Written in a Laundromat

Her high school creative writing teacher told her she had a good radio voice.

"Great," she thought, "I can do radio news when my book flops."

It wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to her though, seeing as how she never wrote that novel anyway. Sure, she wrote a little here and there, submitting a couple pieces along the way. She had a blog where she haphazardly posted random rants over the years.

Moving along in life, she ended up selling insurance and settling down in a small coastal town. There wasn't much going on besides the twice weekly newspaper she picked up now and then. Her writing became more and more sporadic.

As the drought moved north from California, she found her well dry one day. With loads of dirty laundry, she stumbled into the only laundry mat in town. She brought her lap top with her to pass the time and as she checked her email found another Writers Digest daily writing prompt.

She thought for a while, typed and deleted, typed and deleted every idea she had.

"Whatcha doin there?" asked a high pitched country twang of a voice.

She looked up and saw Sandra Jensen, the local girl gone big country and tried not to be too star struck.

"Nothing really, just trying to pass the time and come up with a good story. Something with a twist."

Sandra looked around for a moment and said, "Well, you can tell my story."

Four hour, six loads of laundry and two coffees later, she had a rough draft of the most amazing heart warming story she's ever written. The two exchanged contact information and she promised to let Sandra read the final draft before she sent it to the publisher.

Three weeks later she picked up the phone to call Sandra, excited about how the final draft turned out. After a few rings, an unfamiliar voice answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, can I talk to Sandra please?!"

The person on the other line broke into wild sobs, eventually handing the phone to someone else who explained to her that Sandra had died a few weeks ago in a tragic car accident.

"What?! No, that's impossible! We were working on..."

"I'm sorry ma'am. She was driving home from the laundry mat and was hit by a drunk driver. I have to now. Good bye."

She couldn't believe what she heard. The phone dropped from her hands as she realized that she was the last person to talk to Sandra that night and now she had her story, written down, and didn't know what to do with it all.


Ten years later.....


She had taken a creative writing teaching position at the local high school and was welcoming her first class to school. The first assignment she handed out was one she herself had to do in high school: write about someone who has had the greatest impact on you.

That night she settled into her living room couch with stacks of essays, a red pen (her favorite) and a mug a hot tea. She picked up the first paper and noticed it was written by a student named Michelle Jensen.

Her mind shot back to Sandra Jensen all those years ago. She shook her head as if to rid herself of the memory. Looking back at the paper she began to read: "The person who has had the greatest impact on my life is my mom, Sandra Jensen."

She couldn't believe it. This was the six year old daughter Sandra had told her all about that night at the laundry mat. With tears streaming, she read the essay and knew what she had to do.

She went out to the garage and pulled out a dusty box and brought it back inside. The next day at school she waited for Michelle to get to class. With tearful eyes and a smile, she handed Michelle the only copy of a novel she buried ten years ago, titled "My Whole Life, a story for my daughter Michelle".