Origin Story - Now You Know
Note, if you haven’t read Now You Know, I urge you to do so before reading the following. There may be spoilers! You’ve been warned.
In A Nutshell
In essence, a guy (Mike) is guided by a man (Vincent) to visit a home where he encounters a woman (Jenna). Throughout the story he continues to revisit this home and witness this woman throughout various periods of her life. At each visit he discovers something new and reveals more about who she is and about who he is.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Origin Story
Like both stories that, to date, have been shared on A Few Thousand Words, I began writing without an end in mind. Very anti-Covey. Assuming that you’ve read Now You Know, it’s a father/daughter piece. I’ve always had a story in my head about a father, revisiting his family after his untimely death. Or a father searching for his family in the afterlife. One, I’m sure neither of the two ideas is very original as someone out there has probably already pulled it off. Two, this makes me seem like I have a death fixation, which I don’t or isn’t any greater than the normal person. What the story is really about, is the feeling of hopelessness over being separated from or denied of the ones you love. As an aside, I actually started the first story idea and hit a wall, but it could be revisited at later date. But in the past year during the pandemic where many, including my family, have been separated from loved ones, the angle of trying to re-connect or having something you love just outside of your grasp made this story hit differently.
Anyway, rather than focus on an entire family, which would not work within the format that I established here on A Few Thousand Words, I decided to focus on the father/daughter aspect. What if I was in Mike’s shoes? What would it be like to not be in her life? What would it be like to see her move forward without being part of it? What would it be like to not be able to rejoice with her, cry with her, console her, celebrate with her, counsel here, etc.? And here it is playing out before you.
As I wrote the first “section” of the story (which was our look into Mike and Vincent’s first interaction) I realized the type of mash-up that would serve as the inspiration: Memento meets The Sixth Sense meets Dante’s Inferno.
And if there was to be a soundtrack, the main song of inspiration would be In My Life by The Beatles. One of my favorite John Lennon-composed songs and it fits. It’s about looking back at your life and the person who’s meant so much to you. In My Life was considered for a title, but I am certainly not worthy.
I SEE DEAD PEOPLE
SPOILER ALERT: Mike is dead. And I’m sure many already came to such a conclusion.
And Mike isn’t in heaven. He’s in hell. And I’m sure many already came to such a conclusion.
His “hell” is to continue the cycle of witnessing the life, milestones, and moments of the person he obviously cares about the most: his daughter Jenna. Mike is in one of the rings in Dante’s Inferno. It’s not hellfire and devils with pitchforks that some would probably think, although that is actually one of the rings, I believe, in the Inferno. Instead, he’s doomed to repeat this over and over again.
One of the things I wanted was to try my best to not reveal that he was dead. I love plot twists and surprise endings like in The Usual Suspects or, as mentioned above, The Sixth Sense. I wanted the reader to come to that conclusion on their own and kick themselves over clues that were in plain sight the entire time. What I didn’t want to do is go into how Mike died. To me, what does that add to the story other than unnecessary filler? He could’ve been in a car accident, robbed at gunpoint, or trampled by a runaway elephant at a circus. To me, it would’ve been irrelevant to the story that I was telling. Now, if I were to expand this into a novel or screenplay…
THE OTHER HALF
A friend, after reading the story, asked me about Mike’s wife. Well, she’s only referred to once, when Mike had always assumed that Jenna was more like her mother when she was really more like him. Other than that, I didn’t feel a need to expand on her. I wanted to keep the number of characters to a minimum. My same friend said that both stories that I’ve written so far (the other being Me, You, And The Tiramisu) seemed as if they were written as a small play performed on a little stage. That…is a rather interesting observation.
An earlier thought was to try and make it seem (or imply) that Mike and his wife were separated and that he was just looking in on his daughter. I was going to use this as a way to distract the reader from thinking that he was dead. But the trouble with that angle is that for a guy who is supposedly a great dad and, further into the story, is revered for being a great man…he and his wife are not together? And to compound that, he’s a guy who is stalking his daughter? Plus, it would’ve been another piece to each visit. We already take note of Jenna’s life changing and have recurring items like the picture and the desk. I didn’t want to add a peek into what mom is doing at that point in time as well.
