Decisions

Our main character makes a life decision that will affect us.

          I stress out easily, so I have no idea what I just got myself into. I agreed on impulse, and he wouldn’t let me pull out, especially now. I just verified the order of my plane ticket to France, knowing that I don’t have that kind of money, and I charged a plane ride to my credit card, that’s a bill I’ll have to deal with later. I take a deep breath, in and out, in and out. Next week, not even roughly, seven days from now, I’ll have to drive three hours to the nearest airport. What did I just do? I took the job that my two sisters, mother, and best friend begged me to stray away from. It’s not bad. Those women just worry about me.

          Can’t worry now, I just clicked the button that sealed my fate. Now, I had to tell the girls that I just did the opposite of what I was told. I hope they take it well. My mother, she’ll probably overreact. My sisters… they can be unpredictable. My best friend, well, she would worry no matter what I do. I almost automatically decided to text them all to come to my apartment this weekend. I’m going to order six pizzas and tell them.

          I know that my mother will freak out with me going overseas, and beg me to cancel, and I’ll say no. My two younger sisters will accept what’s happening reluctantly; Constance, the middle child just wants everyone to be happy, and Bailey, the youngest, will try to get me to consider once more. My best friend, Serenity, will probably cry… I don’t want to do that to her, but I have to. What I’m completely sure of is that everything will calm down by the end of the night.

          So I sent them all a mass text: “hey, do you want to come to my apartment this Saturday? I have some news for you guys” and waited impatiently for the first response. Mom usually takes two hours to find something on the new phone her boyfriend got her. Constance is usually at events and can only check her phone for split seconds at a time. Bailey is constantly trying to get a man to text back. Serenity responds to me like a snap of the fingers.

          Buzz. Like I expected, Serenity texted me back in the span of not even five minutes. I looked at it and smiled.

          “yes!! Its been foreverrr since we’ve been at your place together.”

          Good. Great. That’s one on board, plus I need to catch up with her once we finish discussing the news. I laid my phone to the side, and minimized the internet browser I was using, then booted up a video game I downloaded. I was assured that my laptop would have no bugs. I just hadn’t had the time to start playing it yet; I just knew that the game was dark and down-t-earth. Also you play as a dog. I love puppies. It was mostly bull when I started playing, but the bull was cute. Then my phone buzzed again.

          I placed the mouse to my left side and picked up the phone, carefully typing in my passcode. I’ve gotten myself locked out of it before. I pulled up the mass texts and nothing was there. So knowing Bailey, I checked the private messages between us.

          “absolutely.” And nothing more. I glanced at my other messages, nothing until I began to lay my phone back down.

          “sis did you even have to ask”

          I chuckled. Boy, I hate that word, but it’s what I did. So I just had to wait a couple hours for mom to either call or slowly text me back. I put down my phone, then exited the game and the internet browser. I scooted away from my study desk and just sat as the milliseconds counted down on my large digital clock. I didn’t realize how bored I was. I wanted mom to text me back at that moment, but knew how she was. I tapped my fingers on the arm of the chair. I did some childish things like spinning around, scooting it to different areas, and finally just put it back.

          God, I spent half an hour goofing off. Then my phone rang, as I suspected, it was mom. I stood up, cleared my throat, and tapped the green button. “Yeah?”

          “Oh, sweetheart, you never ask everyone over, especially in that tiny apartment of yours. Is there an occasion? Have you gotten a boyfriend?”

          “No, mom. The occasion is the surprise.”

          “Have you gotten a girlfriend?” I nearly choked. I wanted to laugh, but didn’t.

          “No, mom.”

          “Okay, then, I’ll see you Saturday!” and she hung up on me. Just as I expected. Yet again, I put my phone down.

          “Okay, Vera. You’ve got this. What could be stressful about telling the girls?” I said to myself, trying to reassure myself on how nothing bad could happen Saturday. I was nervous, but I knew I shouldn’t be. This will be over in a couple days. Then I could pack for the trip.

          To calm myself down, I decided to go through my clothes since it’s so soon. I strode into my bedroom, it’s a mess, and opened up my closet. I scanned what hung up, and decide to probably bring a bright purple dress, and scooted two pairs of my shoes next to each other.

Author's Note

Go ham.

Reviews

[JayG]

Okay, you did ask, though what I have to say will sting, so a quick disclaimer: Nothing I’m about to say has to do with your talent or potential, or, the story. It has to do with some misunderstandings we leave our schooldays with, and their effect on our writing.

You’re working hard on this, so I thought you ought to know.

Here’s the deal: Because they teach us a skill called writing in our schooldays, and the profession is called Fiction-Writing, we mistakenly assume there’s a connection between the two uses of the word “writing.” There isn’t—not as a publisher, and writing pro view them.

Think of how many reports you were assigned and how few stories. Think of how much time your teachers spent on the differences between a scene on the screen and stage and one on the page. Did your teachers even mention: scene and sequel, the short-term scene-goal, the inciting-incident, the black-moment, and the necessity of ending a scene in disaster? Those are a few of the basics that the fiction writer takes for granted as they create a scene. But our schooling was NOT intended to teach us fiction-writing, or any other profession. Professions and trades are learned AFTER we pick up some general techniques that employers and adults, in general, find useful.

The goal of public education is to give us skills our future employers find useful, like the ability to write a report, a paper, and a letter—all nonfiction applications.

The writing skills we were taught have as their goal informing the reader. Fiction’s goal, though, is to entertain the reader by giving them an emotional experience. Nonfiction tells us what happens. Fiction makes us live the story in real-time.

No one shouts advice to the characters in a history book. But well-written fiction has us doing that. A horror story written with schooldays writing skills tells us that the protagonist feels terror. A horror story written with fiction-writing skills terrorizes the reader, and makes them afraid to turn off the lights.

And that’s my point. It’s not a matter of good or bad writing, it’s that you can’t use the tool you don’t know exists, or fix the problem you don’t see as being one. As Mark Twain put it: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

That’s what you need to address, those “just ain’t so” issues. The good news? If you are meant to be a writer, you’ll find the learning like going backstage at the theater, fun.

You might want to look at a few of the articles in my writing blog. They’re aimed at the hopeful writer. But to learn the skills you need, go to the pros. And in that, your local library’s fiction-writing section can be a huge resource. While you’re there, look for the names Dwight Swain, Jack Bickham, or Debra Dixon on the cover of a book on fiction writing technique. They’re the best I’ve found to date.

And while you do that…. Hang in there, and keep on writing.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/

[INFERNO]

Hi, JayG.
I read some posts on your blog after reading your review. First of all, thank you for giving me one, and warning that it would sting.
Thank you for the encouragment. I do not expect to become rich and famous with this, but maybe one day some people may look at it if and when it is published. I do work in a library, so I will look up the names which you suggested.
I will keep looking at those articles you posted in your blog, too.
As repetitive as I am, thank you for the input. I will take this into consideration.