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| Poll Doll-"The Egg" | |
| By BrianRobertNeal | ||||||||||
| 10 July 2006 | ||||||||||
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Poll Doll grew out of one of the minor characters in this tale, which was originally called "Plain Jane". I then wrote Poll Doll the Star and Poll Doll then emerged as a bridge between the first and third parts. PLAIN JANE “Granny, why can’t I be beautiful?” Jane looked at her very plain, verging on ugly granddaughter and wanted to cry. She thought, “Why can’t all women be lovely and all men tall and handsome.” Jane answered “You are beautiful to me, because I love you. You will be beautiful to those who come to love you. But you, like me, will have to work harder for them to love you. The little girl continued, “The girls at school call me big nose Polly and make parrot noises. So I hit them very hard and get into trouble.” Granny picked the child up and nestled the girl into her thin ribbed frame. This was partly to comfort the girl and partly to hide the fact that Granny was now crying. The child’s mother, granny’s daughter came out into the garden and asked, “What’s the matter.” The little girl jumped down and said, “Nothing’s the matter mum. I’ll go in and see Granddad”. Despite both Granny and Granddad being ugly their children were either lovely or tall and handsome depending on whether they were girls or boys. There was two of each. Granny told her daughter what the little girl had said. The mother had responded, “Well; tell her mum, that when you’re beautiful all the men want you, for one thing and one thing only. When you are stunning as they say, they never leave you alone. Everywhere you go, you feel their eyes on you. You stand out in crowds and other women hate you. Do you remember that group of fat ugly girls who bullied me at school?” “Even if you start beautiful, age takes its revenge. Bearing four children has also taken its toll so here am I, 35, blowsy and deserted for a younger presently beautiful childless woman. Tell my daughter that when you start ugly you cant get any worse. For example, you mum look far better now than when you were twenty. Haggard and gaunt has become slender and elegant. Most women of your age are like small hippos. I can see my sister and me ending up like that.” “Anyway I just came out to say thank you for lunch but I’ve got to go and pick the other 3 up from their father. She won’t go and I’ll not make her. I must be off for I will not leave them with him and his woman one moment longer than I have to.” So granny and granddad stood at the door and waved as their daughter and grandchild drove away. Jane looked at her husband and smiled, “How did two ugly people like us have such good looking children” Jim replied “Oh well I put it down to the fact that we always seemed to have good looking milkmen.” “Jim do you remember the night we met” “I could hardly forget it, I spilt drink down my trousers, because I was so nervous, I’d never chatted a girl up before. I was covered in spots” Jane interrupted “You asked me to dance because you thought that no-one else would and I might just say yes. You were right. I’d go to the dance hall and spend all night dancing round my handbag in the company of that huge girl.” “Then on the night I met you, an equally huge bloke had asked her to dance and off she went and left me.There we were, my handbag and me, stood all on our own. Then up you came and asked us to dance.” “The huge girl was married within four months and 5 months later she became a mother, in the end they had 7 children.” Jim butted in, “I think you’ve lost the plot, I fell in love with you because you would dance with me, and were nice to me. I still am in love with you because you are still nice to me yet I can’t think why.” “I’ve been pondering, why don’t we pay for her to go to a plastic surgeon and get her a new nose. We could say to people that she had breathing problems and her nose had had to be straightened.” “Jane shook her head and sadly said, “Then they would notice her teeth, her skinny ribs and her blotchy skin. She looks just like me when I was that age.” THE ORIGINAL ENDING HAS NO REAL BEARING ON THE STORY AS IT WAS FINALLY DEVELOPED BUT I’VE LEFT IT IN TO SHOW HOW THIS WAS ORIGINALLY ONE OF MY SIMPLE HAPPY ENDING STORIES. That evening their youngest child had dropped in unexpectedly, “Mum, Dad meet Lizzie, Lizzie meet mum and dad.” Mum and dad smiled but were inwardly astonished for Lizzie was a drab beanpole and their son had always attracted “stunners”. The young woman said, “Hi, my name’s not really Lizzie, it’s a nickname from schooldays, you know Skinny Lizzie.” Mum felt an instant rapport with Lizzie so she hugged her tight and told her to “Call me Jane though my name’s not really Jane. It’s also a nickname from school. You know Plain Jane. Well Lizzie you’ll stay for dinner wont you? Come and give me a hand in the kitchen.” And off they went. The Son looked at his father, “You’ll really like her dad, she is just like mum.”
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