The writing assignment for this piece was to pick four words from a 21-word list of words that began with the letter A. With the chosen 4, I was to write a story. I chose all 21 of the words. I had 20 minutes to write. The 28 words are in italics.
This copy of my writing has been edited from the original draft.
W – “A” Word (An All-encompassing Story)
Alan lived alone in a one-room apartment on the top floor of an 11-story building in the heart of the city. I would like to say that his life was that of an ordinary city dweller, but I’d be lying to you if I did.
Alan was adventurous to a fault. He rarely paid attention to rules. There was a time when the elevator in his building was shut down for repairs. He could have walked up the stairs like everyone else, but that was too easy. Actually, he loved challenges. So when the elevator on the first floor of his apartment building was open, even though they had tape crisscrossed across it, Alan decided to scale the elevator shaft. It would be just like when he scaled the ice mountains in Antarctica. Luckily no one caught him doing that, so there was no need to apologize or suffer any consequences of his actions. Considering the state of the elevator and the shaft, he was lucky that he was still alive.
Of course, one other person in the building knew Alan well and was privy to his quirks. That was April.
Anyone who met April would find her rather aloof. She was an artist. She enjoyed taking real pictures and then airbrushing them so that no one would recognize the original picture, and she could take credit for painting them. April loved taunting Alan and all his escapades, which was annoying to him.
Anyhow, the two of them lived across the hall from each other. This gave April a clear view through the door viewer when Alan came and went—more food for the gristmill, as she would say.
Whenever they met in the hall, they started a conversation that inevitably ended in arguing. Neither was willing to accept the other.
That continued until the accident one day just outside their apartment. They had spotted each other from across the street. April had that little smirk on her face, you know, that look of, I just found something out about you that I’m going to share on Facebook with everyone. Alan couldn’t put up with that look and decided it was time to be aggressive. He ran across the street to confront April.
April saw the truck before Alan did and tried to shout out a warning, but she was too late. The truck driver didn’t even stop after hitting Alan, but the rest of the traffic did.
April ran across the street to help Alan, tears streaking down her face. Alright, maybe she did have some feelings for him. He stood up when she approached his side and said, “Gotcha!” As I said, Alan was adventurous and an All-Star at faking accidents that’s how he made most of his money, scamming insurance companies.
That was it for Alice. From that day on, she was silent whenever she passed Alan in the halls. She let him do whatever he wanted; she didn’t care what happened to him.
She did, but not in the way she once had. Someone did whistle-blow on all his illegal activities, and he got caught. I’m not telling who.
