For this exercise I have continued with a previous character, Isla, who has a conflict with Matt. I have been exploring Isla's world from different perspectives and have just pulled them together in the piece I am submitting for the class workshop.

The Offer

She had accepted Matt’s offer. It was not as ungenerous as previous conditions. There was a small provision that was advantageous for her comparatively to the preceeding agreement. That was strange. When she negotiated any detail with Matt, she always came out boxed in a corner. She would have had to concede something she cared about to get something else in their bargaining sessions. From schools for the kids, travelling to see her family, or decisions regarding their finances, Matt held firm on his power to have the last word. His dark eyes and defiant mouth held in a straight line had always menaced a storm. Matt’s aquiline nose, a sign of virility in the opinion of Freud, made Isla think of a bird of prey.

Jack - When the Barn Burned

I didn’t have nothing to do with the fire down at the old stone barn outside of the village. It belonged to Father Innocenzo’s family. They didn’t have nothing left. I wouldn’t have done nothing to hurt them, I liked Father a lot. He taught me a bunch ‘a stuff and took me with him in the woods after the rains to pick mushrooms. I love the dark damp of the woods after the rain. The smell of the chestnuts rotting on the ground makes the whole place smell like a mystery. It smells ancient, like when just animals lived there and there were no people on the earth yet. He explained which mushrooms were good for eatin’ and which ‘uns we should leave alone in God’s earth to grow. Those made people sick, it was best leavin’ ‘em alone. We put the good ones in a basket layered in between big green leaves to keep ‘em fresh.

Papa told me never go in the woods alone, and never after the rain. I only went if I was with someone like Father Innocenzo. Papa didn’t want us playing in the empty farmhouse that belonged to Father or out after dark either. I always come back home before dark. That’s what I was doin’ the night the barn started on fire.

I been in the farmhouse only two or three times in all. I never went there to play, usually, it was to catch Blue. Just once I went ‘cause Layla was looking for me. She always looks at me like she don’t trust me. Thinks I’m lying all the time. I can tell the way she squints her eyes at me when she asks me a question, like when Mama asked me where I’d been that day the barn burnt down. I told her I was looking for our cat. I named her Blue for her blue eyes. She is also deaf as a post. Layla knew I was chasin’ her to come back home. When Mama asked me, Layla just stood at the sink, washin’ the dishes. She didn’t say a word, but I could feel she was lookin’ at me sideways out the corner of her eye when Mama asked if I hadn’t been at the barn then where had I been all afternoon.

It isn’t my fault Blue goes into that barn. I thought she went to the hollowed-out oak tree near the rode. I crawled in the house through the broken window where I saw Blue jump. I liked looking at all the stuff in the house that Father’s family left. I thought he must miss it. Father Innocenzo's mother had a big cupboard with coloured jars for putting jam. They were getting’ full of dust, but they sure were pretty, blue, green and pink. I looked for Blue outside, under the cupboard, upstairs. After a while I just sit and wait to see if she would come out. I fell asleep on the old bed upstairs and woke up because it got cold at dusk. I found a lantern in the cupboard with the jam jars with hardly any kerosene. There were some matches in a jar in the centre of the big table that weren’t too damp. I screwed the top off the jar to get the matches and lit the lantern. That’s when I saw Blue, curled up under the table with a black cat. They were like two drops of water clinging to each other. When I went to pick up Blue and hurry back home, she shot off. She would probably go back home. I chased after her anyway. Before I took off, I put the lantern down in the centre of the table by the big jar where I found the matches. I was sure to turn off the flame. The kerosene was almost out, it would have gone out by itself sooner or later. I thought I heard a noise when I got out the window. That stupid black cat, don’t know who it belonged to. Must have knocked over something that broke on the floor. Thought I would go back the next day when it was light to check to see if anything needed cleaning up. When I got home, Papa and two men from the village were rushing over to the farmhouse, ‘cause they said it was burning.