Prompt: Metaphor or synecdoche. This time you might, again, work with someone you know or you might invent a character. In any case, concentrate on an object, event, or place that tells us something important about your subject. Let your reader learn about this person through the lens you choose. Think back to your “Things” themes. What can things tell us about a person?
Bagel and lox brunch. Sunny Sunday. Pierson College.
I sit with a few friends and discuss Saturday night, homework, life, the normal things. Tyler was so drunk he didn’t recognize Robert – ha ha! The economics problem set for tomorrow is so hard. As Catherine gets up to refill her orange juice, we hear the sound of empty plastic hitting wood. Catherine, so shocked that she had dropped her glass, sits down and tells us to look right.
Sarah. At the door to the dining hall. In the green shirt.
Crisis mode. Two semesters ago, this shirt had destroyed Sarah. Flannel-y, forest green, button-up, and way too big, Sarah’s shirt had attached itself to her at brunches, in classes, even going out. Sure, the girl had been having a hard semester: bad grades, no idea what her major was, uninteresting prospects in the boy department. She had probably just wanted to wear a comfy shirt to weather her frazzled existence. We were, no, are convinced, though, that once the shirt went on it amplified rather than ameliorated all of its owners problems. Gone was preppy Sarah doused in J. Crew pastels, here was sad Sarah smothered in…hiker chic? Eventually, we decided to stage an intervention: barging into her bedroom, we hid the shirt under her bed and told her that she just had to start faking it till she made it by dressing normally. This was the first re-appearance of the forest green monster since then.
Sarah. Walking over to us. Act natural.
“Hey guys! SUCH a gorgeous day. Let’s eat outside!”
“Hey, Sarah. Um…?”
So much for acting natural. Sarah looks down.
“Right, the shirt. I thought that it would be…edgy for me to try this out again? You know, like old times?”
Sarah – edgy? No way. Time for another intervention. Off with the shirt!
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