Jue's Workbook for Cat's Writing Boot Camp

Excercise 1 Pt C-The "Rear Window" Excercise

In this excercise we are asked to write a scene we cannot hear based on the dialogue in Excercise 1 part A.

I did try to do it with "extra credit" by combining it with "Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" and "Rip Van Wrinkle" excercise. Here we go...

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It was a nice afternoon. I came to Versan Psychiatric Hospital to observe some patients there for my college assignment. With some help from my father’s acquaintance, I got permission to do the observation in one condition: I should not, in any way, make contact with any patients.

I asked for permission to observe the patients here from nurses sitting at their post just at the corner of the corridor. This part of the corridor was directly exposed to the hospital park, which was quite big considering the park was in the middle of the hospital. This part of the hospital was specialized for non-dangerous patients. That’s why they were allowed to socialize and do some activities like normal people as a part of their therapy.

The park was planted with flowers here and there, and of course trees. The color of purple Verbena and pink daisy dominated the edge of the park. In the middle of the park, a bunch of chrysanthemum surrounded a small, classic water fountain. The cheerful, bright yellow color of the chrysanthemum shone under the sunshine, making the day even brighter. Each tree stretched its branches, keeping every bench under it stay shady. A soft wind blew, making every green leaf, and colorful flower touched with each other.

Some patients sat on the bench talking, some decided to sit alone staring at the sky and some others just looked at other patients silently. At the other corner of the park, there were chairs and rectangular tables arranged for the patients to play puzzles, chess or simply talked to each other face to face. But a middle age man decided to sit at the farthest corner to read book alone.

There was a veranda attached to the corridor, sticking out to the park. Round tables were set there: a total of 6 tables, with 4 chairs surrounding each of the table. The veranda was decorated with blue hydrangea planted on both of its sides.

Two young men, in their 30s, were sitting and talking at the left side of the veranda. At another table, a woman with short, grey hair was busy turning over every page of the magazine she held on her hands. From where I stood, I could see some picture of beautiful women posing in glamour dresses: it was a fashion magazine she looked at.

I walked to a bench in the corridor; it was the farthest seat with a clear view of the veranda and the park so I could watch them while keeping my distance from them. Once I sat there, my eyes were attracted to 3 people sitting at the farthest, right corner of the veranda: a middle-aged man with grey hair, a young, attractive man and a sweet young woman with long wavy hair.

The old man was a bit bulky. He wore a short-sleeves, brown shirt with horizontal and vertical strips, forming many small squares. The straightness of the lines matched his straight face. He crossed his arms and looked straight to the young man sitting in front of him.

The young man, on the other hand, looked the other way, avoiding the old man’s eyes. He ran his fingers through his short brown hair. He looked quite relax though the man in front of him looked as if he might swallow him anytime. This young man wore a black t-shirt with “STEDFAST London” written on it, and a pair of jeans. This young man was handsome, and I could say quite fashionable.

The woman was young, I’d say in her thirties. She wore a simple pale-marigold, V-neck t-shirt. Her long, wavy brown hair was tied at the back of her head. No makeup was put on her face. She’s just a simple girl who didn’t like make up like most of other girls, I guessed, but still, she’s quite attracting.