unreasonable.org

This week's missions: first, write one-half of a telephone conversation

Yeah, hi. It's me.

Got your message. What's up?

Yeah, sure.

Uh huh. Uh huh.

That's cool.

That's your mom's husband, right?

Uh huh.

Ha-ha!

Oh, not much. Finished painting that bedroom a few days ago, so that's good. Oh, and I bought a new vacuum cleaner today. On sale at Target.

Yeah. Well, needed one that would get up the dog hair. It's a Bissel.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm trying to write something.

Yeah, usual Sunday night thing.

Uh huh.

Well, I was walking down Thames Street, and I hear this woman talking on the phone. And, like, she's having a fight with somebody.

Yeah. Kind of a buzzkill. She's, like, you never care about me, you ruined my life again...really sad stuff.

Yeah. So that stuck in my head, and I thought, hey, that could be a writing exercise.

Well, to write one-half of a conversation. Like you overhear all over the place.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Right! Right!

Yeah. I had one like that too. A guy I shared an office with. He'd always call home around lunchtime, talk to his wife and their little girl. It was really sweet.

Well, sometimes. But obviously I didn't.

I don't know. I guess I still could, but I'm sort of, I dunno, ambivalent about the whole thing.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

Sure.

No, it's not. I think it's pretty sad that so many people think it will be.

Right.

Right.

Ok. Yeah, I ought to go write something.

Well, some people do manage it...I don't know how, though.

Yeah.

All right. You have a good night. I'll talk to you soon.

Bye.

And the second exercise was based on completing the following phrases:

"my real name is.."
"yesterday my name was.."
"tomorrow my name will be.."
"in my dream, my name was.."
"[other] thinks my name is.."

my true name is written in water by the finger of the wind
yesterday my name was fire, stone, rain, wind
and tomorrow my name will be empty
in my dream, my name was transmitted in Morse Code by the winking of the stars
and the moon thinks my name is always changing

my true name is spoken in the cosmic microwave background radiation
yesterday my name was hidden between moments
and tomorrow, when time breaks, it will be revealed
in my dream, my name was Yes
true believers know my name, but will not speak it.

Overheard: "I don't have no teeth. Somebody stole 'em!" - Leroy of Fells Point