Second day of Nanowrimo writing
Nov. 2nd, 2009 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_kerinaBeen writing very good ^^. Note...this writing is largely unedited. I'll be doing editted chapter posts on a more-or-less weekly basis.
Links to other days
Day 1
(Chapter 1 - Keep in Line - Continued from Day 1)
She held her hands out and then calmly slipped into her chair. "I travel a lot so I like to keep my home quite mobile. It also functions as my workspace."
I sighed, stood up from the chair, and gripped my bag of purchases from the drug store. "I should go. I'm not interested in purchasing anything."
I turned to leave and heard her say behind me, "Who said I was selling anything?"
I knew I should've just left but I turned around to say, "Everyone always is."
She said only, "Not me."
I eyed the room a bit. There weren't any price tags for the strange objects on the walls. There were strange spirals and orbs with ornate surfaces. They appeared carved with all types of colors and textures ranging from pure, soft ivory to deep, stone blue. Their designs looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. One almost resembled a dream catcher I'd seen in a trinket store but this looked different.
It looked like some strange image I'd glimpsed in a store magazine once of a particle accelerator image. I had no idea what it meant but it had whorls and orbits and chaos and forms circling and meeting and breaking off like a spirograph gone crazy.
It looked exactly like that. I couldn't take my eyes off it.
Ananya had left her chair. I noticed her when she leaned between me and the strange, swirling artifact. She noted, "Not for sale, I'm afraid to say."
I leaned back and folded my arms. "Fine…why did you drag me to your tent?"
She interlaced her fingers and said, "I'd just like to help you out."
I listened to her words. They sounded sincere but I still had no idea what she was getting at. I asked her as much and responded, "Come. Sit back down and I'll explain."
Despite the fact I knew that my lunch break was rapidly reaching its end, I made my way back to the chair. I set my bag in my lap and waited for what she was going to tell me.
Ananya put her hands flat on her table and said, "I know you feel discontent. You feel weary of the world around you. It drains you. And it gives you thoughts you don't like."
I had to give her a little nod for all that. A good part of my mind was sifting through her statements and referring back to all the paranormal/psychic power debunking things I'd ever seen. I had a feeling that some kind of fortune was forthcoming with an itemized bill included.
She continued, "You feel trapped and you can't get out. You must keep in line and keep in place…You want out."
My mind flashed back to what the man at the counter had said but it immediately wrote it off as mere coincidence.
I shrugged. "How?"
She smiled and said, "Leave that to me. But answer me…if I could free you from all that holds you down in this world….would you want that?"
I had no idea what she meant. But I felt somehow relaxed and not bad. I knew that encountering her was the most interesting thing that'd happened in a long time and I was willing to see where it went.
I nodded.
She bowed her head and announced, "Then that is enough for today. Stop by tomorrow."
My shoulders slumped. I knew her promises were too good to be true. I shook my head.
With a sigh, I asked, "So how much was it for today?"
Ananya frowned sharply. "I told you and I mean it. I don't charge…but…"
I leaned forward. "But?"
She gave a little smile. "Just so we understand each other. If I can help you…if I can free you from all this…I know you would be grateful for that. And you would be in my debt. But not so far as money is concerned. In other ways."
I pushed back. "Then I don't want it. Not without knowing what it would be."
Ananya gently shook her head. "It would have value only to me."
"Tell me what it is…"
She took a deep breath and spoke in what sounded like Russian. Then, she added in English, "That is all I want."
I held my hands up and looked away. "This is getting too weird for me. How do I know that you're not just going to kill me?…I'll be plenty free from all my worries then."
She gave a strange little smile and said, "Kill you? No, Mr. Ryan, you're finally going to live when I'm done with you…"
My blood felt suddenly cold. I tried to think back. I was sure I'd never given her my name. I clenched my lips and shook my head. "I need to go…"
She calmly gestured to the opening in the tent. "See you again soon, Curtis."
It tried not to look back. I held a death grip on my bag of drug store purchases.
I pressed my way out and across the dirt. I finally breathed when I was standing right in the middle of the sidewalk. I turned back, some part of me expecting the strange tent to have mysteriously vanished. But it was still there, the same as before. Ananya crouched and gave me a little wave through the flap. I gave a little cough and walked back to the office.
