let's go for a writing prompt. sure, they're satirical, but a couple of them make your mechanisms start to hum.
11. Write a short scene in which one character reduces another to uncontrollable sobs without touching him or speaking.
i've got quite a few ideas for this one. but i'm not feeling too good tonight, so it's probably not best to realise them just yet. let's start with a short one.
a man buys a coke from a stall on the marine parade, the strip of road that seperates the endless line of arcades and amusements with the colourful beach gardens and, finally, the sand.
the man turns from the vender, watching the bubbles on the top of his drink, and looks up as he reaches the curb.
on the road, one car hits another, and the driver ejects from the windscreen of a blue vehicle, twisting violently as contact is made by the spine on the roof, and with the thigh on the spoiler. the body lays entirely motionless behind the car.
our man has gripped his coke; the cheap paper cup has split, his hand and legs will soon be sticky and ripe for wasps when the brown liquid dries.
the passenger of the blue car opens their door. the emerging lady is approaching middle age, and one of her legs is floppy and covered in blood; she was looking in the glove compartment when the cars connected, jolting forward and shattering her kneecap on the open compartment door. by this time, the driver of the other vehicle and his son have gotten out, and run and walked respectively to the body. the boy is rubbing his head, the father vomits at the sight of what he has done.
our man can't tell the difference between anger, fear and pain from this far away.
he sees the woman half-crawl over to the body, weakly holding the standing father's leg as she sobs.
the woman starts to grip slightly harder on the man's leg, at which he reacts with emotion (our man cannot tell which one from this far away), and kicks her off, eratically and violently.
the woman lands on her back and quickly steadies herself on her palms, level with the forceful driver's back door. the driver is moving quickly now, with purpose towards the front door, grabbing his son's hand. but the woman is alert now, and grabs the childs leg, ripping him from his father's grasp. she elevates herself onto one knee, and drives the boys head throgh the rear window, before pulling him back out and cracking his skull on the tarmac.
our man watches some shards of glass skid to his feet.
when he looks up again, he sees the driver's foot rise from the woman's head, before cradling his lost child. the driver is not crying, but shaking.
our man looks at the shards again. they get closer, as he falls to his knees, his palms onto the glass. the shards rip his conceptions as his processes what he has just seen. he realises that humankind is vengeful and merciless above all else, and starts to weep, for what he hopes will be forever, and everafter.
i think there's a few spelling mistakes in that, and i know there's grammatical errors. i'll correct it tomorrow, or after my exam on wednesday.
exams stress me the fuck out.
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