Attention to Detail - 2

Attention to Detail - 2 

“Really? You want me to clean my room? On a Saturday? Again? Come on, Mom, I cleaned it last Saturday and it’s hardly even messed up at all.”

Thirteen year old, Luke Jamieson pushed himself back from his desk chair, sighing heavily. “That’s all I can think of to write? About arguing with mom about cleaning my room. How boring is that?” He got up, shoved his chair back under the desk, and began stripping his bed. His mom had left clean sheets for him before she went out for groceries, kissed him on the cheek and rushed off on what she called her ‘runabouts’.  His English assignment was to write a short story about a personal problem. It was to be 300 words or less. All he had so far was 28 words. He supposed that was less that 300, but knew he would flunk badly and his parents would hear about it.

He finished making up his bed and stood back to look at his work. If he didn’t have the pillows just so, and quilt edges absolutely perfect, his mom always freaked out and make him do it all again. He adjusted what he considered really minor details. He really didn’t want to listen to the ‘attention to detail’ lecture again. Luke stumbled backwards over clothes and shoes that he’d kicked out of the way so he could make his bed. Landing on his carpeted floor with a thump, at first he was really ticked off. He started to laugh. “I’ve got it! This is perfect” He jumped up, grabbed everything off the floor and shoved it in his laundry basket, shoes and all. 

Grabbing the back of his chair, he pulled it out and spun it around. Throwing himself into his spinning chair, he put his feet under his desk and pulled himself to the computer. A little dizzy, he pulled his keyboard to him and started typing. “I hope this is good enough for Mrs. C. I’ll show it to Daphne tonight and she can correct my lousy grammar.”

~~~~~

“When I fell on the floor, because I was such a slob, all I could think of was one of my mom’s lectures. ‘Attention to detail’ are her three favourite words. Mom’s details are how the neat the pillows are. My details are whether I trip over my own details.”

Luke handed in his short story - 245 words - on Monday afternoon after he read it aloud to the class. Luke grinned when he got his grade: C+. He had never gotten A+ before!

“The truth of the story lies in the details.”

~ Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies