Charity goes to a Party
Posted: Saturday, January 14, 2012
by Dianne Lehmann
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy
Charity didn't have a clue what the man in front of her was talking about. But she stood patiently, as she always did when men were talking to her, waiting for him to come to his point. Her attention might have wandered a time or two, but she gave the appearance of listening intently.
At 37 years old and still pretty, to her way of thinking, with her red hair and a delightful smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks, somewhat pouty lips, trim figure and tendency to wear formfitting clothing, she often found herself listening to men who seemed to have no point to their conversation. It simply went with the territory.
"Reginald. That was your name wasn't it? I hardly think that the mating habits of … what did you say they were? Bonbons? Is a proper topic for discussion at a birthday party. And if you are trying to use the apparently randy little beasts as a come on to me, I have to tell you it isn't working," Charity finally said when Reginald paused in his animated soliloquy to take a breath.
He looked at her with some dismay and wandered off. If Charity were the kind of woman who paid as much attention to her surroundings as herself, she might have noticed the tweed jacket with elbow patches or the bow tie and horn rimmed glasses that Reginald was wearing. Had she done that, and had she given it any thought, she might have realized that he might just be a college professor and his area of expertise might be primates.
Just as Reginald wandered off, Christopher walked up to her and said, "Isn't Reginald just absolutely fascinating. He knows just everything there is to know about apes. His students love him."
"Oh, so he's a professor? Do they pay professors well these days," Charity wondered aloud in an offhand manner.
"I don't know. But I could find out for you if you wanted," he replied.
"No. Oh. No. I wouldn't bother. I've never really seen myself with a professor," she said.
Christopher gave his friend a sideways look and thought to himself that maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought that he did. He excused himself to answer the front door bell which had just conveniently rung.
Lewis, seeing that Charity was standing alone, said to his companion, "Jeffry, I'd like to take you and introduce you to Charity. She's that woman with the red hair." And Lewis pointed to Charity. He further added, "She manages an art gallery and shows many of the new and upcoming artists in the area. That's where Christopher and I met her."
Jeffry looked at her for a moment and then said to Lewis, "You know, Lew, I've never had much luck with red heads." And he laughed and Lewis had to laugh too. He'd had a little trouble with that red headed boy when he was thirteen.
Charity wandered over to the refreshments table to get another Long Island Ice Tea. It really was great of Christopher and Lewis to have hired a bartender. And the catered food was delicious, although she didn't dare eat too much of the fatty and salty fare. She must keep her figure in mind at all times. And the mirror behind the "bar" showed her that it was looking most fine tonight. It helps to starve yourself all day if you want a perfectly flat tummy to put into that little black dress in the evening.
While the bartender, an older man with graying hair and a very out of date (from Charity's perspective) soul patch, was mixing her drink, he attempted to converse with her, "Well, Ma'am, how are you enjoying the party?"
Ma'am? Ma'am? Charity thought to herself. Where does he get off calling me Ma'am? He's old enough to be my father. She glanced once at him and then turned her back to him saying, "Could you just hurry up with that drink, please?"
Fresh drink in hand, she stood and surveyed the party like a queen surveying her court. Her head was titled slightly up. She had the smallest squint to her eyes. There were no frown lines of course, thanks to Botox. And she had composed her body into her best fashion model stance.
There were little knots of conversation. One group on the patio was laughing loudly at some joke. People in general were smiling and seemed to be having a good time. Especially that one woman with all the men standing around her. Charity couldn't see what the attraction was. Her clothes looked like they came from Goodwill. She hadn't a clue about how to accessorize properly and her hair was pulled back into a pony tail. A pony tail of all things. And she could stand to lose a pound or two.
With a totally unbecoming frown on her face (as much as the Botox would allow), Charity wandered down the hall and into the guest bedroom where all the outerwear had been piled atop the bed. Setting her drink down on the dresser, she sorted through the pile, found her coat and put it on. Letting herself out the front door, she got into her sporty little red car and drove home to the company of her cat who always absolutely adored her. Unfortunately for Charity, no one (not even Christopher and Lewis) noticed that she had left the party.
[Author's note: The Story Tellers group assignment was to develop a character using the three main tools of character development in a minimum of three paragraphs. This is the result.]
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Wow, this is really great assignment and you did great! You make it look so easy, Dianne.Hi Bruce.
It is a great assignment, isn't it. My hat's off to Jack for this one.
Glad you liked it. :)
Hugs,
Dianne
This is cool. I like your style. I wish my groups had interesting assignments like that but then, no, that would just mean more work. This is all Dianne. It's great. I'm with Bruce. Kudos!Hi Heidi.
Thanks!
I actually enjoy writing fiction quite a bit. But I save that enjoyment for the book I am working on. I may actually finish it one day. :)
Hugs,
Dianne
Omniscient narrator, dual character point-of-view: "To her way of thinking..."; "Christopher gave his frined a sideways look and thought..."
It's very close to single character p.o.v. but it's focused on her and may have just been a p.o.v. slip.
Narrator telling us about the character is prime method of development here. There is some exposure of character by action. There is some development by other character conversation.
I see by comments that some readers would prefer to see some fiction writing on the site as opposed to the constant personal philosophical bloviating, religious preaching, this is how to do it, a day in my life stuff we constantly get.
First with an assignement--again. And good effort- I should have given more than the standard # of points. I'll make it up later.Hi Jack.
I tend to put me (the narrator) into everything I write. I'm just self-centered that way. :) And it wasn't really a point of view slip. I like to invest all of my characters with a personality and develop them to some extent. I debated doing that with this assignment, but decided to go ahead. Because in the end, it speaks to Charity's personality also, being that she is a bit closed and perhaps hard to get to truly know.
I didn't think that I was first. I seem to remember another article which I pointedly did not read until I had written mine. But I could be mistaken.
Thanks for the astute critique.
Hugs,
Dianne
Great job, and after Jack's critique, I guess I'm in trouble...lolHi Elle.
Thanks!
And I doubt that you are in trouble. :) After all, we're not in school any more ... there's no grade hanging on this ... thank goodness. :)
Thanks for reading.
Hugs,
Dianne
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