Marilyn

A Chapter by Rachel

I'm practicing writing short stories. This is a rough beginning of an idea I have for a story. Let me know what you think so far! I'm not sure if there are too many cliches or confusing sentences.

She sat outside of a quaint cafe . A cup of green tea in a porcelain mug with small marigolds dancing around the rim, next to the mug sat a blueberry scone.

As she sat down she breathed in the late morning air that whistled though the vibrant trees, whose leaves were still fresh from the early May weather. She took out her book and flipped to the page where a blue sticky note emerged from the collection of pages. The book was a biography about an idolized actress from the 1950’s. As she read the book she could see sea green chevrolets zoom past with their open windows and flat hoods admits the buzzing toyotas and electric cars that buzzed past her. Since she had started the book a few days ago many people had approached her asking what a 20 something year old girl was reading about blonde haired bombshell who was way before her time. She was asked if she had dreams of becoming a hollywood star, and if she was on her way to Los Angeles. And while the townspeople that approached her were nice and asking friendly, she kind of found it funny how wrong they were. She never minded the questions, intact she welcomed them. She enjoyed the feeling of being wondered about, the feeling of excitement that strangers took notice of what she was rather than what she wasn’t.

One day, a few months ago, Chiara had gone to the nearby beach with her two friends to watch the sunrise. The air of the ocean was cool and refreshing. An older man was walking his cocker spaniel and a young couple in brightly color exercise gear jogged past them. Chiara and her friends ran out of Chiara’s car and onto the beach. They laid their blankets out on the cool, damp sand and watched exuberantly as the sun rose elegantly from the calm celestial horizon. They laughed as they watched in anticipation, like the way civilians await their king. It was a beautiful sight and a lovely morning that she hoped to cherish for a long time to come. Although as her life usually went, wonderful memories such as this ended sour.

Chiara and her friends returned to her house they all giggled joyfully from the euphoria of the ocean air and the beautiful sunrise. As Chiara opened the door her face was hit by tremendous panic as she saw her mother running towards her. Her phone gripped tight in her shaking hand, tears raging down her distraught face.

“They stole my car again” Chiara’s mother cried outraged in panic, hysterical, she threw her sweaty palms on Chiaras shoulders, shaking her.

“Why would they do this?!?!, How dare they?”

Chiara closed her eyes for a moment trying to remember how joyful she had been moments before, as she bravely embraced her mother.

“No mom, it’s not like that. No one took your car. Melissa, Tina and I just went to the beach to watch the sunrise.”

Her mother exhausted from the panic collapsed to the floor in a ball, like a child whose lost their favorite toy.

© 2017 Rachel

Author's Note

This is a very rough draft, but I will tell you where I would like to go with this short story. So it's about a girl (she's about 20) named Chiara and she lives with her mother whom is schizophrenic. Her mom constantly imagines that people are out to get her, and this causes a lot of stress on Chiara. To help Chiara cope she reads books, memoirs of real people, connecting their struggles to her own to help her overcome the challenged and struggles she faces in her own life. This is a passage from one memoir that helps her with the challenge of having a mom with a mental disorder.