Vignette: Susie

I have posted the first in what I hope to be a series of vignettes/flash fiction. Each piece will center around an individual character and will remain posted until the next vignette or piece of flash fiction takes its place. I hope to compile them all into one book eventually.

Please give feedback. It definitely helps to hear objective opinions!

Vignette: Susie


Background Information
(Please read after the vignette.)

Susie began as a means of channeling my own recent disappointments in my professional life, as well as a Christmas that was spent stressing out over residency applications instead of spending quality time with extended family. I had this scene in my head of a grown woman staring at the nails where she and her siblings used to hang their Christmas stockings every year. The atmosphere was intended to be -- for lack of a better word -- gray, reflective of the quasi-depressed mood of the main character.

As I wrote, however, it quickly became apparent that Susie's reasons for feeling this way extend far beyond my petty woes. There was a sense of loss that an ended childhood alone could not explain, and gradually her past came to light: all of this is the result of a marriage gone terribly wrong.

There are hints at it, although I'm not sure how obvious they are. Her husband left her for a more attractive woman, and he also had a bit of an alcohol problem. These are the root causes of her own insecurity in her physicality, which is why she wears baggy sweats and why she flips out over food that might "make her fat." This could be the beginning of an eating disorder, but I hope not.

In any case, Susie finally loses it this morning, and the breaking point is when she feels skin where her wedding ring used to be. It somehow makes the whole thing real; before, she was living in hazy denial, so everything is sort of coming down on her at once. I'm unsure of whether or not her reaction is too over-the-top, but it's what felt right.

So there you have it: Susie in a nutshell. I have every reason to believe that she'll be okay.