Scene Description Exercise

The white light from the window seeps across the mottled wall and spills onto the chaotic desk. Scraps of paper, half-a-dozen construction paper dolls, a roll of masking tape, a roll of duct tape, and a sheet of bubble wrap cover one half of the desk. Books cover the other half, as well as the shelves. Some stacks are tidy—the Pixar movies from the library; the poetry book, play, Henri Nowen devotional, and Charlotte Bronte biography borrowed from friends who probably want them back by now; the two Philosophic Classics anthologies; the political theory books from last semester that never went home. One collection of books used to be orderly, standing upright in a row on the shelf, until the art history textbook at the end tipped over and the others followed. Near the books, and beside the bed, sit several purple, blue, and white t-shirts, a deconstructed pair of jeans, a few spools of thread, and a pincushion. The computer cord stretches from the outlet across the t-shirts, makes several knots, and connects to the laptop. The laptop rests on the painted sky of a children’s picture book cover, which nestles among the wrinkles in the bedspread. Strewn on the bed beside it are a book on law, a plastic binder crammed with note paper, a coffee mug with smears of peanut butter inside, and a sweatshirt. From the computer come the twangy strains of Relient K’s “Sadie Hawkins Dance.”