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3WW corridor, linger, subtle

August 22, 2007 By pia


The best and only true Boho family recounts their adventures coming home to San Francisco. MizB is, well some day I’m going to publish one of our rants about the state of the world in general. We rant perfectly together and not even about blogging
The sidebar posts can always be found in the category “250 word rant.”
My BIO posts seem to have disappeared. I’m hoping that it’s a snafu, as when I click “contact BIO” i get the same message. I don’t have copies or screen shots–one hard drive ago. They were an important part of my blogging experience and I’m proud of those posts. They took a long time to research and write. This isn’t one of my better weeks. That was my hopeful side.
I am in a foul mood. I need sunshine and warm weather in August. There is a new fiction post beneath this. It’s long so I didn’t put it in 3WW. It’s good.

Pia Savage Fiction

Esme stood in the corridor. She didn’t know what to say. The world belongs to the young and the beautiful and she had a longer than average run. Logically she knew that. Logically she knew that she wasn’t ugly, wasn’t somebody that people would turn away from in the street. Logically she knew that people liked and respected her.

Life isn’t logical. Esme knew that also. She couldn’t look in the mirror anymore. She didn’t want to be photographed. When had she gone from ingenue to serious young middle age heroine to character actress? She didn’t want to have character. She didn’t want to be a character. She wanted to be the person she had been for so long.

What was that advice people were always giving her when she was young? Don’t linger too long. Get out when you still have your dignity. Esme had usually ignored advice, and won anyway. Usually, just not when it really mattered. Then she listened and lost

She could tell from the subtle way that people were turning away from her she wasn’t truly welcome anymore. Of course people wanted her to be around. Her name guaranteed press coverage. But they didn’t want her to actually stay or be a part of the party.

The party was in a huge room off the corridor. She stood to a side watching people walk into the room. They were laughing. Forcing themselves to pretend to have a good time whether or not they really were. The host was important. Nobody had ever really liked him. His tongue was too biting. That in itself forced people to bend to his will

Esme never could stand him. Then why had she married him three long decades ago? She had been young and in love with somebody unsuitable. The era of the studio telling you who to marry was over but suitability still played a role. The marriage hadn’t lasted long. Jeremiah had come to terms with his sexuality. Esme had always been good at getting men to admit that they were Gay. It wasn’t a trait she was particularly fond of.

He had found true love with a younger version of himself. Esme flitted from man to man. The one she had always wanted was now happily married. So he was a grip, not a star. Should she have cared?

She was in love once more. After five marriages she wasn’t about to get involved with anybody even if he was suitable. Even if nobody cared had he not beenif he wasn’t suitable? a proper mate? David was everything she had wanted for too long. Funny. Bright. Just a few years younger. Handsome. A columnist who made her think. For the first time she didn’t dare dream. She missed the girl who dreamed so much.

She had to quit feeling sorry for herself. She had to create a new life. One that involved a nunnery. She had to get out of here. Too late. Jeremiah came to the corridor. She braced herself for some cutting remark, but he only said:
Why do you linger so long, Esme? Will you please come to the party.

Jeremiah took her by the shoulder. Why was the room suddenly dark? She had watched people walk in. She looked at Jeremiah in bewilderment as the lights went on and hundreds of people, most everybody she knew screamed: Surprise. Happy Birthday.

All she could think as she saw David on the side smiling at her that this was the only subtle gesture Jeremiah had ever made.

Filed Under: Fiction

« 3WW–no words yet–fiction
Grace Paley »

Comments

  1. Fledgling Poet says

    August 22, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    This really drew me in…I wanted to know more about Esme! I liked the twist at the end with the birthday surprise…thank you for sharing. :~)

  2. Marcia (MeeAugraphie) says

    August 22, 2007 at 4:02 pm

    I had my own poems on my mind and thought you were leading me in the same direction, you surprised me as much as Jeremiah surprised Esme. Loved getting inside her head.

