Experimenting with characters and POVs. The central character is an assassin in the dark streets of New York. His weapon of choice is laughter.
Version 1:
Between the narrow alleyways of the 42nd and 43rd street of New York city crawls a dark, shadowy figure. Wearing an ink-black long coat and a horse-brown cowboy hat, the man walked like a whisper. Only his grinning teeth were visible in the darkness.
“May I tell you a joke?” He asked a rucksack-bound homeless man walking across the street.
“*******, mate. ****, have you nothing better to do?” retorted the homeless man. (Redacted the swear words)
“Why did the scarecrow win an award?”
“Cauz he sung well, huh?” The man was about to cross the road.
“Because.. ” the man adjusted his black bow tie… ” He was outstanding in the field”
The homeless man laughed… it sounded more like a hiccup though.
“And what did the shark say when he ate the clownfish?”
“That clown thing wern’t tasty?” The homeless man made a few steady steps towards the median.
“He tasted funny” smiled the man in black clothes.
The homeless man was having a fit of laughter in the middle of the road. He didn’t know where he was going.
As he laughed, he tripped, fell, and was hit by a speeding car.
The mysterious man vanished into the darkness. And before he vanished, he opened a little pocket note and put a tick mark below January 28.
🤪🤪🤪
Version 2: I tried to write the same story from 1st person narrative through the homeless man.
This is a fun exercise 😺😺😺
When I lifted my heavy eyelids, I noticed foggy apparitions floating in all whites. I thought I died and angels were welcoming me.
But a sharp needling pain in one of my legs reminded me that I was still alive.
My left leg was wrapped mummy-style and hanging above the bed.
“It’s lucky you survived”
I blinked once, and then twice as if to scatter the fog clinging to my eyelids. I saw them, half-a-dozen white-clad doctors.
“You be careful crossing roads next time ol’ man. You got fourteen broken bones to heal now”
They were moving out of the room. No, no! That’s not fair! Hear me out.
I couldn’t speak, but I gathered my strength and mustered one word…
“murder”
They were stunned and stood where they were.
I remember what happened last night. There was a man, dressed like a shadow. He wore a black long coat, a hat and a bow tie.
He talked me out of my consciousness when I was crossing the road. He startled me with his jokes, one was about a scarecrow being outstanding. I don’t remember exactly. It’s all like a dream now.
He made me laugh.. and… and… I fell on the road and was hit by a Ford. A damn Ford… I’d be happy to die under a Mercedes or a Porche.
When I was lying on the road, he vanished back into the darkness. But I remember one thing. He pulled out a small notebook and scribbled something before leaving.
“As..Assassinn” I spat out another word. It was a pain to speak.
“Ah, I see” said one of the doctors.
“Looks like the man is hurting in his hind parts. Nurse, 2 ml of morphine will do the job. But keep an eye on his pulse all times”
What an idiot of a doctor he is.
A Lonely Fish BLog 