Todays assignment: Start at the end. Write the ending of a story first and by knowing the end you can make sure that all ends meet on the last page (I’m working on a love story these days, and so far I’ve written the skeleton and build several of the characters and done my research, but except for a very small part I haven’t done any of the real writing yet, so I use this story).
The persons you will meet on this page:
- The protagonist Jane, who is in love with Adam, but thinks that he is engaged to somebody else.
- Adam, who is in love with Jane, but thinks that she has gone back to her former boyfriend Thomas.
- Thomas, who is fond of Helen, whom he only met 2 days ago at the same time as he by accident listened to a very interesting conversation between two women at a cafe
- Helen, who likes Thomas a lot and listened to the same conversation between two of her, sort of, friends, and who thinks that they are disgusting.
- Ann, who really would like to become Mrs. Adam, and finally
- Mary, who is her best friend and sees no problem in lying to get what she wants.
Thomas and Helen have arranged a meeting with Ann and Mary, who think they are supposed to meet with Helen; Adam, who thinks he is going to meet Thomas and Jane, who hasn’t the faintest idea what is going on.
“Come on,” Thomas said, “you’ll see, it’s going to be fun.”
He took Janes hand and pulled her after him as if she was a little girl.
“And see, there she is.” he said. “Isn’t she lovely?”
Helen stood at a corner on the other side of the square, from where she could keep an eye on the café, and when she saw them she made a sign for them to join her.
“He isn’t there yet,” she said. “They arrived 5 minutes ago.”
“We’ll wait,” Thomas replied. “Jane, this is Helen. Helen, Jane.”
They said hello and then they continued looking at the café.
“What are we waiting for?” Jane asked.
“It’s a bit complicated,” Thomas answered. “Do you trust me?”
She thought about their adventure in Saudi Arabia three month ago and about the flat and her things in the depot and frowned.
“Yeah, apart from all that,” he said. “We’re done with all that, this is something totally different. Do you trust me?”
She nodded.
“Hopefully in a minute somebody you know will go into that café. I will ask you to go along with what I am doing. Please don’t run. Just stay with me. I promise that nothing bad will happen. Will you do that?”
She nodded again.
“Good.”
“There he is,” Helen whispered.
“Let’s give him a minute to settle in,” Thomas said, put his arm around Helens shoulder and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“I’ll let you go first,” Helen said. “They don’t need to know right away that we are in it together.”
Jane and Thomas walked across the square hand in hand.
“You better be sure about this,” she said.
“I am,” he answered. “Trust me”
They entered the café and Janes heart sank when she saw Adam standing and talking to the woman she had seen him with the other day and the other one who had told her about Adams engagement.
She looked at Thomas and then to the door.
He gave her hand a little squeeze and started walking towards Adam.
“Hello,” he said.
Adam looked up, and when he saw Jane he smiled and flushed and took a step forward and then he stopped.
“I don’t understand,” he said and looked at Thomas. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes,” Thomas answered. “I want to apologize about the other night. I was really rude and I, kind of, lied.”
“About what?” Adam wanted to know.
“About Jane and me. We’re not together again. Actually Jane is not the least interested in me. She’s in love with someone else. Sorry.”
“With someone else?” Adam replied and looked at Jane.
“Well hello,” Thomas said to Helen, who had just entered and made her way over to them to sit with her two friends. “Haven’t we met before?”
He went over to the table and looked at Ann and Mary.
“Hello ladies,” he said, and turned to Adam. “Don’t you want to introduce us?
“Of course,” Adam replied and introduced everybody to everybody.
“Let’s sit down for a moment, Thomas said, and since we all are friends now, I will tell you a story.”
“Two days ago I went to a café just like this one. Wait, it was this one. I sat over there at that table, when I heart a conversation between two women, and what they said reminded me of something.”
Ann and Mary started looking uncomfortable.
“The women talked about how they were going to lay a trap for a man and get rid of the woman he liked. A very wealthy man. One of them wanted to get married to him and the other one was going to help her.”
“I don’t need to listen to this,” Mary said. “Come Ann, let’s go.”
“Don’t you want to hear the rest of the story?” Thomas asked, but they didn’t answer, just grabbed their purses and rushed out.
“That was a shame,” he said. “It’s such a good story.”
And then he and Helen told Jane and Adam the rest of it.
“And they almost got away with it,” Thomas concluded and looked at Helen. “I don’t think I’ve ever showed you my stamp collection, have I?”
She laughed. “No you haven’t, and I really would like to see it.”
They kissed each other and a moment later they got up.
“We’ll leave you to it then,” Thomas said. “I trust you have things to talk about.”
After Thomas and Helen had left, Jane and Adam kept sitting and looking at each other.
“So you’re not getting married then,” she said after a while.
“And you’re not back with your ex,” he replied.
“There were a couple of things you forgot to mention about yourself.” she said.
“I know I’m sorry, I didn’t want to scare you.” he answered. “Can’t we just start over?”
She nodded.
He reached over the table and took her hand and shook it.
“My name is Adam,” he said.
“Nice to meet you,” she replied. “I’m Jane.”
My writers block 