Understanding

Short, Short Story

Laura's eyes are shining.

She laughs softly.

“I read somewhere that laughter is close to crying”

“Yeah?”

“Like now,” she wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, “crying with laughter”.

She pauses to blow her nose before continuing.

“Stupid memories...” Laura trails off as she tries and fails to throw her scrunched up tissues into a bin on the far side of the room.  “It was funny though wasn’t it?”

There’s another pause in the conversation until she looks up prompting a reply.

“Yeah, it was funny, the way your mum was looking around. She was so confused”.

Laura's laugh returns.

“She asked me who I was talking to and I said, ‘There’s only the three of us in here… me, myself and I.’”

“Then she asked you which one you were talking to…”

“I was talking to myself.”

“You really should try to kick that habit.”

Laura's grin broadens as she turns to the emptiness beside her.

“You know I can’t. You’re the only one that understands.”

Author's Note

I appreciate ANY feedback. Thanks! :)

Reviews

[Kristan A. Mohammed]

This is so wonderful. I truly believe that a person's best friend and the most confidential confidant is your own self. I like the way you began the story by misleading the reader into thinking that there was actually someone else in the room. The fact that she was able to laugh so much and make it appear to be so real is just proof of how real and true her internal friend was to her. You really accomplished a lot in just a few lines. I really enjoyed reading this. Great job. Stay inspired.

[K.]

I really liked this! In the beginning of the story you think that they're talking to another, like physical person! I was a little confused that there were no details about them, but it made so much more sense and really came together at the end. My favorite part was the line in which you say "I was talking to myself," and you could read it like she was just talking to herself, or her addressing "myself" as another character. I always take somewhat of a "messed-up" tone to things, and that was indicating craziness to me, but that's just me, haha!

Great write!

[Andrew Leister-Frazier]

Its clever, I enjoyed this piece, I think its something writers can relate to because writing dialog is much like talking to yourself.