All the while, I replayed what I'd experienced in my head. I'd read about charismatic personalities a long time ago and how they could hold someone captivate with just a glance. I scratched at my nearly-white sideburns.
I tried to piece together how she could've come up with my name. The only logical explanations were the creepiest. She had to have been watching me surreptitiously for a while to learn that information. I'd had a feeling for a long time like I was being watched but I always wrote it off as another undiagnosed mental condition among the many I could imagine.
I gave an unnecessary look in all directions. I just saw even sand, passing cars, box apartments, and the straight, brown figures of power lines. Turning back, I could still see a sliver of purple from the tent. All's same with the world.
I added to the pace of my steps but kept in the same even line in the middle of the sidewalk. I stepped lightly from curb to curb till I made it back to the business park where the office was.
I took a breath and first made my way into the side bathroom in front. I gave my head a painful crack and splashed a little bit of water on my face.
I looked to the mirror and saw an old man.
My neck through my collared shirt was even more circled and creased than the day before. The lines on my face spread like tense fault lines pressing against one another. My eyes sunk with deep shadowing. My ears always felt like they were trying to migrate off my body. I knew it would only be a few more years and all the silvery hair lingering on my head and sandpaper on my chin would turn to white.
I rubbed my hands dry with a paper towel and blew my nose. Before leaving, I also brushed my pants and checked my collar.
I felt a flash of concerned when I saw Millie at the reception desk. She usually arrived long after lunch. Holding onto the tip of her desk, I carefully asked her, "In early, Millie?"
Then, I noticed there was something different about Millie today. She'd always had long, brown hair. It would in a single, straight arc from her head right down to her waist. And she would always wear the same, sleek black outfit to work.
Today, it was like Millie had gone hippie. Her hair almost seemed as though it had a streaked, lighter tone to it. It also had beads in several colors on several of her locks. Those locks arched and flowed and flowered and bent here and there. More shocking than that, she not only wore a bright yellow top, but a bright red skirt as well. I blinked a bit.
While I couldn't dismiss that a young girl like Millie would more readily change her style than someone like me, I found the shift quite surprising. Then, I noticed something else. She wore a small medallion around her neck in the shape of a star. I'd never seen anything like in before but it actually reminded me of something I'd seen in Ananya's tent. I couldn't quite remember what it was though.
I wondered but didn't ask where Andrea was. Despite Andrea being the boss's intern, I always found her up with Millie, laughing or talking about something. I figured they were best friends or something like that but it wasn't my job to pry.
It took Millie so long to respond to my words that I was tempted to just forget it and head back to my desk. When she did respond, she looked up at me with befuddlement and said, "Umm…can I help you?"
I sighed and let my bag so slack. If she was in a mood then I didn't want to linger. I waved my hand, walked around the reception area, and said, "Never mind."
Millie seemed to say something behind me but I didn't want to deal with drama today. I just wanted to finish my work and clock out. I checked around for the clock, fearing what it might reveal. I doubted I'd been gone for more than ten minutes past lunch and I wished I hadn't lost my watch today. The constant lines of the hour and minute hands always kept me feeling certain.
I traced the usual path back to my cubical but ran right into a full one. There was a young guy there talking calmly on the phone and leaning back a bit in my chair. He looked about five-two, a bit scrawny, with short brown hair and blue-ish gray eyes. He glanced in my direction, covered the mouthpiece of the phone and asked, just like Millie had, "Can I help you?"
My head shook a little and I said, with no certainty, "That's…my desk." I examined the details of the desk. Though it had the same computer and chair, nothing else looked familiar. It had strange little trinkets, plants, and a little bird with a silly hat. At the top of it, there was a name placard that said in black script, "Justin".
Justin frowned and said into the mouthpiece, "Call ya back." He set down the phone and slowly stood. "Do you need some help, miss?"
I felt as though struck. I reeled a moment, panted, and asked, "What did you say?"
An even line of concern curled on his face. "Are you alright, miss?"
I breathed sharply in and shook my head. He approached me but I turned away. I felt a sick feeling of empty bile rising in my stomach. His laid a hand on my shoulder but nudged it away. I told him, "I'm not a woman."
I circled around to look at him. His eyebrow rose and, for just a moment, his eyes flicked down to my chest area. I felt a strange rush of embarrassment. He folded his hands and pressed his lips together. He looked uncertain about what to say.
