The Art of Creative Writing by Lajos Egri

Author:Lajos Egri [Egri, Lajos]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Citadel Press
Published: 2020-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

ENVIRONMENT

The sources of all motivations are the physical make-up of a person and his environment. His sensitivity or his brutality, his attitude toward himself and toward the world is shaped by the above-mentioned two sources.

Let me test this to see if it is true.

Some time ago I read a newspaper account of how Paul, an eleven-year-old shoeshine boy, innocently caused a death. It is a pitiful story.

Paul’s father had been killed in an accident. His widow was left with three children and was without funds. Paul decided that shining shoes would bring in more money than running errands or delivering newspapers, so he built a wooden box and selected a busy corner not far from his home. He thought he was ready for business. He was ready, all right, but the fellow whose corner he had innocently taken had different and violent ideas.

When he arrived and saw a stranger in his usual place he attacked without asking questions or giving Paul a chance to explain. Paul resisted at first, but finding the other fellow too strong for him, broke away and ran. In the ensuing chase the other boy was run over and killed instantly by a truck.

This was the story I read. What follows is the result of my imagination.

The investigation into the death of Robert Remeto, age thirteen, took almost three weeks, but Paul was cleared of guilt. It was established beyond the shadow of a doubt that Robert had been crushed to death by a truck as he was chasing Paul.

Not long afterward, Paul appeared once more at the same subway station with his shoeshine box. The best place was just beside the candy store, a strategic position for catching the eye of a prospective customer. This had been Robert’s envied spot, and after his death the next in line, Chico Marossa, a dark, lanky boy, took it over as his rightful legacy. He was tough, and the others readily accepted him as the arbiter in all their disputes. On the morning when Paul reappeared on the scene, he took his position before the candy store, naively assuming that with Robert dead, the place was open. He put his shoeshine box on the sidewalk and stood behind it, leaning against the red brick wall, ready for business.

He had come back to the same place instead of going elsewhere because, he told himself, he already knew a few of the boys in the neighborhood. The real motivation was that he knew he neighborhood better than any other. If worst came to worst, he could escape pursuers more easily on familiar terrain.

As the day wore on, the other boys who lived nearby looked at him with amazement and moved on without saying a word to him. This kid had caused the death of Robert Remeto, the toughest guy around, and now he had come back for more. The boys’ eyes held fear and respect, both powerful deterrents from being chummy with him. He is dangerous, they thought, and left him alone.

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