{"id":1925,"date":"2025-11-27T23:26:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/?p=1925"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:45:28","slug":"sometimes-right-in-front-of-you-by-rv-neville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/?p=1925","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes, What\u2019s Right In Front of You\u2026. by RV Neville"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2570.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1926\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s8 wp-block-paragraph\"><em>What was that?&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">The washing machine was empty, it was definitely empty.&nbsp;This morning after&nbsp;its terminal hissy&nbsp;fit, Maeve&nbsp;had&nbsp;removed the wet sheets. She\u2019d&nbsp;rung the&nbsp;cloths, heavy with unspun water,&nbsp;out over&nbsp;the chipped&nbsp;bathtub and suspended them in the front room. Since the dryer had broken down last month,&nbsp;the&nbsp;rickety&nbsp;airer&nbsp;left in the flat by the previous occupant had come into its own.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s10 wp-block-paragraph\">When she\u2019d viewed the flat in September, the&nbsp;skeletal&nbsp;frame&nbsp;had stood alone in one room.&nbsp;\u201cThat\u2019s&nbsp;one of the&nbsp;perks that comes with&nbsp;this&nbsp;place,\u201d&nbsp;the indifferent factor had told her, indifferently. There were plenty of other downwardly mobile people about,&nbsp;and&nbsp;he\u2019d not&nbsp;tried to&nbsp;inveigle&nbsp;her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;So,&nbsp;then,&nbsp;what was that&nbsp;noise coming from the&nbsp;utility&nbsp;room?&nbsp;It&nbsp;surely sounded exactly like the&nbsp;<em>clang, clang,&nbsp;clang<\/em>,&nbsp;and&nbsp;kerbumps&nbsp;the washing machine usually graced her otherwise-silent home with.&nbsp;She&nbsp;scraped her chair back&nbsp;and&nbsp;went&nbsp;towards&nbsp;the&nbsp;tiny room.&nbsp;Just as she&nbsp;peered round the doorframe, the racket stopped on a&nbsp;clang.&nbsp;The machine faced her,&nbsp;apparently unperturbed,&nbsp;She&nbsp;returned&nbsp;to her chair at the kitchen table&nbsp;and&nbsp;stared at her&nbsp;half-written&nbsp;article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">Maeve, like so many others,&nbsp;worked&nbsp;from home now.&nbsp;She got out of the flat&nbsp;only when she went on her \u2018woman-on-the-street\u2019 walks to&nbsp;scrounge&nbsp;new stories for&nbsp;the&nbsp;papers. The coffee&nbsp;and tea&nbsp;houses where she\u2019d&nbsp;planned to write,&nbsp;to stay warm in deepest winter, were&nbsp;now&nbsp;closed. No one&nbsp;advanced&nbsp;a date for&nbsp;their&nbsp;reopening.&nbsp;The UFO sightings&nbsp;had&nbsp;seen to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">Everyone had&nbsp;witnessed&nbsp;the lights. Millions, maybe billions,&nbsp;saw&nbsp;the UFO\u2019s&nbsp;sweeping across the night skies.&nbsp;Problem was,&nbsp;no one&nbsp;knew&nbsp;where they went.&nbsp;Apparently no government had technology&nbsp;capable&nbsp;of&nbsp;tracking&nbsp;the&nbsp;incoming&nbsp;crafts.&nbsp;During the resulting fuss, the people&nbsp;who could&nbsp;migrate&nbsp;had either made a dash for the countryside, or&nbsp;bolted to&nbsp;the cities, trying to stay safe or trying to greet whatever came in the ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">The sightings had&nbsp;shifted&nbsp;the world\u2019s economy in a matter of weeks.&nbsp;Now, only the most essential industries and businesses continued to operate.&nbsp;Governments everywhere said,&nbsp;\u201cStay inside. Stay quiet. Don\u2019t be a moving target.\u201d&nbsp;People&nbsp;lived at subsistence level.&nbsp;A few did well&nbsp;out of it. They were the&nbsp;entrepreneurs&nbsp;who&nbsp;built new empires&nbsp;offering&nbsp;protection from, communication with, or speculation about who was in&nbsp;the UFO\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">All that fear.&nbsp;All that excitement.&nbsp;And no&nbsp;real&nbsp;telling if the things&nbsp;had&nbsp;landed,&nbsp;or not. Untypically, extreme caution was the order of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">Maeve, like most people,&nbsp;hadn\u2019t the connections to&nbsp;thrive, so she&nbsp;gleaned tales at&nbsp;the raggedy parks, the near empty city square, the gull infested pier.