Lesson One - Part Two (Suspended)-wrong

Cache Lesson One – Part Two

Lesson One Assignment 2

Goal: To focus on the small things that can happen, plot-wise, and to open up your mind to possibilities.

1. Fix your mind on one of your main characters in a story you are writing or have recently read.

Choose a character you know well from your own work, or a character you feel an emotional attachment to in a book you've read.

2. Have your character sit down to write a letter to someone s/he is intimate with, who happens to be not near by at the moment. (It can be an email, if that helps you work, but make it be an email that won't be read for at least 24 hours, as an immediate reading of the email would destroy the point of the exercise.)

3. Begin the letter, By the time you read this and make a detailed list of all the things that will have happended by the time the intended recipient of the letter actually reads it. (This does not have to be an extensive writing, just think about the character and the what-ifs that could occur!)13





Andrew,

         By the time you read this I will be gone.  Since I got out of the hospital, I’ve tried to accept James’ death and understand your actions.  At first, I thought that if I took a step back and had some time alone, I would be able to move passed all that’s happened. 

         I agreed to stay at Richard’s instead of going away because I had thought that would cause less worry to you.  But it wasn’t working—even before these accusations about me ‘mishandling sensitive information’.  I do realize that the flowers and gift baskets were your way of letting me know that you were thinking about me—that you loved me and wanted me home again.

         I know that I said some truly horrible things to you—things that I can never take back.  Even now I can hear you saying you forgive me.  Perhaps you can.  But I can never forget them.

         I am not the same person I was when we first me.  I am not even the person you married.  There’s just been too much that’s happened.  I know you won’t understand this, but it is nothing you have done.  You have always been wonderful; and for a while I did feel like I was living in a fairytale. 

         If things hadn’t gone south at work, we might have found a way to reconnect.  My job was the only thing keeping me going, so the ‘powers that be’ questioning my loyalty and integrity are the final straws.  I just can’t do any of this any more.  And I worry that these accusations about me put your career in jeopardy.  Any blot on my character effects your job, and Richard’s and even Father’s.  It could also keep the boys from joining ‘the family business’. 

         I did nothing inappropriate—I swear.  I did not pass information.  I have never told anyone anything.  And I’m sure that you and the rest of the family (including Jack and Ruth) believe me.

         Please don’t search for me.  I promise to keep alert and will eventually end up near Mom and Dad in San Diego—but not anytime soon.  Just let me fade away and all of you get back to your own lives.

         I know you love me.  I love you.  But I tried to tell you in the very beginning that it would be better to walk away from me. 

                                                                               Elizabeth