PROMPT #3

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever found? Where were you, and where was the thing? What was it? What happened next?

Get down as much of the story as you can in 20 minutes. Stop for the day.

While walking my dogs in Mount Ogden Park, I found a used condom in the sand at the bottom of the kids’ slide. I hadn’t brought my children to the playground in several years–they were too old to want to swing on the swings or slide on the slide–but I was struck by the placement of the condom. At the bottom of the slide. Difficult for a toddler to miss as she was sliding down. Difficult for a parent to miss as they waited for their child to arrive at the bottom. Who leaves a used condom in a playground? I was glad that whoever was having sex used a condom. One point for protection. I mean, good for them! But why leave it there? I assume it was dark when they were doing the deed. Sex on the sand. Perhaps the couple pretended they were on a beach…someplace tropical and warm. Maybe they’d brought a blanket–such forethought!–and when they were done copulating in the sand shook out the blanket, forgetting the used condom in their haste to tidy up and get away. A reasonable explanation. But I kept thinking the leaving of the condom was somehow intentional. “Here. We did this act here. Where your children play.” The teenagers sticking it to their parents. “You won’t let us have sex at home, so we’ll go someplace you like to bring little kids during the day.” Or showing them they’d grown up and had new ways to play. A playground for all ages: the toddlers and the teens. Even grandparents, who may bring their grandchildren to play. What would the teens think if they knew their grandparents might find the used condom? Oh my word! Life’s rich pageant. The circle of life. I like to imagine the young people having a quick–obviously quick, because they want to get down to business–conversation about where they should do it. The restroom? No, too disgusting. The golf course? No, too open. The back of the car? No, too cramped. The swing? No, too awkward. The slide? No, too dangerous. The sand? Yes, just right. Let’s do it there. Here. Where the children play. Where the toddlers lose their pacifiers. Where the ground is forgiving enough to allow us to enjoy the moment. Did they enjoy the moment? I wonder if they bragged to their friends at school the next day. “We did it in the playground!” Their friends would ask, “how was it?” The girl would say “cold but nice”–what else is she going to say? She liked it? The boy would say “it was awesome!”–what else is he going to say? It was too cold? I imagine it was a girl and boy and not a boy and boy–wouldn’t they use a bathroom stall? And two girls would need a condom, would they? Look at me stereotyping, making assumptions, jumping to conclusions. I’m telling a story about a used condom found in a playground while walking my dogs in my neighborhood park.I can say whatever I want. I can believe what I want to believe.

PROMPT #4

Describe a specific sound from your past. What was it? What did it sound like? Why do you remember it? Try to focus on one specific instance of the sound. Where were you? What else was going on in your life—or the world?

Get down as much of the story as you can in 20 minutes. Stop for the day. We’ll pick it up again on Thursday.

Closing my eyes, trying to remember a sound, and I’m worried that I can’t…can’t remember a specific sound, can’t place a particular sound from my past. But I can remember the sound of

• Bubba’s barking
• Carlos’ conversations
• Henry’s howls
• Dad’s sneezes–so loud and jarring
• The engine in the VW bus
• The buoy bells in Cold Spring Harbor
• Cottonwood trees in the fall at Capitol Reef National Park
• My family singing while I played the piano at Christmas time
• Eunice growling at the vet
• Charlie purring while he kneads
• Maggie laughing when Jake tells a joke
• Jake singing “You Should Be Dancing” on the patio of our old house
• Dave’s smoky voice on the phone
• A rattlesnake the first time I encountered one and thought it was a sprinkler turning on
• Hummingbirds
• Quail
• Wind chimes in Kayenta
• Wind through the old windows in Torrey
• Mom’s voice on the phone

I struggled with this prompt but recognize the value of retrieving specific memories of sounds.

PROMPT #5

Review your output from last week and pick the story that has the most “heat” for you. Can you distill that entire story down to its essence and write it as a 6-word story? Then, expand it to 100 words: what are the most important elements and ideas to incorporate? Finally, try to do a sprint to 500 words (or more if you’re feeling ambitious). 

Spend no more than 30 minutes total on this exercise and stop for the day.

Letter to Marcia Whipps:

6 words
My English teacher drank to survive.

100 words
To my high school English teacher, I’m not convinced you drank during the school day. Though who could blame you if you did. I imagine you saying, “I need something to help me get through the day. I’ll just add a little bit of brandy to my coffee, to soften the edges, to help me control my anger.” I’ve never wanted to drink at work. Maybe I wanted to a little bit during the early months of the pandemic. I also never wanted to teach high school English. I knew I couldn’t handle it. I would probably start drinking too.

500 words
–> see my PROMPT #2, which obviously needs revision

PROMPT #6

Choose one of your story seeds (maybe the same one as yesterday) and add another story to it. You might weave in a completely new story, or you could try combining two of last week’s prompts. Or: 

1. Building on any response from week one, add another event/story that happened in the same place but at a different time—or the same time but a different place. 
2. If you chose a “First time” story from Prompt #1, explore the inverse and incorporate a related “Last time” story. Or vice versa.
3. If you chose a letter story from Prompt #2, add another character’s story to the letter. Or stop in the middle of the letter and tell a different story. 
4. If you wrote about the weirdest thing you’ve ever found from Prompt #3, follow the story of the thing to a different time or place. Where is it now? Or, can you weave in a research-based story about the thing (or type of thing) you found? 
5. If you wrote about a sound, from Prompt #4, weave in another instance of the sound. When did you hear it again? What was the same? What had changed? Or, try to tell the story of another sound.

Get down as much of the story as you can in 20 minutes. Stop for the day.

The first time I tried alcohol was unintentional. We lived in the Stables at Cold Spring Harbor. We didn’t actually live in stables. We lived in an apartment that was in a building that used to function as stables. Stables for what and for whom I never knew. We lived on one side of the building; the Pollacks lived on the other. Both apartments had an upper and lower floor. The downstairs level had high ceilings and seemed perpetually cold. It included a laundry room and a massive space that functioned as living room and dining room. My parents used it for entertaining and formal family celebrations, such as Christmas. We had a stereo downstairs as well. My siblings and I used the space to play. I liked to pile up my brothers’ cardboard blocks and go-go dance. It was here, after one of my parents’ cocktail parties, that I sampled a glass of melted ice. The glass contained the remnants of scotch whiskey, though I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. I only knew it tasted awful. My father discovered me sampling the dregs and laughed. Later, I told this story over and over again to the amusement of his colleagues and my family.