The Challenge
EXERCISE: Write a short scene in which we learn the flavor of your character’s anxiety dreams … and why he/she/it has been having them for a week straight.
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Faint voices, distant, incomprehensible, echo in hollow corridors. Metal doors clang shut. Heavy soles thud on the concrete floor. The dank smell of confined bodies and disinfectant burns his nostrils.
Damp, clammy sheets cling to John's chest and arms, he struggles to free himself from their grasp. Finally he pushes the bedding off, and looks around his cell. The bars have disappeared, the locked door replaced by his bedroom door, open.
He realizes the nightmare has returned. Every night this past week. The same scene, a prison cell. The same sounds. The same smells. The same feeling of terror. The same sense of being locked in, unable to leave.
He sits on the edge of his bed, head slumped forward. John reaches automatically for his cigarettes on the night stand, he lights one, draws a long pull of smoke in deeply, savors the flavor, and blows a stream towards the ceiling.
"So close," he says quietly "another two months, and I would have been in the clear."
He stands up from the bed, walks to the dresser and picks up a letter, handling it like the edges will slice his fingers. He re-reads the words. "You are requested to appear for a complete audit of your taxes for the taxation year 2009. Be prepared with your tax filing, and all related income statements and receipts." He can't believe he trusted the accountant's advice, he knew it was wrong, hell, it was probably illegal.
The date has arrived, John shudders as he starts to get ready to go his appointment.
© 2014 NoelHC
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