Today’s writing prompt is inspired by Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance.
On a chilly December evening in 1926, 36-year-old Christie vanished from her English estate. While the famed author reportedly left a note that she had gone on vacation, the discovery of her car suggested otherwise. The vehicle was found at the edge of a quarry not far from her home, abandoned with its hood up and lights on. Inside sat Christie’s fur coat, her old driver’s license, and a bag of clothes.
News of Christie’s disappearance spread quickly, and a massive manhunt commenced. Over a thousand officers and 15,000 volunteers combed the countryside while dredge teams scoured the surrounding lakes and streams. A fleet of biplanes searched from the skies – the first in England’s history for a missing person case.
By the end of the week, Christie’s disappearance had become a national obsession.
Who could have murdered the Queen of Crime? Many suspected Christie’s husband, Colonel Archie Christie, who had struck up an affair with a younger woman named Nancy Neele, and made no attempt to hide his affair from his wife. On the day of Christie’s disappearance, the couple reportedly quarreled after Archie announced he planned to spend the weekend with his mistress.
Agatha was found on December 14th, at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, England when a musician recognized her. Agatha signed in to the spa as Theresa Neele, strangely using the last name of her husband’s lover. Perhaps disproving the theory that her disappearance was due to amnesia.
Biographer Andrew Norman suggests Agatha was in a fugue state or, more technically, a psychogenic trance, a rare condition brought on by trauma or depression.
Christie rarely discussed the matter and the episode does not appear in her autobiography. In the days after her return, Agatha blamed her vanishing on a mysterious dream state, in which she took on an entirely new identity. “For 24 hours I wandered in a dream, and then found myself in Harrogate as a well-contented and perfectly happy woman who believed she had just come from South Africa.”
Details excerpted from: The Line Up, (Matthew Thompson), History Extra (Andrew Norman) and Hercule Poirot Central.
Writing Prompt: Write whatever inspires you from these details.
OR
Imagine what your fictional character could do. Perhaps show his/her normal activity, an every day scene. Then, the bizarre happens. It can be logical and make sense. Or, it can be totally unpredictable with no logical explanation for what happened.
Just start writing and see what happens.
