three six five

Week 32…

The last time I wandered down Clement street with a friend, they took me to one of those shops where I knew I was going to spend money: cute stationary, local art, and eclectic books. Drawn to its colorful cover, I picked up Lucy Ives’ “three six five” (an inexhaustible compendium for writing). To my delight, it lives up to its subtitle — offering unique prompts that keep my synapses firing and my keyboard clicking.

no.32 Eclipse (how serendipitous; I’ve been thinking of this one for awhile, but clearly this is the weekend to post it) >>

Write one half of a dialogue between two people. Leave space — visually, mentally, musically — for questions, responses, retorts we cannot perceive.

“Ah yes, clever you.”

“Nope, can’t say that I did. You must be proud.”

“I believe it. I don’t imagine you’d be very good at your job if you weren’t.”

“Mmmm. Has it ever occurred that you see these things because people trust you?”

“I trust you.”

“‘I don’t know, it’s a mystery.’”

“Sorry — another movie quote.”

—-

Shakespeare in Love? Not a great film, but an enjoyable one. Caused all kinds of grumblings at the Oscars that one year, remember?”

“Mm-hmm, that’s it.”

“C’mon, you know that’s how my brain works. Anyway, you should have by now. Noticed it, I mean — since you’re so very observant.”

“Honestly, I don’t know why. Or rather, I can’t articulate the reason.”

—–

“Even I have off-days.”

“Whimsy and rage are not mutually exclusive, champ. Especially not for girls.”

“Yes, yes. So smart.”

—-

“Oh? But I haven’t shown you anything I haven’t wanted you to see.”

“Go on then — tell me something I keep hidden.”

“I… well, I haven’t really been trying that hard, I guess.”

“Not in so many words, no.”

“Becau– I mean, the myriad reasons are fairly obvious, don’t you think?”

—-

“You did. And I wanted to honor that. But I still… couldn’t quite help myself.”

“Yeah, more socially acceptable.”

.

“… so, do you hate me?”

.

“Please only say things like that if you mean them. I don’t think I can overstate how much I only want you to be honest.”

—-

“Yesss, I know. And I would never, ever want to do anything to complicate that.”

“Well, the question is: do you trust me?”

“You do. More than you think. So again: do you trust me?”

“Then you’ll recognize it was the only avenue open. Small, innocent subterfuge. I was trying to be-“

?

“Ha. Yes. Clever.”


SF Neighborhoods/Places Explored: Cayuga, Ingleside, SF MoMA, Mission District, The Roxie, Outside of Outside Lands

Soundtrack: Silence; so I can let the other person speak ^^

Bus + Bench Book: Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Lesson-Learned: Fog is far more forgiving than sunshine on my shoulders.


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2 responses to “three six five”

  1. sublimeecedf67b86 Avatar
    sublimeecedf67b86

    I immediately tried to fill in the blanks, but couldn’t get a cohesive narrative going; I likely could if I spent some additional time. Did you have the other individual’s dialogue in your head as you created the one-person version we see?

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    1. Meg Avatar

      I did! One of the challenges was that the dialogue is not a true 1:1, in that the other party has multi-sentence-long responses to person number one. There are also moments of extended silence between the speakers, but it’s difficult to visibly represent that in this post. It was an interesting exercise, which I’ll try again sometime…

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