details, including those of Manolo's profession, were inspired by a set of interviews (held quite ceremoniously, I assure you) at a pub in Buena Vista, Virginia. That's where Manolo's character began to take shape."

(M. David Romney)

-- Credits --

Written by M. David Romney
Performed by Ken Richman
Art by Tassya Putho
Music by James Guymon

Produced by MechMuse Audio Anthology at MechMuse.com

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