Stevee has always spent large portions of her time in another realm, accessible to her only through dreams. She speaks of her home, family and routine there just as she must speak to them about us and our world when she dreams. One morning, recently, she awoke in a frustrated mood and when I asked her what was wrong she told me that she was having trouble choosing a paint color for her other bedroom. Then she remembered something and told me excitedly that she had been taking piano lessons at her other home before running excitedly to our living room keyboard. She played a simple melody with such ease and grace she was shocked herself. She had never played before.
Consistently independent, as a kid when Stevee found herself craving ice cream she decided to take matters into her own hands. Rather than awake her mom from a lazy afternoon nap she grabbed a couple of monopoly dollars, hopped in her plastic car and began to scoot herself across the busy road in front of their St. Louis home. She almost made it to Dairy Queen before her panicked mother finally found her.
I especially like the last example of Stevee going to Dairy Queen as a representation of the kind of person she is. I was a little unclear at some points - she had never played piano before but had been taking lessons at her other home? I don't know if the first sentence is necessary; maybe should just let descriptions of Stevee speak for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting piece about this character Stevee. When I read the piece I was given the impression that Stevee is autistic or suffered from some other developmental disease. I concluded this from the descriptions of Stevee and from the disjointed structure of the piece. Maybe you should try playing with what happens in dreams and what happens in reality as being blurry to Stevee.
ReplyDeleteI think the strongest characterizations of Stevee come through the specific examples of what she says or does. She seems interesting and I'd like to read a more extensive piece with her.
ReplyDeletei enjoyed reading this piece, but i also found myself wanting more of a complete story. You gave some solid examples and scenes of Stevee's actions. I would have just felt like the piece would be more complete if it ended differently.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit curious about the relation between Stevee and the author - if she has an 'other home', why is she at this home? Does it mean she moved, or maybe the author is a sibling or cousin? Mayhaps because I'm morbid, but I was glad for the end - I half expected the last line to be something along the lines of a car, rather than her mother, finding her.
ReplyDeleteThere are two interesting stories here: Stevee's dreamworld, and the childhood anecdote about going to DQ with Monopoly money (which seems to have taken place in the waking world. If these are going to inhabit the same piece, there needs to be a connection, but I think there may be more than enough in the dreamworld to develop.
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