After everyone has left the theater, Drew stumbles to the restroom. From her clutch, she takes out a photograph taken on her tenth birthday. Of all the birthdays, Drew remembers her tenth most vividly because of this picture and because that was the last one they celebrated together.
Drew is barely visible in the shadow behind her mother, who is captivated by the candles on the cake and doesn’t bother looking up at the camera.
She was always like this, absorbed in something else, something others couldn’t see.
Her mother had spent the whole day in the kitchen, carefully measuring and pouring and decorating the thing. It was chocolate with blue frosting and sloppy yellow stars. The candles were already dripping into the frosting while her father, who didn’t like to waste film, fiddled with the dials on his camera.
“Aren’t you going to take a picture?” she said, and he replied, “If you’re in such a big rush then go ahead and blow them out. I’m not the one who wanted a picture.” He stopped fiddling with the dials to give her a look.
***
The rest of this chapter is waiting for some agent/publisher to notice. Waiting.
this is one of those time when i feel these bits are too short, i’m not ready to be stopped .
I guess because it’s almost over, I’m trying to draw it out as loooong as possible…
Tears are supposed to be shed. They should cascade and soak. Pills are meant to be taken.
It was the perfect place to stop today.
Thanks, Virginia. Still can’t shake that gorgeous baby granddaughter of yours from my mind.
At the risk of over-hyping it, (because I tend to do that with things I like, you may know) the meeting of Drew and Eleanor was magical.
Please feel free to over-hype any time you want!
You pack a pretty powerful punch.
janet
Yaaay!
2&4&12B&24 9 29D 29A 29C 27C 26B 18A 14B 22 12A 18B 26A 20B&7&16A&16B
14A 15A&15B 11 23C 3B 3A 19A&19B 29B 28&13&27A&23A&23B&21A&21B
20A 6 10 21C 25A&25B&8&17A&17B&5&1
So you are making connections, this was excellent, two souls with very different and yet
equally painful lives – so your saying – it’s okay to cry at books?
Oh, yes! I cry at books all the time. Crying at books is better than in movies because you can put the book down and bawl for as long as you want, in privacy.
Amen!