It's day 3 of Fairfield University's celebration of October 20th - The National Day on Writing. Last night, in a graduate class on teaching the composing processes, one of my students led a mini-lesson on starting a story through jumbling ideas. He gave us four lists of ten items and asked us to think of four #s, 1-10. The prompt was to begin a story that brought random ideas together. The four I chose: an expectant mother, the day after graduation, a wedding, and something that dies. Here's what I came up with.
Flipper
Andrea rubbed her tummy and wanted to curse her husband. She wasn't upset that he got her pregnant - this was, after all, a result of their intimacy. She was more upset that they just graduated high school the night before and here they were, a few hours after flipping tassels, at their wedding reception.
Talk about moving fast.
She didn't have the heart to tell Rob that his gold fish died earlier that morning while he was taking a shower. He was singing and she didn't want to ruin his day.
"Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Halsell," her husband's best friend teased as he gave a roast with his half-empty glass of Doctor Pepper. "Here's to the newlyweds. May the rest of your life together be full of miracles and dreams."
Yet, Andrea's mind wasn't on miracles or dreams. She wasn't thinking about the wedding or the baby girl due any day now. She hadn't even begun to recall the many graduation parties that filled her calendar for the next two months.
All Andrea could think about was the dead fish in her purse. She needed to talk to Rob, alone, soon. He needed to know.
No comments:
Post a Comment