Lucinda's Complexities

(Character Sketch from one of my projects - feedback welcome)

      

        Lucinda Marisa Evangeline Rose will talk your ear off any chance she gets. To be fair, it’s extremely rare for her to get an audience. Hardly anyone in town talks to Lucinda. Stories of her weird family, her odd appearance, lack of social graces, and penchant for tall tales have conspired to make her unpopular in most circles. Consequently, she usually spends her afternoons staring out the window of the tidy little box house she shares with her two elderly, spinster aunts.

Lonely as it sometimes can get, the bright pink house with its collection of figurines and cross-stitched artwork is a haven to its youngest inhabitant. Her sparsely furnished bedroom provides a space where she can ponder life’s complexities and her seeming inability to forge relationships with those around her. It was also where she came to dream. It was her escape from the nightmare of an abusive childhood and more recently, the less than welcoming environment at the exclusive private college her aunts insisted she attend. 

“We were laughing the whole time and he kept staring into my eyes,” Lucinda told her aunts the one time she had gone out on a date. “It was so much fun.” In truth, her pretty little schoolmate had set her up with an unsuspecting ex-boyfriend out of spite. But at 22, it was the only date she’d ever gone on. That night, Lucinda kept bursting into nervous giggles while Prince Charming stared in disbelief at the mousy little chatterbox he’d ended up with. She was barely five feet tall, slightly overweight, had messy dull brown hair, thick, pink-rimmed glasses, and just wouldn’t shut up. The childish cartoon T-shirt, pale orange skort, and comfortable blue flats that she’d chosen to wear to the theatre that night didn’t help either. Her rose perfume reminded him of his grandmother’s potpourri. Of course, she never heard from Gary again, except in her overactive imagination. 

In her imagination, everything went right. In it, Lucinda re-created each day and made her life much more exciting and colorful. There, everyone in town wanted to be her friend, she wore sexy designer outfits instead of the old-fashioned clothes her aunts bought her, and she and Gary were practically engaged.

Every afternoon she stared out the window and saw, heard, and felt her life as she believed it should’ve been. It was increasingly seductive, achingly familiar, but the minute reality stepped in, truly scary. 

       Snapped out of her beautiful daydream, Lucinda would scramble to face her unpleasant reality. She’d venture into town, hoping for a familiar face or a friendly stranger with whom she could interact- someone, something that could strengthen her fragile hold on her sanity. Unfortunately, no one would want to listen to her boring life, so Lucinda embellished the truth quite a bit...she had to.