Back Story: The Details by Judith Mercado
My short story, “The Details,” features a young couple whose wife is dying. The husband meets an elderly man who shares wisdom about how to deal with loss. The story explores the heightened love and fear experienced by someone who knows his beloved mate is dying. It also portrays the bittersweet quality of the time left together and the utter despair felt at the prospect of being left alone.
Three unrelated nonfictional experiences combined to provide the inspiration for “The Details.” First, while on an extended cruise through the Caribbean, my husband and I met a young couple who decided to spend the terminally ill wife’s remaining year cruising on a sailboat. I only met them once, but I was struck by the haunting way the husband gazed at his beloved, dying wife. I tried to capture that quality in my short story.
The second experience occurred on another island where my husband and I went exploring with our dinghy through jumbled mangroves and clogged shallow water only to meet an elderly man who lived alone but who seemed to know everything about what had happened on the island over the years. For reasons I never understood, he shared with us his experiences as a very young man offloading boxes of contraband. His age-worn wisdom was used to depict how the fictional old man dealt with the loss of his wife of fifty-two years.
Finally, also during our cruise, my husband suffered a near fatal heart attack, which forced me to confront what life without him would mean. In describing the young man of “The Details,” I sought to recapture my own poignant feelings regarding the tension between living in the moment and also trying to create memories for the future.
The final version of “The Details” evolved over a period of ten years. An early version was written for my (as yet unpublished) story collection about individuals who live on a boat and cruise through the Caribbean islands. Other stories in that collection were published early, but for some reason “The Details” kept getting rejected. So I revised and revised until, finally, this latest version pleased the editors at Rose & Thorn Journal.
From the above commentary, it is clear that “write what you know” was a technique I used extensively in writing my short story. In this case, though, it was delving deeply into the emotional dimension of “write what you know" that mattered rather than the superficial data points. This might explain why, when I reread the story, it is still an emotional experience for me.
I am happy to report that my husband recovered from his heart attack and is still with me. Sadly, in the sequel short story I wrote about the young couple of “The Details,” the wife has long since passed away.
Judith Mercado’s “The Details” was published in the 2011 winter issue of Rose & Thorn Journal.
It's amazing how the non-fiction in our lives shapes the fiction we create - that is, when we allow this to happen. Too many writers are afraid to let the truths of their lives enter into their creative fiction, though it seems to happen inevitably. You mentioned "write what you know," Judy, and I think this is very sound advice. There's always room to embellish the story, of course, and that's where imaginationcomes in.
I could tell, while reading your story, that there was personal experience inside it, because though it was not my story, it reached me... and touched.
Nevine
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Yes, Nevine, there was personal experience informing the story. It is what I love most about writing fiction, how I can use emotional memories to craftcompletely unrelated fictional stories.
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Your story haunted me once and it's done the trick a second time. The key word in describing it is 'subtle'. I know that I bring dance into literature and song-writing very often, but I have to do it again. Your tale is what I look for in a choreography, the rough with the sweet. The pain the man feels is softened by his attempt at understanding loss. Superb.
Greetings from London.
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I just sent this post to a bunch of my friends as I agree with most of what you’re saying here and the way you’ve presented it is awesome.
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Thank you, Cuban, for your words of praise.
TagtatrirmKaw, wow, I'm flattered. Thanks for sending it on.
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