Stop Story: The Gold Mask

[MatthewFarlow]

This is a game I'm sure we all used to play as children. One person starts a story until the other says stop and then they continue it until the other person says stop and so on.
(It should look like this: except not so angry)
However nobody is here to say stop so you just end when you come to a breaking point or even abruptly.

The only rule is that you can't end the story.
Allow me to begin:

I sat down. Across the table I looked at a befuddled man. He looked up at me. The caged yellow light cast a shadow on his handlebar mustache. Where should I begin?
“Please, do tell me how you did it, Mr. Worth. How is it that you managed to pull off the biggest crime of the 20th century and keep it hidden for over 13 years?" I asked him. He smiled a bit, finding humor in my wording or something. He blinked very slowly, pausing as his eyes were closed, you could tell he was remembering every detail. He opened his eyes followed by his mouth. He answered slowly, not that the words were slow, he was just pausing every now and again. STOP

Your turn.

[Steven Hunley]

" I thought...maybe no one would find out. You figure...when you pull something like that off..you'll get away with it. But...obviously...I didn't. Say,.." he said wiping a yellow stain from that all to obvious mustache, "you'd think the state could afford something...better...like...like... Grey Poupon. What's the matter...with them? Don't they think ...I'm WORTH it? Anyway...back to...my story...STOP
Your turn

[MatthewFarlow]

" I thought...maybe no one would find out. You figure...when you pull something like that off..you'll get away with it. But...obviously...I didn't. Say,.." he said wiping a yellow stain from that all to obvious mustache, "you'd think the state could afford something...better...like...like... Grey Poupon. What's the matter...with them? Don't they think ...I'm WORTH it? Anyway...back to...my story...STOP
Your turn

Haha, I love it.

[MatthewFarlow]

"I was in Egypt at the time. . . trying to decode hieroglyphics I found. . . in a tomb. . . when I was just an apprentice." I nodded, this was starting to make sense. "I knew it was going to tell me the whereabouts of another tomb." He began talking at a normal pace now, only pausing to nibble on his sandwich. "I was working up late one night, so close to finishing and began placing my finger on where I believed this tomb to be. I looked outside; it was raining softly. I got up from my chair and. . ."

"And. . . ?" He was chewing for a moment. He was obviously a man of good manners, not speaking with his mouth full and all.

Mr. Worth continued, "I just had to go to the window, you know, to see the rain. It only rains once every several years in Egypt. As I remember it," He shut his eyes, "I then poured myself a whiskey or gin or something and returned to my studies. After about another half hour working on the maps, I realized that this tomb was not more than 15 kilometers away. I grabbed my coat, put on my safari hat and headed out." He finished his sandwich and licked his fingers. The low hum of the lightbulb was the only sound filling this gap of silence. "The rain had picked up considerably causing some puddles to form at the entrance to the tomb. I spotted the entryway fairly easily, just because I had an eye for these things by then. I climbed inside and grabbed a piece of dry wood. I couldn't find anything for fire to catch, so I tore a length of cloth from my shirt, I'd still have the jacket for the way home. I wrapped the cloth around the wood and lit it so I could see. The flaps of the flames echoed throughout the tunnel. I walked for 10 minutes or so until I saw a doorway. It was short because something had collapsed so I had to crouch down to enter. Inside, you would not believe what I had seen. . ." He was staring at the air in front of him.

"What had you seen?" The light reflected off of his now watery eyes. "Mr. Worth. . . what did you see? What was it. . . that was in there?"

He looked me in the eyes now. He whispered painfully, "Nothing."

"Oh," I nodded awkwardly and broke the eye contact. It was silent for some time, then out of the blue he began speaking again as if he had never stopped.

"I made my way back through the rain. It had died down by now. When I got back the mail had already came. There was a letter there from my investors. They told me that if I had nothing to show for my works in the next 3 weeks, they were going to stop my funding. . . I couldn't let them do that. I was thinking of some sort of loophole while sifting through the rest of the mail. One of them caught my eye, an exhibit was opening in London displaying many of the artifacts that had been excavated from Egyptian tombs; I was invited. I decided then and there. I had to steal them." STOP

Your Turn.

