You must have really been freaked during "The Body". I'm so sorry. That's one of those horror moments and when they show up suddenly? Ugh.

I've seen "The Body" once, finding several reasons to find out what was going on in the kitchen.

I should have let him show me the room, it would probably have helped my long-term neuroses, but 20-year-old me was not that well-adjusted.

Kaspar Hauser's Last Letter

I cannot fault you, my dear Benefactor, for allowing me freedom from a guard. I disdain even now the thought of any restraint, a chaperon in the park no less than the lock on my childhood prison's door. Now all chains are loosed: the knots in my red ribbons come undone: and the ties I strove to bind, to memory and family, to birth – alas!

The Almighty demands my presence; I must beg your forgiveness for leaving unread any reply you have sent to my last missive. Lord Stanhope, farewell. In all things, you have been no less kind to me than if I had been heir to the House of Baden.

Nutty, interesting take. I don't know nearly enough about him, beyond the basics - had he attained that level of eloquence by the time he died?

Yes and no. Yes, he learned how to read and write, and was acclaimed to be "remembering" to speak, instead of learning it for the first time, since he learned so quickly; no, I haven't found any samples of his actual writing, although he did write many letters to Lord Stanhope.

(Stanhope was not so assiduous about writing back.)

That was the main point of my question: how advanced he actually got. I do seem to recall that they autopsied his brain and found something odd - cerebral atrophy? Cortical atrophy?

In any case, a good drabble, there, on an interesting character. (note: just googled and found that it was actually cortical atrophy, and also that DNA tests performed indicated that he really was related to the House of Baden.)

Huh. 100 words first try, so I'm not even going to edit.

The wind catches it and slams it into its frame. But the damaged hinges won't hold it flush, and it sags open again.

She smiles. She likes the harsh sound, although she knows it makes her mother mad. It's keeping the silence at bay. She tried, herself, with chatter and clatter and stomping, but it was cheating, and didn't hold it back properly.

It's nice to have a little distraction, to keep her alert. She wants to be there when her parents wake up, and clean up all the red water the bad man spilt on them before he left.

GAH, ita. Way to write a murder.

Is it my browser, though, or did you intend all yours aprostrophes to be question marks?

edit: never mind, you fixed it.