Blank Dialogue Exercise

Rachel is sitting at home alone, the big house dark and empty. The rain outside seems to reflect the sorrow that she feels within herself. Jeff is almost an hour late. It's the third time this week that he hasn't been home when he promised he would. Rachel is suspicious, but doesn't want to confront him about it. Their relationship has been been rocky for the past couple of months, and Jeff makes Rachel feel like it's her fault. As she sits in the dark, waiting for Jeff she realizes that she has to talk to him about it. She can't be blamed for not trying; she always tries to fix their relationship. Well she was tired of it. If he doesn't understand then she'll leave. She can't deal with it anymore. Lights pour into the house as Jeff turns his car into the driveway. "Hear we go," she mumbles under her breath as Jeff enters the house.
"Where have you been?" she asks, trying to keep her voice calm. They were just starting and she didn't want to get too upset already.
"Out." He mutters.
"Some excuse that is" she thinks to herself, then says out loud, "out?"
"That's right."
"I thought we talked about this kind of thing, Jeff."
"We have." he replies cooly. He knew he was starting to get under her skin.
The anger inside Rachel was growing. Jeff didn't seem to care at all. She has no idea where he had been. For all she knew he could have been at a strip club with his sleezy friends. How could he just brush her off like that? She was his wife and she deserved to be treated like that.
"And?" she asks questioningly, trying to get a feel for what he was thinking.
"I don't know what you're getting at," he says, raising his voice.
"I'm just trying to figure out what happened."
"Well, go ahead."
"How can I figure it out when you won't let me know what's going on? Nothing you have said has helped me. You said you would at least help me try to understand you."
"Sure, I will."
"Okay, that's what I'm talking about." She could hardly stand being in the same room with him. Their marriage was falling apart and he didn't seem to understand, or care. She searches his eyes, looking for the slightest trace of love, of compassion, of caring, or anything.
"What's what you're talking about, Rach? I don't understand what the problem is."
"The problem is that I just can't deal with this kind of crap. You don't answer my questions, you don't tell me what's going on, I don't know . . . you know what, just forget it." She has given up.
"What? What's going on?"
"Forget it. There's nothing wrong, I'm leaving."
"When will you be back?"
"I won't." It sounded meaner than the meant it too, but she just couldn't deal with it anymore. She was gone and he didn't care.
She turned to walk out the door but Jeff grabbed her hand. "Rachel, don't go."
"Well, why shouldn't I?" she asks, pulling her hand out of his.
"Rachel I'm sorry, and I'll do whatever it takes to get through this. Just don't leave." He sounds really concerned now that he was going to lose her.
"Jeff," she looks into his eyes, but couldn't do it, "no. I'm leaving. I can't deal with this anymore. I'll be at my mothers."
As the door closes behind her she hears him say "no, come back."
She waits just outside the door for about five minutes, hoping he'll come and stop her. But he never does. As her eyes fill with tears she gets in her dark blue car, the car he'd bought her for their tenth anniversary. She briefly thinks about going back in and working things out, but knew that it would be a waste of time. She opens the garage door, backs out of the driveway and drives off into the rain.

My Scary Day

At my father-in-law's house over the weekend I finally realized how close Halloween actually is. On Saturday morning I played with my nephew (who had spent the night at his grandparents) while my husband and father-in-law cooked breakfast. My father-in-law-, being a teacher, really wanted to get his class in the Halloween spirit. To do this, he asked my husband and I to decorate his classroom for this "scary" holiday. To put us in the mood, he decided he would play us an audio tape he always plays for his class.
As he put the tape in, he decided to preface it by setting the scene. Usually when he played this tape, he turned off all the lights in his classroom and had his students close their eyes. He then pushed play. Nothing had prepared me for what I heard.
The tape was a recording of an old radio show. This was the first time I had actually heard a radio show, so naturally I was interested. The man told his audience that he had been brought in for one purpose: to terrify us. He gave more of an introduction, saying that while he was no expert he did know some terrifying stories. He then proceeded to tell four or five scary stories. Now while these weren't really scary to a twenty-one year old, I could understand how they could be horrifying to a ten year old. Even at twenty-one, I found myself kind of freaked out. After several loud noises that scared my six-month old nephew, my father-in-law decided to turn it off. However, the damage was already done; I was freaked out.
About a half an hour later we went to the school to decorate my father-in-law's classroom. Now keep in mind that it's Saturday, so no one was there. My husband sent me into the teacher workroom (right across from his dad's classroom) to cut out some papers. I didn't want to be in there alone, but I figured I would suck it up so we could get out of there quicker. In the middle of cutting, the door opened and in walked another teacher. It scared me half to death. She asked me a couple questions (who I was helping, since I wasn't a teacher), then told me what shetaught. Luckily my husband overheard us and came into the workroom. By that time I was pretty freaked.
I thought things would go better once we were done at the school: I was wrong.
When we got back to my husband's parents' house, they were watching Disturbia with my sister- and brother-in-law. I tried not to watch it, but my husband wanted to see the end. Despite my efforts, I ended up seeing some of the scariest parts. After the movie was over, everyone left, my brother- and sister-in-law to go home and my husband and his parents to get a gift for grandma's birthday. I was too tired, so I decided to stay behind. Being alone in their house was really terrifying. I kept thinking that I heard noises, so I got even more freaked out. I was so happy when they finally got home.
My husband and I decided to watch all of Disturbia, since we had already seen the end. This time, I wasn't quite as scared, since I already knew what was going to happen at the end. When we went downstairs to go to bed, my husband decided to try and scare me by going in the storage room then coming out and saying "Boo!" Normally that isn't scary, but when I am freaked out I am easy to scare. At about midnight I crawled into bed with my husband next to me.
It had been one scary day, and to think it all started with a little audio tape.