What happens after midnight?
Our writers’ group was challenged by an enigmatic and open-ended title for homework in July: After Midnight – take it where you like. Paula was woken by the sound of dancing, shuffling, stomping little feet after midnight and had to call in the local rat-catcher to put and end to the unwelcome party-giving. Jill went back to her childhood. Roused from sleep by the sound of the clock striking on Christmas night she counted to eight and was panic-stricken to find her stocking was remained empty unfilled though it was Christmas morning. It turned out she had only heard the last eight of the midnight chime. Tim took himself to the internet for inspiration and discovered that after midnight is ‘the witching hour’, and that if geological time was measured by the 24 hour clock man’s brief span would begin at a sliver of the second before Midnight. Philippa also visited ‘the witching hour’, noting that in literature and folk-law the time is portrayed as one of risk and vulnerability. Study of the complex rhythms that govern living system reveals that the body’s systems are all at their nadir at this time of night making it peak time for medical emergencies and death. Molly also was back to childhood, to a night in June 1944 when suddenly everything was strangely silent because the soldiers who had been camped nearby had all departed for the Normandy beaches.
We chose another inscrutable title to stimulate the imagination for the August meeting: “Would you still love me…?” We meet on Wednesday, August 21 at the usual time (14.00) and place: Philippa’s house.