Week Three Noveling Exercise

10/08/2011

Megan Rowles lived for children's pagents. Of course, she was Krystal's mother. The whole thing started when the family was destitute from her husband's layoff from the oil company. Of course, Robert had been the best engineer in his section. He was top of the class in all the schools he had attended. In fact, he had obtained his doctorate in electrical engineerin. Why did he choose the petroleum fielc? Mainly it was due to the money. Oil meant big money. And he had not been disappointed, In fact, he had recently become the Vice-President of Operations.

Megan huffed. "That is the way those corporate chrones do it. They promote their execs and when they do something that the chronies don't like, they fire them. Yes, they call them office reorganization, downsizing, etc. I would love them to be honest for once. But, of course, if they did that, they wouldn't be so rich!"

Robert had been estatic about his promotion, in fact, he took the family to the most expensive restaurant in the city. He was able to sail for about a month. Then, they lowered the boom. With that came a long job-hunt courtesy of the outsoursing division of the company. That was a joke. Since Robert had fallen out of favor with the President and the Board, he didn't have a chance. When an executive speaks against fleecing workers in the stock market, that executive walks. What was that saying? "You'll never work in this town again!

Robert began to withdraw inside the bedroom or mope in the living room. He wouldn't even interact with Krystal, his five-year-old daughter. He let his appearance go. Megan tried to encourage him, fix him special breakfasts and do small, special things for him. It seemed that things went from bad to worse. She began spending time with neighbors with small children and husbands that also had forbidden them to work outside the home. It was quite old-fashioned for tjos age/

10/09/2011

Megan never remembered Robert ever acting so depressed or angry. In fact, it got so bad that he even started gettin verbally abusive to both Megan and Krystal. No matter what Megan did, it was either "not as good as Mom's" or "how could you go through all your life and not know how to...." Megan had her MBA. She didn't need this type of treatment. She had agreed to quit when she had a child and be with her the early years of her life. In fact, Robert didn't even have to suggest it. Megan made family her priority. Yes, she planned to get back to her career, but later in the game. She even kept up the best she could with the latest information in the business world. Of course, she tried to do it when Robert wasn't around. He would look in her direction and even at what she was researching on the computer. Megan studied the sullen look on his face. It was as if he was saying "You want to compete with me? I am the man of the family!"

Megan didn't want to be the "man" of the family. She truly enjoyed her field of study and didn't want to be totally out of touch when it was time to go back to work. She didn't care if it was part-time. This was a part of her make-up, simiilar to her older sister Martha's teaching profession. With her, teaching was in her blood. Even when she was not in the classroom, she was teaching or instructing. When the two were younger, Martha would quizz Megan "Are you helping Mother? You know she is getting on in years."

"Of course." Megan answered. She wanted to say "I'd love it if you'd just talk about the weather or something. I'm an adult now and know what both Mom and I need." It didn't stop there, but continued through the first yer of her marriage (which, according to Martha, was the best thing that ever happened.) Yes, she would finally settle down and stop chasing rainbows. Her instructions included how to take care of a baby, how to rear a child in the "right" way, whatever that was. Yes, she believed in disciplining children. She also believed in enjoying them while they were there.

10/10/11

Megan was relieved when Robert finally landed an engineering job at a competing oil company. Of course, he had to take half the pay he was used to and have a man 20 years his junior to be his boss.

Robert moaned "I have a perfect academic career and work my butt off and I get-demoted? Some pipsqueak with an MBA comes in and thinks he can teach me. You know what where I would like to put that little punk?"

Megan smiled. "I'm just glad you're working and we have money coming in again." She projected as sunny a mood as she could. It seemed to make him even angrier.

"Save your Pollyana act for your mother, I mean, sister! If you were working and a man, you'd understand."

Megan felt bile come up from within her, but she kept it all inside. But months of holding things in and playing "dutiful" wife and mother was about to culminate in a nervous breakdown. Instead, she began cleaning the house. Since it was Friday night, she looked forward to the man actually sleeping in. She would take Krystal shopping.

One of Megan's favorite pasttimes was buying Megan clothes, the "girlier" and frillier, the better. If her life and marriage was a total mess, Megan could show the world Krystal as if to say to the rest of the world "I did SOMETHING right!" The girl was phenomenal! She was beautiful-naturally curly brown hair, puppy-brown eyes with long eyelashes and loads of charm. She would have out-charmed Shirley Temple, despite the latter's good looks.

