Heather Thompson

A Stranger Calls

            It is another beautiful summer day. Melissa, feeling torn between being productive or giving in to some much needed relaxation, struggles with what to do next and where to start.  She always has plenty to do.  It is always something for Melissa: dishes, laundry, or vacuuming.  As tempting as it is for Melissa to just throw her hands up and actually enjoy the spectacular day, she doesn’t. She knows that if she isn’t productive the mess will just pile up. 

There is also the guilt of never having time to spend with her family. Melissa’s husband is excellent. He provides for the family, takes care of the children, and runs the daily activities while Melissa vigorously finishes her education.  It is hard being a fulltime mom, wife, and student, Melissa thinks to herself.  Sitting on the chair looking around the room trying to decide which activity to take on, Melissa is spent.

Ring, Ring, Ring!!!

Melissa decides to ignore the endless possibilities of what lays ahead for her if she answers the phone and begins to vacuum.  As she makes her way across the room to the hallway the phone rings again.

Ring, Ring, Ring!!!

Deciding to answer it this time, she starts to the phone. Tripping over the electric cord, she finally reaches the phone. It must be important if they are calling again, she thinks. Besides, the interruption of the ringing will only hinder her struggle to stay focused on the present task.

“Hello?”, says Melissa.

A strange and deep voice speaks, “You are to report downtown in exactly 30 minutes.”

“Excuse me, do I know you?” says Melissa.

“Downtown, 30 minutes.” said the voice and then there was nothing but a dial tone.

Standing with the phone in one hand and the electric cord in the other, Melissa was baffled.  She put the phone down and thought, this is some kind of joke. This stuff never happens in real life to real people. Especially to me! I am just an ordinary person.

Melissa, being a hospital employee, the most excitement she has outside of her daily life was an occasional “Code Blue”.  She is routinely predictable, in a good way and her daily excitement is enough to keep her busy.  Her own life is full of unexpected turns, adding more to them may be precisely what pushes Melissa to her limit.

Walking back to the vacuum, her curiosity takes over.  The phone call replaying in her mind forbids her from her present task.  Trying to remove all thoughts of the conversation failed.  Whose voice was that? Do I know that voice? What does he need me downtown for? And downtown, I never go downtown? She thinks to herself.

Several minutes pass and Melissa throws on her shoes. She runs to the door, grabs her keys, and speeds off in the car.

The drive downtown is at least 30 minutes, not including outside factors.  It didn’t matter. Even though she would be late, she still had to try.  Suddenly, Melissa hesitates.  Where downtown? Downtown is huge! How do I know exactly where he wants me to go? This crazy! 

The city is huge compared to her suburban area. Melissa slammed on her brakes, realizing she had passed the downtown exit.  Backing up the car on the shoulder, she quickly exited the highway. Almost hitting the exit sign, not believing what she had just done, simply because it is illegal, Melissa decides to go home. This is not me! What am I doing?  Then without thinking Melissa continued downtown. 

Melissa reveled in her enjoyment of this adventure. She knew that no one would believe her about the strange call.  Besides, she had nothing to lose.  She was on a mission.  As she continued heading directly for the middle section of downtown, she knew exactly where she should go. 

The Museum of Art had always been known for being in the heart of Downtown.  Not being to familiar with the one-way streets of the city, she made several wrong turns before she finally arrived at the Museum.  Parking her car she looks around, evaluating every person, car, and object for any signs of her being where she is suppose to be. 

Looking at the clock, it had been forty-three minutes since the stranger called.  Am I too late, did I come to the wrong place?  She asks herself.   Leaving her car she decides to stand in front of the Museum. 

Time passing by faster now, she is becomes upset with herself.  Why on Earth did I come all this way? It was just a stupid prank call. I’m a grown woman and look how childish I am acting!  Coming here is ridiculous, She thinks.  “What am I doing?” she says as she begins the walk back to her car. 

Arriving at her car, Melissa notices a piece of paper wedged between the windshield and the wiper.  Opening the note she reads…

COMPLETE THE TASK BELOW AND YOU WILL KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE

.

.

.

.

BUY A TICKET, ENTER THE MUSEUM, AND GO TO THE 18^TH CENTURY EXHIBIT

            Melissa looks around for any sign of who may have left this on her car. Not sure what is going on at this point, Melissa is once again torn. She had just scolded herself for acting like a child for following the phone call’s instruction, but this confirms that something is up.

            Entering the Museum, she heads towards the exhibit.  As she approaches the top of the escalator she sees a man in a rain coat that reaches to the floor, with a black hat, and his back facing her.  Fear and anticipation fills Melissa, and with her heart beating fast and her legs shaking she approaches the man and taps him on his shoulder.

Draft Exchange Account

            When I first heard about this assignment I had never written a fiction piece before.  It seems scary and over whelming.  As I begun to think about it and after hearing so of the other pieces from the class I became inspired.  I asked a few co-workers and two classmates to read my piece.  The classmates were Kim Davis and Amber Buitron.  When I first wrote it my vision was to write a complete story. Then, once I started my imagination started to run wild and I realized I would have to make it a chapter out of a book.

Originally, I did not have a title. After reading it, my co-worker Elizabeth suggested the title it has now.  I liked it.  The neat thing about it was that Amber was able to help me repeat the title in the story by one of her suggestion and that was even before I have titled it. 

Of course there were plenty of typographical errors, along with some grammar issues, but everyone was great about pointing them out. 

One of the things I noticed about Amber’s suggestions is she was suggesting to change the things I wrote in away that did not reflect my writing style.   She did offer some great alternatives and I did use some of them like the place were I stated the title in the work. Mostly, I stuck to my own unique style of writing. 

Kim on the other made more suggestions that fit better with what I had already written.  She suggested to remove my explanation of “alarms the phone” after the first ring, ring, ring, because my following paragraph did a great job of relaying what was ringing. 

Almost all said they like how I put the character’s thoughts in italics and said I gave good insight to her character.  It was mentioned that I had good imagery and that it end very intensely.  Everyone one of them wanted to know what happened next.  

I am very pleased with my first attempt at writing a fiction piece. I would have never thought that I would have been able to do it and be thinking of actually finishing the piece in a small book.  I am so grateful for this opportunity.