I’ve wondered if what I’m writing is a short story in need of work or the major plot points to a novel waiting to be written.
Writing the end scenes, it’s became clearer to me.
I woke up in the middle of the night writing the novel in my head.
All of which means you’ll be seeing Jerry and Betty’s saga as a novel at some point down the line.
But remember, you saw it here first.
Enjoy.
How Jerry and Betty Became the Least Entertaining Couple in the Neighborhood (Section 12)
Disaster sirens woke Betty from a deep sleep. She blinked several times and couldn’t focus, didn’t understand what that noise was. Jerry lay stretched out on his side and facing away. She reached over to run her hand down his arm and back. They made love through most of the night, and again, he was a gentle, giving lover, more concerned with her pleasure than his own.
She asked him about it between sessions and he smiled. “It’s how we learn, it’s how we share, it’s how we act, it’s how we do, it’s how we give ourselves to someone else, it’s how we share our world with someone else.”
He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the lake facing their cabin. “Can you feel the water?”
She nodded.
“Describe it to me. Explain it to me as if I’ve never experience water before, as if it’s an alien thing, maybe a frightening thing. Can you make it not frightening to a people who have no word for water?”
“You’re afraid of the water? Did you steal those endurance swimming medals you got in high school and college?”
“Describe it with a poet’s words, a painter’s brush, a singer’s voice. Each a different expression and each expressing the same thing. Can you do that, Betty? It’s incredibly important you can do that.”
She slid out of his hands and stood in the water. “What are you talking about, Jerry?”
“Let it envelop you, surround you. Savor it. Remember the experience. It’ll be a while before you can experience it again.”
“What do you mean, it’ll be a while before I can experience it again?” She put her hands on either side of his face and tilted his face to look into his eyes. “Are you alright?”
He took her hands and kissed them. “Please keep the baby, Betty. Please don’t lose it. Can you do that, Betty? Can you promise me you’ll keep the baby?”
The water turned terribly cold. In the dark, in the night, it seemed something hovered behind Jerry as she looked up at him, something occulting the stars in the sky. “What baby?”
“Can you hear it? They’re coming.”
Betty shook her head against the pillow. Was that a dream? Did she just wake up?
She blinked her eyes open wide and scanned her surroundings before sitting up. Yes, she was in bed, yes, she was in their cabin. She blinked again. “That was one hell of a dream.” She reached over for Jerry. “Jerry? I had the strangest dream, I – ”
Yes, those were disaster sirens in the distance.
Disaster sirens? Up here? They’re half an hour from nowhere in deep woods!
Her hand fell on empty sheets. The bedroom door was open. Bright light streaked across the cabin’s living room.
She wrapped a blanket around herself
Drapes still covered the windows but the front door was wide open. A shadow moved past the door. “Jerry? Is that you?”
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Questions or comments? Bring ’em on. They’ll help me craft a better story.
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