About Linda

I wasn't sure where to put this


About Linda

I have tried to figure out what happened to the young girl, Linda Carlson, UI did this through interviews, and also a phone call from Linda to her best friend.

(please note this is a true story, spiced with fiction, no interviews are true)



1.Linda… I’d rather not talk about her to be honest.
I remember when she was born, on the 12th of April; her mother called me a little time later and told me what a beautiful daughter she had now.
She already had hair, dark and thick for a new born baby. She had the cutest smile, but she was ill. There is a scale on which the health of a new born is measured, 0 is dead, and 10 is perfect and well, Linda was at 1!
Of course I didn’t visit her, what for? She would never need me, she had her mother.
I went on with my life, just like Linda and her mother, sometimes I’d bump into her, Sofie.
We’d just basically say: “Hi” and then: “Goodbye”.
I don’t think Sofie is bitter, if she is that’s her own problem then, we both agreed on things being this way.

If I rare time saw Linda, she’d be smiling, I suppose I could, under other circumstances be proud to cal her mine. I guess she was a beautiful girl, with long, thick dark brown hair, matching eyes, so very alive, I knew her face would, when she’d grow up be like a models.

One day when Linda was 4 years old, her mother called me again. She insisted on telling me that her daughter had been abused sexually. Maybe she wanted pity from me, I mean why tell me, what ever could I do? And also the next time I passed by Linda on the street, shopping with her mom, she was still smiling; it hadn’t been that hard on her.

To some people my actions may seem selfish, but are they? Linda wouldn’t be satisfied, not to mention her mother, I am never enough.
Maybe Linda doesn’t have a father, that can’t be my fault, her mother could easily find another.

If Linda ever, when she was older wondered why she was born, there is a simple answer: Loneliness. Her mother had lost both parents one short time after the other, after her mother died of natural causes, her father committed suicide, and Sofie found him, hanging up there. Yet the one things were harder on were her sister, Katrine, who is older than Sofie, and was daddy’s pearl. He had somehow hated Sofie; she was never as good, perfect or pretty as Katrine… I have met her, but I can’ agree.

Okay, back to Linda… she broke her leg when she was 5, I was told she found out why rules aren’t to be broken, I was never told the whole story.
I walked by her kindergarten one day to find her sitting all alone in her wheelchair, stuck in a pool of sand in the playground. It was a hot summer day, one of the warmest summers. From her position she could see the other children inside, having their afternoon snack, Linda was calm, many children would have started crying straight away.

It was about then I lost contact with them, because of business I had to live in Japan for some years, I stayed there till Linda was 17, then I went back, and I saw her again accidentally. Her hair was cut to just under her ears, she wore dark makeup, even darker makeup than most girls that age, if her mother hadn’t been with her I wouldn’t have known who it was. I could see she was beautiful, under her makeup too, she had my mothers smile, and I loved the fact that she was a rebel.
I could see on her reaction that she still didn’t know the truth, to her I was just another stranger on the street, she looked to be use to have guys staring at her, and I could tell why…
That was also the last time I saw her…


-Lars Jensen, Linda’s father 48-

Hey, MJ!

...ooh, I do love the title. It's very simple, and Linda is a plain name- meaning, she's interesting in some way. I also like the idea of the interviews...it'll be really interesting to see the same event from so many different perspectives.

A few things, though:

USING VOICE: If you're going to write it like someone talks, you've got to talk while you're writing. It's the only way you figure out how these people would do it realistically...otherwise, everyone ends up sounding the same.

People usually don't talk non-sequitur, unless they're nervous. This guy doesn't seem to be too nervous- at least from those vocal cues- so it's strange when he jumps around at the beginning. He doesn't preface any new topic, like the birth scale, he just goes.

...also, get rid of the exclamation point at the end of the birth scale sentence. Being a one is not a happy thing, dearest.

If you're going to have him talk about something that's obviously tough for him to say, make sure he hesitates when he gets to those tough topics- seeing her in a wheelchair, getting a call about sexual abuse. He wouldn't just roll through these things without emotion, especially in an unnatural setting (an interview).

RELATIONS: This story was only confusing in one way- and that was the narrator's relationship to Linda. We get from the text that he's not her father, or maybe an ex-boyfriend of the mother, but then...he is her father? I thought you said he was in Japan for thirteen years!

Try establishing his relationship early on. Have him say something fatherly- "she was a fighter, just like her papa"- except (of course) less cheesy.

__

Good luck with this story, MJ! It's very creative; one of those cool experiments we're all taking notes on. Feel free to PM me if you've got any questions or want me to look at something else.

2

-Miss Carlson, I have talked to Linda’s father
Oh you did? What did he say?
-I’m sorry I can not share the information, it’s classified
Yeah, what ever… so what do you want from me?
-I need to know as much about Linda as possible, you seem like the right person to ask
Yeah sure… where do you want me to start? –long pause- from her birth?
-that’d be nice, thank you
Alright. (sigh) She was born on the 12th of April, this may sound cruel to you dear, but I often wished they hadn’t saved her, you see she was ill when she was born.
-why do you say that? If you don’t mind me asking?
Linda, Linda was hard to raise on my own, I had no idea what to with her often, and too, when she was little I had my right hand operated… I still had to take care of her on my own, do you have any idea how tough it is to pick up a baby with one hand?
-do you think Linda may have been damaged from that?
I don’t know, she has always through her 17 years of life been weird, we’ve had a lot of fights, I never quite got her.
-when you were fighting… did you ever beat her?
Yes, it’s the best way to raise a trouble kid, she learnt not to do the same mistake twice, and I had hoped it would make her respect me.
-how, how hard would you hit her? Would it leave bruises?
Of course it left bruises, and also (pause) sometimes I might have gone too far, she’d end up bleeding…
-how old was she when you started doing that?
Oh I’m not sure when exactly, when she was about 1 years old or so.
-I think we’ll move on, if that’s ok with you
That’s fine
-was Linda ever put through abuse, in any sexual way?
yes she was
-how old was she?
I think she was 4 and 13, when she was 4 she told me straight away, and what happened to her when she was 13, first slipped out to me when she was 16, a year ago.
-how did you react? What action did you take?
Nothing really,
-why?
The boy when Linda was 4, was not more than 15 years old, and when she was 13, the man who did it was mentally retarded, he wouldn’t understand anyway.
-what about Linda? Did she get help or something?
No, you see I don’t believe in ‘help’. Linda has been doing fine, in fact I think she has forgotten all about it.
-I’m sorry to say Miss Carlson, you can never forget if such a thing has happened to you
But Linda has been doing fine, well; fine for her… she didn’t change much from it at least… she was always weird.
-how?
it’s hard to explain, but she wasn’t like other children, she hated to go outside to play, she would just sit in her room, with the lights off, just stare out in the darkness, even if I came in, that was already from when she was about 5 or 6 years old, sometimes I’d force her outside and she’d sit on her swing singing, that was all she would do…

-do you miss Linda?
Actually not, what happened happened and I will go on from here… everyone has to.
Also I never really saw her anyway, I’d see her at the meals and else she’d sit in front of her PC screen, chatting or writing some of her damn poems and novels.
-did you love each other?
No, no we didn’t, I’m not sure if I loved her and I could tell she didn’t love me either.

Sofie Carlson, Linda’s mother, the interview was cut her, further questions were cut off