Short Story

The Burden Of Secrets

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for OLWG #417.
The prompts appear below.
This is my story.

© Vitalentum

The atmosphere was thick with tension in the dimly lit compartment of the late-night train out of Lake Michigan. Fixer Ed Cosgrove, nursed a whiskey, his eyes squinting at the strobes of the fainting sun that flickered as the train eased down the tracks. Outside, the sounds of the night echoed faintly, a haunting melody juxtaposed against the grim reality of the world.

Ed thought about the assignment that awaited him; another rich asshole made a very big mess and it was Ed’s job to make it go away. What was it this time …. a dead Hollywood starlet? Under-age male hookers? Maybe a drugged-out, corrupt politician; God knows, there was no shortage of them.

The train was nearly empty, save for a few other souls burdened by secrets. Among them was a woman in a crimson dress, her gaze locked on a flickering candle on the table. “Allure that can turn into a self-destructive force” she whispered, almost to herself. Ed raised an eyebrow, intrigued. Her words dripped with foreboding, as if she held the key to a mystery that had yet to unfold.

As the train sped seamlessly, a sudden jolt sent the candle tumbling to the floor. It sputtered and died, plunging them into darkness. The woman’s face was now indistinguishable, her voice swallowed up by the night. Ed felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He could almost hear her thoughts: the weight of choices, the inevitability of fate.

When the train finally screeched to a halt, Ed stepped onto the dimly lit platform. He watched as the woman walked to a waiting limo; she slid in and the car took off. Ed approached the ticket collector, gave him $50 and asked for the name of the woman in the crimson dress sitting next to him on the train. He was intrigued to learn she was Sophia Brigante, the wife of his new bigshot client.

This strange small world just got a little smaller and a whole lot stranger.

NAR©2025
#OLWG

Here are the prompts: 1) if you hold a match to a candle, it will burn; 2) Waukegan; 3) the sound of the sunset. We can use one, two, all three or none at all. It doesn’t matter; we just need to be creative.


This is “Strange Days” by the Doors.

OLWG#417- Goin’ Home to Greta

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️ 🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al. and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

51 thoughts on “The Burden Of Secrets”

    1. That’s a great question, Jim. I am not savvy to that info but I’ve watched enough Ray Donovan to know a fixer needs to be someone who lives on the edge, usually has someone on the take in the PD, will give as good as he gets, downs a strong drink and snorts a few lines for breakfast, breaks whatever laws are necessary, intimidates anyone and everyone and still has time for an amazing fuck …. all in the name of collecting a shitload of money and making his client’s problem go bye bye. Are you asking for yourself or for a friend?

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      1. I can solve my own problems, so I don’t need a fixer, but thanks for mentioning the Ray Donovan show, as I think I will check that out. I am watching the Paramount+ series MobLand, where this guy Harry Da Souza (played by Tom Hardy) is a “fixer” for the Harrigan crime family and it makes me curious how anyone gets into this line of work. 

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          1. It has some really nutty characters, but the acting is great, and the plots are holding my interest. I absolutely hate Pierce Brosnan’s wife and his grandson as they are completely despicable and Pierce is only one step above them, but the fixer really makes this show interesting as he handles all of the problem that are thrown at him by this crazy family.

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      1. A nerve you say? Yeah, I had to resubscribe. But there were three or four bloggers that ended up in my spam emails… da fuck? I’m trying to think of who else has disappeared from my emails. I think this is the push I needed to set up Feedly like a fella-blogger uses.

        I know you do and you do it so very well. Have a marvellous day!

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  16. I envisioned Humphrey Bogart as Ed and Lauren Becall as the woman in the red dress who was staring at the candle. Your created a perfect opening scene for a 1940s film noir.

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    1. Two classic actors well versed in these types of stories! I was thinking along the lines of Annabella Sciorra who played Tony Soprano’s girlfriend, Gloria, and Liev Schreiber who was Ray Donovan and one hell of a fixer. I love writing in this film noir style but not everything lends itself to that genre. Thanks very much for your great comments.

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