"Tell me the truth" - A story January 5, 2009 - January 25, 2009

Reading and Deliberating

Details

Tell a story that holds in it truth about yourself, content doesn't matter as much as the meaning behind it - wrap it up any way you like. Read the excerpt below that inspired the contest:

"Anyway, the boy from the Banbury Herald. He said, 'Miss Winter, tell me the truth." Now what kind of appeal is that? I've had people devise all kinds of stratagems to trick me into telling, and I can spot this a mile off, but that? Laughable. I mean, whatever did he expect?

A good question. What did he expect? His eyes were glistening with an intent fervor. He watched me so closely. Seeking. Probing. He was after something quite specific, I was sure of it. His forehead was damp with perspiration. Perhaps he was sickening for something. Tell me the truth, he said.

I felt a strange sensation inside. Like the past coming to life. The watery stirring of a previous life turning in my belly, creating a tide that rose in my veins and sent cool wavelets to lap at my temples. The ghastly excitement of it. Tell me the truth.

I considered his request. I turned it over in my mind, weighed up the likely consequences. He disturbed me, this boy, with his pale face and his burning eyes.

"All right," I said.

An hour later he was gone. A faint, absentminded good-bye and no backward glance.

I didn't tell him the truth. How could I? I told him a story. An impoverished, malnourished little thing. No sparkle, no sequins, just a few dull and faded patches, roughly tacked together with the edges left frayed. The kind of story that looks like real life. Or what people imagine real life to be, which is something rather different. It's not easy for someone of my talent to produce a story like that."
- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The voice of the excerpt is disturbed by the truth of her past but I think everyone can benefit from exploring inner demons through writing.