P.S: Sorry I'm a story hog, but I was on a roll tonight.

P.S.S: Still Your Turn

[Steven Hunley]

Worth continued. "They were having it at the British Museum. I went a day early to the preview to check it out. Huge colored banners were hanging up at the entrance with hieroglyphics on them and a few cartouches. The cartouches were accurate, but the glyphs were all wrong. One translated as something like "dead cats for sale". I guess they got a little mixed up. I mean I could read them right?" He smiled. "That's why I'll never get a tatoo from a Chinaman. Who knows what they'll put on your arm. I went inside and there was so much stuff it took me two hours to see it. But it was all pretty standard stuff. None of it was too valuable. I mean,.." and he leaned over quite near me and said in a whisper," what was I gonna do? Stuff a mummy in my pants and run out the door? Not bloody likely! Then I saw it. It was in the last room. The funery mask of Tutankhamen. Wow. Solid gold and worth it's weight. And as an antiquity? Priceless. It really made me drool." As he said this last bit he wiped his moustache with the back of his arm. His eyes glazed over. "Here was something worthy of a Worth!"
stop
Somebody take a turn

[MatthewFarlow]

I chuckled at his pun, wondering if he had said that for years or just had a quick wit. I like it when people have a quick wit, it makes my job much less boring. Someone was knocking at the door. I excused myself, Mr. Worth still drooling over that artifact silently. I cracked the door open as to not let in a lot of light into the interrogation room. I gave an inquisitive look to the man at the door, he was looking at his clipboard and wasted no time for formalities.

"Mr. Worth's questioning?" he questioned.

"Yeah."

"We just got word from some investigator going through papers. Ask him who Alice Jennings is."

I thanked him and returned to the ever so patient Worth. I didn't bring up Jennings yet, but was planning on asking after his story.

"So then what happened? After you saw the funery mask?"
Stop

Someone besides Steven and I have got to chime in here.

[Steven Hunley]

"I looked at it, and even though the mask was of a boy-king it looked rather feminine. It looked like a girl I once knew," "Who was that?" I asked.
"Alice Jennings." I couldn't believe he said it! It was just what I wanted to hear. "What about her?" I said. "Well," he continued, "she was pretty alright, but like the mask, like the gold mask, cold and distant. She wouldn't put out. Like some of those geeks on one of those writer's websites. All they want to do is read, not write." He wiped his mustache with a gesture of disgust then continued, " Know why?" he asked me looking deep in my eyes.
"why?" I said. "Cause when it comes down to it they can't write their way out of a wet paper bag. 'Cause they got no balls, not even the women. She was exactly the same. Wouldn't participate." "So what happened to her?" I asked. He answered, "I dumped her, what else?" I knew then I was interviewing a man's man.

[MatthewFarlow]

I really thought that would work.
Anyways...

I was still wondering what Alice Jennings had to do with the crime. I decided it could wait, it would present itself when it would present itself. "Please, continue."

"Very well. I needed some sort of team. Fortunately I knew this chap working as an assistant to the city planner. He was young and naive and I easily manipulated him into giving me the blueprints to the museum."

I could tell Mr. Worth was intelligent. I'd probably need to find out the name of this 'chap' to arrest him or fire him or something, but I decided that could wait as well. Mark of a true procrastinator? Or was I just engulfed in the story? Probably a little bit of both. He continu STOP

[Steven Hunley]

Me too, anyways,
"Of course you realize I didn't dump her right way. I was too dumb for that. I needed her for the robbery. She was an integral part of the plan. A girl as pretty as Alice can be quite useful in providing a distraction. And that's what I would need at first, a distraction. A sort of mis-direction, the kind a magician uses when he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. Or, in my case , puts a solid-gold mask of Tutankhamen into it, making it disappear. So she had a use, as did the city planners assistant, who provided me with plans of the museum and those to the sewers of London, a slimy rat-filled lot of sewers they are, I must say." With that he looked straight at me and asked politely, "Say Gov'ner do you think we could have a cup of tea? It's nearly four." STOP

[MatthewFarlow]

My wireless was down for a week and then like forgot about this. But now I'm back.

