Post by aionis on Nov 8, 2010 19:27:52 GMT -8
Can't believe I'm posting this, but why not. I wrote this for a Creative Writing class about a month ago. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I at least don't completely despise it. Any and all constructive criticism is welcome!
Circus
“Look what I found!”
I glanced up, expecting to see my brother holding up yet another old toy that no one remembered but him. Instead what I saw was a large box, the label of which I only caught a brief glimpse of before he dumped it onto the floor and began digging through the contents.
“What is it?” I asked, not really minding the break. It’s not that I didn’t mind cleaning, but it seemed the longer we worked in the attic, the more clutter appeared.
“Videos,” Andrew said, reaching into the box and emerging with two small cassettes. “Remember, the old video camera?”
For a moment it was almost as if I’d gone back in time. I was in the living room, on the first day of school, in some ridiculous outfit with equally ridiculous hair. And there was Dad, the camera pointed at me, trying to get me to say something cute.
I glanced at the row of garbage bags that we’d spent the last several hours filling. We’d worked for ages now, anyone would agree that we deserved a break. “We still have the VCR?”
Andrew nodded. “Yeah, it’s in the closet. I’ll set it up in my room, you pick a tape.”
There were so many dates to choose from. I closed my eyes and thrust my hand forward, grabbing the first tape it touched. ‘Ruth’s Birthday-- 1996’.
Again, the waves of nostalgia. Even though my body was in our attic of 2010 my mind had shot backwards, fourteen years to my fifth birthday.
Whenever anyone asked me which birthday so far had been my favorite, my fifth one won out every time. It had been here at the house, a circus themed party. Even though concrete memories of the day were somewhat faded, the strongest emotion I associated with it was… fun. Pure, unadulterated fun.
Andrew was almost finished setting up the VCR in his room when I walked in. It had been ages since I’d set foot into this forbidden zone, not that I particularly cared to. And come to think of it, I doubted it was so ‘forbidden’ anymore, now that he would be moving out any day now. That was almost depressing to me, the fact that we weren’t at each others throats anymore-- it felt foreign, unfamiliar. I half wanted him to yell at me to get out before he dunked my head in the toilet.
“Which one did you pick?” Andrew asked, connecting the last of the cables into the back of the television. He paused, then unhooked a wire, switching places with another. This seemed to satisfy him, and he turned on the TV.
I handed him the tape. “My fifth birthday.”
Andrew nodded, looking at the caption himself. “Yeah, I remember that. That was pretty fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said as he pushed the cassette into the slot of the VCR, which looked much dustier than I remembered. “Best party I’ve ever had.”
The screen flickered, and then an image came into focus. I’d only just managed to make out what looked like a sofa we used to own when the camera swung upwards and onto a little girl in a frilly dress.
Andrew immediately began to snicker. “What’s with the nose?”
“Well, it was a circus party,” I reminded him, though the fake red nose did look kind of strange with the pink ruffled dress. “Quiet, I want to hear.”
“…old are you today?” Dad’s voice floated from the speakers.
Five year old me smiled shyly at the camera, holding up five fingers.
“Can you say that out loud?”
“I’m five,” Young Me announced, looking extremely pleased with myself.
The camera swung up again as Dad walked through the living room and into the kitchen. “Say hi!”
And there was Mom, filling what appeared to be goodie bags with one hand and rubbing her forehead with another. “Joe, put that thing down and help me out, would you?”
“In a sec, I just want to get a video of the day…”
Mom sighed heavily, pausing for a moment before continuing to stuff candy into bags. “The kids are going to be here any minute and we’re way behind schedule. You can film later, I need your help now.”
There was a silence, and I wondered if Dad was going to respond. Finally, the image shifted down to the floor as I imagined Dad was looking for the off button. Before I could comment on the conversation, a new image appeared, this time of an eight year old Andrew looking thoroughly disgusted by the group of five year old girls surrounding him.
The twenty two year old Andrew beside me laughed suddenly. “I’d forgotten about that. Three or four of your little friends wouldn’t leave me alone that day. They kept whispering about me and I got so mad trying to figure out what they were saying.”
