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For an English assignment, we all picked out of a hat three characters that other classmates made little descriptions for and wrote a little piece about them living in a town that we all made up together.
Here's the first piece I wrote:
Mrs. Lily smiled and wiped her forehead. "Woo! I think I'm done for the day."
She analyzed her work in front of her and sighed. Her flowers were all aligned in a carefully constructed manner, no weeds popping out anywhere, and all rocks moved to more suited places. Empty patches were now hiding seeds beneath them, to be fully grown flowers in the spring. Mrs. Lily and her husband had spent the entire day fixing it up and making sure it looked perfect, and now they seemed about finished.
"Lily," came a muffled voice. Mrs. Lily looked up, startled. "Can you help me?"
The voice came from her husband, Adan, standing at the front door hidden beneath a big bag of fertilizer.
"Oh!" she cried, and rushed over to help him.
"Thank you," he said, breathlessly. As Mrs. Lily revealed his face she noticed the shine on his forehead. It was the middle of winter, but they had been working hard all day and they were tired.
"I'm going to make some iced tea," she thought aloud while placing the bag of fertilizer on the bench next to the door. Then she hurried inside and made her way to the kitchen. Once there, she set straight to getting out the pitcher from the fridge, pushing aside many cans of cheese spray. I love him, she thought. But he's obsessed with cans of cheese spray...She shook her head.
As she poured the dark, brown liquid into two tall blue cups with squiggly lines on the sides, she thought about all of the boxes still in the garage.
Mrs. Lily and her husband had moved to Black Bear Peak three weeks ago and were still moving in. They'd spent half of the time they should have spent unpacking and looking for jobs starting a garden out in the little patch of dirt in front of their porch. Just as she was finishing filling up both cups, she heard the rumble of a car pulling up in front of her house. She placed the pitcher down on the counter.
Wrapping her gloved hands around the edge of the pane, she leaned forward to look out the window. She watched for a second as Adan walked down the pathway and to the big blue truck. A small head popped out of the car and looked down at the short Spaniard man staring back up at him. Adan lifted his hand to his brow to shield his eyes from the bright, white sky's glare. He nodded.
Mrs. Lily took this as her Que to flick off her gardening gloves and go out to meet the unidentified stranger.
She darted out the door and across the marble path, arms swinging back and forth. Once she saw the face of the man in the truck, she relaxed. A lot.
Bill Jocklun was basically the town's leader, since the mayor never did much. He helped people out a lot, and issued any marriage certificates for anybody who lives in the community. He also put forward some basic laws to keep the town in order. He was an extremely nice man that was on top of everything, and though Mrs. Lily wondered why he had come, she felt very relieved it was him. He was also quite famous, because his family was the much, much larger of the two African American families in town.
"Oh, well, hello, Mrs. Lily," he greeted her, smiling warmly. "I just came by to remind you it's tax time."
Oh. Taxes. Mrs. Lily pushed a strand of her straight brown, hair out of her face and bit her lip. She was horrible at math, how was she supposed to do her taxes?
Bill must have seen the worried look on her face, because he turned around in his truck and sounded like he was rummaging around in his truck. Seconds later, he pulled a book out and let it flop in his hand a bit. It was bright red with orange and blue writing and said, TAXES: FOR YOUR TOTAL NOOB at the top.
"Not to worry, Mrs. Lily," he announced. "This should help."
Mrs. Lily started to laugh, but stopped. There was a very large man in a dark suit shuffling by on the other side of the street. Uh-Oh, she thought.
Adan narrowed his eyes. "Who's that?"
The man had started mumbling to himself, face turned to the ground. "Stupid government...ruining our beautiful system...economy falling..not my problem....why should I put up with it?!..."
Suddenly, his head jolted up, spotting Adan staring at him.
Mrs. Lily had feared this, her husband had not met Mr. Ackerman before, because Mrs. Lily had seen him while Adan was getting groceries. At that time, Mr. Ackerman had criticized her gardening skills. Harshly.
Mr. Ackerman's face turned slightly purple and his thin brown hair flared up in the breeze. Adan scrunched his lips together, trying not to laugh.
"What are you staring at, huh?" He yelled in a thick, British accent. "Do you think I'm funny, boy? Huh?DO YOU THINK I'M FUNNY?!"
Bill turned and rolled down the opposite window.
"ACKERMAN. Don't make me get out of this truck!"
My god, thought Mrs. Lily. I've never seen him like this, and never heard he could be like that...
This must have gotten to Mr. Ackerman, since he stopped and merely growled, his deep, gray eyes seeming to flash. The three waited until Mr. Ackerman turned and shuffled off towards his home on the hill nearby.
"Sorry about that," Bill sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "You should see him when the Lindwood kids come skating or riding by his house. Like a storm...Anyway, I've got to go. I'll send you more information about the taxes later. Bye!"
Mrs. Lily and her husband said their goodbyes and Bill drove away.
Adan turned to his wife. "I hope the rest of our neighbors are less weird. I really hope."
 Flighte · Thu May 21, 2009 @ 12:07am · 0 Comments |
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