Pretty Lives

She buttoned the Maltese into a pink coat and grabbed the leash, studded with diamonds.  “Here, Nell.”  She handed the maid a roll of plastic bags.

He pulled the Lamborghini to the curb and disembarked.  “Get the bags, Jason.”  He pointed to the Maltese.  “Look at that,” he said.  “That woman is making a complete spectacle of herself.”
Nell and Jason locked eyes.   The two, she with a small plastic bag neatly tied, he with a month’s worth of luggage, smiled at one another before arranging their faces again so as not to disrupt the smooth surface of pretty lives.

This was written in response to this week's Velvet Verbosity prompt. The word was spectacle.


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Writing in the Margins, Bursting at the Seams: Pretty Lives

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Pretty Lives

She buttoned the Maltese into a pink coat and grabbed the leash, studded with diamonds.  “Here, Nell.”  She handed the maid a roll of plastic bags.

He pulled the Lamborghini to the curb and disembarked.  “Get the bags, Jason.”  He pointed to the Maltese.  “Look at that,” he said.  “That woman is making a complete spectacle of herself.”
Nell and Jason locked eyes.   The two, she with a small plastic bag neatly tied, he with a month’s worth of luggage, smiled at one another before arranging their faces again so as not to disrupt the smooth surface of pretty lives.

This was written in response to this week's Velvet Verbosity prompt. The word was spectacle.


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6 Comments:

At May 23, 2012 at 4:35 AM , Anonymous Mary said...

Had to read this twice to get my people straight. I presume Nell is the maid...who is having an affair with the husband. Is Jason the driver...or the husband...and the wife remains nameless?

One other thing....o boy am I in trouble...shouldn't you use "each other" when two people are involved, or is that no longer the case?

 
At May 23, 2012 at 4:36 AM , Anonymous Mary said...

Sorry..................................................................................but.....

 
At May 23, 2012 at 5:12 AM , Anonymous kgwaite said...

Ha! Well that one didn't work. I was playing with the idea of invisibility in a society. The two servants, Nell and Jason are the only two with names here. The driver and the dog owner go unnamed. Nell and Jason recognize each other (strictly following the rules, each other is the better choice, but the rules have been loosened) as servants. They also recognize the driver's refusal to see himself as making a spectacle of himself. He only sees the woman with the dog as the one at fault. In these short pieces, I'm trying to sneak in little bits of things to play with: In Never Never Land, I tied in elements of Peter Pan. I think I'm going to have to work harder on this one.

 
At May 23, 2012 at 7:05 PM , Anonymous Carrie said...

I got that the two people commenting were the ones oblivious to the true spectacle and that it was ironic.

I like your last line.

 
At May 25, 2012 at 5:53 PM , Anonymous Tara R. said...

I got that Nell and Jason were on the periphery, watching the other people making the real spectacle.

 
At May 28, 2012 at 12:32 PM , Anonymous Jessie Powell said...

I love how the driver of the car thinks that the dog lady is the only spectacle on the street, and how Nell and Jason become the sympathetic figures, Nell having to follow along picking up the dog poop while her mistress walks the diamond-studded maltese and Jason having to unload the car while the driver goes on to be beautiful without his bags.

 

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