Writing Prompt 29: Red Floral Dress
I Left You a Message
Here’s the second of three prompts featuring a film still from one of my favourite films, North by Northwest. Do you write notes and messages and leave them around the house? If you had something important to say would you write it down first? What might someone think if they read all your handwritten messages? Or maybe you would prefer to text? There’s a story here. Let’s try and find it.
The dress hangs limp in the wardrobe, a relic of a former life, another life. A place she doesn’t recognise.
The style of the dress is stiff and old-fashioned. She runs her fingers over the brocade feeling the weave and smooth embroidery of the fabric. A strong perfume blooms out of the wardrobe filling the air around her.
A memory - her mother standing in front of her, tall, disciplined, her mouth drawn into a thin hard line.
The door to the room opens.
"Edie? Why are you out of bed?"
A hand, kind and warm guides her back to her bed. The paper she has in her hand is now a crumpled ball.
"What's this?" says the kind voice. "Are you writing again? Oh, Edie. In the bin with it now."
Edie holds onto the paper, her fingernails digging into the palm of her hand. The kind voice has an unpleasant smell, coffee mixed with disinfectant. The body attached to the voice unpicks Edie's fingers until the screwed up ball of paper can be released from her grip. It makes a soft bump as it hits the bottom of the plastic bin.
"It's time for your vitamins. Lie back now."
A sharp needle pierces the skin of her arm. One second, two seconds. She slips into unconsciousness.
Story first posted in May 2020 // Photo: Tanya Clarke 2002 - film still from North by Northwest, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1959.
