J-Patt's Blog

Task: Take a sentence, “No one believed her and why should they have?” and make a story out of it.

No one believed her and why should they have? Time and lies had left her statements gaudy. She did not believe herself either—not for a long time. Her father’s portrait, illuminated by halogen lights that faded the corners of the image as well as the medals pinned to his jacket, loomed over the room as she pleaded with her siblings and mother.  The glass case containing her father’s pocket watch was empty, and the money it left behind was empty too.  She could still feel the watch’s profit crumpled in her pocket begging to be passed along, and she was sorry.  She was sorry for her stuffed hollowness and for her dried voice. She was sorry the hollowness did not speak and hungered from her trembling.

“There’s nothing I can do,” Anne slumped against the wall under her father’s portrait. The wall felt warm from the light being left on too long. Her mother rose from the couch.

“There’s nothing you can do,” distant and solemn her voice was not hollow.