14. Unconventional

[gunwithoutmusic]

Saturday, May 28th—12:53 p.m.

751 words. Approximate reading time: 3 minutes, 45 seconds.

“That one looks like a dog, huh?”

“I guess. Looks more like a horse to me. What do you miss the most, do you think?”

“I dunno. I guess I don’t really miss much. Things haven’t been that much different for me, really.”

“Really, Jace? Things haven’t been that much different? Or do you just not remember what it was like before?”

“Really, Pria. I mean, maybe things are different for you, but I hardly ever left my house anyway. Sure, it’s been getting harder lately to actually get together in person with anyone, but we’re all online so it’s not like I’m starved for socializing, and I’d already been getting my groceries and stuff delivered, so, yeah... I guess things haven’t been that different for me. There’s a cat.”

“Hm, I’d say it’s a horse. You know what I miss? Bowling.”

“Bowling? Well, that’s something I wouldn’t have expected to hear from you! Shoot, we could get some people together and set up a little bowling alley here in the park. I’m sure everyone would be into it.”

“First of all, you know it could only be like, one other person, max, and even that’s pushing it, three people hanging out in the park all close by each other. It’s bad enough dealing with getting the side-eye from every passerby just because we want to see our friends somewhere outside of the damned Multiverse.

“Secondly, it’s not the same. Outside in the park, in the middle of the day, with what I could only assume are makeshift pins and balls created out of whatever junk three people can find lying around their houses? It’s not bowling if we’re not in a dimly-lit hole in the wall somewhere, tossing back beers and peeling our shoes off of the sticky floor with every step.”

“Okay, now drinking beers with friends, I do miss that. Hey, look, a giraffe!”

“You mean that horse?”

“This game isn’t fun unless you actually play.”

“This game isn’t fun, anyway, Jace. It’s like, the exact opposite of fun.”

“Well, what else is there to do?”

“Exactly. Can’t go bowling, can’t go to a concert, can’t go to a club, can’t go to the movies... Nothing to do but go to the one place we’re allowed to be outside and sit and stare at the clouds. You know what they look like to me? Clouds.”

“Man, you’re such a buzzkill sometimes, you know? Times are hard right now, we gotta do what we gotta do.”

“I know, I know. But still, it’s been two years. When are we getting back to normal?”

“Who knows? Best to just enjoy the life you’ve been given and do what you can to find happiness inside those circumstances instead of trying to go outside of them.”

“Seems a little defeatist to me, Jace.”

“Yeah, but what are you gonna do? Can’t fight the system. Look at the people we’ve seen walk by just in the last hour. Every one of them is afraid and hurting.”

“And every one of them sees us sitting here on this little hill together and glares at us like we’re the worst people to exist on the planet when we’re not even doing anything wrong.”

“Exactly. You think any of those people are gonna say, ‘Man, I sure miss bowling; we ought to rise up and tell the government what we think of all of these restrictions!’? No. Because that’s crazy, Pria. Bowling will be back. We just gotta ride this out.”

“Sure, Jace. Just ride it out. Two years! Do you really think bowling will be back? Movies?”

“I don’t know, Pria. No one does, right? Two years is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Maybe we’ll just have to figure out different ways to entertain ourselves. Maybe drinking beer on a sticky floor in a dimly-lit room will just be something people used to do. No one goes to gladiator battles anymore, and that’s not really a bad thing, right?”

“I guess. It just sucks is all. Aren’t we supposedly social creatures? It doesn’t feel right to get most of your socializing done with words on a screen or a video of someone you feel like you used to know.”

“Eh, it doesn’t really bother me. I kind of like it better. Hanging out with friends was cool, but then you also had to deal with a bunch of strangers whenever you went out somewhere. Okay, that one actually kind of looks like a horse.”

Pria frowned at the cloud that looked kind of like a horse, and silently wished that literally anyone else had been available to hang out.

Comments

[drippedonpaper]

LOL, it's not the lack of company its WHO the company is that matters, right?

I know there were so many times with my kids doing online school that I tried to assure them that "when they look back on their lives, this will seem like such a short time."

I do know I hate zoom. I'm just very over it.

Do you work online?

I like how you tied this conversation together by interspersing it with the ongoing cloud watching :)

[gunwithoutmusic]

I think it's so hard on kids - I find as an adult that I'm getting my parents more. Like, we were all young once, we get it, but the further we get away from it, the harder it is to really FEEL it like they do.

I mean, a year for me goes by in a flash it seems, but when I was a kid, summer vacation seemed to last forever! It's hard for them to imagine that one day it will seem like hardly any time when right now it feels never ending.

