Our writing instructor gave us homework — write about something inside something else. Hmm. Intriguing, I thought. On my drive home, I considered typical scenarios: inside a car, a box, a drawer, all places which could be enclosed. But the longer I drove the further my imagination traveled. What about something inside my stomach, my dog, the blue bird house next to the driveway as I arrived home? It wasn't until I sat down next to my husband that the final inspiration hit: inside the sofa!
As a child, my younger brothers and I competed over the scavenging of items left beneath sofa cushions, okay, competed over the loose change we would discover, an expected find in every household. But when you grow up in a family of six children that also meant bits of crackers or chocolate chip cookies and the occasional toy solider. I chose the items my protagonist found to shape the character and habits of his deceased friend. He loved his snacks (potato chips, pretzels, and skittles.) He was older or maybe farsighted (broken reading glasses.) He was definitely a man at ease and comfortable in his home (1 lost gray sock.) But I needed the ‘treasure,’ the unexpected find to keep the reader wanting more. I thought about the narrator – a man’s man who felt such loss when his buddy died but was unable to share those feelings with anyone, not even his wife. What could be so different for this man to find that it would surprise him and the reader? A pink dry cleaner’s slip with the words ‘ball gown’ scribbled on it popped into my head and I knew I had the perfect twist to finish my story. Find out more in my short story collection, A Blue Moon & Other Murmurs of the Heart available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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