Overheard

Here's the exercise:
“WAG #6: Overheard” Another people-watching exercise this week! This time, let’s
listen! Choose a stranger and do your best to overhear what they say, and then write
it down. It can be on the phone, to someone else, or even them talking to themselves.
What does their voice, word choice, or tone tell you about them? Feel free to write
their exact words OR write it as you would for fictional dialogue. By now you guys
know the rules aren’t what’s important, but the experience!

So I’m sitting at a restaurant, waiting for a friend. With nothing better to do—and the assignment a perfect opportunity—I set out to do a little eavesdropping. And it wasn’t hard. The couple across from me gave me plenty to think about…

“Six months at best,” she quietly sobbed. She blew her nose daintily into a crumpled tissue. “That was the last thing I ever expected him to say when he came in with the lab work…six months.”
“I know, dear,” he said, emotions lodged in his throat. “I know. But we’ll make the most of it; I promise.”
“What about the kids?” her voice cracked. “Even though they’re all grown, this will break their hearts. You know Christmas is their favorite time of the year, a time for family, a time for reminiscing…”
“Hush now,” he reached over and patted her hand. “We’ll make every day Christmas, we’ll make every day a holiday.”
The woman paused as the waitress set down the coffee mugs. With a wistful sigh, she unrolled her silverware from the linen napkin. The metal utensils’ clinked together before gently clunking onto the surface of the wooden table. She snapped the wrinkles out of her napkin and sighed again. “I guess we never know when our time is up, do we?”
“No,” he stirred his coffee. “But when you think about it, knowing is a gift. Now we can make time to do all the things we wanted to do and never had time for. So what would you like to do? I’ll take some time off work and we’ll make every day an adventure.”
“Travel,” her melodic laughter echoed through the room. “You promised to take me to Paris some day. I’d say some day is now, don’t ya think?”
“Paris in the spring,” he stirred his coffee again. His spoon rattled when he put it on the table. He cleared his throat. “We kept putting it off, thinking we had all the time in the world, the business, the kids…and now…”
“Shh…” she patted his hand. “We have six months and that’s a long time to make every day count.”
“You’re right; it’s a gift.”
“Let’s go home,” she said as Always and Forever played softly on the stereo. “Let’s leave nothing to chance.”


Their departure left footprints on my heart. I sniffed, emotions lodged in my chest. Six months to make every day count, I thought to myself. How often we put off today what we can do tomorrow. What would you do if you had six months to do something you put off doing?

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