Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Kiteley exercise 14

This exercise asks the writer to tell a 300 word story using only images.

Huddled in the back yard, Margot placed a small brick of discarded concrete on top of two small blocks of wood. The humble, makeshift altar barely stood above the layer of dead leaves that rose nearly to the ankles of her canvas sneakers. Above her head, the bare trees stood tall and thin, joining together at the very top to form a much larger altar on which the gray sky rested heavily. She pulled several items from her monogrammed purple backpack. A silver dollar, a blue rubber salamander with yellow stripes went on opposite ends of the monument. She then pulled out a wooden nesting doll in the shape of the penguin. With a determined pace, each doll was pulled from inside the other, reassembled, and placed on the concrete. One figure was missing, making the largest doll loom above the others.


Stepping back, Margot walked to the rusted shed and pulled out a wooden rake. From the handle, a splinter pierced the soft flesh of her hand. Leaning down, she put her teeth to her skin and extracted the sliver of dull wood. She pulled the sleeves of her gray cardigan over her hands and went over to the collection she had assembled. With little haste, she began to pile leaves on top of it. After twenty minutes of methodical raking, a large swath of dirt encircled the mound of leaves that now on top of the concrete memorial. Replacing the rake in the shed, she hastened back toward the house with the yellow siding. Margot knocked three times on the back door before stealing silently to the corner of the home. Fifteen seconds elapsed before a loud click and a heavy dragging sound signaled that the old man was sliding the glass door open. Margot shook a few crushed leaves out of the cuff of her blue jeans and turned to walk home.




The exact exercise can be found on p. 37 of Kiteley's book, I encourage anybody to pick up the book for his or herself.

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