Artifact 2
Assignment
"Part A: Create a fictional scene using the principles of psychological time. Try to tell a “complete moment” in the scene.
Psychological time is a time sequence, sort of a break from the action, that happens when a character remembers something. In Kill Bill Vol. 1, the heroine wakes up in the hospital and is confronted by an orderly. When she sees his face suddenly she is transported back in time to when she was in a coma, stuck in a hospital bed and repeatedly raped by the orderly. In a few seconds the heroine remembers all that had happened to her while she was in the coma and the viewers were also clued in on to what had happened to her. In real time the orderly would not have noticed the whole scene of remembrance, which is too bad since that is why the heroine ends up killing him.
Psychological time is a time sequence, sort of a break from the action, that happens when a character remembers something. In Kill Bill Vol. 1, the heroine wakes up in the hospital and is confronted by an orderly. When she sees his face suddenly she is transported back in time to when she was in a coma, stuck in a hospital bed and repeatedly raped by the orderly. In a few seconds the heroine remembers all that had happened to her while she was in the coma and the viewers were also clued in on to what had happened to her. In real time the orderly would not have noticed the whole scene of remembrance, which is too bad since that is why the heroine ends up killing him.
Ice Cream Tubs
My name is Christina and I am a clerk here at Super’s Markets. Right now, I am in the walk in freezer getting the different cases of ice cream I need to fill the shelf. Every day it is the same thing: Fill the rounds. Rounds are Super’s Markets 1.5-quart round ice cream in paper cartons of various flavors. Six rounds heat-wrapped together make a case. Tonight I filled 43 cases; 4 vanilla, 2 French vanilla, 3 Golden Vanilla, 2 Vanilla Bean, 4 Extra Vanilla, 2 Vanilla and Orange Cream, 4 Rocky Road, 2 Heavenly Hash, 3 Mint and Chip, 1 Butter Brickle, 2 Tin Roof Sundae, 1 Strawberry, 2 Pecan and Pralines, 3 Chocolate Chip, 1 Cherry Jubilee, 2 Rainbow Sherbet, 2 Cookies and Cream, 2 Vanilla Fudge Swirl, and 1 Peanut Butter Fudge Chunk. People buy more vanilla flavored ice cream than any other flavor. I am not sure why. Maybe it takes them back to when they were a baby suckling their mother’s tit. I don’t know. What I do know is that I only need one case of Boysenberry Supreme and the rounds are done. Then I can fill the 5-quart plastic tubs of ice cream or tubs as we call them. After I finish with the tubs, Eric, our night manager, said I could check out of here early. I can go home, feed my cat, soak in the hot tub and wait for Michael to get home from work.
Except I don’t think I am going to do any of that. You see the Boysenberry Cheesecake is on the bottom shelf of the three-shelf shelving unit where we store the ice cream. The bottom shelf currently has the ice cream stuffed full of rounds. I decided that if I am going to be responsible for the ice cream while Bill is on vacation, then I am going to make sure that it is full. No more running out of flavors or miss-stocking flavors while I am in charge. The problem is that we only sell about one case of Boysenberry Supreme a week and I stacked it on the bottom shelf underneath five other flavors of ice cream. Usually that is not a problem because it is easy to pull a case of ice cream from the bottom stack with one hand while holding the top of the stack with the other. After you get your case out you just use the side of your hip to push the remaining ice cream back onto the storage shelf. Today that trick just will not work. You see I stacked the Boysenberry Supreme not only on the bottom shelf but I also put it behind the shelf support. This meant that I could not grab the bottom case and slide it out. So, I had to execute plan B, which was to take cases off the top of it and try to wedge the Boysenberry Cheesecake out of its position. On the other hand, I could have down stacked about 20 cases of ice cream to get at it. I decided to wedge it back and forth two or three times and then I gave it a yank. I got it about halfway out, which is good considering that to reach it I am down on my knees, on an icy floor, freezing my butt off in a walk-in freezer that is like 20 degrees below zero.
As I said, I got the Boysenberry Cheesecake about halfway out of its snug little position on the bottom shelf when something made me look up. I look up and I see about 156 cases of the 5 quart, hard as rock, ice cream tubs, that I previously mentioned, coming down on me. It is really quite a horrific site to behold. I know that I am in trouble. This is going to hurt. I am so scared. Hell I might even die. And the funny thing is that the whole thing is my fault. See last week Bill and I were working together in the walk-in. I was stacking the tubs on the top shelf when Bill walks in and says,
“Hey don’t stack those up there. They get icy and fall off the shelf. Then you got to pick them all up again.”
I said, “But I can fit more rounds on the bottom shelf and then I won’t run out next week like you always do.”
Bill tells me, “Look, do whatever you want to do next week when you’re in charge. But this week don’t stack the tubs on the top shelf. They get icy up there next to the fan and they start sliding off the shelf. So, just stack them the way I tell you or get out of here. Go work the milk box or something.”
