story continued 2/24/11

The door banged against the wall sounding like a shot, resounding off the walls, announcing AJ’s presence. AJ cringed knowing there was now no hope of escaping her mamma. Moments later she heard angry footsteps coming down the old wooden steps and a voice shouting AJ’s name. AJ’s face turned bright red and quickly she turned to shut the kitchen door. The footsteps loomed closer.

Spinning around she saw her mamma standing angrily in the doorframe. The harsh light from the kitchen contrasted with the low lighting from the hallway casting AJ’s mamma into a series of shadows and spotlights. The anger seemed to radiate off her.

 She was a petite women with skin still tanned from the summer’s sun. Mother and daughter bore a great resemblance from their dark hair and stature, wild spirit, often unpredictable temper. Now as the as the two versions faced off, one in anger, the other in guilt, in was almost comical to see how AJ resembled her mamma in miniature.

Striving to keep her voice even and not to yell, Nora Teller took a few deep breaths, but could not keep the tension from her voice when she asked through gritted teeth, “Anna Jayne Teller where have you been?!”

AJ refused to meet her mamma’s fierce dark eyes. Instead she noticed some dirt that was still stuck to her skin and clothing and began brushing it off. It crumbled under her fingertips and fell to the floor.

“Anna Jayne!”

At the sharpness it in her mamma’s voice, AJ looked up.  She met her mamma’s furious eyes then looked down at the mess she didn’t realize she had created. AJ took a deep breath and opened her mouth to explain about knowing she should have come when called and about the boy, but when she went to speak nothing came out.

Two hands struck out and grabbed her. Screaming, AJ was pulled into the bush. The burs and sharp braches snagged her clothing and further scratched her hands and face. When the hands finally let go, AJ found herself staring in shock at a boy around her age with hair so blonde it was almost white.  After staring for a moment, AJ’s temper got the best of her and she exploded, “WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!?”

The boy looked slightly taken aback at AJ’s raised voice but did not seem intimated in the slightest when he screamed back, “I DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM! WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?”

AJ glared at the nameless stranger and fumed, “YOU THINK I HAVE A PROBLEM?! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!  YOU GRABBED ME, PULLED ME INTO A BUSH, AND NOW I’M ALL CUT UP!”

AJ was too angry to see the mischievous glint in the boy’s eyes. She stood there glaring at him when she heard her mamma calling her name. Unlike her earlier calls, she sounded genuinely angry. AJ quickly decided it was time to go. Giving the boy a final glare, she carefully climbed her way through the bushes. Once free she took off in a dead sprint towards the back kitchen door.

She made it to the wide wooden steps in record time. Only slightly out of breath, she slowly climbed delaying the moments until her punishment by running her hands over the familiar notches in the railing. When she reached the top step her breathing was back to normal, but she was sick to her stomach with guilt. AJ gathered her courage and quickly stepped up from the top step and made it to the door, but couldn’t make herself turn the knob. She stood there, hand out, eyes closed, fearing the wrath of her mamma.

Don’t be stupid Anna Jayne. You are no coward, she told herself and with her eyes still tightly closed turned the knob and rushed inside.

story (prologue and first part?)

Prologue

The rain poured, drenching her, as she ran her hand along the casket’s grain.  With the exception of the complimentary attendance of the (army), Anna Jane Teller was the last one at the gravesite. The harsh rain had already driven the other mourners to the reception, but Anna was so lost in her grief that she hardly noticed. Feeling that half her soul, her very being, had died and now she was alone, she stared at the casket. Anna tried to imagine what could have been if their lives had been different or maybe if they had just made different decisions, but knew they would have made the same mistakes all over again. The tears that had been building ever since she heard the life-altering news suddenly burst from her with raking sobs. Her whole body started to shake when the realization that he was never coming back finally sank in.

 Glancing up as if she just noticed the rain, Anna looked around and noticed everyone had left. Knowing it was time, she gathered what was left of her courage to say her final goodbye.

Stilling her hand, Anna opened her mouth. Instead of words of love and goodbye, came forth a giant unbridled cry. Her hand flew to her mouth trying to contain the noise while simultaneously trying to get herself under control.

Her courage gone, Anna fled from the gravesite and threw herself at the base of a large willow tree. How appropriate Anna thought sarcastically glancing up at the tree that sheltered her from the rain. Her all black knee-length skirt and camisole ruined and covered in mud, Anna drew her knees into her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, and buried her head, sobbing, until the tears wouldn’t come and she was left trembling.

