Jane walked into the room and turned on the light. The telephone was on the copy editor’s desk just a few feet away. She started to move towards it and then hesitated. ‘Maybe not a good idea.’ she thought to herself. Instead she reached into her purse for cigarettes, drew them out and opened the case. She placed one of the cigarettes between her lips but didn’t light it.
This is how you start a story. Create a scene and a character. Some tension. What’s going to happen?
Armister entered the room and closed the door. “Hello Jane.” She blinked twice but didn’t look at him. The room was the office of a ‘Junior Associate’ as they were called, supplied with a desk, filing cabinet, a swivel desk chair and one upholstered chair sitting askance from the desk. She sank into the upholstered chair and leaned over as if to scratch her ankle. “I won’t go with you.”
“Yes you will.” said Armister but when she straightened up she was holding a small pistol and it was aimed at Armister.
This is how you create suspense, capture the reader’s attention - by giving them a compelling story line. Something that seems real or believable in a fantastic sort of way. You introduce the characters, have a ‘conversation’ and then you say goodbye.
Armister was staring at the small pistol. He was going thru a mental checklist: is it loaded? probably / will she use it if I rush her? I don’t know / would she really rather shoot me than go downtown and answer a few questions, maybe be held? I really have no idea. After about 15 seconds his mental checklist was completed and the results were disconcerting.
“I see you calculating.” said Jane holding the pistol now with both hands. “I will go with you but in my car. You drive. If you mess up I will kill you.”
“Umh.” said Armister in a long monotone.
This is the essence of conversation. A long ummmmh and then something startling to say and then a long ummmmh. Atleast at a party it’s like that sometimes. The conversation and then the goodbye.
“Weren’t you going to use the phone?” said Armister. “Say hello to somebody?” He took a step forward. She was still seated, leaning forward purposefully with a bead of sweat on her forehead. There was no air conditioning - this was the thirties and the fans had been shut off when the building was closed. Armister saw it and took it as a sign of nervousness, the jitters. Jane just sweated alot was the truth, she always had.
He took another step and she fired a bullet thru his midsection. She fired another one thru his chest and he slumped to the ground. Then she fired one into his head where the wide wondering eyes were looking at her. The end. Goodbye.
Well of course she didn’t get away with it but that’s another story. The point is - life is like that too. Atleast mine is. Hello, conversation, goodbye. I’ve done it so many times.
The whole entire life cycle is hello, conversation, goodbye - don’t you think so? From the hello years in our infancy when everything is a hello to the long unreconciled conversational years of 4 to 64, trying to establish a rhythm and make a connection and then the slow goodbye, things we once believed in become less important and eventually drop out of sight. Right?
I don’t know where you are in that timeline but I know where I am.
It’s the same with friends. Sometimes I think they will last forever and then they walk out the door, the same way they walked in.
Jane was obviously in a goodbye mood that day, she had a lot invested in the moment you could say, but we are affected by different moods all our life. Infact we kind of live to optimize our moods, arrange things to get the moods we want: elation, comfort, security, the feeling that everything is under control, simple pleasure, an ice cream cone.
And so . . . what was my point? Oh yeah, acquiring and letting go. Breathing in and breathing out. Saying hello, having a conversation, saying goodbye. It’s so familiar we barely notice it.
I want to notice everything before I go. Well maybe not everything but as much good stuff as I can. That would include leaves trembling in the breeze outside my window (one of my favorites), clouds floating in the sky (water vapor made visible), babies in the cafe (I talk to them), driving down the street in my Prius (no peddling), swooping down the street on my bike (as close to flying as I can get), noticing a breath (in and out), drinking chilled, sparkling water when I’m thirsty (did you ever wonder why there were all these cups for winning things? the Stanley Cup, the World Cup, the Ryder’s Cup - that’s because back in the day, the original Olympics, that was the prize - a cool drink of ambrosia or whatever it was from the cup), watering my garden, pulling out the old stuff after it has gone to seed, making way for the new growth, watching the new growth, watching Mother Nature paint my lawn (also called benign neglect), writing my stuff (feeling the Muse, she’s inside all of us), meditating on the feeling of being alive (too much fun), following the river, watching it flow, relaxing in it’s current (a metaphor), listening to music that touches my heart and makes me cry (I’ve got alot of it, I play it here).
This amazing EP from Tour Maubourg ‘Floating On Silence’ is worth checking out if you like the Chill House Music stuff. Heard it in the cafe, shazamed it but was too late, fortunately the barista had it on his screen. A shoutout for Press Coffee in the Boardwalk.
00-5:47 15:49-22:09
Please support me if you can. I’m just doing what I love and trying to be sustainable. Wish more people would do that. Simplify, get rid of stuff that’s not working, be willing to adapt, be willing to move on. C’mon people we can do it. Your contribution would help.
Share this post