I could make out a few familiar faces that I had long forgotten, friends who had moved away, or people I’d drifted away from as we’d gotten older. One girl I recognized immediately, memories of playing in her backyard coming to me instantly. Yet somehow I couldn’t remember her name.
I didn’t ponder on this, as the camera moved around the room, focusing for a moment on my uncle, who always stood on one foot, the other wrapped around the back of his leg. Some things never changed.
“Joe,” Mom’s voice came from out of view in a hushed voice. “The clown’s car broke down two miles from here and he’s stranded-- It would just take a minute, can you go out and--”
“I’m recording,” Dad whispered back, apparently believing, like my mother, that the camera wasn’t picking up their conversation. “Can’t you go out and do it?”
“I’m trying to hold this party together,” Mom hissed at him. “No thanks to you.”
“Dramatic, much?”
“Have you done one thing to help so far?”
Dad zoomed in the camera to me, where I had pulled off my clown nose and was trying to stick it on the dog. “I helped with the goodie bags.”
“For five minutes.”
“Quit nagging, would you?”
“I’m not nagging, I’m--”
My uncle was suddenly in the frame, smiling widely. “Hey, Sarah, I think the kids have gotten into your room-- Jerry’s kid just ran by with a necklace with this green stone on it.”
Mom groaned. “My emerald necklace!”
“Oh… Should I have stopped them?”
Mom was in the line of vision now, but not for long, seeing as she shot up the staircase faster than I could blink.
Dad laughed, then pointed the camera directly at my uncle. “Hey, listen, about the clown… You willing to make a drive?”
The image cut again, and the next thing I saw was my uncle walking through the front door with what appeared to be an explosion of color. After a moment, my eyes adjusted and I could see more than the clown’s wig, just as almost twenty shrieks filled the air.
These were not ‘Oh, hey, a clown, cool!’ shrieks. These were more of the ‘Oh crap that thing is going to KILL me’ variety. Pandemonium broke loose as a hoard of children ran for cover from what appeared to be a fifteen year old kid who was willing to humiliate himself on a regular basis for minimum wage.
“It’s just a clown!” Mom attempted to calm everyone down. “It’s a circus party, of course you’re going to see a clown!” She turned to Dad, looking almost as panicked as the kids. “Honestly, it’s a circus party, didn’t their parents warn them that there might be--”
“Hey,” Andrew called out to a girl running past him. “Do you know what clowns eat for breakfast?”
The girl, who I recognized to be someone who’d moved away in ninth grade, paused for a moment. “What?”
“Little girls.”
“Andrew!” my mother snapped at him as the girl began to shriek more loudly.
My uncle entered the frame, grinning sheepishly. “Guess I shouldn’t have told them before that clowns are a whole other species, huh?”
The scene cut out, and a new one came in. Several more moments from the day were relayed, including me opening a large present that turned out to be a doll house, breaking open a clown shaped piñata, and blowing out the candles on a big top shaped cake. Watching, I tried to remember the parts of this favorite birthday that I’d apparently forgotten.
I glanced up at the screen to see myself, my five year old face zoomed in as I pointed it directly at myself. A small finger poked at the lens, then placed the camera on the ground. My feet crossed the frame as I left the room, and the low battery icon appeared in the corner of the screen.
“…didn’t help at all, did everything myself--”
“Maybe if you didn’t nag all the time people would want to help you--”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have to nag if you actually did something around the house for once--”
I wasn’t sure if I should turn the tape off at this point-- I glanced at Andrew, who looked equally conflicted. I knew that I should eject the tape now-- but I also knew that I wouldn’t.
“Never having a party at the house again, never,” Mom snapped, and I heard what sounded like the garbage can’s lid slamming down. “I still haven’t found my emerald necklace--”
“What, you think one of the kids stole it?” Dad laughed. “Come on, don’t be crazy.”
“Oh, so now I’m crazy?”
“Why do you have to be so sensitive?”
Mom and Dad’s words began to overlap, and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The dog wandered past the screen, Mom’s emerald necklace dangling from its mouth. The low battery icon flashed once more, and the screen went dark before turning to fuzzy snow.
I looked at Andrew. He looked at me. Neither of us said anything for a moment.
Finally, I broke the silence. “Do you want to watch another video?”
“Not really.”
