In our last installment, Sabrina agreed to try disappearing with Johnny.
As always, your thoughts are appreciated! :)
Johnny says nothing about disappearing for almost a week, and I find myself wondering if he’d forgotten. Then he meets me on the stairs one night after my shift and grabs my hands, so excited he’s vibrating.
“I have something to show you!” he says. “Hurry, drop your things, let’s go!”
“What is it?” I ask, letting him pull me through our door.
“I’ve found the perfect place,” he says, stripping me of my Chick-fil-a shirt and grabbing another from the back of the couch for me to put on.
“For what?”
“For us to disappear.” He flashes me a somewhat maniacal grin and disappears into the bedroom. When he comes back out, his arms are filled with the comforter from our bed. He sets it on the counter and starts grabbing packets of ramen and noodle bowls from the cupboard.
“What are those for?”
“Hey, we’re going to be doing this in comfort and style,” he proclaims, and turns to look at me. “You ready? They’re waiting.”
“Who is?”
“The people from before, the ones that are like us! We’re all going together.” He shoves the food into a bag and hands me the comforter, and then directs me out the door, locking it behind us.
*
Johnny has a very different idea of style and comfort than I do. I’d known this for a while, I think, but staring around the “perfect” place he’d found, it hits me all the harder. He leads me down into the Pedway from the Clark Street entrance, and walks through the maze with confidence. I’m lost after the first few turns, but he doesn’t miss a beat as we go left, then right, then left again. The ceiling is low and the tile walls give off the scent of too many bodies. I glance around the edges of the comforter and see a trickle of dirty water dripping down the wall. Johnny walks up to a metal gate and stops.
We can’t get through there, I think, but before I can say anything he shakes the gate a few times and it pops open. He ushers me through, and then we’re walking through darker tunnels, with the walls painted black and lit only by the occasional dusty light bulb. He stops abruptly at a door marked “Utilities” and pushes it open.
The floor inside is covered in blankets and sleeping bags and dotted with lounging bodies. They sit up as we enter, and Johnny sets the bag of food down by a small propane burner before turning to me.
“Sabrina, this is Colin, James, Steph and Zeb,” he says, pointing to each as he says their names. I manage a smile and nod, which is all I’m getting from any of them. Johnny takes
the comforter from my arms and spreads it on the floor.
“All right, we’ve got food, we’ve got water, we’re not sitting on concrete.” He looks around the room, nodding. “We’re all in this together, so no touching or talking from here on out. See you on the other side!”
{ 2 comments }
Hello Kirsten,
I just (re-)discovered your blog and
I like the idea of an Interactive Novel,
It is something that I have been thinking about to possibly do on my own Blog also only I hadn’t yet figured out how to organise something like that. (also to start with an entire Novel looks like very big project to start with for me….,)
Also I also would like to have to find Stories and Story Lines that
I could enjoy to contribute to.
For something like that I would like to be able to have some kind of
idea about a Starting Point or ‘Story Overview’, Synopsis or Plot to work from with some – General Introduction -or something to be able to determine if there are parts of the story that would like to participate in. Or to be able to get an idea what
suggestions and comments others wrote.
‘Just some General idea about the Characters
up till now, the Places etc. etc. something like that….,’
I was thinking about possibly have some kind of (like the tree visual on your blog)
some kind of ‘Branche Structure’ like a “Mind Map” or something to be able to have some kind of Image with a ‘Story Overview’ making it possibly to easily see where you want to add new ‘branches’ or some fresh new ‘leaves’
That way also making it possible for visitors to easily find the parts they
think they might like to work by simply click on the right hyperlinks
that will bring them to the right part of the story.
I discovered all kinds of Mind Mapping software, some even free software, only justs as I said previously I don’t yet know exactly how I could organise something like that.
Also currently on my - Writing Lifestyle - Blog(s) I usually don’t work on such big projects as Complete Novels. (although I do sometimes write up Synopsises with ideas for Novels with sometimes even some written scenes, usually only ‘Partials’ and usually not really real ‘Completes’)
I do however like the idea of Collaborative Writing, (also because I don’t think that my Grammar and Spelling are alway’s that Polished, and because I frequently don’t enjoy editing – my own writing – that much.)
On my - Writing Lifestyle - Blog I do however have a special page with ‘Short Stories In Developement’ with the idea that people could comment on them, only even while – as I recently discovered - the amount of my unique visitors to my – Writing Lifestyle - Blog has increased by +400% not all of them are already writing Comments on
Blogposts yet.
Ooh, that is a really good idea to create some sort of visual or executive summary for readers! I’ll have to put some thought into how to execute it. It solves a problem I’ve been trying to work out for a while – how to bring new readers up to speed without alienating the old ones.
I’ve got some ideas on how to increase interaction, but I haven’t had the time to test any of them out yet. I’ll let you know if any of them work – I’m kind of in a rut with this site at the moment, since I’m still working through things that got behind when I got sick a few weeks ago. But I’m hoping to pick back up with it in the next week or two. :)
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