Writer's Block

Ann had spent several days hunched hopelessly over her writing desk before her manager, Janet, decided to call her again.
"Isn't it marvellous! I've spent months on finding us a publisher and turns out your story isn't good enough for the printer, Ann Marie Kelsey."
"Now, now, there's no need for that," Ann replied. "I'll get it all done by the deadline, you know that."
"You better," Janet retorted snidely, and hung up on her.

"Marvellous woman," Ann said bitterly to herself. She hobbled off to the kitchen to get herself a cup of tea, her eyes glazed over, as if she was thinking. After an hour of standing at the kitchen bench she hobbled back to the study and opened the curtains. It was still early. The half-moon was still, ever so slowly, sinking down the hill. The old woman shuffled back to her desk and glanced once more at the window. Her hand reached for the phone.

"You tell me, Kelsey. I'd love to know."
"Gosh, Janet." Ann said. "I'm a dying woman. Just give me a plot. A small one will do."
"Gosh, Ann," she barked. "You're the one writing this. I don't want my name on the cover of the book you're going to finish writing soon."
Ann once again heard the line click.
'She needs a holiday,' she thought. 'I need a holiday.'

She paused and her eyes flicked towards the sky, darting around quickly as if counting the clouds.

'I can't leave the book writing to go on holiday.' Her subconscious mind drifted towards the bare notebook. 'I need ideas soon.' Ann curled her feet up on the chair and stared into the distance angrily. 'How will a holiday give me any ideas?'

She suddenly stood up.

Janet received a call that afternoon, from that 'blasted woman' again. Ann had called to ask if she could have a holiday, to which Janet said "No."
"Getting out and exploring the world gives you ideas." She argued.
"What did I say?"
There was a small silence on the other line. Janet considered hanging up on her, until Ann said,
"I'll pay for everything except for the food."

An hour or two later, Janet showed up at Ann's front doorstep with a generous amount of bags draped over her arms.
"So are we going or not?"

Ann, however, being much, much older than twenty-one-and-four-months, allowed -maybe forced-Janet to stay for at least a week so they could properly prepare their flights and stay at Chile.

They boarded the plane swiftly. Janet shooed away a gathering of pregnant ladies near the front seats so Ann could be nearest to the ladies' room (along with the salted peanuts). Ann gently scolded a young woman who had intentionally spilled her bags of food on Janet.

It was only a matter of time after the plane took off that Janet was hyperventilating.
"I could have forgotten a bag," 
"We could have messed up the plane times and our other flight leaves now," she wheezed.
Ann rubbed her shoulder calmly, and looked out the window to see the sun slink under the clouds.
"I JUST ATE A FULL PACKET OF SALTED MACADAMIA PEANUTS AND THEY WERE GOOD AND I THINK I'M ALLERGIC AND I THINK I'M SWELLING UP." Janet screamed, waking up the entire plane.
"Oh do shut it, Janet," Ann muttered.

And slowly, one by one, every person fell asleep, snuggled comfortably into their seats or resting their heads on the windows. The lights flicked off and in the nearly-silent darkness the sound of trolleys and gentle pattering footsteps of air hostesses streamed back to the front of the plane.

All was silent.

Around exactly half an hour later, Ann jolted awake. The stench of macadamia peanuts had faded away, and everyone else was either watching a movie or still sleeping. Janet had leaned forward, her head resting on the chair in front of her with her mouth awkwardly hanging open, a generous portion of saliva dribbling down her chin as she slept.

Ann chuckled softly at this sight, and bent over to fish her notebook out of her bag, when suddenly the plane jerked about several metres. Even Janet woke up. She fumbled around before realising that it must be just the turbulence, and snuggled her head into her pillow. Just as her eyes flickered shut, the plane started jerking much more violently than before. Janet could feel her eyes bouncing around in their sockets. Right after this she felt deeply digusted at the thought, and silently swore herself to not think of the like.

The plane swerved left and right, several people gagged violently. Ann's face had drained of its pink tint, and Janet's face was a vivid green.

There was a slight crackle in the air, and a coquettish yet slightly panicked voice echoed out of the speakers.
"Hello passengers, unfortunately one of our-oh, shoot, the peanuts fell-engines have failed and we are expecting to land in the ocean. Reach for your life jackets under your seat and inflate them using the provided mouthpiece. Our staff will point to you the exits, and you will be given instructions on how to reach our emergency rafts. Strong swimmers are advised to take care of all children. Have a nice day."

