CW 210 Writing Exercise

[Note: For our first meeting in Fiction Workshop 1, we were given 20 minutes to write a story beginning/story/a couple of paragraphs based on the first sentence.]

6/25/09

When I awoke this morning, the dinosaurs were still there. They certainly gave me a lot of grief the night before, showing up at the small, one bedroom apartment that I rent, begging for scraps of food. Strictly speaking, The Regulations don't allow humans to interact with large reptilian creatures, much less give them food. Still I was faced with bug-eyed, little street urchins and I didn't have the heart to refuse.

I let them in and promised them take-out food. I ended up ordering at McDonald's, in large part due to their "No Questions Asked" policy, and ordered enough food to supply a children's party. The crew knew, of course, that a children's party/despedida worthy fastfood banquet was highly unlikely at one in the morning, but they went about their task without so much as a word of complaint. I was so puny and forlorn that they offered to deliver the food to my apartment instead.

The little ones watched me gratefully as I dumped at least fifty individually packed burger meals - double cheeseburger deluxe, the most special meal on the menu. Within minutes, all four of them were done eating, including the greasy burger wrappers and plastic cups. NowI would go hungry for the next five days.

Before dropping off to sleep, I explicitly told them to leave before daybreak, and that I didn't have the moolah to sustain their permanent need for food, shelter and affection. I thought they understood my pantomine; they certainly nodded in unison with each frantic gesture.

When I plodded out of my room, barely lucid, and found them huddled together on what was left of my couch, a random, distant melody began playing in my head and I told myself, now I have to give them names.