Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Memorable

Memorable? Memorable isn't always a good thing, you know. Sometimes the very worst memories are the ones that stay with you for years.

When I was seven years old, we had the most wonderful Christmas party at my grandmother's house Christmas day. There were presents, decorations, laughter, and good family fun.

I barely remember that party.

But the next year - oh, I remember that party. That was the year my mother and father got into a knock-down drag-out sort of argument on the way to the party, didn't speak a word to one another - or to us - through the entire afternoon, and then continued their painful silence on the way home.

I don't remember what I got for Christmas that year, I don't remember what the decorations looked like, or what kinds of cakes and pies and candies I ate that afternoon. What I do remember is three long hours of a frightening sense of wrongness. And that memory is so intense I could almost believe that the party lasted a week.

I remember that party because of the silence. I remember that party because it was the first hint I had that things were not as they should be between my parents. I remember that party because it was the last time the whole family was together for Christmas.

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