Short Story Proposal (ClaireN.)

Exposition: A family of three living in Bellevue, Washington begins to notice that something strange is happening to their daughter. The mother named Jane, is a counselor and the father named David, is an architect and their daughter is an 8 year old girl named Eve. The story starts with the parents receiving a call from their daughter’s school, saying that she had been showing aggressive behavior lately and had bitten another child. The parents are shocked because Eve had never shown any such behavior in the past. When the parents question Eve she replies that her friends told her to. Increasingly startled by this information they ask for the names of her friends, Eve tells them that her friends names are Marvin the mermaid, Quinby the clown, and Darwin the Monkey....

Inciting incident: (Rewind back to when Eve was at school) Eve’s class had just finished learning about fractions and they had been let out for recess. The other children went in there little groups leaving Eve the odd one out. The other kids stayed away from Eve because they all thought she was weird, she was always talking to herself and pretending people were there. The others played pretend too but they knew it was just fake, Eve got angry when they said no one was there. One brave kid came up to Eve and had invited her to play. At first she was excited and had accepted the invitation, but then Eve began looking very confused. The other child had touched her shoulder to get attention but was then bitten by Eve. The kid cried out loudly catching the attention of nearby teachers.

Rising Action: (Back to present) Jane and David were stunned, they knew that Eve had imaginary friends, what kid didn’t have at least one in their childhood, but this was not normal. Jane, the first of the pair to come out of her thoughts had sat down with Eve. She asked Eve to explain about her Imaginary friends. Eve then vehemently says that they are not imaginary, then said that they were her right now and that they were unhappy with Jane. David who is overwhelmed leaves the room for a few moments. After this conversation they quickly had dinner and put Eve to bed. David and Jane decide to take Eve out of school for a few days to take her to the Doctor.

Climax: (At the Doctors’) The Doctor decides that Eve’s general health is ok and recommends that they go see a psychologist. The psychologist is a middle aged woman named Kathy Reynolds, She is kind-hearted but is stern when needed. When they are at the psychologist, Kathy ask them to leave the room temporarily. She leads them to a room with a one-way mirror and ask them to sit here and wait while Kathy talks to Eve. After a short session, Kathy tells Eve’s parents that she believes that Eve has schizophrenia, one of the youngest cases ever know.

Falling Action: When the family goes home they have a tense dinner, which leads to Jane and David having a fight over whose fault it is. Jane says that its is David’s fault for being a workaholic and never spending time with Eve. David is arguing that if Jane paid more attention to Eve rather than her looks Eve might be normal the fight goes on to the night. With Eve crying in the background.

Resolution: The Family is now trying to cope with the fact that Eve is schizophrenic and David and Jane’s relationship is becoming more and more strained as time passes. Will the couple’s relationship worsen or will they come together to overcome this hardship? How will they go about dealing with Eve’s condition?