Writing workshop, assigment 1
Create a story based on an image.
After a few revisions and adjustments, here’s my assignment and the image, taken from here: http://www.elenacolombo.com/photo/ :-)
Steps to make a ship
The first thing is to find paper, it can be newspaper, perhaps with a flashy motif, or some news that we are not interested in and fold it in half. Then the horizontal center of the paper is located again.
!http://www.elenacolombo.com/photo/files/gimgs/1_home.jpg
He couldn’t remember the last time he had made a paper boat, but he certainly remembered the first. One of his father’s many teachings, the giant breakfast maker of the grandmother, the empty coffee cups, the bits of bone, that the grandmother “paid” him for folding plastic bags into triangles, his feet hanging from the bench he sat on, his dad coming home from work with the newspaper under his arm. He took a sheet and began to follow the folds together, which from his father’s hand became a boat. It had rained that day, perfect for the boats to sail through the canals of the neighborhood, still at an age where he doesn’t flee from the rain and the newspaper is used to make boats, not to cover his head.
Take the upper tips of the paper and bring them towards the center, previously marked, forming two triangles that will eventually become the sails.
Without realizing it, she had drawn a heart on the school desk, she didn’t usually do things she shouldn’t, it’s lucky that she occupies a place at the back of the classroom. She puts the notebook on top of the drawing, tries to learn where Timbuktu is, but making her heart disappear is not that easy. She’ll wait for him after school, it’s only 10 minutes, before going home, but they’re the best of the day, now at that age where love fits in a few hurried kisses, there’s no past or future, only the time together, he only exists through her eyes.
The piece of paper under the sails is folded up and secured around them, to open the space below until it forms a square.
She had spent three nights with barely a couple of hours of sleep, if she closes her eyes, she’ll see mountains of books, numbers, essays, and even hear strange noises from the computer. She does everything for a better future, that’s what she was taught to do when she’s in college. A tap on the shoulder wakes her up a bit, her three study partners are waiting for her to pause that future. While she can still pause it, then, a bar, a sea of people, a lot of noise, and a couple of friends she doesn’t talk to are the moments of rest.
Find the space in the middle of the square and bring the tips up to form a triangle. And then? This light is too strong, how do you keep making a boat? the rain… the little bags… the coffee… the memories mix with the instructions. Open the triangle and now, can a paper face be made? the desk, Timbuktu, the beers, the buddies, everything echoes in his head, echoing his heart. How do you do it? Isn’t there a manual?
He has reached a door at the end of the hallway, holding flowers in one hand, he opens the door very slowly. A little blue bundle in a crib is waiting for him, as soon as he sees it, he knows that no, there is no manual, but it doesn’t matter, he has a lot to tell him. Pull the little tips, letting the sail in the center be seen, and he knows how to make a boat… now, how to teach a man to live?