There was an uproar of shouts and panicked orders as every passenger on the plane lurched over to fish their life jacket from under their seats. After ten full minutes of rustling and groans almost every passenger and member of staff were lined up at the exits. Ann fiddled with her whistle as she stared down at the long neon slide. It shrinked as it went down, it was flimsy and plastic and not very
attractive. But Ann was more terrified of dying slowly and painfully than she was of heights, so she pushed herself down the slide, internally shrieking as the wind blew her hair back with great force and her dress flapped. She could almost taste the seawater. Ann uncomfortably and slowly slid into the water, and shivered as she submerged. The silky blue liquid rippled around her body in small
waves.


Ann looked up towards a trembling Janet and spluttered,
"Slide down, dear! No harm in it!"

Janet hesitantly reached out, when a generously proportioned man shoved her roughly and she sped
down the slide, hissing. She landed in the water with a large splash and thoroughly drenched everyone around her.

A member of staff yelled out to them over the roaring wind to join him and form a circle until the safety rafts arrived. Janet beckoned to Ann to follow her as she glided towards the circle of people ("Because I don't want to die."), as Ann uncreased her floral print dress. Just as Ann started to make her way towards the group of people, the invisible hand of nature pushed a wave towards her and carried her away from the group. Janet and the people with her started to yell frantically to Ann and considered leaving the circle to grab her, if it had not been for the member of staff with them who halted anyone who let go of their neighbour's hands.

Ann struggled against the wind and the water, trying to propel herself towards the cluster of people,  but a hidden force was pulling her away from them.

The waves rose higher and higher, concealing Ann from Janet's view, when they collapsed with a mighty splash. There was no sign of a floral print dress, or greying hair, or any distinctive body parts. No sign of Ann.

All was silent.

Suddenly, a hand shot up  and waved quickly. Janet screamed  and immediately let go of some hand she was holding and went to clasp Ann's, ignoring her group calling for her. She held it tightly with both hands and struggled to pull it up.

And she pulled as much as she could to get Ann to the closet safety raft. The people already on it grabbed as much of Ann's arm as they could and heaved her onto the raft. Everyone immediately checked her pulse, then her breath, and sighed gratefully when they realised that both where working.

Ann rose with a violent coughing fit moments later, but Janet said it was nothing and she should be
happy to be alive.

After some time, everyone had gotten out of the water and was wrapped in towels and blankets. Janet was shivering as she applied some lipstick  as a bus slowly approached the plane passengers with a screech. She shoved her way past everyone and plopped down on a seat, her harsh blue eyes flitting over her nails.

Ann carefully sat down next to her, the warm smell of seawater still lingering on her body, and bent over to adjust her shoes, her greying hair forming a curtain around her face.

Janet swiftly leaped off the bus, beckoning Ann to follow her, as well as threatening her about the book as they walked towards the airport. The both of them had barely noticed that the sun had set and the stars were coming out.

Ann and Janet both were relieved  when they stepped inside the large airport. It was rather dirty, with clumps of crisp bags sprinkled all over and some cigarettes carelessly tossed around bins, but it was warm and dry (almost) and there was food. Ann was immediately obliged to eat three bowls of Chinese food with Janet, who had an entire  litre of lemonade afterwards. And with a large portion of food in her system, Janet decided that dinner would be to much for her, when she looked out the window and saw that it was much too late for dinner already.

Once they were squeezed out of the airport into the fresh air, Janet immediately turned to Ann and snapped,
"Accomodation?"


Ann had decided to to take Janet to a humble motel near the sea (Picture Anakena.). It was as homely as possible, with several porcelain figures placed around  it and a large flower filled garden out the back. It seemed the only residents there were a group of Asian tourists and a few people Ann's age, who revelled in bingo and chess, much to Janet's distaste. In the mornings there was some sort of  peculiarly comforting quiescence, and in the evenings laughs and yells came from the 'living' room. Janet would dig into her hot dinners with gustatory glee every night, despite Ann's desperate attemps to make her eat something lighter. Ann began to drink strong coffee  in the morning and refused to go for any walks. They both would gather with the tourists to watch the sunsets and Ann would watch the sunrises (Janet disliked being woken up early.). By the end of the holidays Ann had finished the end of the book, though she didn't tell anyone what it was about, not even Janet. They eventually left Chile and went back, this time the flight being much more comfortable.

Ann handed Janet the notebook containing her story when they reached her house. Janet opened it, and flicked through the pages, her eyes skimmimg over the words. And then her face split in to a wide grin. Then it grew wider. Then she let out a loud, almost crazy laugh.
"Thanks," she said.
"Do you like it?" Ann asked.
"Like it? I love it."Janet replied, going through it again and again. "I'll be seeing you when my book's published. Chile seems ideal."

"Your book-?" Ann asked, but was cut off when Janet slammed her door shut, leaving a very, very confused Ann behind.






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