Tip of the Day: Have you ever felt your mind was running away with you? If so, then there’s a good chance that it’s your monkey mind taking over – just like poor Ella is experiencing in this draft scene where we first meet her…
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To say Ella made her entrance known to everyone at the café when she burst inside would be an understatement to say the least! Auburn hair all dishevelled, feet tired and cranky, and trendy taupe trench coat swirling around her torso, she’d certainly arrived with a “BANG”. She’d been helped in making her presence well known by an extreme gust of wind that had sent her crashing through the doorway.
Heads flew up and away from their screens, conversations paused, necks craned, cups paused mid-flight… and at least one eyebrow quirked in curiosity at the commotion she made. In fact, pretty much all the typical sounds of a café did a hard stop except for the hum of the refrigerator. The rattle of dishes, voices rising and falling, the sound of running of water, and the shuffle of bodies in seats and shoes tapping the floor – it all stilled.
It felt like a spotlight glared on her when all those eyes landed on Ella. For the moment, customers completely forgot about whatever had held their attention before, whether on their laptops, phones and e-readers, or in the faces or words of their companions.
Even the barista paused in wiping down the counter.
As Ella tuned into her surroundings, she realized that everything had faded to silence in the café… except for the music playing on softly in the background. Apparently indifferent to her clumsiness, it became a soft soundtrack augmented to her ears by the thumping sound her heart and the rattling door chain.
As Ella attempted to calm her breathing from it jittering pace, the chain seemed still reverberated with a metallic twang after being thrust so violently that it had belted into the wall. Kinetic energy not yet spent, as her eyes looked anywhere but at her audience, Ella noticed stood transfixed by the swinging as it took its time settling down, like her heart, after the violent (accidental!) assault she’d made on the door.
As she watched it swing in ever diminishing loops, wishing to be anywhere else, Ella noticed that the action in the cafe started to return to a normal level. Just before she…
Still cringing under her mop of hair, Ella was now actually glad that the wind outside had declared victory over the newest hair products that she’d tried for the first time only this morning in yet another (now failed) attempt to control her runaway mop of curls. Refusing to look out beyond the protective curtain her hair now provided, giving her a temporary reprieve and false sense of anonymity, she instead tried to hide behind the golden-brown windswept curls that fell forward over her face. Nothing to see here folks, look away, look away now…if only she had a harry Potter Wand and could wipe their memories. If only.
The heat in her face telling her that her pale complexion was now adding a lovely mottled mix of pinks and reds to her dotting of freckles (gah!), Ella ducked her chin down, trying to make herself as invisible as possible to her audience … Well, maybe If I don’t see them, maybe they won’t see me, the mantra she repeated to herself hunching her shoulders trying to be as invisible as possible. While trying to regain her poise, and assess how much of an utter ass she’d made of herself, she thought ok – take 2! Reset. Action. Her plan, brief though it was, was that she’d don a mask of false confidence, swing her big green canvas tote back over her left shoulder to hitch it there, pinch her stylish small clutch between her upper left arm and torso, and glide over to the counter to make her order and all would return to normal in the café.
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(stay tuned to read more)