Saturday Before Halloween

The Perspective follows Lillian into Mary’s kitchen as she is making some dish on the stove. The setting is clean, and Mary’s boyfriend, Ben, sits at the kitchen table.
Lillian: “Wow, that smells really good.”
Mary: “Thanks, we just got a whole bunch of treats for tonight.”
Ben: “We were at the grocery store for hours!”

Lillian pulls out the chair next to Ben; it makes a loud scrapping sound against the tiles of Mary’s kitchen. Lillian sits down, then fidgets with her phone.

The Perspective shifts to a wide lens of all three characters, Mary is across the square kitchen at the stove, but the audience can only see her side profile.

Lillian: as if she is trying to say everything as quickly as possible. “Adam was just in my room. He asked me to do his makeup for his party tonight. He walked the ten minutes from his apartment to my dorm just for me to do his makeup, to then walk the ten minutes back before his party started”
Mary: “Yea?” She sounded unamused, making sure the Shakshuka didn’t burn, trying not to entertain Lillian’s crushes. Ben does not look up from his phone as he tries to curate a playlist to fill the room.
Lillian: as if she’s talking 1,000 words a minute, replies, “Yea, then he invited me to his party! Who invites someone to a party 15 minutes before it starts? It’s going to be a bunch of his friends from one of the clubs he’s in, and I don’t have a costume; I hate that he asked me that; I wouldn’t want to go alone.”
Mary: “Well, do you want to go?” she asks again, not looking up from her dish.

The Perspective shifts to focus on Lillian.

Lillian: “I mean, I don’t know, maybe? I don’t think so; the whole situation makes me nervous! It’s going to be a room full of people I don’t know, and he’s hosting, so it’s not like I’d even have his full attention. So I’d only go if you guys went too, but Yea.”

The Perspective changes back to both of them. Without hesitation:
Mary: “Yea, then probably not.”
Lillian: “Yea..” *Beat* Mary checks her phone.
Lillian: “Is Edith coming?”
Mary: “Yes, they are here; I just got the text.” Mary says as she turns to get the door. Like some sitcom timing, Lillian thought.

The Perspective widens to show Mary in the other room; suddenly, Edith enters the scene, and the whole mood shifts.

Edith: “Wow, that smells really good!”
Mary: “Thanks! Have you guys eaten? How many eggs do y’all want?”
Edith smoothly slides into the seat next to Lillian.
Edith: “Just one, thanks; I’ve already had ramen tonight.”
Lillian: “How many are you having?”
Mary: “just one.”
Lillian: “just one, then, thanks.”
Ben: “C’mon! Then I am the only one having two!”

The Perspective shakes, “I’ll have two as well…”

Photo courtesy of https://cookieandkate.com/foolproof-shakshuka-recipe/

3 thoughts on “Saturday Before Halloween

  1. I really like how you formated this post; at first I thought it was written in the format of a play but you really surprised me with a really clever ending that makes the reader veiw this post in a new way.

  2. This was slightly trippy in a sense. I really enjoyed it and the entirety of your post – especially the formatting of your post that is in more of a script-form than anything else. I also like that the two people appear to be speaking in script-form, while the Perspective is more in the outliers of the text – in between the lines – hiding. Overall I really enjoyed your post, I think you did something really unique with it and it was a great read!

  3. This was very creative! I really liked how it was formatted, and I also thought you set it up like a play, but I really enjoyed the ending. This is such a unique idea for the blog post and I think it would be really cool if you expanded on it further if you had more time!

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