Why I Write Sad Stories
Darci
Schummer
On 1st Avenue and 28th Street in
Minneapolis, a house catches fire. Fire
trucks arrive in a blur of lights and a wail of sirens as flames cut the early
morning sky. In housecoats and slippers, the neighborhood watches from living
room windows and front yards. Sweat
gathers on its lip. Smoke fills its
nostrils. Its children, woken from their
dreams, point at the flames and vibrate with terrible excitement. A group of firefighters battles the flames
from outside while another group walks into the fire to save those who can be
saved. They rescue one person from
inside the house and then another. Then,
they rescue two more people from a second story window.
But by the time they rescue Jenny,
it's too late.
My stories have been called bleak,
brutal, depressing. And I have been asked why I write such sad stories.
I have a one-word answer: Jenny.
I write sad stories because of
ghosts, ghosts of the living and of the dead. I write sad stories to give voice
to ghosts and to give voice to those who live with the ghosts of their dead, and
the ghosts of their former lovers, estranged children, chances not taken,
aborted opportunities. I write sad stories because they are the adhesive that
binds people to ghosts. I write sad
stories because the stories themselves are my ghosts that, as Edna O'Brien
writes, "are like dogs that bark intermittently in the night."
Moreover, sad stories prepare us for
futures we are too brittle to imagine or too ignorant to recognize as
possible. They allow us to experience
death and loss and desperation with only a modicum of actual pain. They are precursors to seasons not yet lived.
I write sad stories because I want
to live in the past, present, and future simultaneously.
On a perfect July morning, I am
walking down 1st Avenue in Minneapolis.
In front of a burned out 2 and 1/2 story house near 28th street, an
empty mailbox gapes like an open mouth, it's red flag 90 degrees in the
air. Mylar balloons tied to the front
gate bob in the breeze. Affixed to the gate as well is a red sign that reads, “Hi
Jenny, All students at Magic Beauty School miss you!” On the front stairs at the foot of the gate,
a plate of spring rolls sits untouched among bouquets of chrysanthemums. An open bottle of water and an open can of
juice wait among burning candles and incense.
And in the middle of these funereal offerings is a picture of Jenny, of
beautiful olive-skinned, black-haired Jenny.
The air still smells of fire.
I stoop down and leave a dandelion
between two candles that will burn for her until their wicks are spent. Then, I walk home on my strong, good legs,
the breeze whipping all around me, a new ghost whispering in my ear.
At home, I will work on another sad
story—a story where there aren't neat explanations, a story where calculations
and probabilities all prove incorrect.
And Jenny, my beautiful
olive-skinned, black-haired Jenny, this new story, a story where in the space
of one night the whole world trembles into darkness, this is the story I am
writing for you.
Darci Schummer lives, writes,
and teaches in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Links
to her work can be found here: http://darcidawn.blogspot.com/.
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