365 Q&A #67: Apprehension
Imagine a waiting area of some sort. There is a person there, fidgeting. Give this person a reason for his or her anxiety but in writing the descriptive scene, leave out the reason and see if it comes through anyway.
She sits there fidgeting with the clipboard. Tapping, tapping, tapping away. Her pen unable to meet the paper. The room is white but riddled with medical posters. Instead of magazines there are a pile of pamphlets covering everything from cancer to phobias. One woman sits at the front desk. She's probably been there since the place opened. Her white curly hair and glasses attached to a chain necklace give her age away.
An older woman sits down next to the young girl,. "Do you need a hand filling that out", she says. The young girl, never looking up, shakes her head no. "What's the your name sweetheart?", the older woman asks. A man exits the bathroom and sits across from the women. The young woman doesn't answer the older woman's question.
A doctor enters the room and calls out the young woman's name. The man gets up to go with her but the doctor stops him. The young woman's eyes widen with fear as she begins to fidget more erratically. "Patients only." The doctor guides the young woman to her room while the man is left standing in the waiting room.
