The Spring House

Currently doing a writing course on Creating Characters. Unfortunately the feedback is a little non-existent. Hoping my friends here could help out. Eternally grateful I will be :D

TASK

Go to a public place or local spot. Observe other people’s behavior, especially odd or intriguing acts. Create a character and put them in this place. Give them two traits: a behavior you observed and a negative trait about yourself. Now, write 300-600 words describing the character in the context of the place without writing anything directly about the character. In fact, write as if the character is not even present at the place during the time you’re writing it. Try to allow the reader to discover both of the character’s traits indirectly. This assignment is about implication, about leading the reader to see the character without directly describing him/her. For example, you might describe a handbag left behind, the contents of which show your character's preferences and avoidances, longings and dislikes.

It is a somber drive up the Spring House. When she was not even ten years old, Kal asked her mother, Katherine, why she called it the Spring House when the two of them had spent countless days and nights under its roof in each and every season. 

In every moment there is new life.

Kal’s favourite season has always been winter. In winter, Kal pressed Katherine to build a new fire each day so she could spend the evenings sitting by the fire and listening to her mother recount stories from a lifetime ago. Always the same stories. Katherine’s storytelling made Kal feel as if she could reach out and touch the passion for life her mother had lived. She called them the merry go round moments of  her life. Each new telling allowed the stories to etch themselves a little deeper onto Kal’s soul. Just like her mother at work, frantically etching, refining, endlessly  bringing new drawings or sculptures to life. 

As she lifts herself out of the car, Kal notes the garden has overrun itself. No clear edges on the pathways, weeds cheering a final victory, the Cosmos and Cleome drooping with shrivelled pinks and purples wishing there was someone here to clip and snip. 

The verandah is sun-filled, a favourite spot of Katherine’s, as Kal steals a little sunshine for herself she draws a conscious inhale and pushes the key in the lock and enter all that is still her mother. 

Number one on the list, remove the plastic then dust all that what was not covered. A ceremony when Katherine was here. It remains ceremony even now. Kal folds the plastic, usually a task the pair of them shared to make sure the edges are nice and straight. 

Kal’s eyes sweep the room. Each painting, book, table, chair, rug, candle holder, vase, lamp shade, curtain, key holder, rain jacket, umbrella by the door, drink coaster, ornament - everything arranged with fastidious direction. 

Katherine would have liked to arrange Kal with the same meticulous attention. Kal learnt long ago she had to be force unto herself in a life filled with all things Katherine. 

Like any merry go round ride, sooner or later you had to get off. In this time days would pass in silence between mother and daughter. On these days Kal knew better than to demand attention. In these moments the normally inextinguishable warmth that pulsed through Katherine shut off completely. For the next strangled eternity two barren eyes pierced their own reality leaving Kal to be not there, be not anywhere. Kal expected no meals to be prepared, no rides to school, no afternoon conversation, no sun filled embraces, no unending love and no thought whatsoever of another of Katherine’s stories. Days turned, school missed, silence the new king of the house. Nothing to be done except wait for the storm to pass. 

With an exhale, Kal gratefully remembers Marcy, her grandmother. Marcy advised her early on that she mustn’t ever begrudge her mother. There is no control in her mind. Take the good moments. Take the sunlight when it shines so hard the whole world can feel it. In the meantime darling, you must learn to ride each wave.

Author's Note

Thanks in Advance

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A entertaining story shared my dear friend. I liked the characters and the story line. Thank you for sharing the amazing story.
Coyote