Lesson 3-Assignment #1

Dialogue: Lesson 3 Assignment 1

Julie began to wake nausea overtaking her. Where was she. Nothing felt familiar. The darkness seemed sinister. She startled as a match struck offering shadows in the dark as someone lit a candle.

Rolling to one side and gently raising herself on one elbow Julie stammered, "Who are you? Where am I?"

The silver-haired woman sitting at the table remained silent, weariness showing in her wrinkled features.

"What happened? Where am I? Who are you? What do you want?" Julie's voice was shaking.

In the denseness of the situation, an ancient mantle clock's tick reverbated off the walls. The old woman remained silent.

"Richar', You are here because of Richar'," a feeble voice floated from the other side of the darkness.

The last thing she remembered was a huge hairy hand clamping down over her nose and mouth, a glimpse of a woman fleeing down an alleyway and then darkness.

"Richard? I haven't even met him yet." From the medicinal fog she was enveloped in, Julie's haunted thoughts recalled she had been at the cafe' waiting for Richard to arrive.

"Where am I? Who are you?" she broached the knarled old woman on the opposite side of the room.

"Where you are Mon Cher, is in the room where you first began." And I am your great-grand mere, Marie Landry, so called for my own great-great grandmere of the same name. The first to settle here in Louisiana from France. You have a rich history."

"My name is Julie Chiasson. My parents adopted me and know nothing of my heritage. How can you think you know my history?"

"Oui, It is a long story." Marie whispered in a raspy voice.

Julie shivered as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. An ominous chill had enveloped the room. With blurred vision she was sweeping the room for any means of escape. Squinting, she noted the door was between the woman and herself. Looking further she knew there were two windows in the room, one being above the kitchen sink. To the right of the sink there was a cookie jar in the shape of a Mardi Gras mask in purple, yellow and green on the counter.

Moving at last, Marie pushed herself up twice from her chair. Shuffling her way to the cookie jar, she removed a slender, antique key. Next she went to the large desk that had remained in this old home from another period in time. As Marie rolled back the top Julie caught sight of an old quill pen next to a bottle of ink. It was as if she had been transported back in time. There was a feathered mask at the very back of the desk that could probably tell a thousand tales if it could talk.

"Mrs. Landry, I don't understand how you can presume I am your great-granddaughter. How can you think you KNOW this?" Julie stammered.

"Mon dieu, ma chere, there is no doubt. I saw the birthmark you carry and the scar on your arm. Ma dieu, there is another that carried the same." The old dame looked into Julie's eyes with cloudy, rheumey ones that undoubtedly had witnessed much in her years.

How can this woman know about my birthmark and scar. Well, I guess the scar wouldn't be hard for someone to miss. How many others have a distinctive scar in the shape of a dragon on their arm? It is ironic my strawberry birthmark is also shaped like a dragon. But it is on my upper thigh. How can this woman know about it? Julie's mind was overwhelmed.

"These papers will explain the beginning of your history, your ancestors as they made their way to this uncharted , new country. From there I will try to explain why you did not grow up in your natural family. Much I do not understand myself, but decisions were out of my hands on that day...the day you were born." A single tear slid down the old woman's cheek.

"What about Richard? Oh, my God! What must he think? I was to meet him and I just disappeared. Why have you had me kidnapped?" Hysteria was evident in Julie's quiverring voice.

"Do not be afraid, mon chere. You will be free to go you are not a prisoner here, but there is much you need to know first. One step at the time. First, you must read the papers here. Then I will explain as much as I can from there," Marie said as she handed the yellowed documents to the frightened young woman.



I used choice #1 : Write a scene in which one character is telling another person a story.
Make sure that you write it as a dialogue and not just a first person narrative, but clearly have one person telling the story and the other person listening and asking questions or making comments. .