“Me either,” I admitted, and we stood up together to return the tape of my favorite birthday party to the dusty confines of the attic.
Circus
“Look what I found!”
I glanced up, expecting to see my brother holding up yet another old toy that no one remembered but him. Instead what I saw was a large box, the label of which I only caught a brief glimpse of before he dumped it onto the floor and began digging through the contents.
“What is it?” I asked, not really minding the break. It’s not that I didn’t mind cleaning, but it seemed the longer we worked in the attic, the more clutter appeared.
“Videos,” Andrew said, reaching into the box and emerging with two small cassettes. “Remember, the old video camera?”
For a moment it was almost as if I’d gone back in time. I was in the living room, on the first day of school, in some ridiculous outfit with equally ridiculous hair. And there was Dad, the camera pointed at me, trying to get me to say something cute.
I glanced at the row of garbage bags that we’d spent the last several hours filling. We’d worked for ages now, anyone would agree that we deserved a break. “We still have the VCR?”
Andrew nodded. “Yeah, it’s in the closet. I’ll set it up in my room, you pick a tape.”
There were so many dates to choose from. I closed my eyes and thrust my hand forward, grabbing the first tape it touched. ‘Ruth’s Birthday-- 1996’.
Again, the waves of nostalgia. Even though my body was in our attic of 2010 my mind had shot backwards, fourteen years to my fifth birthday.
Whenever anyone asked me which birthday so far had been my favorite, my fifth one won out every time. It had been here at the house, a circus themed party. Even though concrete memories of the day were somewhat faded, the strongest emotion I associated with it was… fun. Pure, unadulterated fun.
Andrew was almost finished setting up the VCR in his room when I walked in. It had been ages since I’d set foot into this forbidden zone, not that I particularly cared to. And come to think of it, I doubted it was so ‘forbidden’ anymore, now that he would be moving out any day now. That was almost depressing to me, the fact that we weren’t at each others throats anymore-- it felt foreign, unfamiliar. I half wanted him to yell at me to get out before he dunked my head in the toilet.
“Which one did you pick?” Andrew asked, connecting the last of the cables into the back of the television. He paused, then unhooked a wire, switching places with another. This seemed to satisfy him, and he turned on the TV.
I handed him the tape. “My fifth birthday.”
Andrew nodded, looking at the caption himself. “Yeah, I remember that. That was pretty fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said as he pushed the cassette into the slot of the VCR, which looked much dustier than I remembered. “Best party I’ve ever had.”
The screen flickered, and then an image came into focus. I’d only just managed to make out what looked like a sofa we used to own when the camera swung upwards and onto a little girl in a frilly dress.
Andrew immediately began to snicker. “What’s with the nose?”
“Well, it was a circus party,” I reminded him, though the fake red nose did look kind of strange with the pink ruffled dress. “Quiet, I want to hear.”
“…old are you today?” Dad’s voice floated from the speakers.
Five year old me smiled shyly at the camera, holding up five fingers.
“Can you say that out loud?”
“I’m five,” Young Me announced, looking extremely pleased with myself.
The camera swung up again as Dad walked through the living room and into the kitchen. “Say hi!”
And there was Mom, filling what appeared to be goodie bags with one hand and rubbing her forehead with another. “Joe, put that thing down and help me out, would you?”
“In a sec, I just want to get a video of the day…”
Mom sighed heavily, pausing for a moment before continuing to stuff candy into bags. “The kids are going to be here any minute and we’re way behind schedule. You can film later, I need your help now.”
There was a silence, and I wondered if Dad was going to respond. Finally, the image shifted down to the floor as I imagined Dad was looking for the off button. Before I could comment on the conversation, a new image appeared, this time of an eight year old Andrew looking thoroughly disgusted by the group of five year old girls surrounding him.
The twenty two year old Andrew beside me laughed suddenly. “I’d forgotten about that. Three or four of your little friends wouldn’t leave me alone that day. They kept whispering about me and I got so mad trying to figure out what they were saying.”
I could make out a few familiar faces that I had long forgotten, friends who had moved away, or people I’d drifted away from as we’d gotten older. One girl I recognized immediately, memories of playing in her backyard coming to me instantly. Yet somehow I couldn’t remember her name.
