Thursday, September 06, 2012

Dramatic foreshadowing



The last evening of our recent vacation in Southampton we observed an astounding act of nature unfold before our eyes. As we set off down the beach boardwalk to watch a bagpiper pipe in the sunset we marveled at the strange clouds overhead. My husband remarked that they looked like the type of clouds tornadoes form out of, but I scoffed at his uneducated guess. I would owe him an apology only 20 minutes later. As the lovely young gentleman piped away, his audience began to point over his shoulder and take pictures of the obvious funnel forming out of the clouds over the water that quickly touched down and began to move across the lake, turning up a large amount of water as it traveled. 

My husband scurried for cover with our daughter and niece while I watched in awe. It’s very rare that my husband is more worried about something than I am, so I eventually joined him in his search for somewhere to take shelter should the storm come any closer. But the funnel broke apart within minutes, and that was the end of it. To most, it was a cool experience they could go home and tell their friends about – maybe send the photos in to the local weather man and see their pictures on the 11:00 news. As a writer, I couldn’t help reading more into it, wondering if this could be dramatic foreshadowing for events to come in my life.

Writer’s Note: For those of you who were not paying attention in high school English, dramatic foreshadowing is when something seemingly meaningless in a story’s plot (e.g., the weather) gives you a clue as to what’s to come in a character’s life. So, if there’s a storm rolling in, the main character may be about to experience some kind of turmoil.

I was the last one to tuck myself into my damp, lumpy cottage bed that night and I lay there wondering if that tornado was foreshadowing some major events on the horizon. I thought about the little bean, only a 7-week-old embryo at this point, hopefully nestling in for a safe nine month stay in my body. I thought about having to drop my son off at junior kindergarten in only a couple of weeks and let him begin to spread his own little wings. I thought about our plans to sell our house and move our family of four to a new home and potentially take on a tenant to ideally provide enough income for me to stay home with my children. I thought about close relatives dealing with life-threatening illnesses. The whole cottage was quiet. It was a peaceful moment, but I couldn’t help wondering how peaceful the next year would be…