Book 1, Chapter 1

The idea for this story came to me while working on an assignment for a creative writing class. We had to write a short story or part of a longer narrative built around a flashback. In literature (different from film), a flashback is a pretty specific narrative technique that jolts a character suddenly back to another time, usually triggered by a sensory detail, and reintroduces a memory that provides them key information for their current situation.

In this flashback, I use the taste of chirimoya, an incredibly unique fruit originally from the Andean region, as the sensory trigger to take the protagonist back to the past. If you haven’t tried chirimoya, you should. You’ll understand why it could give your mind a jolt. Then, the ring of a cell phone brings her back to the present.

I rewrote the scene a few times, playing around with the themes, changing the characters’ genders and names, and shifting the locations. But, it was always set in Peru and always with the flair of a thriller or mystery. The characters are all complete figments of imagination, amalgamations of characteristics and habits of people known and imagined. The premise is fully contrived. Something has happened to someone the protagonist cares deeply about, but no one knows what or where that other character might be. The flashback gives a tiny clue about possible answers. One constant - the scene has always been set in Peru, a country I worked and lived in for years and care deeply about.

From this chapter, the story can go anywhere. I’m giving some options of directions it can take, but I’m always open to new thoughts. I’ll have to figure out how to fit any new ideas into the voting process, but there’s always a way to make space for a great idea.