So, here I am staring at a thousand cases of 5-quart tubs about to rain down on my head. Yeah I put the tubs on the top shelf first thing this week. Now I am bringing my arms up to cover my head but I don’t think my arms are gonna make it. Even if the falling tubs don’t kill me, then I will probably freeze to death before someone comes to find me. You see there is an alarm that goes off after the freezer door is open for 5 minutes. The alarm continues to sound until someone comes to close the door. Usually when someone comes to close the door, he or she will check inside the freezer to see if there is anyone inside. It’s considered rude to shut the door on somebody when they still inside the freezer. Except today, the alarm will not be going off. You see the alarm on the freezer door is a sensor outside the door and a magnet on the door. When the magnet is near the sensor, a computer somewhere in the building reads the state of the door as being closed. The computer does not really know if the door is closed or not, the computer just knows what the sensor is telling it. The computer can’t know that I brought my own magnet to work and placed it on the sensor so I could fill the ice cream without having to shut the fucking freezer door every 5 minutes. And damn it, 5 minutes really? I miss my mom; I usually call her every day. I hope Michael feeds the cat. . .
Except I don’t think I am going to do any of that. You see the Boysenberry Cheesecake is on the bottom shelf of the three-shelf shelving unit where we store the ice cream. The bottom shelf currently has the ice cream stuffed full of rounds. I decided that if I am going to be responsible for the ice cream while Bill is on vacation, then I am going to make sure that it is full. No more running out of flavors or miss-stocking flavors while I am in charge. The problem is that we only sell about one case of Boysenberry Supreme a week and I stacked it on the bottom shelf underneath five other flavors of ice cream. Usually that is not a problem because it is easy to pull a case of ice cream from the bottom stack with one hand while holding the top of the stack with the other. After you get your case out you just use the side of your hip to push the remaining ice cream back onto the storage shelf. Today that trick just will not work. You see I stacked the Boysenberry Supreme not only on the bottom shelf but I also put it behind the shelf support. This meant that I could not grab the bottom case and slide it out. So, I had to execute plan B, which was to take cases off the top of it and try to wedge the Boysenberry Cheesecake out of its position. On the other hand, I could have down stacked about 20 cases of ice cream to get at it. I decided to wedge it back and forth two or three times and then I gave it a yank. I got it about halfway out, which is good considering that to reach it I am down on my knees, on an icy floor, freezing my butt off in a walk-in freezer that is like 20 degrees below zero.
As I said, I got the Boysenberry Cheesecake about halfway out of its snug little position on the bottom shelf when something made me look up. I look up and I see about 156 cases of the 5 quart, hard as rock, ice cream tubs, that I previously mentioned, coming down on me. It is really quite a horrific site to behold. I know that I am in trouble. This is going to hurt. I am so scared. Hell I might even die. And the funny thing is that the whole thing is my fault. See last week Bill and I were working together in the walk-in. I was stacking the tubs on the top shelf when Bill walks in and says,
“Hey don’t stack those up there. They get icy and fall off the shelf. Then you got to pick them all up again.”
I said, “But I can fit more rounds on the bottom shelf and then I won’t run out next week like you always do.”
Bill tells me, “Look, do whatever you want to do next week when you’re in charge. But this week don’t stack the tubs on the top shelf. They get icy up there next to the fan and they start sliding off the shelf. So, just stack them the way I tell you or get out of here. Go work the milk box or something.”
So, here I am staring at a thousand cases of 5-quart tubs about to rain down on my head. Yeah I put the tubs on the top shelf first thing this week. Now I am bringing my arms up to cover my head but I don’t think my arms are gonna make it. Even if the falling tubs don’t kill me, then I will probably freeze to death before someone comes to find me. You see there is an alarm that goes off after the freezer door is open for 5 minutes. The alarm continues to sound until someone comes to close the door. Usually when someone comes to close the door, he or she will check inside the freezer to see if there is anyone inside. It’s considered rude to shut the door on somebody when they still inside the freezer. Except today, the alarm will not be going off. You see the alarm on the freezer door is a sensor outside the door and a magnet on the door. When the magnet is near the sensor, a computer somewhere in the building reads the state of the door as being closed. The computer does not really know if the door is closed or not, the computer just knows what the sensor is telling it. The computer can’t know that I brought my own magnet to work and placed it on the sensor so I could fill the ice cream without having to shut the fucking freezer door every 5 minutes. And damn it, 5 minutes really? I miss my mom; I usually call her every day. I hope Michael feeds the cat. . .
Reflection
I wrote this short story when I was stuck writing another story that was getting way too long and way too complicated to turn in on time. I also had been frustrated with a coworker about the same time, as were most of my colleagues. I remember reading in a piece by Natalie Goldberg that she often would tell classrooms full of children that she was a lot stronger than Mohammed Ali, in spite of her relatively diminutive size. She would show the class how much more powerful she could be than Ali by crafting a clever story. Faced with a short deadline, I asked myself why not just kill "Christine". Let me be clear, I am much too aware of the consequences of murder to entertain murdering anyone. I did think that it might be fun to do away with a character named Christine. I also felt immediately that Christine should be the cause of her own demise. I did not want her to be a victim of anyone except herself. Christine dies because she does not have the ability to imagine that anyone in this world has anything of value to say except for her. I think she would like some help, I do not think she knows how to ask for it, or accept it for that matter. I also had an insight: what better way to learn about writing and discover they joys and sorrows of life than to write about death in all of its forms. Writers have the opportunity to be masters of their own creation and killing characters in a story is very powerful and a big responsibility. I do not want my coworker to die, writing a story where she dies was a lark, a dare to myself. I do not consider this story complete as I need to make my character more alive, more human, more relate able so that her death is important to the reader. So that her death has some meaning. This story will be revised and I hope you check back to see if I have completed it. Still it is here for your enjoyment.