&nbsp;Hers were&nbsp;the wee&nbsp;human-interest&nbsp;stories that people still wanted\u2026&nbsp;<em>no&nbsp;needed<\/em>,&nbsp;to read.&nbsp;Her most popular&nbsp;were&nbsp;the ones&nbsp;about the&nbsp;dog found&nbsp;in a tree&nbsp;weeks after it went missing;&nbsp;the brave&nbsp;and desperate&nbsp;mother swinging her child at the playground;&nbsp;the&nbsp;toy&nbsp;flying saucer found in&nbsp;the&nbsp;park&nbsp;with&nbsp;no maker\u2019s name.&nbsp;She embroidered on most of her stories. The dog wasn\u2019t in a tree, though&nbsp;the mother and child were real enough.&nbsp;And&nbsp;rather than&nbsp;her pathos-filled&nbsp;tale&nbsp;of an old man who&nbsp;remembered the war&nbsp;as the finder of the saucer, it\u2019d been&nbsp;<em>she<\/em>&nbsp;who had fished it out of the city burn..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">But those&nbsp;stories&nbsp;were just fodder, tiny things that kept a few pennies coming in and&nbsp;readers from going spare. What she needed was a real story to catapult her out of this morass her life had become. Something useful to her fellow human beings.&nbsp;Something&nbsp;investigative or revealing, something&nbsp;to make her name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">As she thought&nbsp;about what she needed,&nbsp;Maeve&nbsp;reached for&nbsp;the toy&nbsp;saucer,&nbsp;scraping&nbsp;at its&nbsp;impenetrable&nbsp;surface with&nbsp;her&nbsp;fingernail.&nbsp;When she\u2019d first found it last month, it had sparkled with illumination&nbsp;like an old-fashioned disco ball, tiny lights&nbsp;winking&nbsp;on and off.&nbsp;She\u2019d spent some hours&nbsp;prodding it,&nbsp;but&nbsp;she\u2019d never found&nbsp;a battery compartment&nbsp;or a solar panel&nbsp;embedded in&nbsp;its smooth surfaces.&nbsp;Or even any way to access anything in it. Although the lights had died down a few at a time, it&nbsp;still&nbsp;sometimes blinked.&nbsp;She put it down. Turned back to reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bWhen the&nbsp;caf\u00e9s&nbsp;had first closed, Maeve worried&nbsp;that someone, maybe the factor, maybe&nbsp;nosy&nbsp;old Mrs&nbsp;MacGillivray,&nbsp;would find her frozen to her chair one day,&nbsp;in this&nbsp;close-view,&nbsp;north-facing flat.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">Her relief&nbsp;had been&nbsp;huge when she\u2019d&nbsp;realised&nbsp;that by forgoing the price of a cup of coffee in the morning and a cup of tea in the afternoon, she was able to afford two whole extra&nbsp;hours of gas on the meter. That was&nbsp;double&nbsp;the hours&nbsp;she\u2019d previously allowed herself. For&nbsp;four hours a day&nbsp;Maeve&nbsp;didn\u2019t have to&nbsp;dress like Scott of the Antarctic.&nbsp;She sighed.&nbsp;Now that the washing machine had joined the dryer in retirement, she\u2019d have to go to the laundrette. That meant more time in polar gear.&nbsp;Feck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bThere it was again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s11 wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Clang,&nbsp;kerbump, clang, clang.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bThis time, Maeve&nbsp;put the saucer&nbsp;down silently, then she&nbsp;rose slightly in her chair, clutching&nbsp;the seat&nbsp;with both hands&nbsp;and lifted it off the ground, still under her bum. She backed away,&nbsp;twirled the chair into one hand, then&nbsp;set&nbsp;it&nbsp;in place&nbsp;as if laying a lover to rest.&nbsp;She&nbsp;crossed&nbsp;the kitchen&nbsp;floor&nbsp;wraith-like,&nbsp;avoiding the squeaky tile&nbsp;midway. All the while, the&nbsp;washing&nbsp;machine continued its&nbsp;arrhythmic clanking.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s8 wp-block-paragraph\">When she reached the door,&nbsp;it stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Oh,&nbsp;<em>come&nbsp;on<\/em>!\u2019&nbsp;Maeve stamped her foot and made to turn away again when something caught her eye.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bThe water lines that fed the&nbsp;washer&nbsp;rocked&nbsp;back and forth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bA warning bell&nbsp;clamoured&nbsp;in her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bWhat was this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bRats&nbsp;shoogling the lines?