Day 65: waking up

[truepenny]

Still fighting with the RLS and the narcotics. PT exercises are both boring and uncomfortable, in the best therapeutic tradition. I can walk farther, and have in fact been dragging mirrorthaw on repetitive circuits of our neighborhood in the effort to tire myself out.

On the other hand, the creative part of my brain seems to be waking up again. Yesterday I wrote 550 words on something new, and my dreams last night led to this snippet this morning:

---

"Who was that?"

"I don't know," the Swan said, shrugging an impatient, perfect shoulder. "Some ugly little boy."

"That's right," Min Chang said softly. "You don't know."

"What?" She was so exactly like a swan, he thought, not for the first time: beautiful, vicious, and stupid.

He caught her arm and steered her into an alcove where they could have this discussion with some pretense of privacy. "Listen, Swan. Rudeness is a weapon. You don't go wasting it on people you don't know."

She was even lovely when she was scowling. It was remarkable. "But--"

"People watch you go around being rude to every random stranger, it doesn't mean anything. Just that you're a bitch. So then when you're rude to someone who deserves it, that doesn't mean anything either." There were other things he would have liked to have said on the subject--about the petty meanness of being rude to someone who had screwed up his courage and taken a risk, about how that "ugly little boy" probably felt right now--but he'd learned with the Swan not to clutter things up with ideas she wouldn't understand.

He watched her puzzle through what he had said, watched her face change when she got it. "Oh."

"Right. Now let's talk about the other reason you should never be rude to someone you don't know. Because, as it happens, I do know who he was, and, Swan, you just made a very big mistake."

---

I don't know who the ugly little boy is, or who Min Chang and the Swan are, for that matter. But it's a relief and a pleasure to have my brain offering me tidbits again, even if I don't have much followthrough yet.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I like that tidbit and hope you find out more about it. I am glad your brain is waking up.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I like!

[luna-the-cat.livejournal.com]

That snippet is now going to stick in my brain, in a really good way.

If you ever write the rest of that, I want to read it.

Edited to add: and, um, yes, please forgive my rudeness; please take it as given that I am very much cheering on your speedy recovery, and may you be pain-free to the greatest extent possible.

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

That is a very fine dinosaur bone (from the "writing a story is like excavating and assembling a new kind of dinosaur" metaphor I read somewhere I've forgotten). I hope you pursue the rest of the animal.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to know you're recovering, and "Rudeness is a weapon. You don't go wasting it on people you don't know" is brilliant!

More, please. I hope there's more.

[renatus.livejournal.com]

That is a delightful snippet.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

That's an intriguing snippet. I suppose swans wouldn't make very good humans.

[kickair8p.livejournal.com]

Excellent tidbit, too -- especially liked the beautiful-vicious-stupid triplet and the "Rudeness is a weapon" bit. Hope you feel better soon!

~

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Swans are thugs, really. The biker gangs of the waterfowl world.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay. I'm so glad your brain is giving you nice things again.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Hee. Thank you!

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Icon love! I grew up in the Twin Cities and was just thinking about that tower a day ago.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Swans are horrible. And yet- I love them. They are just so beautiful and nasty! I guess I have this weakness for the bratty, as long as they are not scaring ME (and I can fend them off of others).