Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Watch it! A Question is Looming: "Why did you do it?"

Has anybody ever asked you, “Why did you do it?” Just the thought of that ominous question creates one serious regression in me, by about several decades.

My mother is right here, towering over me, her huge beautiful brown eyes flashing and throwing lightning bolts at me. “Why did you do it?” Next will come several more thunderous accusations and just the suspense what will come afterwards can make me quit breathing.

“Why did you do it?” can be a good question, too, for a writer. For example:

“Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

“Willy, dear, I can’t cry. Why did you do it? I search and search and I search and I can’t understand it, Willy. I made the last payment on the house today.”
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman


I am not in the same league with these authors, but I find “Why did you do it?” to be a good question to ask characters while writing because it makes me think about character motivation. It is also a good question to ask myself after I have goofed in some situation. “Why did you do it?” Unlike my characters, being the fleeing kind in fight or flight situations, I like to keep the answer short because the more I try to explain, the more difficult the explaining gets. Also, I am never prepared to answer the follow-up questions, but my characters should better be, since an entire scene or chapter will be dependent upon their answers.

For that purpose, I can think of several scenarios:
Scenario 1:
“Why did you do it? Why did you fall in love with that loser?”
“The loser? Well, he was just the prototype. The way I am going to operate, there will be other losers to follow.”
“Ahha! Sorry, lady, but I can’t make you my protagonist. I like my protagonists to be fighters who go after better, loftier things. If only because I might choose the flight option in my real life, you guys better do the fight thing to make me feel better.”

Scenario 2:
“Why did you it? Why did you rob the bank?”
“Because the bank has more money than me, and I thought it would be easy, and I could get away with it. How could I know beforehand that…”
“Okay, okay…you are a possibility, although you have acted as if you had butterfingers. I might embellish you and…”

Scenario 3:
“Why did you do it? Why did you argue with your dad for nothing?”
“It’s practice. I plan to go to law school.”
“There you are. You can be the next protagonist in my YA story.”

I guess “Why did you do it?” can be asked in a song, too. The only songs I can think of --in my flimsy, off-the-top-of-my-head fashion-- do not exactly use the words, “Why did you do it?” but they imply them. Case in point: Lucille by Kenny Rogers. In that song, I’ve always enjoyed the line, “You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille.” It has so many meanings hiding in it. It is like an urban legend or a joke, well almost. By the way, Kenny Rogers’ own mother was named Lucille. And from this, I deduce a threat to mothers who scare their kids with difficult questions, such as: “Why did you do it?” That question has its way of biting back.

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Prompt: Why did you do it? The details are yours to discern.