Below is a first draft of a first chapter for my novella. It's terrible, but I wanted to show you how things can begin. I began with a female character who has died (I do know the details). She walks into the world beyond and is greeted by a driver. He takes her to where she needs to go. Everything else I created in the last hour - it is not good, but it is a start. FYI: First drafts almost always suck:
Woosh, the door opens, and she
steps into the alley. Across the way is Tony's Pizza, next to it is Arcade Shoe
Repair, and in front of her is a 1963 black Lincoln Continental convertible.
The rear passenger door is open and he's waiting for her.
"My lady," he said,
with a nod and smile.
"Mimm kay," she said,
getting into the car. "What is this?"
He waits to answer, as he moves
around to the front of the car. Opening his door, he climbs in, sits, and
starts the engine. "This is the Arcade." He said, looking back at
her, "but the first question should be, what was before this? I have to
know what I need to explain, before we get there."
"I don't know," she
answered, "and get where? "
"Wow, a blank slate,"
he said, driving to the street at the end of the alley and making a right turn.
"As for where, that's the place you go next. Maybe that'll ring a
bell."
"Still don't
understand." She said. "None of this makes sense. Why are you?"
"No, no, no, it all makes
sense," he said, continuing down a street with limited traffic, but all
the cars are identical to the Lincoln he is driving. "Everything has a
point, we might not know what it is, but it does. Oh, and I'm Driver or the
driver. I am what I do. See, that's my point in all this. I ... we, there's
more than one of us, wait for you to come out and we drive you. I don't know
where we're going, but I can get you there. That's my purpose. Does that make
sense?"
She doesn't answer, as she
realizes they’re riding in a large city. The street is one way, and she notices
all the street signs have markings she doesn't recognize. She spots a bridge in
the distance and guesses that's part of the route. Nothing is familiar and she
tries to remember anything before the door. "I don't even know my
name." She said.
“That could be a good
thing," Driver said, "it's not for me to say, but I've learned this
all has a reason." He moves to a center lane and begins crossing the
bridge. "I've never liked driving over these things. Not sure why."
He doesn't even know all the
answers to his own questions, she thought. I bet he came out of the
door, got into a car, and they took him to someone who told him he'd be driving
the rest of us around. I hope the hell I don't have to do that. This car is too
large.
Once across the bridge Driver turns
right onto a less busy street. They're still in the city, just a different part
and she notices a huge building ahead of them. It's a sports stadium. Probably
for football, she thinks, then smiles because she knows what football is.
Across from it is another structure, less attractive, and as the car turns into
it, she realizes it is a parking garage.
"Are we there?" she
asks, noticing that all the cars parked are Lincolns.
"Almost," Driver
answers, continuing until he spots two empty parking spaces together and he
pulls into one of them. "Sometimes these things are too damn big, and yes
we are there. At least you are. I'm just getting you where you need to go."
"So now what?" she
says, looking at the rows of identical vehicles. "Why am I here?"
"There," Driver points
to a car parked three rows away. "Sticking out like a sore thumb. That's a
2019 Ford Fusion. Kind of boring, if you ask me, but I bet it's easy to
park."
"What am I supposed to
do?" she asked, and for the first time she sounds nervous.
"I don't know," Driver
snapped. "Listen, this is how things work for us. We walk into the alley,
get in a car, and go to our place. That white car is your place. That's why you
are here. I told you before, everything has a purpose. This is yours, and
you'll figure out what it is once you get there."
"I'm scared," she said.
"We all are," Driver
said. "I understand, but you really can't get hurt. We're dead, at least
for now. That car is part of the next for you. Go on, before you get into it
take a moment. the why will come to you."
Driver opened his door and
reversed the path around the car until he was on her side of the Lincoln again.
He opened her door and took her hand, as she got out of the car. He smiled.
"I'm still scared," she
said.
"I'll be parked here,"
he said, "you'll never be without a ride."
