Kristine Joy, Writer

This was written for a writing class in which we had to mimic the style of a piece by Stephen Dixon.

Preamble: I will create a third person narrator in the present tense. I will describe a scene that is of regular occurrence with great detail, and attempt to keep the reader in the moment by omitting details such as backstory, explanation, setup or flashbacks. The narrative will flow by use of long paragraphs, phrases connected by commas and rhythmic sentences.

Dedicated to the Master of Work Ethic, my Dad.

He has a project for them to do every Saturday morning. “Kris, the sun is rising and I have the tools set up; I got a Diet Pepsi for myself and grabbed a Coke for you,” and looks outside to make sure there is enough light for them to work. Her brother is still asleep. He calls upstairs again, “Kris, let’s go, we’re losing time – and you know how I feel about starting on time, so wake up,” though they have nothing but time on Saturday mornings and they almost always finish before lunch. He waits for what seems like too long to him before Kris walks into the kitchen. “My friends’ parents let them sleep in on Saturday,” “Sorry that I had to use the bathroom,” “Mom said I should wear old clothes in case they get dirty,” “I have homework to do instead,” “Why do we always have to start so early?” and so on; “What are we even doing and how long will it take?” “I’d rather do a project inside,” “Can I eat breakfast first?” and he told her she may need a sweatshirt because it was still cold and rattled off a few answers to her questions: “You’ll understand the value of hard work more than your friends when you grow up,” “You can do your homework tomorrow,” “Fresh air is good for you,” “We’ll split a frozen pizza for lunch,” he’s already in a sweatshirt, old jeans and work boots, and he hands her a small cooler – for when it is breaktime – and says, “Do you need anything else – you know how I like to be prepared – do you have a hat, we might be – “Yeah, I need a hat,” she says and runs to find one if there isn’t one in the mud room – “Because Mom won’t want you in the house later if you’re dirty,” and then they head out to the garage. He takes a few more tools off the workbench and says what he’s said before, “Next time, I’ll have you lay out the tools with me the night before, and you need an alarm clock,” and she meekly says back, “Next time, maybe you could wake up Danny instead?” but she knows that that isn’t how Saturday mornings work.

Fast forward, and they’re carrying 2×4’s. From the driveway, they need to take the long way around the house because the other side is a steep hill. It takes them multiple trips, and each trip takes a bit longer; she has to stop because the boards are slipping, or because the boards are too heavy, or because she can’t see when she has to walk backwards, and he knows that it is taking them an average of 4 minutes per trip so it will take them about an hour to move the boards to the backyard. Neighbors pass by the driveway, by car, and he often comments as he gestures towards them, “Most people pay other people to do stuff like this, but that’s not how you get ahead,” he points to his brain, “You have to apply muscle and brains to do that,” and once she said, “Maybe they have to drive to where their project is” and he said, “Nope. Not him. That guy doesn’t even mow his own lawn,” and he trailed off mumbling something about leading horses to water and she didn’t understand why they were all of a sudden talking about horses instead of their neighbor. Today, mid-morning, she looks up to see her friends in the backseat of a passing car, “Billy and Jenna just woke up, did you see? We have half our work done. I hope they get good jobs because they’ll have to pay a lot of money for people to work for them,” and he winked at her, “How’d you get to be so smart?” Usually, he guides the conversation while they work. About her friends, school, sports, the simple things, but once in awhile, he’ll pose a question that makes her think  – what she may want to study in college, or things she wants to see or do when she grows up, or what she thinks about taxes, or buying local instead of online, or today, whether a lady should know how to build a deck to which she responded, “You wouldn’t be teaching me how to build a deck if you didn’t think a girl should know how to build a deck,” and he gave another signature wink, and said, “I think it’s break time; don’t you? Your Coke should be ice cold by now.”