A College Story (with very little editing - so be gentle...)
It was about 45 minutes into “Northern Exposure” when in the distance I heard the siren of an ambulance. I noticed flashing lights as an ambulance turned the corner and pull up to the front of Sarah Hall (the freshman and sophomore dorm). I figured some freshman had probably slipped and fell down the stairs breaking his or her leg. Not thinking much about the ambulance, I turned my attention back to the show, when, out the corner of my eye, I noticed three vans pull into the maintenance yard across the way from Sarah Hall. Shortly after the vans stopped, satellite dishes were raised from the roofs three vans. That’s when I noticed the police cars parked alongside the ambulances. As I was standing at the window, the channel five news anchor broke into Northern Exposure announcing that there has been a shooting at _______ University.
It was a couple of days before the start of first semester classes, I was in the middle of moving all my stuff into the campus apartment when Steve showed up with his parents in tow, no doubt to help with his move from LA. He was a bit stand-offish and irritable (I assumed it was because his parents were there constantly asking him questions). After about two hours, Steve’s parents left, Steve unzipped a large gym bag and pulled out about ten bottles of various kinds of liquor, and a one of those paper shooting range targets with fives small holes in different areas of the target. He didn’t say much as he was unpacking, but when he did speak, what came out of his mouth was the voice of those cartoon teenagers from MTV’s Beavis and Butthead. I thought the voices was his “shtick”, albeit annoying. It wasn’t until sometime later that it became clear that Beavis or Butthead were the only voices he would use the majority of the time.
As the news anchor finished with the “breaking news” story with “more at 11”, I turned back to the window and noticed that there were more police cars parked at differing angles both in the access road and the grass in front of Sarah Hall. On the road in front of my apartment building, a dozen or so residents of the apartment building were gathered staring and pointing toward the goings on down the road. As I stood watching, no longer interested in how this week’s Northern Exposure ended, I heard the door unlock, and turned to see my other roommate come in.
“What’s going on? Why are there all those people standing in front of the building?” he asked.
I pointed to Sarah Hall where the news trucks, ambulance, and police cars were parked.
“What’s that all that about?”
“There’s been a shooting at Sarah’”, I told him.
“What! When did this happen?”
“Not to long ago, the ambulance has only been there for about ten minutes.” I told him.
“Shit.”
...to be continued
It was a couple of days before the start of first semester classes, I was in the middle of moving all my stuff into the campus apartment when Steve showed up with his parents in tow, no doubt to help with his move from LA. He was a bit stand-offish and irritable (I assumed it was because his parents were there constantly asking him questions). After about two hours, Steve’s parents left, Steve unzipped a large gym bag and pulled out about ten bottles of various kinds of liquor, and a one of those paper shooting range targets with fives small holes in different areas of the target. He didn’t say much as he was unpacking, but when he did speak, what came out of his mouth was the voice of those cartoon teenagers from MTV’s Beavis and Butthead. I thought the voices was his “shtick”, albeit annoying. It wasn’t until sometime later that it became clear that Beavis or Butthead were the only voices he would use the majority of the time.
As the news anchor finished with the “breaking news” story with “more at 11”, I turned back to the window and noticed that there were more police cars parked at differing angles both in the access road and the grass in front of Sarah Hall. On the road in front of my apartment building, a dozen or so residents of the apartment building were gathered staring and pointing toward the goings on down the road. As I stood watching, no longer interested in how this week’s Northern Exposure ended, I heard the door unlock, and turned to see my other roommate come in.
“What’s going on? Why are there all those people standing in front of the building?” he asked.
I pointed to Sarah Hall where the news trucks, ambulance, and police cars were parked.
“What’s that all that about?”
“There’s been a shooting at Sarah’”, I told him.
“What! When did this happen?”
“Not to long ago, the ambulance has only been there for about ten minutes.” I told him.
“Shit.”
...to be continued
posted by Michael at 9:25 PM
2 Comments:
You've definitely got a memorable character in Steve; the ten bottles of liquor are great (I wonder how much his parents know...). I like the setup you've built, though it seems odd that your narrator doesn't make some connection between the Steve's range target and the shooting. Though that may be because, to me, it felt like the shooting took place just a few days after Steve arrived (which I'm not sure you intended).
Looking forward to part 2...
Dave,
Thanks for the nice comment. Their are a few things that I want to change once I finish with the story (I'll combine part I and II in a new post). There will be some heavy revisions in the final product, better timeline, character dev, etc...
Thanks,
-Michael
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