I could hear footsteps behind me. I looked.
With Millie close beside, my boss walked between the partitions towards me. His balding head with black-tangles of sweat-matted hair angled a little towards me. His lips were as flat and rough as ever. He looked at me straight and said, "Do you have business here, ma'am?"
I carefully swallowed, set my feet, and said, "I work here. My name is Curtis L. Ryan."
He frowned and squinted his eyes at me. "Your name is what? Are you trying to be cute? I've never seen you before in my whole life and you certainly don't work here. If you don't have serious business here, you'll have to leave or I'll send for security to escort you out."
Each of his words slammed into me like nails on all sides. There was no recognition of me in his eyes. I could barely feel my legs underneath me.
I looked down. I was the same as I always expected. Same hairy arms. Same workplace attire. Same aging body.
I couldn't imagine this was all some practical joke gone painfully long. I couldn't imagine the boss diverting vital time to a mere prank.
My co-workers were all around me but they didn't remember me. They didn't even know me and somehow they all only saw me as a woman…
I looked to Millie's hip. As usual, she had her cell phone. I remembered he always messed around with the picture function. I asked her, "Can I borrow your phone for a second?"
She stared back at me a moment and looked over to the boss. He sighed through his nose and asked, "Is this some sort of strange protest thing because we're a mortgage company?
I shook my head.
He turned his lips down and asked, "If she lets you borrow her phone, will you explain what's going on and leave peacefully?"
I wasn't sure I could explain it but I was more than willing to get out of here of to some place that made more sense. I nodded.
He nudged his head to Millie and, after a moment, he unclipped her phone and passed it to me.
With everyone cautiously watching my actions, I flipped the phone open and selected the camera function. As one last, cruel surprise, I noted the time on Millie's phone read 4:04PM.
With a deep breath, I held the phone out in front of me. Everyone around took a step back. I heard the artificial click and turned the phone to look at the screen.
At first, I thought I'd done something wrong. But the more I stared at the grainy but clear image, more I was certain that this was how I looked to my co-workers.
It was a picture of Ananya holding the phone instead of me. The girl in the image had the same red hair and wore exactly the same glasses and top.
Links to other days
Day 1
(Chapter 1 - Keep in Line - Continued from Day 1)
She held her hands out and then calmly slipped into her chair. "I travel a lot so I like to keep my home quite mobile. It also functions as my workspace."
I sighed, stood up from the chair, and gripped my bag of purchases from the drug store. "I should go. I'm not interested in purchasing anything."
I turned to leave and heard her say behind me, "Who said I was selling anything?"
I knew I should've just left but I turned around to say, "Everyone always is."
She said only, "Not me."
I eyed the room a bit. There weren't any price tags for the strange objects on the walls. There were strange spirals and orbs with ornate surfaces. They appeared carved with all types of colors and textures ranging from pure, soft ivory to deep, stone blue. Their designs looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. One almost resembled a dream catcher I'd seen in a trinket store but this looked different.
It looked like some strange image I'd glimpsed in a store magazine once of a particle accelerator image. I had no idea what it meant but it had whorls and orbits and chaos and forms circling and meeting and breaking off like a spirograph gone crazy.
It looked exactly like that. I couldn't take my eyes off it.
Ananya had left her chair. I noticed her when she leaned between me and the strange, swirling artifact. She noted, "Not for sale, I'm afraid to say."
I leaned back and folded my arms. "Fine…why did you drag me to your tent?"
She interlaced her fingers and said, "I'd just like to help you out."
I listened to her words. They sounded sincere but I still had no idea what she was getting at. I asked her as much and responded, "Come. Sit back down and I'll explain."
Despite the fact I knew that my lunch break was rapidly reaching its end, I made my way back to the chair. I set my bag in my lap and waited for what she was going to tell me.
Ananya put her hands flat on her table and said, "I know you feel discontent. You feel weary of the world around you. It drains you. And it gives you thoughts you don't like."
I had to give her a little nod for all that. A good part of my mind was sifting through her statements and referring back to all the paranormal/psychic power debunking things I'd ever seen. I had a feeling that some kind of fortune was forthcoming with an itemized bill included.
