Another English assignment. A winter tale is a tale in a "wintry" setting. "One or more of the characters has reached a poitn in his or her life or in a relationship where something has to change in order for the character's life or the relationship to improve." There must be a clear plot and good character development.
Here is the problem.... I decided to try and be creative. If you read through this, you may not realize it, but Jessie and her mother are dogs, literally. This is making it kind of hard for me to develop them, because they can't talk. Plus, I don't know what else to add to the plot. I am obviously not done and I have no idea what should happen. Should I scrap the dog idea and start over? Any ideas, suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated. I have a couple weeks to work on this but I'd like to have some input soon so I can decide if I should go ahead with this idea or start a new story.
It was early in the morning, only a few minutes after sunrise, when Jessie slipped out the door of her house. Her family would not know that she had gone; they wouldn’t be up for a couple more hours. She watched her breath billow in front of her. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground from the night before, but now it was only a few degrees under freezing. Because of her coat, Jessie didn’t mind the cold. Nevertheless, she hurried along the streets.
Fifteen minutes later, Jessie arrived at the park. She saw her mother over by the swing sets and trotted over, a little out of breath. They kissed each other on the cheek and headed over toward a bench and sat down. Silence followed. Each were sitting in their own worlds, with thousands of thoughts swirling through their heads.
Jessie’s mother had abandoned the family two months ago. She just left without telling anyone. Except Jessie. Jessie had been meeting with her mother in secret, trying to convince her to come back. She had nowhere to go. She would become homeless. But Jessie’s mom stayed firm. She hadn’t felt appreciated by the family. Also, she had recently undergone an operation that prevented her from having more children. This had been devastating for her, but she hadn’t really had a choice. Jessie’s mother decided she wanted to get out on her own and see the world. And she figured that her family wouldn’t miss her.
The two sat there a while longer, just enjoying each other’s company. Then, Jessie looked at the clock tower and decided that she had better get home. With another kiss on her mother’s cheek, she was off. She ran back home, despite strange looks from people on the now-busy sidewalks. Sneaking upstairs, she laid back down until she heard the rest of the family stirring in their beds and waking up. She waited a little while longer until she heard them in the kitchen. She went back downstairs and entered the kitchen, yawning nonchalantly.
“Good morning,” they greeted her. She offered a sleepy smile in return and headed over to the table to flop down.
“Wow,” she thought. “Acting normal is getting easier by the day.” She wondered if they suspected. What if they knew? No, they couldn’t. For a week after her mother’s disappearance, the family had spent a week in chaos and tears, and then, like a switch, they gave up. “Maybe they really didn’t appreciate her,” Jessie pondered. That made her even more sad, to think that her mother was right. But wasn’t Jessie’s love enough to bring her back? She whimpered inadvertently. Apparently it wasn’t. She quickly glanced around. The family had not noticed her slip. They were too busy finishing off their bacon, reading the newspaper, or drinking orange juice.
Jessie sighed and padded over to the family room, settling down on the couch. Her sisters followed and they spent the morning together watching cartoons while they played with Jessie’s hair. Jessie liked it when they played with her hair. It was brown and curly. Sometimes they would adorn her with bows and take pictures. Jessie was the youngest, the favourite. Had her mother become jealous of her? Had she distracted the family from her mother and taken all their love? “No,” Jessie decided. “I’m the only one she talks to, if it was my fault then she would have left without telling me where she was.” Snapped back to reality by the flash of the camera, Jessie blinked rapidly. Then, all was forgotten as her sisters pulled out a box of her toys. They spent the rest of the afternoon playing games with her and laughing together.
That night, Jessie sat staring out her window. The snowflakes were lazily sprinkling down, blowing about before touching the ground. She could see that they melted on impact, but she could tell that it wouldn’t be that way for long. Sooner or later it would stick. The wind picked up. Worried about her mother, Jessie hoped that she had found a warm place to stay. It was the holiday season; maybe a kind soul had given her shelter.
