Nora Goes Off Script

by Annabel Monaghan

I walk across the lawn enjoying the bliss of slightly wet feet. My subconscious is triggered, and I kind of want to write, in that same way I kind of want a snack when I watch the Food Network.

At the corner of arrogance and cluelessness, you find the worst kind of person.

“Have you ever felt like you’re disappearing?” he asks. “Like you’re sure one day you’re going to wake up and find that the truest parts of yourself have been replaced by someone else’s plans?” Um, I just wrote a movie about it. I believe you read the script? How many times did I wake up next to Ben and wonder, Where did I go? His face would reflect either indifference or mild distaste, and I’d try to remember back when I was a person who deserved to be loved. I didn’t know what Ben was looking at, but it wasn’t me. I was gone.

Characters like Fagin get to the core of what it means to be a human being—we are both light and dark.”

For some reason I want to stay in this moment, ride this line, so I can both know and not know what’s about to happen.

Let me put it this way: Ben always does what he wants to do. If he wants something, he buys it. If he wants to leave, he goes. If he wanted to see the kids, he would have been here months ago.”

There’s something extraordinarily celebratory about this wedding. It’s not just because the people there love us and want us to be happy. It might be because they lived through the time that we were apart and miserable.

I have two thoughts that I can’t shake. First, that dance floor is going to wreck my lawn for the summer. And second, that the best things come back. Sometimes it’s right after the commercial, sometimes it takes longer. But time and sunshine bring growth, and life unfolds just the way it’s supposed to.

Nora ended up with the real escape I was looking for—a one-room structure behind her home, complete with a working fireplace, a writing desk, and a daybed for naps. I think this is what Virginia Woolf wanted for all of us.