Prologue: Urbana, Minnesota
Well, hello there, reader! So glad you could join us tonight. Please, pretend to come in, take off your coat. We’ve got fake refreshments if you’re hungry. The imaginary bathroom is right down the imaginary hall. We recycle, so if you want to pretend to drink a soda, please also pretend to put it in the recycling bin right next to the trash can. Let me show you to the sitting room! It’s big and comfortable with a surfeit of soft chairs surrounding a blazing fire; just the thing for listening to a story on a cold night.
What? Of course the room exists! Just look around you! You don’t see anything? You’re just sitting in front of your computer? Well, you have to work a little bit for it. The room exists, but not physically. If you imagine it, and I imagine it, then it will be real. For a little while at least.
Let me direct your attention away from the crackling fire (I know it’s quite captivating) and toward the subject of our story. Towards a Midwestern college town bordered by farmland and split through by a river. Probably sounds a little familiar, right? The town is Urbana, Minnesota, and pretty much nothing interesting has happened there ever. Major Export: Sugar; Major Import: College Applicants. Population thirty thousand. City hall was recently remodeled, and it’s got some nice parks!
Narrowing our focus, let’s take a look at the state university. It’s located on the East side of the Blue River, separated from its western rivals. The sign reads Minnesota State University of Urbana, but everyone calls it the U of U. The campus sprawls over several blocks and is made up of mismatched brick buildings, each pleasant in its own way but not quite contributing to the whole. The walkways are dotted with works of sculpture produced by seven generations of students. Well known for its arts education, the U of U has a 16:1 student to faculty ratio and I see your face! You don’t care. Let’s move on!
I twist the dial even further, and zoom in on an old brick building; probably the oldest on campus. Contents: the English department, an old stage that is rarely used, and our protagonists. Let me freeze frame quickly and I’ll introduce them. I know it’s not exactly standard and that you’d probably rather just jump right in and immerse yourself in the prose. Well, hold your horses! You’re going to have to pick one of them before we can do that! I mean if you really don’t care, you can just skip the next four paragraphs.
First we have Aubrey Chambers. She’s entering a side door, just come from an adjacent parking lot. She’s red-haired, freckled, and wearing a blue sweater even though it’s almost too warm for it. She doesn’t actually go to school here. Parents too rich to qualify for aid and too poor to pay for her college. Instead she works as a secretary at a local start-up and is taking a sculpting class at the community college. She likes to run tabletop games, but disdains preparation and prefers to create scenarios off the cuff in response to her players. Her girlfriend broke up with her last month. Right now, in this secret frozen moment, her face is neutral, eyes distant. Thinking about something, going through the motions.
Just through the front doors we have Richard Flores entering with his older sister. He’s got long, scraggly blond hair and bags under his eyes, but he’s bright-eyed and cheerful, amused by something his sister is saying. Although Urbana is his home town, Rick lives on campus. He’s majoring in Computer Science. He also likes playing video games, which surprises literally no one. His parents insisted he not work a job so that he can focus on his studies, but mostly he uses the extra time to have fun. Every once in a while he cuts class and goes out of town for the weekend, but no one is quite sure where he goes or what he’s doing.
At Rick’s side is Heather Flores, the elder and wiser sibling. She’s got blond hair like Rick, but short and carefully styled. Her glasses are fashionable, not hip, and her mouth is quirked up as she’s saying something to her brother. She’s friends with Aubrey, who she met in kind of a series of coincidences last year. The two get along but have a hard time connecting with each other’s primary hobbies. Heather lives with her parents at home, and she’s a Graphic Design major. Like Rick, she doesn’t have a job.
Finally, there’s Malcom Young. He’s sitting with me down in the basement lounge. He’s black, and has short, natural hair. His laptop out and appears to be playing music, although we can’t hear it at the moment. The music is, in fact, of his own creation; Malcom is a talented musician who is unsurprisingly a Music major. He’s also one of Aubrey’s tabletop players and Rick’s roommate! His tuition is covered by a combination of grants, scholarships, and loans, and he’s also working as a waiter off campus for his spending money.
These four young men and women will soon meet as a group for the first time. Although they don’t know it, they are approaching their destiny. Destinies? Destinies doesn’t really look right but the spellchecker says that it is. Before that happens, you’ll need to pick one of them as the focus of our third-person limited perspective.
FIRST CHOICE: VOTE! To vote, please either vote in the box on the right or just contact me and tell me what your vote is. Please vote only once. Ties will be broken in the order the options are listed.
Aubrey Chambers
Malcom Young
Heather Flores
Richard Flores
(NEXT)