In fact, since Krystal was a baby, both friends and strangers would say "She needs to be in a Beautiful Baby contest or something! You would rake in the money and your girl would be famous." When things were better, she'd answer "Thank you so much, but we really don't need the money." Mind you, she enjoyed the upscale lifestyle that her husband was able to provide her, thankfully again. But now, she had grown accustomed to the lifestyle and wanted to have it back. But she would have to be clever about it, so that her husband wouldn't suspect it until she was good and ready, especially in case they split up. Unfortunately, Megan had to consider that as a possibility.

10/111/11

Megan pushed Krystal in her strollers as she browsed through the mall. There was something magic about the atmospnere. She loved to look at the people milling around, some were alone, others took their children. There were young couples, a couple in their eighties and still holding hands, and gay couples. Some were outwardly demonstrative. Others you knew by the way gazed at each other. Robert and she did that during the first six months of their marriage. She sighed deeply.

Women's clothes were not as attractive as last year. Megan had more shoes, purses, jewelry and make-up than she cared to blink at. She went intto the specialty baby clothes shop. The clerk just "ooed" and "awed" at Megan's open smile and curly locks.

"Your little girl is a real charmer. Hey, you need to enter little-"

"Krystal" answered Megan.

"Crystal, yep, little charmer, she needs to be in the annual "Pretty Girl" Contest being sponsored by the mall. You have six months to prepare. I know she'll win!"

Megan wondered if the girl got a certain bonus or something to sign up as many babies as she could. But she found herself asking for the sign-up form and signed on the dotted-line and paid the fee up front, charging it, along with some "starter" clothes. She wanted to pinch herself to see if it was all real. But, then, she got a surge of energy and satisfaction in the fact that she was going to do something she wanted to do for a change. Anyway, it was her own credit card, the one she never told her husband about.

In the meantime, Megan knew that she would have to put up a charade for six months and hide any semblance of anything but "business as usual." She planned it out. She'd use the park time to do any pagent-related preparation. Plus, the "girls" in the neighborhood would help hide her secret, even offering their homes as sanctuaries from Robert's scrutinization. Megan would keep her home routine until she possibly could and, perhaps, by that time, she could prepare her husband for the reality that their little girl was beginning the pagaent circuit.

10/12/11

The house was outwardly "cheery," since Megan had put her heart and soul into it. "A place for everything and everything in its place" her mother had always said. Too bad that her Mom could only find critical things to say to her, but not to her sister. Everything was "Why can't you be more like your sister! She is neat and clean. She listens to and repects her parents. She makes perfect grades in her academics and conduct. What is wrong with you?" It was amazing that she didn't say "I wish you never were born. Things would be so much easier." Megan told herself that. But she drove herself to be perfect in everything-raising her children, keeping the house, being the best wife, cooking, crafts, etc. She had to be the best. If she wasn't, then she was nothing, just like her mother said and her sister insinuated.

Crystal sat in one of her pretty dresses playing Barbie dolls. Yes, she cut one doll's hair when she wanted both a boy and a girl. If Megan knew Crystal wanted both a a boy and a girl, she would have bought a Ken doll, along with his little brother, she forgot his name. Her daughter was so happy. It was so amazing, even with all the trauma that was going on around her.

Megan sometimes wondered if the little girl was already learning to live a lie like she had for years. Smiling through her father's alcoholism and drug addiction. Floating through her mother's nervous breakdown after Dad died from psarosis of the liver, both her mother and father and father died from different forms of cancer within one year. Plus, she had some uncle who died, as well. Four deaths in one year. She became withdrawn, almost catatonic. Her Mom stopped cleaning the house, her completely neglected her hygeine. All she would do was to watch tv all day. She went days without eating.

It got to the point where both Martha and Megan demanded that their Mom go see a psychiatrist, who immediately hospitalized her. Both women were happy that she wasn't scizophrenic or bipolar. They said that she suffered from MDD, Major Depressive Disorder due to catastrophic life events. Shrinks and their psychobabble. But Mom did get help. She came out just as critical as she always had been. Despite that fact, Megan truly cared for her mother and wished her the best. She just sometimes wished that she had been supportive of her in her life, just as as Mom had been there for Martha.

10/13/2011

One evening, Megan and Krystal had been practing at her next-door neighbor's house. Everyone delighted in the little girl's version of "I Wanna Be Loved By You;" She had heard it on a "Gilligan's Island" re-run in which Ginger Grant, film star and castaway performed for her fellow castaways. The girls all participated as well, squealing and dancing around the living room.