Day 11 Prompt: Background Music
I tend to collect songs that I think match the vibe of a story I’m working on, or a character I’m trying to get into their head. Because of this, I often have playlists that are… kind of a mess. To an outsider it might be hard to tell that in my mind it comes together as a story, not necessarily in order, and not all songs on the playlist are equal, but each is a piece of the puzzle for me. A while back I was working on a noir play and I just couldn’t crack it (still haven’t) but it has become the inspiration for my largest W.I.P. Playlist. I still listen to it on shuffle, hoping I’ll be able to untangle the knots. I still add to it now and then. Any ways, decided to use it for this task!
ALEX
T.S. Eliot once said literature is turning blood into ink, but I don’t think I’ll have enough words to turn all the blood on my hands into a book. I took up painting. If a picture is worth a thousand words I could maybe make a dent. So far it hasn’t worked but in some ways… I’m not sharing a tomb with Lady Macbeth yet.
You might be thinking, what can a shorter than average, drama-club reject college student have in common with the most infamous wife since Medea? Blood on our hands and hearts to start. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning. Which happens to be in the middle. The middle of fall term my freshman year.
[YOUNG ALEX - henceforth YA - enters. Young, full of hope and promise. Foolish. ALEX sizes her past self up.]
ALEX
Youth truly is wasted on the young.
I was going to my first ever extra-curricular event. A book club. It’s funny to think about how much faith I put in pages. And in people. But I digress. Let’s go back to that very first book club meeting and see how it starts - like it so often does - with a girl.
[YA approaches a circle of fellow college students, most in them older, but a few - including MADELINE - appear to be just as fresh faced and nervous as YA. They exchange a glance, a smile. YA approaches.]
YA
Hi, um… I’m Alex…
MADELINE
Madeline.
YA
Hi Madeline. Is this seat open?
MADELINE
No.
YA
Oh sorry! I’ll just -
MADELINE
[with a laugh}
I’m saving it for my new friend… Alex, right?
ALEX
You see now, right? Poor kid never stood a chance.