Post your best explosive (literally or figuratively, physically or emotionally) scene from your writing.
Most of my romances don't have much in the way of dangerous explosions. What interests me the most is how people interact with each other. Sometimes those personal moments can be explosive. In Love Therapy, Miguel has loved Alicia forever, since they were high school sweethearts, but she left him to go to college. When she comes back to town 20 year later, it takes him a while to forgive her for leaving. Then he discovers that she is in the process of getting divorced from a man who cheated on her and every other woman he was ever involved with. When that man is dying from ALS, since she's a nurse, he asks her to care for him to the end. She invites his ex-wife and their 3 children to say goodbye...then the fireworks began. Alicia is telling Miguel what happened...
Note: writing this scene made me cry, and readers have told me it had the same effect on them. Let me know how you react.
*****
"He asked her for forgiveness, and asked to see his children. The two younger ones, girls about twelve and fourteen, I’d guess, went over to stand next to their mother, so he could see them. He smiled again, and said their names, and told them he loved them. He told them he was a crummy father, but that was his fault, and not theirs. Then he looked around and asked where his son was.”
Miguel patted her leg gently, “And where was he?”
Alicia shook her head, “Hanging back, near the door. When his mother turned to him and told him to come over and talk to his father, he got angry and started to yell at her. He asked her, ‘Why should I? He’s been an asshole to me for my whole life…he never cared about me before. Why should I care that he’s dying? He’s nothing to me!’ Miguel, you could have heard a pin drop then. No one knew what to say, most of all me. Then Alan croaked out, ‘Forgive me, son. I have never known how to love anyone.’”
Alicia took another deep breath. “The boy then turned as if to leave the room, but I called to him, and told him that his father was dying and there wouldn’t BE another chance for forgiveness. He turned on me then, and yelled that I had no idea how much pain that man had caused him and his mother. And since I was part of the way he had hurt her, I had nothing to tell him that he wanted to hear.”
Alicia shook her head. “I told him that I understood his anger, but that forgiveness is not something you give because the other person is losing sleep over having hurt you. It is something you give because otherwise your grudge becomes a cancer that eats away inside of you, and keeps you from being happy, because you always carry that hatred inside of you. I reminded him that his father was going to be dead soon, and someday he would wish he could tell him how hurt he was that he didn’t have a dad like other boys did…but that there wouldn’t be anyone there to hear him say those things. I told him to say those things NOW, while he could. He gave me a look of real hatred then, but he walked over to his dad’s bedside and he began to yell at him. He said, ‘I hate you for having hurt my mother so much! I hate you for never wanting to spend any time with me! I hate you for never loving us, for making us feel like we were a burden on you. I hate you for being my dad, because I don’t ever want to be like you! I want to love my wife, and my children! I want to be a good man! I never want to be like you, dying with no one around to mourn me, no one to care! I hate you, and I will never forgive you!’”
Miguel put his arms around her then, because she had started to shake with remembered emotion. He murmured loving sounds at her, and waited for her to continue.
Alicia gulped back a sob, then said, “Then another miracle occurred, Miguel. Remember how I told you that it caused Alan physical pain to cry? To take in those deep breaths? He looked at his son, and he started to cry, and it was obvious looking at him, just how much it was hurting him to cry, but still the tears rolled down his face, and he choked out, ‘I’m sorry, son!’
Then he had a coughing spasm, and I thought he was going to die on the spot. Everyone else thought so too, because his ex grabbed his hand, and his daughters crowded around the bed. I had to go to the other side of the bed, to intubate him, to allow him to breathe again. And while we were doing all of that, his son just watched. Then when Alan was able to breathe on his own again, the boy walked closer and said, ‘You really are just a dying old man, aren’t you? You aren’t any different than anyone else. You’re just a poor, sad, dying old man.’ All of us looked at him in surprise, because his voice was sounding so odd, then tears started to roll down his face, and he choked out, ‘I still don’t like you. But I will forgive you. The one you hurt the most is you, because none of us will miss you. So go ahead and die, old man.’ Then he turned and walked out of the room.”
*****
This really is a love story, but it involves Miguel's whole family. This is book 6 in my Reyes Family Romances, so many of the family members have had their own novels in which to fall in love.
What do you think of the scene? Explosive?
