Sophia Lee
Christina Black
ENGL1147
16 December 2013
And There He Stood Alone
“Madame, ” said the man, with the most breathtaking, but fake smile
on his face. “Like I explained already multiple times, there is no way this
little stick can support the whole weight of your building. You are pretty much
asking me to build you a building that floats in the middle of the air.” It was
clear that the man had been having this tiring and fruitless conversation with
this woman for a while and was greatly disturbed. Even with such clear
statement, Madame Schumann sadly not seemed to understand the problem. First of
all, she did not understand how something is simply impossible when she was
willing to pay whatever. The more serious problem was that she did not see the
problem in requesting a building that floats in the middle of the air. Instead
of backing out on her ridiculous request, she expressed her dissatisfaction with
her whole fat body, which was covered with excess ornaments that looked tacky
although they probably were outrageously pricy. “But you are a genius, Danny.
You do remember that I’m willing to pay for it no matter how much it costs,
right? Just work something out for me,” said Madame Schumann. Daniel,
desperately suppressing his desire to yell at her to get herself a new brain
with her budget for this building, tried to talk her out once again.
Daniel Cruvellier was a typical
clean-cut young man with a sharp style and sense of humor. He was also known
for his white smile that probably saved him a myriad of occasions when he was
in predicaments. This seemed to work universally; the fact that he was in
Budapest did not deter him from getting his ways until today. This time, neither
his white smile nor a sharp sense of humor was helping her out with this
clueless woman. It was at the moment he was about to injure himself so he can
get the hell away from the woman. “One moment please,” said Daniel, failing from
withholding his joy and relief as he picked up the regular check-up phone call
he hates the most in the world. “Yes, I also was told that I was limited to
T-square and Mayline for this operation. No, sir, I do not even own a rendering
program. I understand,” said Daniel to the guy on the phone. And the white
smile. “I gotta go,” said Daniel, with a naïve excitement, as he rushes his way
out of his office.
It had been a year since Daniel
Cruvellier was placed in Budapest. After graduating from an architecture
school, he had a pretty stable life. A stable income, a stable job, and a
stable relationship, all until he got involved in some scheme that seemed to be
a lot less serious than what he thought. He was only supposed to be a one-time
architectural consult. The client offered enormous amount of money under the
condition that he would cooperate without asking any question about the
unnecessary details of the project. He didn’t, except that he was caught
accidently eavesdropped their conversations that involved the national
security. Instead of getting executed, the agency decided to use him as their
asset, as he had high potential in espionage. He now practices architecture to
disguise his actual profession and uses architectural languages to protect
secret operations from being docked.
“Cruvellier, I need you to return soon. Seems like you aren’t
getting much out of there anyways. I’ll give you a month to clean up your mess
before you leave,” said the agent on the phone. Mess? Daniel thought, what
mess? What could be possibly messy after living a completely fake life for a
year in Budapest? “What mess are you talking about?” asked Daniel. “Your girl,
Daniel. You should’ve known this from the beginning, no?”
It was a week into his operation in Budapest. In the morning, he
sold his perfectly fake smile to his clients who visit his architecture office.
At night, he went to high-class parties, high-end Hungarian bars or clubs where
he could get most of the useful information from various sources. That night,
he stole some confidential documents from the office where the party was held,
and was getting chased. “Shhh, Hi, my name is Daniel Cruvellier and I need you
right now very desperately, so I’m going to use you, is that alright? I thought
so,” babbled Daniel, without giving a chance for Kamile to even process his
question, and he kissed her. Right after the urgency, Kamile said, “Hi, nice to
meet you. I’m Kamile Goenher,” and she slapped Daniel’s face as hard as she
could.
It would have been a lie if Daniel had not expected the consequence
at all. But he was naïve that the agency would keep Kamile alive, let alone that
he thought that the agency was dumb enough not to know of Kamile. There had to
be something done. There should’ve been a way to get this girl out of here
safely. All he could think of at that point was giving something for the agency
to chew on for a bit. It wouldn’t last forever, but it would earn some time for
him to think what to do to get Kamile out of here safely. To avoid suspicion,
he waited for weeks until he made a phone call. “Sir, I recently suspected an
unusual movement from the Hungarian government. I think it would be for our own
good if I can make sure there is nothing serious going on,” continued Daniel, “
I have some plans, sections, and elevations of the building that is suspicious
at this point.” “We’ll look into it. Until you hear anything back from us, just
stay where you are. And try not to make a fuss, got it?” said the senior agent.
“Understood, sir,” said Daniel, hoping the bogus terrorist facilities can earn
him some time. However, the incident happened from where he expected the least.
“What the hell is this, Daniel? Why the hell do you have drawings
of nuclear plants? Are these what you are building now?” in fury, Kamille
cried. “Shhh, calm down, Kamile, there are just drawings of some regular
buildings, not a nuclear plant,” said Daniel, with a perfect smile. “Don’t lie
to me, Daniel, I know how to read this. You taught me. And this…No! Don’t!
Don’t touch me. How about all these? Have a descent explanation why you keep
all these lethal weapons,” cried Kamile, with the look of distrust and
suspicion on her face. “Kamile, I can explain everything. I’m so sorry I lied
to you, but I work for a spy agency. The drawings and rendered images of
nuclear facilities are all fake. They don’t actually exist. I made them up so I
can get you out of here safely,” said Daniel. “Oh, Daniel, what are you
planning on doing?” wailed Kamile. “I promise you, I’m gonna get you out of
here safely,” said Daniel. “I’m not going anywhere unless you are coming with me,”
said Kamile. “I am going with you, wherever it is,” said Daniel, and he smiled.
