“The Necklace” (A 500-Word Exercise)

I originally wrote this story in early 2009, as a fictional letter to Theo (a character in “The Prescribed Burn”), but I wanted to challenge myself by whittling it down to 500 words.

I broke my long, jangling necklace again. At least two of the little bronze bells rolled under the radiator, to be lost forever.

Please don’t scold me for neglecting to take it off while cleaning. I like the sound it makes when I move. Especially on a summer day like today, I craved something cold and familiar against my skin.

I don’t expect you to remember my jewelry, but you know this necklace. I wore it the night we met at the Stateline Diner, our halfway point. You arrived in your new car, which you had been wanting to show me.

I felt pretty. My necklace chimed when I hugged you.

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“The Opening” (The Final Story)

I stopped wearing makeup because I no longer had anyone to impress, at least not with my looks.

I never felt the need to wear it in the studio with Edgar. Whenever we were working, we were concentrating on crafting the best shots possible and concerned with our beautiful models, not with ourselves.

But on the day of the opening, I put on makeup. I wanted to look my best because I was proud of Edgar and proud of the show.

We had spent weeks preparing for the opening at Lantern Gallery in Chelsea, on the far West Side. Lantern would be showing a retrospective of Edgar’s food photography from the past five years, mostly stuff he had done in his spare time. The “hobby” work was easier to sell because it was more unique and inspired.

I had been staying late nights to help matte and frame the photos, cleaning the glass and making sure that all the frames were dusted and pristine. Edgar would leave me alone at night, instead of helping me, but I was okay with that. He was so stressed by the whole endeavor, and I enjoyed the time alone.

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“The Prescribed Burn” (Story 12, Excerpt 2)

The following excerpt is the second part of “The Prescribed Burn”. You can read the first part here.

“That’s gross,” I said. “Did he start to drool?”

“Basically,” said Madsy. “And I could see into the mesh pocket of his backpack. Full of condoms.”

I started to laugh, and I felt my greasy forearms slide over the armrests of my chair. While I laughed, my butt sank into the fabric. I broke the tight weave of plastic fibers, and I fell almost completely through the chair, just above the wooden floor of the deck.

Maybe I had gained so much weight that the chair could no longer hold me. I worried about how mad my parents would be about the broken lounge chair.

Now Madsy was laughing.

“Oh, are you okay?” Madsy asked.

“Wow, how did that happen? Did I really get that fat?”

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“The Prescribed Burn” (Story 12, Excerpt 1)

The following excerpt is the first part of “The Prescribed Burn”. You can read the second part here.

I just needed a break. I wished that everyone and everything would disappear, and I wanted every relationship to unravel itself like yarn I used in the winter, the only time I ever wanted to knit.

I escaped to my parents’ house, if that could be called an escape. Somehow, my bedroom unearthed more emotion than I thought possible. Everything reminded me of something from my past, of things I hadn’t even thought about for a while, like the slumber parties I had with Madsy in high school, all the time I had spent sitting on the floor, painting, and the night I secretly brought Theo to my room.

I woke up in my bed alone, but I wasn’t expecting the loneliness. I thought my parents would be home to distract me, but they left early to attend a garden show somewhere in central Jersey. I called Madsy.

“I’m home,” I said.

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“Pretend Boyfriend” (Story 11, Excerpt 2)

The following excerpt is the second part of “Pretend Boyfriend”. You can read the first part here.

“First, I screw up my chances with that guy,” said Ashley. ” Now I’m going to ruin your night.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. How could she ruin my night with Pretend Boyfriend if I didn’t know what kind of night we were supposed to have? I let Pretend Boyfriend respond.

“You’re not ruining anything. We’re all friends here,” he said. “And you need to be safe.”

Part of me wished that Pretend Boyfriend would tell her to take a cab home or fend for herself, but letting Ashley stay with us was the right thing to do. Pretend Boyfriend was a good guy.

On our way out, Pretend Boyfriend was no longer the stud with a girl on each arm. This time, Pretend Boyfriend and I were holding Ashley, even though all three of us were drunk. She was hysterical and thrashing like a panicked bird.

She would not stop talking about how she had ruined our night, and her words made me more and more uncomfortable each time she said them. But Pretend Boyfriend didn’t seem to take it personally or think anything of it. He just kept looking at me and shaking his head.

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“Pretend Boyfriend” (Story 11, Excerpt 1)

The following excerpt is the first part of “Pretend Boyfriend”. You can read the second part here.

