Kafka
“Honk! Honk!” Walking across the freeway, he heard the semi-trucks blow their horns and speed by, presumably delivering an important cargo load. Another truck sped by, hauling a container the proudly displayed the word, “Matson.” He began to mutter to himself, “Stupid company, damn know-it-all boss. Cost me everything. My wife, my possessions.” He cringed as he walked pass a bus stop and saw a young couple making out; the girl’s lipstick was all over her boyfriends face.
Continuing on, he passed a bar that exclaimed “Luau!” in gigantic neon letters. The smell of suntan lotion wafted out onto the street. The scent was proving irresistible and drew him inside. Much to his disappointment, the smell was only to enhance the atmosphere of the bar and nothing else. He reached into his pocket in his thinning pants hoping to pull out a dollar for a beer but instead pulled out a piece from a chess set, a queen. Why he held onto it was unknown; the queen had cost him everything. It had failed to protect his king. He was tiring and decided to sit at a table. A waitress came up to him and asked him what he wanted.
He replied he could not afford anything and was just passing through the area. He reached in his other pocket and pulled out a dented Altoid tin. Inside was one last Altoid. “No sense in saving it for later”, he said to himself and popped it in his mouth. He felt tired and decided to rest his head on the table and then everything went dark…
“Excuse me. Sir? It’s closing time. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The same waitress was now standing in front of him. He looked at a clock and realized several hours had passed since he first sat down at the table. As he trundled outside, a police car sped down the freeway, lights blaring, siren whaling. Continuing down the darkened street, he spotted something in the gutter. Examining the object closer, he realized it was a purple bedspread. A chill began to permeate throughout his body as the night air claimed its next victim. “I may need this tonight” and he picked the bedspread out of the gutter and continued down the street. It began to rain, drizzling at first, but gaining in intensity with every passing minute. He looked around for someplace to take shelter and spotted a place immediately: the freeway overpass across the street. “It’ll have to do”, and with that he climbed up the embankment to an empty spot between two beams. He huddled in his newfound shelter and wrapped the bedspread around him, trying to ward out the cold. A few hours ago he was a somebody, with a wife, a well paying job, he was living the American Dream. He made a bet to double his possessions and with one swift move of his queen, along with a few beers, he lost everything. Now he was just a nobody, just another homeless person in the city.
Author's Note: I was cleaning my room this afternoon and came across a stack of papers from senior year and this paper happened to be in there. I'm not sure what the assignment was but judging from the file name, it was part of the Kafka unit. The reader, or whoever graded the paper, said "Wow this is powerful writing but where is the transformed character?" I guess character transformation was part of the assignment. Oh well, there was a bit mentioned. 29/30. It's one of those "Holy crap I can't believe I wrote that" papers so I decided to post it. Read and review if you feel like it.
Continuing on, he passed a bar that exclaimed “Luau!” in gigantic neon letters. The smell of suntan lotion wafted out onto the street. The scent was proving irresistible and drew him inside. Much to his disappointment, the smell was only to enhance the atmosphere of the bar and nothing else. He reached into his pocket in his thinning pants hoping to pull out a dollar for a beer but instead pulled out a piece from a chess set, a queen. Why he held onto it was unknown; the queen had cost him everything. It had failed to protect his king. He was tiring and decided to sit at a table. A waitress came up to him and asked him what he wanted.
He replied he could not afford anything and was just passing through the area. He reached in his other pocket and pulled out a dented Altoid tin. Inside was one last Altoid. “No sense in saving it for later”, he said to himself and popped it in his mouth. He felt tired and decided to rest his head on the table and then everything went dark…
“Excuse me. Sir? It’s closing time. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The same waitress was now standing in front of him. He looked at a clock and realized several hours had passed since he first sat down at the table. As he trundled outside, a police car sped down the freeway, lights blaring, siren whaling. Continuing down the darkened street, he spotted something in the gutter. Examining the object closer, he realized it was a purple bedspread. A chill began to permeate throughout his body as the night air claimed its next victim. “I may need this tonight” and he picked the bedspread out of the gutter and continued down the street. It began to rain, drizzling at first, but gaining in intensity with every passing minute. He looked around for someplace to take shelter and spotted a place immediately: the freeway overpass across the street. “It’ll have to do”, and with that he climbed up the embankment to an empty spot between two beams. He huddled in his newfound shelter and wrapped the bedspread around him, trying to ward out the cold. A few hours ago he was a somebody, with a wife, a well paying job, he was living the American Dream. He made a bet to double his possessions and with one swift move of his queen, along with a few beers, he lost everything. Now he was just a nobody, just another homeless person in the city.
Author's Note: I was cleaning my room this afternoon and came across a stack of papers from senior year and this paper happened to be in there. I'm not sure what the assignment was but judging from the file name, it was part of the Kafka unit. The reader, or whoever graded the paper, said "Wow this is powerful writing but where is the transformed character?" I guess character transformation was part of the assignment. Oh well, there was a bit mentioned. 29/30. It's one of those "Holy crap I can't believe I wrote that" papers so I decided to post it. Read and review if you feel like it.