Over the years, I have spun stories out of things that have happened to me, things that have happened to people I knew, that have happened to neighbors of friends, places I have been that suggested possibilities, and in more than one case by imagining the middle of histories where I knew the beginning and the end.
Now I want to offer up for whoever can use it, if anyone can, a thing that happened to me before I ever tried writing a story and which I have never been able to use. The names are changed; all else is as I can recall it.
I was for a long time involved with a woman I will call Willie (for Wilhelmina, hence she used Willie) Greenwich. One year in that time Christmas Eve fell on Thursday and Christmas Day on Friday.
Her mother lived hundreds of miles away. (Her father was some years dead.) Her only brother was closer, but had converted and married into a sect that did not regard Christmas as festive. My older siblings were also some distance off. So we agreed to spend that weekend together to fight off loneliness.
I arrived at her apartment early on Thursday evening, with her present and a Cornish game hen for Christmas dinner.
Willie lived in the suburbs, just before the north end of the bus line in those days, and maybe a half-mile west of where it ran. Parking spaces were often scarce near her development, so the bus was more practical for a stay of more than an hour or so.
We talked, listened to music, and fooled around some, but I slept on her couch that night, since that was where the relationship stood at that point. (Feel free to change that detail, of course.)
On Christmas Day I walked down to a convenience store near her apartment and bought breakfast sandwiches for us. We talked that day, watched some television, exchanged presents, and fooled around some. That evening Willie cooked the Cornish game hen while I fixed a rice dish and vegetables. Then more of the same activities as before, and I slept on her couch again.
On Saturday she asked about going out somewhere, and I recalled that I had been invited to a party that night by a couple whom I knew. I had not said I would be there, since they were some distance from where I lived, but they were only six or seven miles from Willie’s apartment.
I called the couple and asked if I could still come, and bring Willie, whom they barely knew if at all. I was told that it would be no problem at all.
But I felt that under there circumstances, I should go home, bathe, change clothes, get something to eat, then return and go to the party in Willie’s car and presumably spend Saturday night on Willie’s couch.
Most of which I did, but when I knocked on Willie’s door at about 7:30 in the evening, I found her very mad for not being home when she called me to tell me not to come back. (I had no answering machine in those days.)
It seems that while I was gone, Bob Marsh, who had just broken up with his long-time girlfriend, had called to see what she was doing that night, and she told him about the party and decided to go with him instead of me. (I am not sure the couple having the party had ever heard of him; both Willie and I knew him from a quite different circle.)
So I set out to walk the six or seven miles to the party. As it happened, a mile along somebody I knew stopped and gave me a ride, and getting back home was easy.
It may have been foolish of me, but I go back together with Willie later, though I got disgusted with her drinking eventually.
Now I want to offer up for whoever can use it, if anyone can, a thing that happened to me before I ever tried writing a story and which I have never been able to use. The names are changed; all else is as I can recall it.
I was for a long time involved with a woman I will call Willie (for Wilhelmina, hence she used Willie) Greenwich. One year in that time Christmas Eve fell on Thursday and Christmas Day on Friday.
Her mother lived hundreds of miles away. (Her father was some years dead.) Her only brother was closer, but had converted and married into a sect that did not regard Christmas as festive. My older siblings were also some distance off. So we agreed to spend that weekend together to fight off loneliness.
I arrived at her apartment early on Thursday evening, with her present and a Cornish game hen for Christmas dinner.
Willie lived in the suburbs, just before the north end of the bus line in those days, and maybe a half-mile west of where it ran. Parking spaces were often scarce near her development, so the bus was more practical for a stay of more than an hour or so.
We talked, listened to music, and fooled around some, but I slept on her couch that night, since that was where the relationship stood at that point. (Feel free to change that detail, of course.)
On Christmas Day I walked down to a convenience store near her apartment and bought breakfast sandwiches for us. We talked that day, watched some television, exchanged presents, and fooled around some. That evening Willie cooked the Cornish game hen while I fixed a rice dish and vegetables. Then more of the same activities as before, and I slept on her couch again.
On Saturday she asked about going out somewhere, and I recalled that I had been invited to a party that night by a couple whom I knew. I had not said I would be there, since they were some distance from where I lived, but they were only six or seven miles from Willie’s apartment.
I called the couple and asked if I could still come, and bring Willie, whom they barely knew if at all. I was told that it would be no problem at all.
But I felt that under there circumstances, I should go home, bathe, change clothes, get something to eat, then return and go to the party in Willie’s car and presumably spend Saturday night on Willie’s couch.
Most of which I did, but when I knocked on Willie’s door at about 7:30 in the evening, I found her very mad for not being home when she called me to tell me not to come back. (I had no answering machine in those days.)
It seems that while I was gone, Bob Marsh, who had just broken up with his long-time girlfriend, had called to see what she was doing that night, and she told him about the party and decided to go with him instead of me. (I am not sure the couple having the party had ever heard of him; both Willie and I knew him from a quite different circle.)
So I set out to walk the six or seven miles to the party. As it happened, a mile along somebody I knew stopped and gave me a ride, and getting back home was easy.
It may have been foolish of me, but I go back together with Willie later, though I got disgusted with her drinking eventually.
