Current music:

Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Day 5

5011 / 50000 words. 10% done!

Yesterday was a bit hectic, so I didn't get much done. Jeff (my boyfriend, for those not in the know) was very encouraging (as he always is) and made me do two 10-minute sprints, which boosted my word count by 1,000. That's always nice to see. Since I'm not planning on attending any of the Vancouver write-ins or meetings, I have to rely on him and my friends in LJ land to push me on. (Okay, I guess I do have some self encouragement too). Anyway, I wrote the following during one of the 10-minute sprints so it's not great, but I thought I should post some sort of excerpt...

Mom and dad tucked me into bed and watched over me for a while. The grandmother of the kid from Alberta was watching British comedies on television and kept asking my parents if it was disturbing me. It wasn’t. It was a welcome distraction. Ever since then I’ve felt much more peaceful trying to get to sleep if the TV is on. My dad rubbed my arm and my mom sat in the chair, holding on to my foot. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I tried so hard to sleep so that my parents could go home. I knew they were waiting for me to doze off. When they thought I was out, they started talking about me, quietly. They both remarked at how the situation was mind-boggling, totally unbelievable. Their little Anna tucked into a room at Children’s Hospital for the night. None of it seemed right.
They left not long after their conversation. They both kissed my forehead and touched my shoulder. It felt scary, like I was lying on my deathbed. But still, I did not open my eyes. I needed them to be okay, to go home and sleep, to see my brother. Even though I was as scared as I was, I knew I would be better in the morning.
I opened my eyes a few seconds after they left and caught their shadows as they walked down the hall. I looked at the TV and recognized the actress with the puffy blue hair – it was one of the shows my grandma liked to watch. The one with all of the English people who work at a funny department store in London. I always liked watching that one. But I was scared, and the tears leapt into my throat and out of my eyes not long after I started to watch. I tried hard to stay quiet, to weep in silence, but the grandma sitting beside the bed next to mine heard me and asked if I was okay. “Yeah,” I said through my tears, “just scared”. It was the first honest answer I’d given all night. It was the first time that I’d truly let my guard down, and there I was doing it to a woman I didn’t know who obviously had problems of her own.