Dialogue Exercise with Narrative and Action

Dialogue Exercise
Owen Neuburger
Conor Doyle

Cree slowly turned her shopping cart around a display of Chef Boyardee, and into the frozen foods isle. She putted lazily down the isle, window shopping for frozen pizza, occasionally stopping to wipe off some condensation to read a label. She selected a brand, and dropped the box into her cart. As she closed the door, she looked down the aisle and saw her old friend Serena scrutinizing the nutrition facts on the back of a low fat ice cream.
“Serena?” Cree asked cautiously.
“Cree!” Serena answered in delight. “It’s been so long!”
Although Serena’s initial greeting was warm and inviting, she could not help but notice how much more weight her once thin and graceful high school friend had now put on.
“I know. How’s your family? How’s William?” Cree inquired.
“They’re good. We’ve had some minor problems but I’ll tell you about it in a bit, I want to know how you’re doing too.” Serena responded. Though she seemed happy enough, Cree noticed that her smile faded slightly when she spoke.
“I’m great, Ted is fine and so is Sonny. He’s the goalie on the school soccer team, and I’m so proud of him. Faith is having a tough time with high school, but I think she’s getting better now that it has been a few weeks,” Cree said.
“Good, good. My girls are doing well, but they are having some trouble making friends; they’re just not getting along people as well as they used to. William keeps saying it’s my fault for spoiling them, but he’s at work so much that he barely even knows them.”
“Aw, poor things, it can be so hard going through school without good friends. Cree said, thinking back to her early days in high school, when she had very similar problems. “How is William’s clinic doing?” She asked, changing the subject.
“Not too well actually,” Serena said, suddenly with a far off look in her eyes. “His business was going well at first, but lately it’s gone downhill, now that the new hospital emergency room opened up. God, he has been so depressed by it and when he comes home he’s angry and shuts us out.”
“I’m so sorry. I know it can be tough when a husband doesn’t see it your way,” Cree said as she thought back to how Ted hadn’t understood why Faith was having trouble in school.
“It’s ok; it’s not your fault. God, he just gets so angry. Lately he doesn’t get home till past 4 in the morning. He used to be home by 11:30. I think he’s going to a bar. He often gets home drunk, shoving us around and yelling and crying at the same time. I can’t go on like this. Two weeks ago he full on hit me across the face. I’m just scared the girls will find out, or he’ll target them,” Said Serena, exasperated.
“Well have you called the cops yet?” Cree asked. Before Serena could respond, there was a deep rumble, coming from nowhere in particular. Both women looked around for a moment, the lights flickered for a moment, and went out. In the pitch black of the windowless supermarket, both women began stumbling blindly toward where they thought the exit to be. They were quickly separated from each other by running shoppers and the blackness, and separately exited the supermarket and went home.