Electra Uninsured

[Brad Rose]

Even though Lola had started therapy with Jackie, months ago, as a way to find out if Richard had been cheating on her, she was surprised now to discover that she was actually learning things—seemingly important things-- about herself, despite her original ulterior motives. Know thyself, isn’t that what Socrates had said, or had it been the oracle at Delphi? Lola couldn’t recall now, she was preoccupied with today’s session.

Emerging from Jackie’s office, she crossed the burnt grass of Jackie’s front lawn, and slid behind the steering wheel of her little smudge of a beige compact car. She was lost in thought about today’s session: did she really choose men who, on the one hand, reminded her of all the things her father was unable to be for her, but on the other hand, were just like her father in some imperceptible way? Heedlessly, she shifted the transmission into reverse, and immediately backed into the car parked behind her. The smash of collapsing metal instantly jarred Lola from thoughts of her ‘Electra complex,’ to fears that she hadn’t paid her auto insurance bill in more than two years.

http://lola-loves-richard.blogspot.com/

[Brad Rose]

Thanks Gita. I realize that this little 'novelette' now has about 160 six-sentence "chapters" and I don't have the foggiest notion (well maybe I have a foggy notion, but that's about all) of where it's going. Since I am not a novelist either by instinct or by profession, I console myself (rationalize) this sorry fact by thinking 'I will simply follow where the characters lead me.' I hope this blind commitment to following the characters' lead, gets this story to go somewhere interesting?? I'll have to see where it meanders to. Of course you and all the kind folks who comment on my pieces, are warmly invited to take this journey with Lola, Richard, Jackie, Buck, and me.

[Gita]

I suggest a vintage Jag in British racing green, but I dearly love "her little smudge of a beige compact car." I always look forward to your pieces.

[Brad Rose]

Mike. I think you're right> Lola should be driving a big ol' Buick, convertible--but I'm not sure what year would be realistic for her. I like the ones from the 60s and early 70's but they are antiques now, and I doubt that would be true to her character. She's not a old car aficionado, just a poor starlet--or would be starlet. Do you have any suggestions for what year she'd be likely to drive if this story is contemporary??? Thanks, Brad

[Mike Handley]

Wonderful snapshot of preoccupation, Brad. I gotta admit, though, I was hoping she'd be driving a Deuce-and-a-Quarter.

[Jamie Hogan]

And that's exactly what happens when Socrates and the oracle at Delphi and a "professional" are all elbowing each other for space in your head. Great six, Brad!