Sunday, February 22, 2015

Blue

Magdalene Kitch had Della Breed collecting rents again.

“Who can say no to a cute girl at 5:00 in the morning?”

All the tenants rents would take about two hours to collect so Della made sure to get a good nights rest. Her sister was worried about her going door to door by herself but Della successfully argued that it would get her out of the apartment and give her a chance to make new friends.

Della also enjoyed the idea of being able to get some answers about her mysterious dreams. Della first collected her own rent then set about to get the first floor’s. Most people put the money in Mrs. Kitch’s mailbox but those that didn’t would get a nice wake-up call from Della. One such tenant was Alice V. Franklin. After knocking on her door the first thing she heard was a screaming baby followed by three locks on the front door unlatching. She left the chain latch on cracking the door open just a sliver. Della could still see that unlike most of the other tenants Ms. Franklin didn’t have as bad a case of bedhead.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake your baby. I’m Della, I work for Magdalene Kitch… I’m here for the rent.”

“Oh, right.” She closed the door and Della could here her receding back into her house. Della was about to knock again when Alice opened the door slightly and pushed a manilla envelope through.

“Thank you,” Della paused before adding “You know… if you ever need a babysitter…” Della didn’t really mean it but it didn’t matter.

“That’s sweet but… no thank you.”

At least I can say I tried.

After returning the money to Mrs. Kitch Della set about her day in the cemetery. Sarah was forcing her to go back to school soon and she needed to study to catch up with her classmates.

Once outside della noticed that there were far more people out and about than there should have been at 7:00, the early shifts had already started and other jobs wouldn’t start for another hour or so. Everyone seemed to be moving in the same direction. Instead of fighting the current Della allowed her curiosity to get the better of her and she followed the crowd to the insane asylum.

Blue. Blue everywhere. On the building, on the people, on the man laying on the ground. Della couldn’t take it. She ran down Herbert Johnson Road towards Boulevard Avenue. She stopped panting. Hands on her knees she saw flashes of her parents’ death all in blue. Once she had finally cleared her head of the blue she looked up to find herself in the abandoned lot behind O’Harley’s. Boo radley was licking her face trying to comfort her. He tried to herd her away but she couldn’t leave. Something kept her glued to the spot.

Just as she thought she had gotten away from the images they came back. Only it wasn’t in her head this time. She was standing before a mural in all blue graffiti paint. And it was about her. It looked as if a giant comic book had fallen open to a page full of all her secrets. Above the images the graffiti read: “You can’t run away Della Breed.”

It was all there. How she had dreamed of the numbers 8 6 and 10 months before her parents death on August 6, 2010. How she had dreamed of their death through the video cameras that would not catch the murderer’s face. How the night of the murder she had dreamt the act from the killer's point of view. How mixed with the recurring dreams of their death she had seen other murders only to find out later that they had really taken place. And the latest one- the one of Sarah. Her laying in a pool of blood on the carpet in Dawn’s apartment.

As she was taking in the public shaming and the weight of her silence she noticed a man with blue hands. He seemed to be laughing. Della turned on him.

“Did you do this?” She screamed. “Do you think its funny, people dying, other’s pain?”

He stopped laughing and looked at her. Suddenly she felt sick. Before she ran his eyes changed and heard him softly say “I’m sorry” before his hard stare returned.

Running towards the cemetery she almost knocked over Rick the bartender. She knew he would tell her sister about the events of the day if she didn’t know already. After crying in the cemetery until dark she couldn’t bear to face her sister so she spent the night in the house on Blue Boulevard.

She spent the night believing she’d never get away from the color blue.

3 comments:

  1. From the beginning, when she wakes up with Boo Radley in a house other than her own, it is clear Della is in an odd situation. Even after she returns home for "normal" life, it becomes clear that that too is unusual, the reasons for which are gradually expanded upon over the course of the blog, namely her deceased parents and maturity beyond her age.
    Her primary motivation seems to be her desire to learn about her parents' death, and the majority of the conflict is internal or with Sarah, neither of which is helpful to her situation. Since she has a distinct purpose on her own, it makes sense that the interactions she has are relatively brief (aside from those directly relevant to her interests).

    The entire paragraph describing the blue mural (and the subsequent sentence: "As she was taking in the public shaming...") stood out in particular. Though premonitions are certainly unusual, and not something one would share publicly, their description as "public shaming" implies that they reveal more of Della than just her dreams. More specifically, it suggests that she committed an act that she knew to be wrong, which incites quite a bit of curiosity.

    Sorry for the wolf thing. It was meant to reveal more of its nature and call some attention to Della's peculiarities, not disrupt the entire town.

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  2. Dream: locked doors
    suggestions: specific memory with parents
    prophecy: found in a fortune cookie: "April showers bring may flowers. Metaphorically."

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  3. I included you at the end of my most recent blog post...

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