ONE INFINITE LOOP
It wasn’t until after I wrote the portion revealing that Jenna was a mother and that her son was named after her father that I decided this “hell” would be something that would repeat to infinity. I knew I was reaching a point where I had to find a way to wrap the story. When I made the reveal that it was one repeating circle, which fit the idea that this was Mike’s “hell”, I went back to the beginning and made sure that each section could stand somewhat on its own. When we’re introduced to Mike, it drops in at Jenna at 14 years old. I don’t really reveal that this is the start of his “hell” or if we are dropping in on him during one of his early stops of his “hell” considering Jenna’s age. Here’s a tell as to where it is: I mention that Jenna wanted to get to Harvard ever since she was 12. She’s now 14. In my mind, Mike had only recently passed.
This brings me to how Mike begins each new experience. I start each of these as if he’s new, as if the experience is new. He sort of recognizes or is familiar with what he sees but he’s not quite sure. He’s not necessarily building on one memory after another, but with each subsequent visit, he’s not having to do a longer recall. Plus, he begins to notice changes to the home or the room. The treehouse. The furniture. The lawn decorations. One moment these things are there, the next they aren’t. I wanted to add a little bit of confusion to his journey. He knows something is amiss, but he can’t put his finger on it.
This is where Memento comes in. Each segment of the movie, Leonard has a clue or clues and he remembers only a little if any at all. If you haven’t seen Christopher Nolan’s Memento, you need to. One of the most original movies I’ve ever seen.
SINS OF THE FATHER
If Mike us in hell, then he probably did something bad to get there. But what? This seems cheap, but I didn’t think it was worth exploring. It would’ve likely only been brought up at the end, but what did it matter? To me it didn’t.
VINCENT
Vincent was Mike’s constant companion. I didn’t want to get into whether or not he was the devil or a demon. I wanted to leave it up to the reader to determine for themselves. I really thought more of him as a guide, since he’s the only person Mike interacts with. The vision, even from the beginning, was for this character to be almost robot-like, soulless, an empty shell. The fact that he didn’t say much or even emote much, hopefully, made the reader see his intentions as morally ambiguous (until the reveal) and that his near silence was extremely irritating. It really didn’t come to a head for Mike until the end when he realized the (SPOILER ALERT) woman dying was Jenna. Until then, Mike kept his cool. Perhaps I could have made the tension a bit thicker. In all, there are only a couple moments when Vincent shows a smidge of emotion. To me, the most obvious one is when Mike—realizing Jenna is going to Harvard—says, “Well I’ll be damned…”. Vincent gives a little bit of a smile because, well, the irony in the statement. Hopefully, nobody noticed that bit until now. In the (to date) two pieces that have been posted on A Few Thousand Words, I’ve tried to hide these little reveals in plain sight but surrounded by a series of distractions. But the fact that (putting yourself in Mike’s shoes) you can’t get anything more from this guy during moments when you clearly want something, anything…that silence or minimalism is the fuel to the fire. And in the last segment, you get that just below Mike’s surface of patience, he’s been building to a raging inferno. Vincent not saying a damned thing was the gasoline.
To me, the most obvious one is when Mike—realizing Jenna is going to Harvard—says, “Well I’ll be damned…”. Vincent gives a little bit of a smile because, well, the irony in the statement.
BORROWED FROM MY LIFE
I did apply some parts to my actual life.
Jenna walking while she reads is an actual habit of my daughter’s up until she was about nine. She did tell me that it helped her concentrate better. I would watch my daughter pace her bedroom or living room with her nose in her book. I was happy she was such a voracious reader. I wasn’t happy that she could possibly trip over something and get hurt.
The Harvard walking tour is real and it’s something my family and I actually did when we took a family trip to Boston. The tour is led by one or two students and winds throughout much of the campus. For anyone who is looking for something to do in Boston and looking to see Harvard, I highly suggest the walking tour.
My family didn’t have an old roll-up desk but we had something similar. In fact, the picture I included is essentially the desk that we had, minus the cover that tucks into a nice little compartment when you’re using the desk. I remember my mom and dad sitting at it when there were bills to pay. With regard to the desk’s role, it was a just another marker that let you know time was passing.
I am a boy who was named after my father who was named after his father.
THE END
Truthfully, I couldn’t think of a way to neatly tie a bow on the story that left everyone satisfied. So to end it with Mike back at the beginning of the story where the reader first meets him, I believe, was the best option. What greater hell is there than to experience a pain over and over. And it’s a pain that increases each time. Lastly, it reminds me of the definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
In all, the last sequence sort of reminds me of (again) Memento, where Leonard is back at the tattoo parlor like in the beginning of the movie and says, “Now, where was I?”
Thanks for reading! Please let me know your thoughts and feel free to email me any questions. Until next time! Hit me up at afewthousandwords@gmail.com.