Teaser Tuesday
It’s Tuesday evening, but technically still Tuesday. This isn’t a teaser really, but another workshop exercise. We were given a picture and challenged to write from a POV we don’t normally use for twenty minutes. This is obviously very unfinished, but looking at it now, I love the unexpected “A Rose for Emily” quality to it.
Picture: Black and white print of a senior woman wearing a cape, hat, and dress standing on building stoop with a dog on a leash
What I Wrote (unedited – sorry for any mistakes):
Every day, at exactly six o’clock, whether the sun was setting into New Jersey or reigning the Manhattan skyline, Miss Prudence Devereaux stood on her doorstep. Year-in, year-out, we watched her step out the door of 121 Maple Street, handbag over arm, cape wrapped around her shoulders, and that hat – the grey one with the black ribbon and the scarlet flowers hanging on the front – until her eager pace turned to an awkward shuffle, slower but somehow no less eager. We watched her, our eyes the windows in the building at 123 Maple Street, and saw how she waited, glancing uptown – always uptown, as if expecting an old beau to pick her up for dinner and dancing at that cozy club on Fifth Avenue. At 6:20 sharp – we kept time by the clocks in the shop behind her, imagining the tick, tick, tick of those infinite minutes and seconds passing in the heart of a woman waiting for her lover to come – she disappeared back into her building. Miss Prudence Devereaux never seemed to age, but we saw the years passing in the gray fur on her silent companion, the canine that waited with her.
Post Navigation
Leave your own thoughts
5 Responses to "Teaser Tuesday"
on November 25, 2009 | to this post
Love this! I especially love the descriptions. I could almost see flashbacks to the 1940′s and her dancing the night away in that cozy club.
on November 25, 2009 | to this post
Once again, I’m blown away by your writing. This is so short, and yet so full of detail. Almost like an Ernest Hemingway short story. The writing is beautiful, graceful, and spot on. There’s a sadness underlying this story, and yet also something hopeful. Who are the people watching her? What is their story? Are you by any chance working on a book? If so, I’d love to read it.
on November 25, 2009 | to this post
I love the detail in this, you wove it in beautifully with your descriptions.
on November 25, 2009 | to this post
Egads, I love your writing and can totally see the woman. This would make a great short story.
on November 25, 2009 | to this post
I love flashbacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great post.
~~Paranormalchick~~~