STORY

            Cover in mud, stick scratched, and with leaves clinging to her hair, AJ heard her mother’s exasperated voice yelling for her. She glanced back in the direction of the kitchen door to see her twin Jamie caught in their mother’s unbreakable grasp. He made brief eye contact with AJ before sighing as his mamma scolded him then resigned to his punishment . Watching them disappear through the kitchen door, AJ decided she could wait a few more minutes before that consigning herself to that particular fate.

            Turning as a blur of movement caught her eye, AJ followed it to the southwest corner of the property. AJ usually avoided the southwest corner unless Jamie was with her because (although she would never admit it) it scared her. The huge pine and oak trees were so overgrown that you didn't know where one started and the other ended. The bushes were home to thousands of bees in the summer that buzzed so loud that AJ swore you could hear them from the porch. Now in autumn, the bees were gone, but the dark colors of both the bushes and trees made for an ominous feeling. Dry leaves crackled under AJ's sneakers as she inched her way towards the bushes. At her approach, the bush closest to her rustled. Startled AJ jumped back then looked around feeling silly. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage, "Anna Jayne there is nothing to be afraid of. It's probably just a squirrel or something."   Now determined to prove her fearlessness to herself, AJ strut up to the bush. Moving aside branches AJ peered in to the bush.

metal wiring

So when we were given this blogging assignment, I had no idea what I was going to do. I had a million ideas but nothing concrete that I thought I could actually write about.  I came up with the art project idea as a way to reconnect with my friend who is an aspiring art educator.

            I should have known trying to learn from my friend wasn’t really going to work out. Often instead of working on the project we kept distracting each other. Other times though, we got on each other’s nerves and the project got neglected due to our irritation with one another. Also, while I loved doing these projects they have become just too time consuming.

            With all that said, however, I did completed a metal wiring project this week. The metal wiring was tough to work with because it did not bend easily, it had a black coating on it that got all over my hands, it wouldn’t shape with the pliers, and was overall just difficult. After a few blunders with my initial project ideas my friend helped me decide that a sun would be one of the easiest things to make. This was much easier said than done, but the end product clearly was a sun and I was happy. Unfortunately, while I knew time management was always going to be an issue I had never realized how badly I had underestimated the problem.

            As I stated in my original blog I do love art.  Unfortunately, because of my time constraints I have realized that while I wanted art to be my passion, it is not. I wanted to use this assignment (and art in general) to try to re-establish my friendship with my artsy friend. Good news is that my friendship is fine, bad news is that traditional art just isn’t my thing.

            When the pressure was off, I realized what I was passionate about. I have a great passion for creative writing.  I found it a great outlet since I was young. I learned to channel my emotions (frustrations, sadness, happiness, etc.) into writing which was something I could never clearly express accurately when speaking.

            I usually write short stories or poems (although I have written a play).  The things I write tend to be more serious (my friends say they start sad then get better) and the characters and plots are vastly different from my life.

photos finally!

photography

This week I decided to tackle photography.  I have a point-and-shoot Sony Cybershot camera. It has traveled with me to many places including Hershey Park, my baby cousin’s baptism, Spain, and has taken thousands of pictures of friends, family members, scenery, and random things I think just look cool.  So for my “project” this week, I took a variety of pictures in different settings in my dorm room. I played around with light, distance, texture, flash, and props.

            For some of the pictures, I took the photo from inside a glass jar.  The light reflected off the object (loose change) and made it the focus of the photo. For another, my friend helped me to set a scene with the jars. I took a bunch of my roommate’s dried roses that she received when she had her appendix out earlier this school year. Next, I snapped a few close-range of a splatter painting in my room. Finally, the last shots were of my Christmas lights which are still proudly hanging in my room.

On Wednesday morning, I saw that the trees and bushes were covered with ice from the storm from the preceding night.  However, I was on my way to class and did not have time to run back for my camera. When I got out of class, much to my dismay, everything was melting. So now I have no pictures of the frozen trees and the after-math rained on me!  Fortunately, it didn’t keep me down for too long though because I figure we are probably going to have another snow/ice storm this year.

             Unfortunately, the reason you cannot see the pictures is because I just I came to the realization I do not have access to a memory card reader and have a uniquely small memory card. I found this out by trying to use a few of my friends’ computers and having the memory card almost getting lost in the abyss.  This good news is I am going home this weekend (Superbowl and my 19th birthday woohooo!) so I will be able to upload the pictures from my desktop. So if you want to see any of the pictures just check back on Monday.