Creative Writing Homework 1.25.2011
By the time he entered the room, Tess was already awake. She drew her knees towards her chest, stopping as they made a right angle with her body, lined up with her waist. She pulled the white sheets up to her neck, tugging it tightly against her chest and torso like a body bag, wishing she could bring it over her head and lose herself in its whiteness.
Did you sleep well? he asked her, leaning over her lump as he took a sip of coffee and set it back down.
Yes, Tess nodded softly, staring out the apartment window into the bright morning light, at the windows across the street, mirroring back the man’s window. She wondered if she could see herself if she stared long enough, stared hard through the glass and air, if she would find another Tess looking back at her with all the self-same features but mirrored, in opposition, reversed.
Good, he said, nuzzling his closely shaved beard against her back, sniffing her hair while he climbed back under the sheets, peeling them away from Tess’s body. (She shivered.) He settled his rough cheek on her shoulder, and told her, I’m really glad you came. I’m glad you – you know, spent the night.
She sensed him smiling.
Yeah. I am, too.
Would the other Tess say the same thing? she wondered. The other Tess, with her opposite face – maybe what was inside of her was opposite, too. That other Tess, made up of only image, she would be a truer being with no false interiors, only the outside, reflecting it back again and again and meaning it.
Mmmm, good, he replied as he put his arm around her waist and drew her into him and then said, It’s because I like you Tess.
That’s nice –
she paused –
I like you, too.
She felt the man’s face spill into a grin against her shoulder blade, his arm squeeze against her skin, her insides, then his lips as he kissed the back of her neck and settled his cheek back against it with a comfortable sigh.
Tess’s face remained unchanged. She closed her eyes, and the window disappeared.
[Prompt for my Creative Writing Class: Write a scene in which a character speaks politely or enthusiastically but whose thoughts run in contradictions.]