It was still snow white and flawless, like the one he fakes so well; but this
time, Kamile knew he was genuinely smiling. “Your eyes are smiling. They are
lovely,” said Kamile. “You are safe in this house right now, but not for long.
I need you to learn this plan very carefully,” continued Daniel, “basically,
this place blends in to the site perfectly, so unless someone heat detects us,
they will have no idea if this place even exists. But as you know, the agency
knows I’m an architect. We need to figure something out pretty soon so we can
leave this country safely.” Kamile, terrified, answer him trying to hide her
trembling voice as much as she could, “ I understand.” “The day we escape is a
week from today. When I tell you to, follow this narrow pitch, which is 48ft
underground, which will be pretty hard for the agency to spot the exact heat
source. This road directly leads you to the heliport” said Daniel. “What about
you? Why are you telling me all this? What are you going to do?” asked Kamile.
“I’m going to follow you from right behind you. I need to clean up after myself
first. I made some mess I made here before I take off,” said Daniel.
Now all there was left, was, who moves first. Daniel already knew
that the drawings were not going to fool the agency for good. He knew that it
was the matter of time for the agency to figure it all out that it was nothing
but a sneaky scam, which was planned so he could earn some little extra time so
he can plan better for his great escape. As soon as the agency figures out that
the nuclear plant was a made up story, it would try to hunt Daniel down before
he takes any action. But when would it be? A day after? Or a week after if he
is lucky? All Daniel knew for sure was, that he had to escape before the agency
takes the initiative. And the plan was more guaranteeing if it is done the
fastest.
Daniel had a gut feeling that night, that if they were to escape,
it had to be that day. He woke Kamile up. “Kamile, pack up. You gotta leave
now,” said Daniel. Kamile, without a word, began to move. “Babe, be safe. Run
and get on the helicopter immediately once you see it. There only should be
one. I’ll be already on the helicopter when you get there,” said Daniel. Kamile
kissed him and said, “I love you. Please don't die.” And she walked through the
dark, narrow pitch.
Kamile only knew when she got on that there was no Daniel on the
helicopter. She looked down and screamed, “Daniel! Get on the fucking
helicopter! You promised me!” Daniel, without looking up, screamed back at her,
“Since when did I tell you the truth?” And he smiled his flawless white smile, this
time, fake. Kamile then realized he was never planning on leaving with her. He
knew all along that he would never be able to live normal life again. And there
he stood alone, in a man-made purgatory.
Sophia Lee
Christina Black
ENGL1147
16 December 2013
Reflection on Self-Creation
The short story I produced was a great study piece. I experiment
with it freely by trying to incorporate different elements from the class
throughout the semester. First of all, I tried to emphasize the physical
description of the protagonist and used it to reveal the personality of the
character as shown in The Spy Who Came in
from the Cold by John LeCarré, The
Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, and Our
Man in Havana by Graham Greene. Also I played with flashbacks in order to
reflect on my personal interpretation of flashbacks and their effects from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Lastly,
I focused on the perspective, as I figured out that the third person omniscient
point of view made the writing less confusing for readers to follow.
The physical descriptions of the
protagonist Daniel might not have been clear enough to readers; I mostly
focused on the “too good to be truth” image by portraying him as a clean-cut
man with a flawless smile, also associating him with a color white. Although
the color white is often used as a guileless image, I used it to create the
opposite image by double taking the meaning. The emphasis on his flawless smile
also connected back to his true side that is revealed by Kamile, the heroine of
the story in the end.
Flashbacks were harder to deal with
than what I imagined. I was inspired by the flashbacks from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, in
which the protagonist Leamas’ past gets slowly revealed. In my short story,
however, it did not create much of a mysterious effect partly because I am a
novice writer and also because of the length of the whole story is too
miniscule compared to the novel. However, I tried to portray the protagonist’s
past as if I was pealing each layers of onion; first I revealed how he became a
spy from what he studied back in school, and then I revealed the first
acquaintance of Daniel and Kamile.
The literature element that I got
the most understanding out of was the point of view. I originally proposed the
story to be written from the perspective of Kamile, the heroine of the story,
thinking that I could make some interesting connection to “The Adventure of the
Bruce-Partington Plans” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who uses Watson as the first
person observant narrator. However, I learned how much limiting the writing
from the first person observant perspective was by writing the story and
realized that there was no way I could tie the story together. On the other
hand, I efficiently used the third person omniscient narration. Instead of
revealing everything and interrupting the story like the late 18th
century authors did, I tried to repress as much so that the story did not get
spoiled and readers lose interest before they finished it. Although I tried to
keep too much of information from leaking via carefully limiting the narration,
my narration was much easier to follow and the whole story became much more
comprehensible when I switched the narration from the first person observant
narration to the third person omniscient narration.
Overall, the project was a great
experimental piece. I enjoyed writing my own piece that incorporated all the
favorite aspects of different novels we read as a class. Most of all, all the
ideas, knowledge, and perceptions about the mystery genre that grew over the
semester became more clear and organized as I wrote my own piece.
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