Love is a Many Splendid Thing

One day in middle school, I was sent to my father’s hospital for an EQ/ IQ test. The questions were pretty elementary. The female doctor was nice but passive. Young but not all that good looking. Then Rorschach inkblot test began. She flipped over the first card. It was obviously a man who committed suicide from jumping off a 15-floor building. His torso and limbs exploded on impact. Blood splattered far and wide, engulfing the picture. Twisted organs mingled with the mess. His head, hands, and feet were somehow perfectly intact, marking the five corners of his body.

“It’s a purple butterfly.” I told her.

In retrospect, I should have said bunnies.

I am currently writing a romantic comedy.

I would like to go back to my magical realism roots. So far I beat-sheeted Amelie, Science of Sleep, When Harry Met Sally, Eternal Sunshine, Stranger than Fiction. I watch Law & Order SVU as a reward, and sometimes just to calm my nerves before bed. The characters are coming out quite well. I have both ending and beginning, along with majority of the details. Specifics of the plot points need to be hashed out though. For inspiration, I am re-reading James Tate’s surreal poems. I finished Five Men Who Broke My Heart last night. Next are Foreign Babes in Beijing and Twenty Love Poems and One Song of Despair. There are moments which I just sit on my bed, and hold Hunting Humans: The Rise of Modern Multiple Murderer in my hands, turning it around and around. I haven’t opened it since this project took the comedic turn.

Part of the project was to prove to myself that I can write a happy ending. For a decade plus I was a Barbie-playing, wedding-planning, dress-wearing girl, who snuck love notes into boys’ desks during recess. I still want a kitten. To grow my own herbs. To invite my girlfriends over for champagne and home-baked cupcakes. There’s no reason why I can’t write about two people falling in love without half the cast dying horrendously. A script can sustain itself without someone walking down the alley and suddenly feel a machete run down their back softly.

I told Zombie there aren’t even dead people in this script.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” He replied.

So will I, Zombie, so will I.