I was enjoying my tea as I handed Mr. Worth his. His hands were somewhat shaky and his lips were too when he was going for the first sip. I didn't know what accounted for the shaking, if it was just age or he was somewhat nervous. He sure didn't appear nervous as I was questioning him. My thoughts were interrupted as took a sharp breath in. The liquid had burned him and he leaned back setting the cup steaming on the table, allowing it to cool.
"I hate the sewers, they were never good to me throughout the whole experience. And I'm not a man who forgets," He was right, he didn't seem like a man who would forget, maybe forgive, but never forget.

Mr. SH, take it away...

[Steven Hunley]

"Just thinking about them sewers makes me nervous. I don't know what's worse, the stink of all the rotten fish and chips, the smell of stale Guinness, or the creeping crawling rats." He continued. "Of course that was our only avenue of escape. Hell, in Paris the sewers are O.K. They're a regular tour they are." He picked the teacup back up, and taking a sip, strained it through his mustache like a filter. Now I'd discovered what stained it yellow. The warm mug of tea felt good in his hands. "That's a proper cup that is! " he remarked with glee, "Alice made a proper cup and that's no lie. But speaking of lies and Alice, now I'm warmed up proper, let me get back to my story."

[MatthewFarlow]

"I had gotten everything ready, everything was in place: the date was set, we had gotten the blue prints and the maps to the sewers, times of tours that day, and some important names. Everything seemed to be ready, everything but Alice. Alice had disappeared for a week or so at that time and I never quite figured out what she was hiding, probably a man, knowing Alice. When she finally returned we only had two days left. We spent six hours coming up with a good enough distraction, and twelve hours acting it out and perfecting it between those two days. Finally, by the end of it all, I was almost half confident in our plan," he chuckled and I smiled back politely.

[Steven Hunley]

"We put the imitation throw up in the baby's bottle. The idea was when we were in the proper room, one of us would claim the baby had thrown up on the floor, and Alice would splash the contents there in the confusion. It would make a mess all over the floor." He said this with great relish. "They'd want to clean it up immediately of course, especially right there on the smooth floor, it would create a hazard." He took another sip of tea. "The janitor would unlock the broom closet, to get his mop, giving us a place to hide until the museum was closed. Then, we'd have the whole place, and the gold mask, to ourselves. That's how we planned it."

[MatthewFarlow]

I looked down at my cup of tea, now wincing as I couldn't help but see a similarity between the dark liquid and the image of the throw up in my mind's eye.

My half-trance-like state was broken by the sound of Mr. Worth chuckling, who, I assumed had seen my disgust and understood the connection.

He put his teacup down and, once more, began, "We met at the museum, the day of, with just minutes before the official ribbon cutting ceremony. I - in a beige suit, my hair slicked back, wearing round, Freud glasses - and Alice - in a short red dress with a large, diagonal sun hat and a baby carriage. She looked so stunning, we hardly needed the vomit at all. As the Head Curator's speech came to a close, we looked at each other as if to confirm our commitment. The ribbon was cut and we walked through the rooms at the leisurely pace set by the majority of the visitors."

STOP

[zoolane]

Worth paused for bit while he took breath. I was just about to ask, when he began tell the story again. He took out cigar, ''is OK if I smoke'' I nodded. Pushed a small tin astray like one you were allow to used in cafe forward him.

''As we head in and out of glass cases, we made so we end at the gold mask, Alice was really excite about get hands on it but did you know that I have photograph memory so I didn't need the blue prints. I need them just make sure that knew right way out and to London horrid system of sewers which is more like a maze''.
Me, Alice looking around that other artifacts, with some I must admit with great interest the information plaques. Every so often check on carriage, with our cunning eyes. Just waiting for right time to put the plan oops sorry my plan in action.

Stop. I hope OK and set in with story.