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."But, above all," she wrote, "night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery."
Armand stared at the letter. Very slowly his face lost all its color. He could not believe what he saw there. 'It is not true, it is not true. It cannot be so. I do not believe it. I will not believe it. She cannot be a. No! That means I. No, never!' His breath became short-winded and he pressed his hands against his face. 'I have to leave. Go somewhere. Anywhere! Just away from here.'
A little aside from the others he sat down on a stone and took out the letter. His eyes rushed over the piece without reading a single word. 'No-one must ever have to know about this. I will continue to live the life I've lived before. This paper must be burned. No-one will ever discover my little secret and my life can continue.. and..'
Suddenly Armand heard a noise behind him. He flipped around. Caught up with thoughts he had not heard the nine-year-old son of his neighbor approaching. The boy was standing next to him, just reading the letter, which Armand still held clutched in his right hand.
"Is it true?"
For a short moment of total helplessness Armand was not able to answer this question. Then he panicked.
"No, no, it is not true! Do not tell anyone about this letter! Did you hear me?! Do not tell anyone!" While almost screaming the last couple of words he took the little boy and shook him wildly from one side to the other. The child started crying aloud. Armand let him go, and the boy lost his balance, tripping over landing on a stone. Motionless, he stayed down.
Attracted by the shouts other people came. After a second of surprise they circled the boy to see if he was still alive. Armand stood up slowly. Everything happening around him seemed to be so unreal and far away. In a trance, he went back one step and let the letter fall down. Somewhere in the background he heard the voice of someone known, but he could not remember who it was. "The boy is still alive, but we need a room to bring him there, warm water." Then Armand heard a voice right next to him. He could not understand what it was saying; he only stared at the man it belonged to. Minutes he stood there as if mad, then he finally made out a friend of his wife.
"What did you do? You almost killed a child. You will go to prison. Oh my God! Why did you do that?" The man picked up the letter lying in the grass. "Because of this?" he asked. "Do not tell me you almost killed a child because of this. It was a joke. It was nothing else than a joke. We wanted to shock you, -just a little. This letter was never written by your mother. We did it. It was a joke, you understand? It was a joke!"
Analysis
The piece I have written is an alternative ending to the short story Désirée's Baby by Kate Chopin. In this writing I tried to resolve the ending of the story, -this way the end of the story has a double twist. My main goal was it to show the extent of Armand's panic. To make the reader feel Armand's fear I described his feelings in detail (e.g.: . seemed to be so unreal and far away. In a trance he went back.). I also kept the sentences short, this makes the reader read faster and actually makes him/her feel the panic and breathlessness that Armand feels.
I also tried to copy Chopin's writing style. The language she used was slightly different. It was a little more formal from that which I usually write, therefore writing this proved to be a challenge. Nevertheless, I feel I managed to copy the lively atmosphere which Chopin shows in her stories.
By my alternative ending for Chopin's story I do not only want to entertain the audience, but also want to make the listener think about the action that took place. I want to demonstrate that prejudices are unfair and superficial, and that they can hurt those concerned. It was difficult finding such an example.
706 words
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