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The girl hears moaning from behind the glass partition. She has come to get her package wrapped, something pretty for the new mother-to-be, a girl they say, though this girl has her doubts. I think it’s going to be a boy she tells her own mother and her mother says you’re crazy, you’ve always been a handful. The girl stares up at the various choices of gift wrap. So many cute pinky papers for girl babies. But it is a boy, she thinks. It’s a boy nesting there. She wonders when someone will come around the glass partition and help her? The department store is crowded today with pre-school shoppers. All the little boys and girls getting themselves outfitted for the new school year. The girl remembers her mother giving her a perm one year just before school started. It turned out looking like a poodle and the girl cried and didn’t want to go to school. So many smelly chemicals and the perm solution burned her scalp. Her mother had laughed at the result. The girl taps the counter and thinks about calling out for help. Behind her a line has been forming and now it’s long. People are complaining. The girl hears moaning again from behind the glass partition. She doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t know if she should follow her instincts and get the boy gift wrap. She can’t remember the last time a boy kissed her. |
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Gift Wrap by Susan Tepper
Filed under Susan Tepper
Interesting take on the theme. The whole train of thought a long line. Ha
You nailed the stream of consciousness perfectly. I especially like how you finish with three distinctlt different thougts.
The last sentence of this piece really ties it together.
I really enjoy different takes on the traditional forms of prose. Reading neat paragraphs and precise sentences can be tedious at times, thank you.
Who knew buying gift wrap could be such an ordeal!
Nicely done, Susan. There seems to be lots more here than the choice of gift wrap.
I think that wooly curly hair must have been a knockout.
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