Blog @ Work

The past, the book and 9/11

Creation Saturday! I pulled this out from the Challenge War Chest... Your best friend from college has invited you to his or her wedding. You haven't seen him or her in years, so you're excited to catch up. But when you arrive at the wedding, you discover that your best friend's bride or groom is someone from your past- and you realize that you must stop the wedding at all costs...(30-Day BC)

”Do you want to know?” I looked at her enthusiastic face when she greeted me after all those years. I had something to tell her and she wouldn’t like it. “Your boyfriend Pete, he was the former boyfriend of my cousin. He has been in jail, did he tell you that?”

“There were some problems in the past; he did mention that to me,” she said somewhat defensively. “Everybody deserves a second chance.”

“Did he tell you what those troubles were?” I asked inquisitively.

“No,” she said,” “I never asked, I figured he would tell me once we were married and he’d confide in me.”

“It would be too late by then,” I said bitterly. “He was put in jail after sexually abusing my cousin’s kids, age 4 and 6. Did you know he was a child molester?”

She broke into tears, gasping for air. “What do I do, he never told me that…I never would have him getting into my life if I knew that, you know what happened when I was eight, with my uncle? I barely got over that…and now I am about to marry the same kind of monster? No way, no way…” She became hysterical.

I patted her on the back and hugged her.

“Are you sure? “ she sobbed.

“Yes I am sure, I was friends with the both of them years back, she is family, they invited me to their home many times, I stayed for dinner, and we went shopping while he looked after her kids. We all were devastated when she found out and had to report him to the police. I think she never got over it. The kids are fine I think, they can’t remember much and they got counseling just in case. They are eighteen and twenty now, they are doing great. She is a nervous wreck though. I wouldn’t want that for your future.”

“What am I supposed to do? The wedding is tomorrow?” She asked, still in tears.

“You talk to the organizers and cancel the whole thing. Then you confront him.”

“I cannot believe this“, she said nodding her head. “How could I misjudge him so?”

“They all look like nice guys, “I stated, “hell, they all are nice guys, otherwise they wouldn’t pull off those horrendous tricks. But he is a sick man, child molesters can’t be cured, they stay sick, treatment or no treatment. Come on, I will back you up all the way.”

Write a short story in which a character encounters a work of art that changes his life in a similarly noteworthy way. What resonates with the character to have such a lasting impression? How does his life change post-that-picture? (BC)

His life was never the same after reading “Catcher in the Rye”, by J.D. Salinger. He identified totally with this coming-of-age novel, written in 1951. When he read this excellent novel about Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old boy in between adolescence and adulthood, he recognized this Holden, who admired in children attributes that he struggled to find in adults, like innocence, kindness, spontaneity, and generosity. The book is still regarded "as the defining work on what it is like to be a teenager.” Holden is at various times disaffected, disgruntled, alienated, isolated, directionless, and sarcastic, feelings and attitudes he recognized fully in himself. After reading the novel he packed up his things, bought a second hand car and left the dormant town in the mid-west he grew up in. He left for adventure and never looked back. He worked on a ship for a couple of years, saw the world, and settled in Bali, Indonesia where he opened a scuba diving resort with some friends and grew a beard. Was it not for Catcher in the Rye he would have become a shop owner of meat products like his old man. He never regretted the choices he made and was a very happy man leading an alternative lifestyle.

Prompt: Where were you 15 years ago tomorrow, 9/11?(BCoFs)

On 9/11/2001 I was at home on sick leave. That morning I had just done some chores around the house, probably looked at my garden, and was just curious if something happened that day, so I switched on the television set at our local news. They reported something was happening in New York, so at 9.05 American time I switched over to CNN. I saw the first tower in smoke and watched in horror to see the second twin tower being hit by a plane. The television stayed on from that moment, I never left the scene 24/7 for days. It was horrible, it was heartbreaking. I immediately called my dad so he could watch too. We spoke briefly about the horrors that happened and I returned quickly to the television set. It was my main focus for weeks on end, I was so touched by it and all was magnified by the fact that I watched it from the start; I felt I was part of the whole situation and felt personally affected by it. I have been to the States twice since then and was totally head over heels in love with the country. I hope to visit Ground Zero in New York City in spring of next year, to finally be able to pay my respects to the deaths of that dreadful day so many years ago.

Day FORTY NINE "Give It 100!"