Arts
This story is the third of three interrelated stories called After the Storms. As with "Room" this story originated with a prompt: Two characters part ways forever. We were asked also to think about the questions: "Who and when and where?" "Do they know it's forever?" "Do they have different feelings about it?" and "What causes the parting?" As with too many of my stories, I let years pass--literal years--before I came back and finished. As the third story in the trilogy, writing felt like writing a flashback episode of television. I enjoy flashback episodes, but they present their own set of challenges. Often a flashback episode needs to incorporate information the audience has already heard about in regular episodes and that can change the source of dramatic tension in the story. If this sotry stands alone, the main question that unifies the narrative is"can Jerry change Beth's mind and convince her to stay in the city with him?" But anyone who has heard the previous stories already knows the answer to that question, so for them the the question is no "what happened?" but "how and why did it happen?" And that tends to be a weaker tension... ... but hopefully still worthwhile! For me, the appeal of a flashback episode is the satisfaction of being able to travel back in time and see characters I already know as they once were--before I knew them. In this case, seeing Jerry in "Room" and Beth in "Tribe" each reminiscing about the other made me want to see them together for a little while, and to see the moment that sent them down their separate trajectories. Greg Gordon Smith composes and sound designs this and every episode. He has a website. composes and sound designs this and every episode. Ted Giffin did the show art. Barrington Smith-Seetachitt wrote and read the story, "Monster Leaves Dog."