Characters? Where do they come from? Well, here’s a story.
Every year about this time, I go through closets, drawers, cupboards in search of stuff to be bagged up and taken to Goodwill. In the back corner of the downstairs closet I found a medical boot, the one I wore for three months after surgery on my broken ankle a couple of years ago. Without hesitation, I threw it in a bag with the rest of the crap. Good riddance.
I drove to my local Goodwill and dropped off eight bags of clothing, shoes and other odds and ends. Again, good riddance. The guy at the donation door helped unload the treasures, but to my surprise, gave back the medical boot, saying they didn’t take any type of medical apparatuses.
I started to throw the boot back in the trunk, when my eye caught two very full dumpsters. Without further ado, I threw the boot into the trash and left.
Now, I have to say, when I do things like throwing away perfectly good items purely for the sake of getting rid of it, I always get this creepy feeling that crawls up the back of my neck like a bad omen.
Okay, now turn the page. It’s today. A friend of mine calls and wants to go to a movie. We are old school friends, and I’m talking way back to junior high. Well, I won’t go into the title of the movie, because it doesn’t matter. The point is, we came down some stairs of the old theatre balcony and my friend missed the bottom step. We’ve all done it, missed that phantom bottom step, roll an ankle and fall flat on our face.
Long story, short, my friend twisted her ankle. I helped her to the car, telling her about the medical boot I’d just thrown away. Mind you, this is eight in the evening, snowing, and eighteen degrees. If you’re one of those people whose mind constantly jumps ahead of the story, you’ve got it right. We ended up driving behind the strip mall to the Goodwill store in search of the discarded boot. Oh yes. It’s Lucy and Ethel in the flesh. We are that zany.
Of course, the dumpster’s been emptied. (I’m sighing with relief, because the last thing I want to do on a cold night is dumpster dive). The real kicker is this: a Goodwill employee comes out the back door, obviously wondering what we are doing and guess what? He’s a paramedic working a second job at Goodwill. Of course, he tells my friend that she should have the ankle x-rayed and evaluated by a doctor.
People who ask me where do I get my characters and ideas for a story? I often roll my eyes and smile a secret little smile. I seldom have to go very far.
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