&nbsp;No, they\u2019d moved out weeks ago in search of richer fare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">Poised between flight and&nbsp;fascination, Maeve let her breath&nbsp;seep from&nbsp;her mouth&nbsp;in a&nbsp;fine&nbsp;smoke-like stream.&nbsp;She watched as the rocking motion became more pronounced. When she took a step forward, the&nbsp;water&nbsp;lines halted&nbsp;as if frozen in the air.&nbsp;Breaking the silence, the machine juddered with so sudden a&nbsp;spasm&nbsp;of sound and motion that Maeve&nbsp;jumped, but she held her ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">At&nbsp;somewhat&nbsp;reduced&nbsp;decibels,&nbsp;it&nbsp;<em>kerbumped, clanged, clanged<\/em>&nbsp;again,&nbsp;as if&nbsp;belching politely.&nbsp;At the same time,&nbsp;in place of&nbsp;its usual&nbsp;numbers,&nbsp;its&nbsp;digital display started to flash hieroglyphic-like&nbsp;runes.&nbsp;In a moment of fierce recklessness&nbsp;Maeve took the second and final step that would bring her to the machine and&nbsp;snatched open the soap drawer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bThere,&nbsp;long&nbsp;limbs&nbsp;folded in&nbsp;the main wash compartment,&nbsp;sat an olive green man. Though \u2018man\u2019 might not be the right word:&nbsp;Being. Maeve and&nbsp;the&nbsp;Being stared at one another wide-eyed. Though, once again Maeve corrected herself. Its eyes were far taller than they were wide. Nevertheless,&nbsp;they stared at one another.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">As she looked,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Being&nbsp;graded&nbsp;from olive to emerald. Not a chameleon then, or it would be&nbsp;yellow-white&nbsp;to match the drawer. A leprechaun? Stranger things had&nbsp;happened recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bShe&nbsp;rasped,&nbsp;\u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;Being&nbsp;did not reply immediately but held up a tiny&nbsp;twinkling&nbsp;tablet in&nbsp;its&nbsp;hands.&nbsp;It tapped on the device,&nbsp;and a grumpy voice said,&nbsp;\u201cDo you mean&nbsp;you&nbsp;can talk?&nbsp;We\u2019ve only seen your kind&nbsp;moving about like&nbsp;herd&nbsp;animals.\u2019 It peered at her again.&nbsp;\u2018I\u2019ve been trying to communicate with this creature for hours, and I was beginning to think&nbsp;something was wrong with my programme!\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"s9 wp-block-paragraph\">In a flash,&nbsp;Maeve&nbsp;understood&nbsp;the&nbsp;\u2018creature\u2019&nbsp;it spoke of&nbsp;was the washing machine. She narrowed her eyes, hands on hips,&nbsp;\u201cDid you&nbsp;wrack&nbsp;my&nbsp;washer?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A previous version of this story appeared in <a title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shorelineofinfinity.com\/shoreline-of-infinity-27-hits-the-virtual-shelves\/\">Shoreline of Infinity issue 27<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-provider-wordpress wp-block-embed-wordpress\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"NpUDqxME53\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/?p=1862\">Rhoda Neville<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Rhoda Neville&#8221; &#8212; Dundee&#039;s Creative Writing Group\" src=\"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/?p=1862&#038;embed=true#?secret=3avSZKDY7U#?secret=NpUDqxME53\" data-secret=\"NpUDqxME53\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What was that?&nbsp; The washing machine was empty, it was definitely empty.&nbsp;This morning after&nbsp;its terminal hissy&nbsp;fit, Maeve&nbsp;had&nbsp;removed the wet sheets. She\u2019d&nbsp;rung the&nbsp;cloths, heavy with unspun water,&nbsp;out over&nbsp;the chipped&nbsp;bathtub and suspended them in the front room. Since the dryer had broken down last month,&nbsp;the&nbsp;rickety&nbsp;airer&nbsp;left in the flat by the previous occupant had come into its own.&nbsp;&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/?p=1925\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sometimes, What\u2019s Right In Front of You\u2026. by RV Neville<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[109,22,21],"class_list":["post-1925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-fiction","tag-nethergate-writers","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1947,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions\/1947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}