This is a story about storytelling...
I'm stood in a sunny garden, sheltered from the wind by mature shrubs. Beyond the confines of the walls and fences are lush green fields; rolling hills leading down to the sea. The air is fresh and clean, blowing in off the Atlantic. There's a smell of mown grass, which has been cut for the last time before winter - the trimmed blades clump on the lawn. Gravel crunches under my feet - I'm stood on the driveway where the cars are parked. There's a sound of a 2-stroke engine which powers a hedge trimmer, being used to tame the runaway growth in the hedgerows; the exhaust fumes blown away by the prevailing wind.
I'm throwing a ball for the white wolf. Eyes on the front of his head, not the side - that's how you know he's an apex predator; he's not worried about anybody creeping up behind him, although his ears are pricked up, listening intently. He's a smart wolf - anticipating me throwing the ball but not so eager to run and collect it that he would be fooled by a dummy. Besides, why would I want to trick a wolf? What satisfaction would I get by proving I'm smarter than an animal with a much smaller brain?
The wolf pants and drops his ball some distance away from me. The game is over. I fetch a water bowl for the wolf and he laps up the cool liquid with his long pink tongue. He brings his ball to me again, ready to play - the game starts over.
My throwing gets erratic and the ball lands on a rockery. I'm fearful that the wolf will injure himself. I stop throwing the ball.
A running sheep; a chasing wolf - he's found a new game.
Clambering over fences, the farmer holds the wolf while he strains to get at the flock which has retreated into a corner of the field, unable to flee further because the sheep are enclosed by a fence. The wolf has to learn that this is not a game.
I feel guilty. Did I get the wolf over-excited by throwing the ball for him? Was I the immature adult who gets the children over-excited before bedtime? Was I irresponsible; inconsiderate of the consequences?
I want to tell stories but not everybody wants to feature. I want to tell stories but invariably people will wonder if it's about them. I want to tell stories, but I have to be careful that I respect the need for peaceful private family life.
I'm lying on a bed with sunlight in my eyes, telling a story. It's warm and quiet and I'm very comfy and calm. My brain buzzes with thoughts; ideas - I've written a list of 49 stories that I want to tell, and I have another list with 70 more, some of which I've already told. There are more words than there are waking hours in the day to type them. Now that there is some calm around me, the dam has burst and I'm struggling to not be swamped by the deluge.
I think about tenses - why is this told in the present tense if it's a story?
So much has happened in the past and it's hard to not relive and refine the story. I do not embellish or exaggerate, but stories improve with retelling. With each iteration, a more accurate and engrossing account emerges. I have a mountain of material, and the temptation is to weave it all into a captivating patchwork quilt of tales; adventures.
Here in the present there's plenty going on but I'm a guest in somebody else's story, and it's not my place to tell it. It's strange for me to observe quietly and not pass comment. In all honesty, I swing between "where did it all go wrong [in my life]?" and gawping in awe at what's been built; forged - the achievements of the loving, kind, generous and humble family who've taken me in are breathtaking.
Outside, there's a well. It's blocked, but it's obvious what's down there - a dark cavern filled with cold water. To fall into the well would be deadly: you could never climb out. Why unblock it? Why go down there?
Obviously, the well is a metaphor for my past. I have an aquifer of hair-raising tales that I could never drain, even with a million buckets. I can draw upon my dark murky past, but perhaps I shouldn't - perhaps to plumb those depths will lead nowhere new. Haven't I written enough already, about the past?
I'm planning on writing another novel in November.
