Literally Reruns – Dave by Hugh Cron

Ah, the month of June. When I was a child June was a magical time. School was out and summer lay ahead like an endless fantasy. It was impossible to believe that something that wonderful could go bad. But it did; when school let me out for the last time I immediately began working at a job I needed but already hated.

So it is fitting that we mark this June with a tale of regret for something wonderful that was lost and always will be, with Dave by Hugh Cron.

Q. This is a strong tale about anger and lost chances. Do you recall your thinking when you composed the structure–or did it just happen the way it came out?

Q. Do you believe that Lewis gained “closure” (a once respectable word weakened by modern overuse). Or do you think he goes back and says “And another thing, you bastard”?

Leila

***

Dave

(very strong language)

Hi Leila,

Thanks as always – I still get such a kick out of doing these!!

Q.1 – It has taken me a while to answer this as I have been thinking on what to say. When you ask about structure, yep it was clear that the story had mainly to come from his inner dialogue. But I have a bit of a problem with that and feel a little hypocritical. When this was written I hadn’t read as many shorts as I have done now. You will know that I can criticise inner dialogue when it is logical and structured (Like this is) as it doesn’t work that way. If I was to write this again, I would either structure it more as a traditional story or more likely break up the inner dialogue.

I think that is why I wanted to write something that I thought was more true to a thought process or probably lack of it and that was when I came up with ‘Bravado’ which I think is more realistic.

Q.2 – This made me laugh. I have an old pal who always said, never sit in a room when your wife is ironing as you get hit with ‘…And another thing!’ and that is even before you said the first thing!

I hope he cleared the air. I think it was all about the share of blame / guilt that had to be addressed.

I am a tit for principle and probably hold more grudges than I care to admit but I made peace with the fact that if you are going to hold a grudge, you need to take it to the grave. And here’s the thing, taking it to your grave is easy. But if the other party involved dies, that’s a bit different!!

Cheers for this Leila, it’s always fun to not only re-visit the stories but to try and think what you were thinking!!

Hugh