  3. paisley says

    August 22, 2007 at 5:37 pm

    excellent intriguing complex character…

    i have to wonder about this line…

    “Even if nobody cared had he not been”

    is it a typo or am i missing something….

  4. lissa says

    August 22, 2007 at 8:43 pm

    I like the buildup to the end. Esme sounds like a real person who has grown up.

    Nicely done. But do wander about that line that Paisley pointed out.

  5. Michelle Johnson says

    August 22, 2007 at 10:20 pm

    I came over here to thank you for your comments on my poem and found myself drawn to your short story. I loved the character name and I certainly wasn’t expecting the birthday surprise. I really enjoyed reading this piece. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    Michelle

  6. Michelle Johnson says

    August 22, 2007 at 10:24 pm

    And yes, my pen is definitely more traveled than myself.

  7. gautami says

    August 23, 2007 at 4:42 am

    I always like surprises..:D

  8. ther says

    August 23, 2007 at 10:55 am

    Wow. I like this. The story got my attention from start to finish. You had me feeling what Esme feels. It’s really good.

  9. alisonwonderland says

    August 23, 2007 at 11:33 am

    my favorite line: She missed the girl who dreamed so much.

    i’m wondering if Esme likes this surprise party or not (maybe because I’m one who sometimes doesn’t like to be surprised) …

  10. Lightheaded says

    August 23, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    Like Alisonwonderland I like the line – She missed the girl who dreamed so much – best. I enjoyed this story a lot.

  11. dan says

    August 23, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Favorite here was “She didn’t want character.”

    Your flair for this is truly amazing Pia. I hope the writing behind the scenes is going as well!

  12. Traveling Chica says

    August 23, 2007 at 6:13 pm

    I wasn’t expecting the ending 🙂

    And no, life really isn’t logical. Sigh.

  13. cooper says

    August 23, 2007 at 9:38 pm

    As always, the best.

    BIO…PFFFT

  14. paul says

    August 24, 2007 at 6:35 am

    This had me really intrigued. It makes a great read. I’d like to know more about that character.

  15. sage says

    August 24, 2007 at 8:07 am

    Nice twist, you had me feeling sorry for Esme–then the surprise. Good job Pia

  16. Bone says

    August 25, 2007 at 2:28 pm

    I promise, promise, promise I thought of doing some sort of surprise party story.

    Loved so much of this. You tell so much about Esme in so little time.

    I laughed at the nunnery line. Loved the trait she wasn’t particularly fond of. Also “The host was important” then how she couldn’t stand him, but oh she had married him. It’s all excellent.

  17. boneman says

    August 26, 2007 at 10:08 am

    I like the strike out.
    Anymore, I am as aware as anything abut choosing the wrong word, but, have found it more intersting to just stumble along, anyway….er…wander along aimlessly…no. Get a happen stance view? No.
    None of the above, but, to leave the “wrong word” in place as a perspective thing.

    It’s kind’a like when I mis-spell adamant.
    I’m not ALWAYS mi-spelling it.
    (W has been adamnantly keeping us in a war.)
    (not t’get a political thingie all fired up….just to give example to the spelling bit.)

  18. a.tag.along.traveler says

    August 26, 2007 at 7:42 pm

    wow that was good. you could feel her pain and how she had closed in on herself!!!

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About Me

I live in the South, not South Florida, a few blocks from the ocean, and two blocks from the main street. It's called Main Street. Amazes me too.

I'm from New York. I mostly lived in the Mid-Upper East Side, and the heart of the Upper West Side. It amazes me when people talk about how scared they were of Times Square in the 1970's and 1980's.

As my mother said: "know the streets, look out and you'll be fine."

What was scary was the invasion of the crack dens into "good buildings in good 'hoods." And the greedy landlords who did everything they could to get good tenants out of buildings.

I'm a Long Island girl, and proud of it now.
Then I hated everything about the suburbs. Yet somehow I lived in a few great Long Island Sound towns after high school.

Go to archives "August 2004" if you want to begin with the first posts.

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