Writer's Workshop: My Side Of The Room

Tell a friend or family member's story as if it happened to you.

I'm writing this story as if I am my little sister...I'm not sure if that's following the prompt or not...is it possible to confuse yourself with your own prompt? Here we go...the story of the stolen pennies from the perspective of Baby as envisioned by me:

She’s so dirty...and a little on the crazy side.

I hate that Mom makes me and Kathy share a room…we put the masking tape on the floor LONG ago to separate our sides. She tells everyone it’s because I’m always getting into her stuff…as if her precious cat and old doll collection are things I’d want to get my hands on.

Granted there was the poem stealing incident and a little sneaking here and there…but believe me putting the masking tape boundary line down has NOTHING to do with trespassing. At least not to me.

But nobody asks for my opinion.

If you asked me I would tell you the tape is there to separate the grime from the gleam. I can’t begin to describe the filth on her side. The bed sheets that are never washed, the dirty socks littering her floor, the paper, the pens, the strawberry filled twinkie wrappers that she throws down after sneaking them from the deep freezer in my closet.

Yes.

There is a deep freezer in my closet.

Look I didn’t ASK for these circumstances, I just make the best of them.

Dividing our rooms with masking tape was the best idea she’s ever come up with. My side is spotless. The walls are decorated with carefully chosen pictures of teddy bears and baby animals I found in old calendars. My clothes are folded neatly and arranged by color and season in my dresser. Any toys or books I might own have been carefully placed on my shelf and arranged in order from largest to smallest and alphabetically. Everything is bleached on a weekly basis. I spray all hard surfaces with the same bleach mixture I bathe and drink from.

On the afternoon of April 14th 1991 I found myself stepping carefully over the masking tape, tripping clumsily over her mountains of filth, and reaching gingerly up to her shelf for some spare change that I needed for God knows what.

Hours later Kathy came grumbling into her side of the room, glared at me and then proceeded to dig through her garbage for her journal. And then she stopped…and in a voice reminiscent of Kathy Bates in the movie Misery, she turned to me…

“Where did my three pennies go??” it was a slow and direct question.

“What?” maybe if I played stupid she’d let it go.

“my THREE PENNIES! WHERE ARE THEY!?!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I TOLD you to stay OUT of my ROOM!!” she screamed at me over the masking tape line.

“I wasn’t in your room! What would I want with three pennies anyways??” I lied.

“I don’t care what you want with my PENNIES!! STAY OUT OF MY ROOM!!! This is MY room, this is MY stuff, and you’re ALWAYS IN MY STUFF!!!!”

And then she did the unthinkable. She became possessed…by a demon I’m sure of it. She stepped. Over. The line.

“Let’s see how YOU like it huh!?! How about I come in YOUR room and touch YOUR stuff and MESS. EVERYTHING. UP!!!!!”

As she screamed at me she tore all of my neatly lined books and toys from the shelf. And then she pulled down the shelf…and then she pulled each of my carefully folded blankets and tossed them to the floor…and she didn’t stop until anything she could get her hands on was piled up on my floor in the same filthy manner as displayed on HER floor.

I was furious…and horrified…and a little afraid for my safety so I marched directly to our mother and described EXACTLY what my possessed sister had just done to my room.

And then my Mom did the unthinkable. She looked at me and said, “well why DID you take Kathy’s change?” and then she made me HELP Kathy clean up the mess.

THE AUDACITY OF IT ALL!!!

One of these days I'll get that sister of mine back.

She's so dirty...and a little on the crazy side.

Now it's your turn!

Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back and sign Mr. Linky. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!

The Prompts:

1.) Describe the best/most creative punishment you have ever given your children or received yourself.

2.) Tell a friend or family members story as if it happened to you.

3.) Tell a story about a moment in time when you were so happy you were you and not someone else in the room.

4.) I picked up the phone and I could not believe what I was hearing...

5.) Show us something you did yourself!