LJ Idol Season 11 - Week 4: Impossible

[tonithegreat]

Eleven-year-old Jeri came barreling through the front door. “I hate her!” she shouted in the general direction of her father, who struggled to push his recliner into an upright position. “She does nothing but hurt me! And I’m never letting her borrow one of my library books again!” Jeri stormed away in the direction of her bedroom. Her dad

Comments

[millysdaughter]

Very real

[tonithegreat]

Thank you!

[pixiebelle]

This felt so real, I still can’t decide if it’s fiction or nonfiction. Well done. I can relate to the wife a bit here.

[tonithegreat]

It’s a mix of actual things and slightly altered characters and real-ish made up stuff. A million years ago in the heyday of LJ one of my real life friends made an entire journal of just-removed-from-true life. Writing this made me realize how therapeutic that practice must have been for her, though as a reader I always got caught wondering which bits were true and that threw me out of the story.

[bleodswean]

An absolute slice of life. It's interesting how the parents are the more sympathetic characters and so often things of this sort use all the reader's sympathy for the children. I like this slight lean!

[tonithegreat]

Thank you! It’s not that I lack sympathy for the actual child characters, but I definitely hope that the day to day doesn’t come across to them as impossible the way it can sometimes seem to be in the daily grind of adulthood.

[ellison]

I'd read a whole book about this family. I like them. You write in such an engrossing and lovely way! :D

[tonithegreat]

I want to write it- but with magic! Or mystery! Or some such other foolishness. Pure slice of life is hard for me to structure, so I’m really glad you enjoyed this.

[static_abyss]

What a nice little slice of life. I love the way Ralph and his wife interact. It was lovely.

[tonithegreat]

Thank you kindly! These guys remind me to try to be my best self in interactions in real life.