For the next author in the Round Robin, head to the next blog:
Lynn Crain at http://lynncrain.blogspot.co.at/
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Most of my romances don't have much in the way of dangerous explosions. What interests me the most is how people interact with each other. Sometimes those personal moments can be explosive. In Love Therapy, Miguel has loved Alicia forever, since they were high school sweethearts, but she left him to go to college. When she comes back to town 20 year later, it takes him a while to forgive her for leaving. Then he discovers that she is in the process of getting divorced from a man who cheated on her and every other woman he was ever involved with. When that man is dying from ALS, since she's a nurse, he asks her to care for him to the end. She invites his ex-wife and their 3 children to say goodbye...then the fireworks began. Alicia is telling Miguel what happened...
Note: writing this scene made me cry, and readers have told me it had the same effect on them. Let me know how you react.
*****
"He asked her for forgiveness, and asked to see his children. The two younger ones, girls about twelve and fourteen, I’d guess, went over to stand next to their mother, so he could see them. He smiled again, and said their names, and told them he loved them. He told them he was a crummy father, but that was his fault, and not theirs. Then he looked around and asked where his son was.”
Miguel patted her leg gently, “And where was he?”
Alicia shook her head, “Hanging back, near the door. When his mother turned to him and told him to come over and talk to his father, he got angry and started to yell at her. He asked her, ‘Why should I? He’s been an asshole to me for my whole life…he never cared about me before. Why should I care that he’s dying? He’s nothing to me!’ Miguel, you could have heard a pin drop then. No one knew what to say, most of all me. Then Alan croaked out, ‘Forgive me, son. I have never known how to love anyone.’”
Alicia took another deep breath. “The boy then turned as if to leave the room, but I called to him, and told him that his father was dying and there wouldn’t BE another chance for forgiveness. He turned on me then, and yelled that I had no idea how much pain that man had caused him and his mother. And since I was part of the way he had hurt her, I had nothing to tell him that he wanted to hear.”
Alicia shook her head. “I told him that I understood his anger, but that forgiveness is not something you give because the other person is losing sleep over having hurt you. It is something you give because otherwise your grudge becomes a cancer that eats away inside of you, and keeps you from being happy, because you always carry that hatred inside of you. I reminded him that his father was going to be dead soon, and someday he would wish he could tell him how hurt he was that he didn’t have a dad like other boys did…but that there wouldn’t be anyone there to hear him say those things. I told him to say those things NOW, while he could. He gave me a look of real hatred then, but he walked over to his dad’s bedside and he began to yell at him. He said, ‘I hate you for having hurt my mother so much! I hate you for never wanting to spend any time with me! I hate you for never loving us, for making us feel like we were a burden on you. I hate you for being my dad, because I don’t ever want to be like you! I want to love my wife, and my children! I want to be a good man! I never want to be like you, dying with no one around to mourn me, no one to care! I hate you, and I will never forgive you!’”
Miguel put his arms around her then, because she had started to shake with remembered emotion. He murmured loving sounds at her, and waited for her to continue.
Alicia gulped back a sob, then said, “Then another miracle occurred, Miguel. Remember how I told you that it caused Alan physical pain to cry? To take in those deep breaths? He looked at his son, and he started to cry, and it was obvious looking at him, just how much it was hurting him to cry, but still the tears rolled down his face, and he choked out, ‘I’m sorry, son!’
Then he had a coughing spasm, and I thought he was going to die on the spot. Everyone else thought so too, because his ex grabbed his hand, and his daughters crowded around the bed. I had to go to the other side of the bed, to intubate him, to allow him to breathe again. And while we were doing all of that, his son just watched. Then when Alan was able to breathe on his own again, the boy walked closer and said, ‘You really are just a dying old man, aren’t you? You aren’t any different than anyone else. You’re just a poor, sad, dying old man.’ All of us looked at him in surprise, because his voice was sounding so odd, then tears started to roll down his face, and he choked out, ‘I still don’t like you. But I will forgive you. The one you hurt the most is you, because none of us will miss you. So go ahead and die, old man.’ Then he turned and walked out of the room.”
*****
This really is a love story, but it involves Miguel's whole family. This is book 6 in my Reyes Family Romances, so many of the family members have had their own novels in which to fall in love.
What do you think of the scene? Explosive?
For the next author in the Round Robin, head to the next blog:
Lynn Crain at http://lynncrain.blogspot.co.at/
.
.
.
