Welcome to Midnight

By Natalie Potts

What starts out as a relaxed dinner party with friends quickly turns into a nightmare for Tony Tanner as the clock rolls over to midnight. Thrust into a world where the only living things are the men and women who fall through the cracks of midnight, Tony must solve the riddle or die trying.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Natalie Potts
• Release date: Apr 18, 2011

Natalie Potts

Natalie has worked in everything from air traffic control to zoology, but she has always loved to write. She is a member of Melbourne's SuperNOVA writers group and after many short fiction publications is now focussing again on her novel writing. For some free reads, or limited-time promotional codes, please visit her website.

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Welcome to Midnight

© 2011 Natalie J E Potts

Originally published in 2004 in Aurealis magazine.

This story appeared in volume #33/34/35 edited by Keith Stevenson.

This edition has been updated for 2011.

The characters, locations and events depicted in this novel are fictional.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

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Welcome to Midnight

Tony’s mind slipped back to the evening when it had all started. No matter which way he turned his memories, he could find no hint of what had been coming. There had been no incantations, no superstitious acts, it was just an ordinary dinner party, like many others they had had before…

* * * *

So what’s got four legs and runs around a paddock? Geoff said with a hint of a slur. The tide was well out in his glass and it was no coincidence the four empty bottles were clustered down his end of the table.

Pretty much anything that might be kept in a paddock, Geoff. Is it a horse? Helen, Geoff’s wife, had heard the joke many times before and had picked her husband’s mistake.

I didn’t say four, I said six! Geoff protested with the conviction of a drunkard. "What’s got six legs and runs around a paddock?"

An ant? Tony, the co-host of the carousal suggested. He was standing behind his wife, Enid, his hands resting on her shoulders.

Listen mate, leave the joke telling to me, you just do your job and round up another bottle of that fine red wine of yours.

Is that the punch line? Enid, asked. Her question reminded Geoff that the joke was still hanging.

So what’s got six legs and runs ‘round a paddock? He recapitulated then paused. A ram doing a Ewe-ey. The laughs did not come. You know, like a U-turn, a u-ey… But it’s a ram copulating… His annunciation of copulating got more laughs than the joke.

I think it’s time I got that bottle of wine, Tony said and excused himself. He stepped onto the cold tiles of the kitchen floor and headed towards the corner where his modest ‘cellar’ had already crumbled to half its number.

The skeletons of a great dinner party sat piled in the sink, waiting for the headaches and clean up of the morning. A sudden burst of laughter rolled into the small kitchenette as Geoff let fly