As for work, I was actually classed as essential because my business supports essential businesses, so I have been going to the office every day through the whole thing! It's just me and one other part time person that works in another office, though, so it hasn't been too bad.

[banana_galaxy]

It took me until halfway through before I realised I'd only been reading dialogue. Boy do I like a good dialogue sequence you can follow without additional words to explain what's going on! A lot of this captured feelings I feel like I've experienced over the last couple of years. Sure, places are open again, but I still very rarely leave my house to do any of the things I enjoyed in the before times.

[gunwithoutmusic]

Thank you! Part of my idea for the prompt was to make the entry itself unconventional, so I decided to try my hand at writing something with just dialogue (and then the single bit at the end just to throw in a little twist). I was worried it would be hard to follow, so I'm happy to hear it worked well. :)

I'm in Florida, so we've been basically always "open for business" but things are still very different on the rare occasions that I do go out. The whole world feels more somber sometimes.

[marlawentmad]

It was very easy to follow, so well done. I especially liked the line at the end, breaking convention gave this a twist of humor that was delightful.

[gunwithoutmusic]

Thank you so much :)

[adoptedwriter]

So much truth here. Well done.

[gunwithoutmusic]

Thank you so much! :)

[roina_arwen]

I really enjoyed their back and forth conversation, and the cloud watching was a fun side note. Nicely done!

[gunwithoutmusic]

Thank you! :)

[bleodswean]

Ouch, that ending! You're really nailing these endings this season, S! Do you feel your knuckles cracking when you sit down for the prompts these days? Because your work is reading really tight and your craft is growing! Nice work with the continued call back to the horse in the clouds. That sort of repetition is so character building and you work with it in such a subtle crafty way.

[gunwithoutmusic]

I really appreciate it—I do feel like I'm improving with each piece I write and getting more comfortable with writing fiction, which I think will serve me pretty well when I go back to these for a more thorough look (I generally get an idea in mind and then sit down and bang it out in less than an hour). But there's a big part of me that's still stuck in the, 'This is all actually terrible and people are only saying nice things because you're a nice person and no one wants to hurt your feelings,' mindset.

I know that I can definitely improve, but imposter syndrome is real! When writers that I highly respect such as yourself say positive things about my work, it really does mean a lot.

[bleodswean]

Imposter syndrome is real, of course. We all struggle with it. I think, first and foremost, you must write for yourself. Someone asked Throbbing Gristle why they made the records they made and they said they got tired of going into record shops and not being able to buy their albums.

I bang things out in an hour, too, but then I leave the word doc open on my monitor and return to it A LOT. I read out loud, I read paragraphs, I allow myself to be drawn back into the piece so that I can sit down and rework a sentence or choose a different word. I do think you need a good word processing document in order to learn grammar which is something we don't teach well in school and is imperative to a flawless flow. But the editing just takes time and the reading of a ton of other material like the material you want to write.

[gunwithoutmusic]

It's funny you mention that about Throbbing Gristle, because when I write things for Idol, I really am writing them for myself first. I get done with a piece, give it a few read-throughs to make sure there aren't spots that are coming across super-clunky, and I generally think to myself, 'I'm pretty proud of this. I like this.' I guess that's as good a place as any to start.

[erulissedances]

I remember days when I hung out with people I was neutral about because there was nobody else around I liked better to spend the time with. You wrote that beautifully.

- Erulisse (one L)

[gunwithoutmusic]

Me too! While I was writing this I was imagining that one person that is great while they're in the friend group with everyone but then you hang out one on one and it's like... Not that you dislike them, but you find out you both have more in common with your mutual friends than with each other and it's just kind of awkward. :)

Thank you for reading!

[dadi]

I am totally Jace here :D

[gunwithoutmusic]

lol Same, I think - I actually don't mind not going out most of the time, and I've been getting my groceries and stuff delivered since before COVID, so life isn't TOO different for me.

[ofearthandstars]

Ah, company for the sake of having company. Great dialogue and pacing, and I loved that last line!!

[mollywheezy]

I loved the cloud watching, especially that all of them were a horse to Pria, lol. And LOL to missing bowling . . . to each their own. ;)

[proceedcyclone]

After the initial shock of schools actually closing, I absolutely loved when everything was shut down because I had an excuse to not be around people that was, for the most part, acceptable and I had time to do all the things I struggle to find time for “normally.” On the cusp of school starting again, I really miss it and being one of the few people to continue to wear masks indoors with non-family (still COVID free after 2.5 years!) is having the opposite effect emotionally, unfortunately.

I think you captured two of the most common responses to a very relatable situation well and I’m rooting for you to make it to the end. :)

-Tia