She continued, "You feel trapped and you can't get out. You must keep in line and keep in place…You want out."
My mind flashed back to what the man at the counter had said but it immediately wrote it off as mere coincidence.
I shrugged. "How?"
She smiled and said, "Leave that to me. But answer me…if I could free you from all that holds you down in this world….would you want that?"
I had no idea what she meant. But I felt somehow relaxed and not bad. I knew that encountering her was the most interesting thing that'd happened in a long time and I was willing to see where it went.
I nodded.
She bowed her head and announced, "Then that is enough for today. Stop by tomorrow."
My shoulders slumped. I knew her promises were too good to be true. I shook my head.
With a sigh, I asked, "So how much was it for today?"
Ananya frowned sharply. "I told you and I mean it. I don't charge…but…"
I leaned forward. "But?"
She gave a little smile. "Just so we understand each other. If I can help you…if I can free you from all this…I know you would be grateful for that. And you would be in my debt. But not so far as money is concerned. In other ways."
I pushed back. "Then I don't want it. Not without knowing what it would be."
Ananya gently shook her head. "It would have value only to me."
"Tell me what it is…"
She took a deep breath and spoke in what sounded like Russian. Then, she added in English, "That is all I want."
I held my hands up and looked away. "This is getting too weird for me. How do I know that you're not just going to kill me?…I'll be plenty free from all my worries then."
She gave a strange little smile and said, "Kill you? No, Mr. Ryan, you're finally going to live when I'm done with you…"
My blood felt suddenly cold. I tried to think back. I was sure I'd never given her my name. I clenched my lips and shook my head. "I need to go…"
She calmly gestured to the opening in the tent. "See you again soon, Curtis."
It tried not to look back. I held a death grip on my bag of drug store purchases.
I pressed my way out and across the dirt. I finally breathed when I was standing right in the middle of the sidewalk. I turned back, some part of me expecting the strange tent to have mysteriously vanished. But it was still there, the same as before. Ananya crouched and gave me a little wave through the flap. I gave a little cough and walked back to the office.
All the while, I replayed what I'd experienced in my head. I'd read about charismatic personalities a long time ago and how they could hold someone captivate with just a glance. I scratched at my nearly-white sideburns.
I tried to piece together how she could've come up with my name. The only logical explanations were the creepiest. She had to have been watching me surreptitiously for a while to learn that information. I'd had a feeling for a long time like I was being watched but I always wrote it off as another undiagnosed mental condition among the many I could imagine.
I gave an unnecessary look in all directions. I just saw even sand, passing cars, box apartments, and the straight, brown figures of power lines. Turning back, I could still see a sliver of purple from the tent. All's same with the world.
I added to the pace of my steps but kept in the same even line in the middle of the sidewalk. I stepped lightly from curb to curb till I made it back to the business park where the office was.
I took a breath and first made my way into the side bathroom in front. I gave my head a painful crack and splashed a little bit of water on my face.
I looked to the mirror and saw an old man.
My neck through my collared shirt was even more circled and creased than the day before. The lines on my face spread like tense fault lines pressing against one another. My eyes sunk with deep shadowing. My ears always felt like they were trying to migrate off my body. I knew it would only be a few more years and all the silvery hair lingering on my head and sandpaper on my chin would turn to white.
I rubbed my hands dry with a paper towel and blew my nose. Before leaving, I also brushed my pants and checked my collar.
I felt a flash of concerned when I saw Millie at the reception desk. She usually arrived long after lunch. Holding onto the tip of her desk, I carefully asked her, "In early, Millie?"
Then, I noticed there was something different about Millie today. She'd always had long, brown hair. It would in a single, straight arc from her head right down to her waist. And she would always wear the same, sleek black outfit to work.
Today, it was like Millie had gone hippie. Her hair almost seemed as though it had a streaked, lighter tone to it. It also had beads in several colors on several of her locks. Those locks arched and flowed and flowered and bent here and there. More shocking than that, she not only wore a bright yellow top, but a bright red skirt as well. I blinked a bit.
While I couldn't dismiss that a young girl like Millie would more readily change her style than someone like me, I found the shift quite surprising. Then, I noticed something else. She wore a small medallion around her neck in the shape of a star. I'd never seen anything like in before but it actually reminded me of something I'd seen in Ananya's tent. I couldn't quite remember what it was though.