Pretend Boyfriend was very handsome, and I felt proud and happy to be with him in public. He was tall, the way I would want a real boyfriend to be. He had dark hair and dark eyes, and he possessed an athletic build. He looked great in a button-down shirt and blazer, and I admired his body.

Pretend Boyfriend and I first met when he arrived as a guest to my 22nd birthday party. Madsy invited him because she thought I might like him. She was right.

The best kind of Pretend Boyfriend shows up to a birthday party, with flowers, even though he barely knows me. At my party, Pretend Boyfriend and I danced the whole night, and I felt like such a lucky girl. We even danced through Theo’s text messages regarding something unrelated to my birthday, signaling to me that Theo had forgotten my special day.

I let myself be sad for just a moment. But how could I be upset when I had Pretend Boyfriend pressed up against my body?

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“Smuggling a Boy into Baba’s” (Story 10, Excerpt 2)

The following excerpt is the second part of “Smuggling a Boy into Baba’s”. You can read the first part here.

We waited to cross at a busy intersection. Eric and Sam were arguing about the location of the alley where Sam felt up a waitress he met the last time they were out. I felt like I was intercepting insider information. Theo moved his lips to my ear.

“Can I come home with you?” He whispered. “I’ll accompany you to Baba’s at the end of the night.”

Immediately, I knew that bringing Theo to Baba’s would be a bad idea, but I was so surprised that Theo wanted to spend the night with me that I considered the possibility. Of course, I wanted him to spend the night with me. It would be nice for someone I really liked to sneak a peek into my life.

None of my friends had visited me at Baba’s house yet. I wanted to show someone the Ukrainian embroidery, Baba’s drawings, the way that I had decorated my room, the new paint on the walls, and the phone with the quarter-sized buttons. I wanted to point out the smell of cabbage that always permeated the house. Living there would be more real for me if Theo could witness it.

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“Smuggling a Boy into Baba’s” (Story 10, Excerpt 1)

The following excerpt is the first part of “Smuggling a Boy into Baba’s”. You can read the second part here.

On the Friday that I was supposed to meet Theo in the city, I kept dropping Edgar’s lens caps. One of the models even asked me, in a bitchy tone, why I was staring at her.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was just daydreaming.”

I was so trapped in my head that even the smell of the Belgian waffles from downstairs didn’t torture me. Instead, they made me nauseous.

I was not sure that meeting Theo was a good idea. No matter how many times I reminded myself that I gave in to him too easily, that I always made myself too available, I still agreed to his every whim. In fact, I was always so mesmerized by Theo that I practically threw myself at him.

I kept checking my skin in the makeup artist’s mirror and couldn’t decide if I was having a good or bad hair day. I wanted Theo to be completely blown away by me, since this would be the first time we would be seeing each other since the end of the semester.

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“The River” (Story 9)

I had found a temporary summer job assisting Edgar, a photographer in Hoboken, and living at Baba’s house in Jersey City would afford me the easiest commute.

My closest friends would be living in or just outside of Manhattan. Madsy would be taking summer classes, and Theo got an internship in the city. I wanted to be near them too.

I would stay in the room where Mama once lived, in a row house near Journal Square, just a block away from the PATH, the train that ran under the Hudson River.

I was curious about living in Mama’s childhood home and looked forward to the opportunity to imagine my mother’s past life, as it had been before I existed, even before Mama met Tato.

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“A Breakthrough, Bleeding” (Story 8, Excerpt 2)

The following excerpt is the second part of “A Breakthrough, Bleeding”. You can read the first part here.

When I returned to the table, my food was waiting, but my appetite was gone. I looked at the scrambled eggs and felt they were mocking my own feminine discomfort.

I drew a smiley face on the eggs with ketchup and realized that I was too preoccupied for even this to amuse me.

Tato’s chicken-egg omelet confused me even more, with the pieces of ground chicken in the egg. He flipped through the selections on the miniature jukebox attached to our table and placed one quarter into the machine, playing a song that I had never heard before. Mama started to hum and sway in her seat.

“I remember when this song came out,” said Tato. “Your mother and I were having a picnic in a park, talking about whether or not we were ready to have a child. Little did we know, Veda, your mom was already pregnant with you.”

“Weren’t you afraid?” I asked. “I mean, you didn’t even have a chance to plan for my arrival.”

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