A Rear Window Scenario
differs from the Parking Lot Game because the observer is home and hopefully safe and warm.
Writers are eavesdroppers by nature. We are also voyeuristic.
A few decades ago we had to have a great memory or a scratch pad to capture the moment we just saw.
When two late model sedans, one red, the other a muddy gray, pull up and stop, driver to driver side and exchange a few words and perhaps something else though the open window, you have your cellphone camera ready to memorialize the event.
In many states, though, a voice recording is definitely illegal if the people having the conversation are not aware that they are being recorded. A great rule of thumb, rely on your notes when it comes to eavesdropping and if you capture images, do not use them as blackmail.
Rear Window Observation Station
From my window, I saw a car come up here with some serious speed on.
It stopped. A man and woman got out. The man took two suitcases from the back seat and plunked them onto the grass. The driver took off using the same speed and never looked back.
The woman, dressed warm but office style walked directly to a parked car. She dropped her keys before managing to unlock the trunk.
She ran back and grabbed one of the suitcases and hoisted it into the back of the already packed car.
The second bag had wheels and kept hanging up in the gravel.
The mystery woman folded into the car, pulled her skirt safe before closing her door. A quick three point turn and I never saw her again.
I kept an ear and eye to missing person reports for a few days. I would have shared she was in control of her going and left it alone. Nothing surfaced.
I have notes and grainy images taken through two panes of window glass. And I also have the beginning or ending scene for a future story.
- How do you gather your ideas?
- Where do you keep them?
- Do your ideas need to age for a bit or do you rush right in and start while it is fresh?
Till next time.. Don’t touch anything sharp.
Sally Franklin Christie