I wondered but didn't ask where Andrea was. Despite Andrea being the boss's intern, I always found her up with Millie, laughing or talking about something. I figured they were best friends or something like that but it wasn't my job to pry.
It took Millie so long to respond to my words that I was tempted to just forget it and head back to my desk. When she did respond, she looked up at me with befuddlement and said, "Umm…can I help you?"
I sighed and let my bag so slack. If she was in a mood then I didn't want to linger. I waved my hand, walked around the reception area, and said, "Never mind."
Millie seemed to say something behind me but I didn't want to deal with drama today. I just wanted to finish my work and clock out. I checked around for the clock, fearing what it might reveal. I doubted I'd been gone for more than ten minutes past lunch and I wished I hadn't lost my watch today. The constant lines of the hour and minute hands always kept me feeling certain.
I traced the usual path back to my cubical but ran right into a full one. There was a young guy there talking calmly on the phone and leaning back a bit in my chair. He looked about five-two, a bit scrawny, with short brown hair and blue-ish gray eyes. He glanced in my direction, covered the mouthpiece of the phone and asked, just like Millie had, "Can I help you?"
My head shook a little and I said, with no certainty, "That's…my desk." I examined the details of the desk. Though it had the same computer and chair, nothing else looked familiar. It had strange little trinkets, plants, and a little bird with a silly hat. At the top of it, there was a name placard that said in black script, "Justin".
Justin frowned and said into the mouthpiece, "Call ya back." He set down the phone and slowly stood. "Do you need some help, miss?"
I felt as though struck. I reeled a moment, panted, and asked, "What did you say?"
An even line of concern curled on his face. "Are you alright, miss?"
I breathed sharply in and shook my head. He approached me but I turned away. I felt a sick feeling of empty bile rising in my stomach. His laid a hand on my shoulder but nudged it away. I told him, "I'm not a woman."
I circled around to look at him. His eyebrow rose and, for just a moment, his eyes flicked down to my chest area. I felt a strange rush of embarrassment. He folded his hands and pressed his lips together. He looked uncertain about what to say.
I could hear footsteps behind me. I looked.
With Millie close beside, my boss walked between the partitions towards me. His balding head with black-tangles of sweat-matted hair angled a little towards me. His lips were as flat and rough as ever. He looked at me straight and said, "Do you have business here, ma'am?"
I carefully swallowed, set my feet, and said, "I work here. My name is Curtis L. Ryan."
He frowned and squinted his eyes at me. "Your name is what? Are you trying to be cute? I've never seen you before in my whole life and you certainly don't work here. If you don't have serious business here, you'll have to leave or I'll send for security to escort you out."
Each of his words slammed into me like nails on all sides. There was no recognition of me in his eyes. I could barely feel my legs underneath me.
I looked down. I was the same as I always expected. Same hairy arms. Same workplace attire. Same aging body.
I couldn't imagine this was all some practical joke gone painfully long. I couldn't imagine the boss diverting vital time to a mere prank.
My co-workers were all around me but they didn't remember me. They didn't even know me and somehow they all only saw me as a woman…
I looked to Millie's hip. As usual, she had her cell phone. I remembered he always messed around with the picture function. I asked her, "Can I borrow your phone for a second?"
She stared back at me a moment and looked over to the boss. He sighed through his nose and asked, "Is this some sort of strange protest thing because we're a mortgage company?
I shook my head.
He turned his lips down and asked, "If she lets you borrow her phone, will you explain what's going on and leave peacefully?"
I wasn't sure I could explain it but I was more than willing to get out of here of to some place that made more sense. I nodded.
He nudged his head to Millie and, after a moment, he unclipped her phone and passed it to me.
With everyone cautiously watching my actions, I flipped the phone open and selected the camera function. As one last, cruel surprise, I noted the time on Millie's phone read 4:04PM.
With a deep breath, I held the phone out in front of me. Everyone around took a step back. I heard the artificial click and turned the phone to look at the screen.
At first, I thought I'd done something wrong. But the more I stared at the grainy but clear image, more I was certain that this was how I looked to my co-workers.
It was a picture of Ananya holding the phone instead of me. The girl in the image had the same red hair and wore exactly the same glasses and top.
