BE CURIOUS: WHO IS THAT WOMAN BUYING FIVE LEMONS AND TWO PEACHES? WHAT'S IN HER PURSE? WHAT DOES SHE DREAM AT NIGHT? ONLY YOU, THE WRITER, CARE. DON'T LET HER DISAPPEAR OUT INTO THE PARKING LOT AND INTO OBLIVION.
(Natalie Goldberg)
The woman's name is Emma and she bought the fruit because her grandchildren are coming over to spend the night. Her grandson likes to suck on the lemon halves as he watches baseball on TV - it keeps him from sucking his thumb, which he is too old to do now. The little girl likes to rub her small hands over the peaches' fuzz and pretend they are her magical pets since she's not allowed to have any real ones of her own, and if her pets have to be imaginary, why not make them magical ones?
Your turn...
I like yours better, but here's mine:
ReplyDeleteShe dreams of becoming a clown, and she buys the cheapest, most overripe produce to practice juggling. When it goes splat on the floor in her dingy studio apartment, the cross-eyed rat in her purse gobbles it up. Her discontent leads to his satisfaction.
Good advice: be curious. Notice all the details everybody else misses.
I love that, Milo! Especially the cross-eyed rat. See, to me, that's what makes someone a "real" writer - it's not just any rat but a cross-eyed one. :)
ReplyDeleteAfter she paid for them, Agnes Bowman put her five lemons and two peaches into her purse. She was going home to make fruit salad. She thought the colors would be cheery together. She had no sense of smell and tasted only by texture. She hoped the two contrasting textures would delight her tongue.
ReplyDeleteAs she got into her Prius, she imagined the faces of her fellow bridge players as they ate her fruit salad. This would show her -ex, who always said she couldn’t cook.
Now this Agnes sounds like an interesting woman!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by The Shellshank Redemption, Lynn! :)
Well, of course, this woman is a born Southerner, and she's in a hurry to get home to make some fresh-squeezed lemonade and a peach cobbler for her gentleman caller, who will unfortunately never show up since she's a tad delusional and her gentleman friend, Rhett, is only a figment of her imagination. But oh, she has such sweet dreams.
ReplyDeleteP.S. You've won a blog award just for being fabulous you. You know where to pick it up. ;-)
See, now I feel bad for this woman! Can't she have a real Rhett? :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the award, Cathy! I'm off to check it out.
Come on, Madeline...you know that wouldn't be Gothic enough. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHa ha! :)
ReplyDelete