I found this short paper in a box of things Judy had saved that I had no idea still existed. She had told me she had taken a creative writing course in college. Here is an example of that writing. I used this short paper as a prompt for my ninth novel.
The Scene
by Judy
The girl looked out the window as she had done many times before. The scene that met her eyes was well known. Having only one window in her room allowed that one scene to be firmly imprinted on her brain. She knew every change of the scene through every season. Right now, it is winter. The cold, hard snow and the expressionless buildings matched the weary face that searched their never-changing shapes.
She jumped as a book crashed into the wall. Now she became conscious of what she had mentally tried to block out. Her parents’ angry voices came drifting into her room. The sounds grew louder and filled her tiny room until she thought she would scream.
Fear raced through her body, leaving her nervous and trembling. Would this be the time? Would this end as one of her terrible nightmares, in which she walks into the room to find her mother cut to bloody pieces? Her head started to swim. Her room danced in front of her eyes. Fear overcame her again. She sat at the edge of her bed, trying to control her raging head. On and on went the screams of hatred in the other room. Suddenly, thousands of pictures raced, stumbling through the young girl’s brain. Picture after picture, flashes of hate, of fear, of the ever-haunting scene out her window.
When I tried to rent this apartment, people tried to talk me out of it. They said you can still see the blood splattered on the walls where an insane man killed his wife. He’s locked up now, of course. A crazy man can’t be allowed to roam the streets. They also said the tiny room with one window is haunted, but I didn’t believe them. It is spring, and the scene is so striking.
Memory is the Key 
One thought on “The Scene”