Headlights

You will want toexplore how words work? how words can be made towork. You will want to be aware of the job that words, sentences, and paragraphs can do. It is important for a writer to understand who he/she is and to understand that she/he is unique with a unique set of experiences, and that it is the everyday experiences which are important. In thepast,when workshopping with young writers, I've had things said tome such as, "Oh, I don't have anything towrite about,my life is too dull, too boring." I have to persuade them that writing is about everyday things. Iknow that many of you have readmy story called "Beans." It's a good illustration of what I'm talking about because it's simply the storyof a young boy going toplay rugby on a Saturday morning and going home again. He is a boy who loves life.He draws theworld in around him through sights, sounds, smell, and taste. He stands on his own two feet and doesn't need to be entertained.When Iwrote the story Iwas living in a place similar to the one in the story. The story was based on one of our sons. I was writing a familiar, everyday event. You can write about eating breakfast, a good day, a bad day, a sad day, a broken shoe, an embarrassment, a relationship. There is something happening to us everymoment of our lives. None of us lives on a littleantiseptic spot with nothing happening to us, around us, or inside of us. Everything is food for someone who wants towrite. To each ordinary day we bring our own individuality, our own style, our own creativity. It is good to remember that even though there is a big wide, world out there, thewhole world is not out there. The world iswhere you are. Your world is where you are. September19,2008 Norman, Oklahoma Headlights N A StorybyPatricia Grace BM Monica cooked up a pot ofpasta andwatched thewhitish water spurt out of the holes of the colander as she strained it, the water flooding into the sink and down thedrain where everything goes. She shook the colander. Shook and shook. The remaining drops gathered, combined and trickleddown theplughole until the liquidwas all gone and it was no use doing thatany longer. In a moment she would have to turn round. Taking a bowl from the cupboard she let the flat,grub-coloured ribbons slither into it,and opening a jarof sauce slugged the mixture over the pasta, scraping itall out with a spoon. She mixed and stirreduntil she couldn't do thatany longer either.Now she would have to turn round and see her daughter Yvette creeping about, setting the table as though afraid tomake a noise in case a bomb went offor something leapt out of a cupboard and swallowed her. Knives and forks, spoons for the twins, salt and pepper, a plate of bread, the container of margarine. Without a sound. The table-setting completed, Yvette stood back against thekitchenwall, hands at her sides, her feet pointing towards each other. Monica saw one foot twitch. Was her daughter about to take a step, two steps, three steps, and get out of the kitchen altogether? No. Yvette hooked a big toe under the instep of her other foot and jigged her heel. High insteps, muscular calves, shoulders half-lifted, half a smile. Swallowing. As ifawhole egg. Silent, like a spider who could pounce on me, entangle me in all its legs, squeeze the life out of me. Monica put threeplates on the table and one on the bench. Another shift.Yvette was drawing one leg up and placing a bare footon thewall behind her. One-legged. Shorts too short,T-shirt tight. Begging eyes. Not moving. Locked, as though she felt May-June 2009 i31 someone or somethingwas holding her,preventing her frombeing a gymnast or a ballet dancer. "Get your slippers on, and some decent clothes,"Monica said, turningback to thebench as she spoke. "And tellyour brothers tohurryup. Make them wash their hands." She began dishing thepasta onto theplates, deciding that she would eat her own food later when

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