I didn’t ponder on this, as the camera moved around the room, focusing for a moment on my uncle, who always stood on one foot, the other wrapped around the back of his leg. Some things never changed.
“Joe,” Mom’s voice came from out of view in a hushed voice. “The clown’s car broke down two miles from here and he’s stranded-- It would just take a minute, can you go out and--”
“I’m recording,” Dad whispered back, apparently believing, like my mother, that the camera wasn’t picking up their conversation. “Can’t you go out and do it?”
“I’m trying to hold this party together,” Mom hissed at him. “No thanks to you.”
“Dramatic, much?”
“Have you done one thing to help so far?”
Dad zoomed in the camera to me, where I had pulled off my clown nose and was trying to stick it on the dog. “I helped with the goodie bags.”
“For five minutes.”
“Quit nagging, would you?”
“I’m not nagging, I’m--”
My uncle was suddenly in the frame, smiling widely. “Hey, Sarah, I think the kids have gotten into your room-- Jerry’s kid just ran by with a necklace with this green stone on it.”
Mom groaned. “My emerald necklace!”
“Oh… Should I have stopped them?”
Mom was in the line of vision now, but not for long, seeing as she shot up the staircase faster than I could blink.
Dad laughed, then pointed the camera directly at my uncle. “Hey, listen, about the clown… You willing to make a drive?”
The image cut again, and the next thing I saw was my uncle walking through the front door with what appeared to be an explosion of color. After a moment, my eyes adjusted and I could see more than the clown’s wig, just as almost twenty shrieks filled the air.
These were not ‘Oh, hey, a clown, cool!’ shrieks. These were more of the ‘Oh crap that thing is going to KILL me’ variety. Pandemonium broke loose as a hoard of children ran for cover from what appeared to be a fifteen year old kid who was willing to humiliate himself on a regular basis for minimum wage.
“It’s just a clown!” Mom attempted to calm everyone down. “It’s a circus party, of course you’re going to see a clown!” She turned to Dad, looking almost as panicked as the kids. “Honestly, it’s a circus party, didn’t their parents warn them that there might be--”
“Hey,” Andrew called out to a girl running past him. “Do you know what clowns eat for breakfast?”
The girl, who I recognized to be someone who’d moved away in ninth grade, paused for a moment. “What?”
“Little girls.”
“Andrew!” my mother snapped at him as the girl began to shriek more loudly.
My uncle entered the frame, grinning sheepishly. “Guess I shouldn’t have told them before that clowns are a whole other species, huh?”
The scene cut out, and a new one came in. Several more moments from the day were relayed, including me opening a large present that turned out to be a doll house, breaking open a clown shaped piñata, and blowing out the candles on a big top shaped cake. Watching, I tried to remember the parts of this favorite birthday that I’d apparently forgotten.
I glanced up at the screen to see myself, my five year old face zoomed in as I pointed it directly at myself. A small finger poked at the lens, then placed the camera on the ground. My feet crossed the frame as I left the room, and the low battery icon appeared in the corner of the screen.
“…didn’t help at all, did everything myself--”
“Maybe if you didn’t nag all the time people would want to help you--”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have to nag if you actually did something around the house for once--”
I wasn’t sure if I should turn the tape off at this point-- I glanced at Andrew, who looked equally conflicted. I knew that I should eject the tape now-- but I also knew that I wouldn’t.
“Never having a party at the house again, never,” Mom snapped, and I heard what sounded like the garbage can’s lid slamming down. “I still haven’t found my emerald necklace--”
“What, you think one of the kids stole it?” Dad laughed. “Come on, don’t be crazy.”
“Oh, so now I’m crazy?”
“Why do you have to be so sensitive?”
Mom and Dad’s words began to overlap, and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The dog wandered past the screen, Mom’s emerald necklace dangling from its mouth. The low battery icon flashed once more, and the screen went dark before turning to fuzzy snow.
I looked at Andrew. He looked at me. Neither of us said anything for a moment.
Finally, I broke the silence. “Do you want to watch another video?”
“Not really.”
“Me either,” I admitted, and we stood up together to return the tape of my favorite birthday party to the dusty confines of the attic.