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Cast of Characters
by Martin Green |
 Dedicated to writing groups everywhere... |
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It was late at night but Sid Sharp was at his computer, determined to complete the short story he was writing. His wife had urged him to come to bed but he’d told her that his critique group was meeting in three days and he was honor bound to get his submission in. Sid’s story was a romantic triangle in which his handsome young hero, Jim, (based on himself in his younger days), after a fling with a wild red-head (Estelle), comes to his senses and proposes to the quiet-but-sensible girl (Adele) next door who’s loved him all the time. He’d put in several twists and turns-of-plot and thought he’d done a good job. Now he was about to type the final sentence in which the hero would admit to being a fool earlier but would now ask the heroine to marry him. At this point a female figure appeared on Sid’s computer screen. She had red hair, green eyes and wore a tight-fitting dress. Sid realized that the figure looked just like his conception of Estelle. Sure enough, the figure announced that she was Estelle and that she didn’t think his ending was fair. “Of course it’s fair,” said Sid. “You drink, smoke and party all the time. Jim wants to settle down, buy a house and start a family. Adele’s the girl for him.” “What makes you think I don’t want to settle down and have a family, too? I love children. Okay, I admit I wanted to have my fling. But now that Jim has come into my life, and, boy is he a hunk, I’m ready to do the housewife thing. I want you to know, I’m a damned good cook, too.” “That may be, but . . . Wait a minute, why am I arguing with one of my characters, a figment of my imagination? Where’d you come from anyway? I know our critique group computers have done some strange things but nothing like this.” “Maybe it’s that new hard drive you had installed. I don’t know, but I do know that here I am and I want fair and equal treatment.” “But I have to be fair to Jim and . . . “ A figure of a good-looking young man appeared next to Estelle. “I can speak for myself,” he said. “Oh, no. I suppose you’re Jim.” “Right, and I’m not so sure I want to marry the girl next door. Adele’s okay but Estelle really got my juices flowing. I’ll never forget that scene in her bedroom when her parents were away for the night.” “But you held back at the last
moment,” said Sid. “Okay,” said Sid, “you may have a point. But I certainly can’t let down Adele. She’s a sweet girl and she loves Jim. No matter how you two feel she has to wind up with the guy.” “I may not be as sweet as you think.” It was Adele, with her long blonde hair and innocent blue eyes, although now those eyes didn’t look all that innocent. “But I made you my ideal young woman. Devoted and caring and wanting to take care of Jim for the rest of your life.” “Ha. Just like a man. I’m not so sure I want to spend all my life taking care of anybody. And I for one don’t like children all that much, especially after those three rowdy brothers you saddled me with.” “But you’re the traditional girl next door. You grew up loving Jim.” “Sure, but then I went off to that college you sent me to, which I didn’t like very much, by the way, and I met other men. That guy Bill Simon, who was one of Estelle’s many boy friends, the football captain with the broad shoulders, I would have liked to have known him better.” “So what are you saying, I should change the whole plot I worked so hard over?” “You don’t have to do that,” said Estelle. “All you have to do is to have Adele turn down Jim’s proposal, then he’d be free to come back to me and she can go after that guy, Simon or whatever, I threw over.” “Or maybe he threw you over,” said Adele. “Now girls,” said Jim. “Don’t argue. The best thing would be to . . . “But the two girls broke in and soon all three were wrangling. “Sid, Sid, wake up.” “Huh!” Sid found he’d been slumped over on his desk. He slowly raised his head and saw his wife. “You were babbling away in your sleep, something about how you’d end your story your way.” “Oh, yes. My story. My characters had come to life and were on the screen arguing.” Sid’s wife gave him a long look and sighed. He hadn’t been the same since joining that writing group. “Yes, I’m sure they were. Come on now, you’ve written enough for tonight.” Sid looked at his computer and saw that the screen saver had come on. “All right, I’m coming. My critique group will never believe this.” To himself, he thought, I’ll look at the story tomorrow and see how it comes out. On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I should delete the story and take some time off. |
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