Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

What the -

Damn it all to hell, I snarled as I awoke to the manic ringing of my doorbell. It was 7:00 on the only morning I ever get to sleep in. I angrily threw the covers back, stomped to the door and flung it open.

There stood a little girl of about nine. I softened a bit. "Yes?" I asked. She stared at me for a moment, saying nothing. What little maternal instincts I possessed reared up. "Do you know help?" I asked.

Finally, she spoke. "I don't know." she said. "One minute I was playing in the yard with my brother Jem, and the next, I'm standing here."

"Wait a minute," I said. Your brother's name is Jem?

"Uh huh."

"Jem Finch?"

Her eyes grew wide and she swallowed hard. "Yes. But how do you know that?"

Now I was speechless.

"Do you know my brother?" she asked.

"Um, not really." I replied. I took a deep breath. "Is your name Scout?" She made a little startled sound and stepped back.

"How do you know that? Who are you?"

"Come here," I said and led her into my apartment and over to a bookcase. I searched for, and found, the book I was looking for. I turned and showed it to her.

She read the title. "To Kill a Mockingbird". She looked up at me. "I don't understand."

"This book is about you, Jem, Dill, and your father, Atticus."

She looked at me, confused.

I opened the book. "Look, see?" I showed her some pages. "It's all about your life in Maycomb", I said. "Back during the great depression."

She looked at me silently, her little face a study in confusion.

"I'll get you a glass of milk and then I'll read you some, okay?" I asked her.

She nodded, but said nothing.

When I returned from the kitchen, she was nowhere to be found. I searched my apartment, I looked in the hall, but she was gone.

I poured the milk down the drain, rinsed the glass and put it in the sink.

"That's it." I told myself. Next time I go to a party, I'm sticking to beer. No more mixing drinks."

I got back in bed, pulled the covers up to my chin, and closed my eyes. Sleep came, but only after I replayed the whole scene in my head many times.

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