Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Dear Tangee

The assignment, many years ago, was to write a "Dear John" letter. We had ten minutes. Unable to write as directed, I took another tack and wrote the following. Then I found that I wanted to know and write more about these characters. Dozens of short stories and a great number of snippets followed, and within a few years there was an eighty thousand word novel. In the book, Buck is not near as much a Sad Sack as he is here. Funny how things get started.


Dear Tangee,
Your absence since this past November has made me sad. It has also made me wonder; have you left me for good or are you just gone for a long time? Maybe you are doing something you forgot to mention to me, or maybe you told me and I forgot. Probably I forgot. You left some Spring clothes here and I took that as a sign to expect you, maybe by April. April was four months ago so I guess I shouldn't make that much of a sign out of one dress and a pair of shorts. If you had left for good you would have written a note, wouldn't you? You would have left a note right here on our note pad thing by the phone which, by the way you haven't even called me on yet.
I just went down to the Seven-Eleven for some Pepsi and I'll be back in about half an hour. If you're not here, it's okay...next time I go out I'll leave you another note then. Just like this one now. Just like the one I wrote yesterday. There's cold 7-Up in the fridge for you. See you later.
Buck

4 Comments:

At Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 2:03:00 PM EST, Blogger Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Dear Felix: I don't think I was there for this assignment. However, it sounds familiar.

It is good to look back at the genesis of something isn't it? Sometimes a memory needs to be found and dusted off, whether it is a photograph, a letter, or an old short story. Sometimes the memory can just be a thought that takes you back some years.

Nice. Thanks

 
At Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 8:07:00 PM EST, Blogger Susan Miller said...

Ahhhh...the birth of Buck and Tangee. Classic!

 
At Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 9:16:00 AM EST, Blogger JR's Thumbprints said...

I've found plenty of "Dear John" letters in my prison classroom, and I'm not ashamed to say that I've read every damn one of them.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 at 8:10:00 PM EST, Blogger Michelle's Spell said...

I love the tone of this -- great writing!

 

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