Writing Prompt Wednesday #2

Last week, I did my first writing prompt and I had a lot of fun with it. If you missed it, here it is

This week, sticking with the dialogue category, my writing prompt provided by Reedsy via Written World Media is: Write a short story about a first date, a reunion between old friends, an argument that gets heated, an adult explaining something to a child, or the reveal of a long-hidden secret.

It mentioned using dialogue, but to make things easier, I’m going to do a script between an adult and a child in which a young girl (Trisha, 11) asks her aunt (Sally, 35) about a historical event (9/11) that she thought was long ago, but her aunt gives her own experience, signaling that it is not the case

Trisha: Sally, can I ask you about 9/11?

Sally: What do you want to know?

Trisha: We are learning about what happened on September 11 in history class, but I don’t know if anyone who went through it is still here. My teacher said it’s been about 21 years.

Sally: Yes, there are a lot of people who are still around who have gone through it. 9/11 wasn’t really that long ago.

Trisha: It hasn’t?

Sally: No. In fact, I, your aunt Veronica, and your dad Jerry all went through that as kids. I was 14, Jerry was 16, and Veronica was 12 when the planes hit the twin towers in New York City. My brother (Jerry) was in his finance class (11th grade) and he remembered his teacher turning on the TV to watch the news. Some of the students, including Jerry, watched in awe. My sister (Veronica) was at her gym class (7th grade) when the PA system went off. She didn’t get to watch a bit of it until her next class. I was in math class (9th grade) and our teacher turned her TV on but without sound. Throughout the day, one by one, the towers fell, then there was one that flew into the pentagon. Jerry saw that live. There was another plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, but we didn’t know until later that it was related to 9/11. It was the worst and craziest day of our lives.

Trisha: Did people die?

Sally: Yeah, almost 3,000 of them. That’s why people always say “never forget”. That’s why every year, families go to New York to read out the names of their relatives that died that day.

Trisha: But my teacher also said that some people don’t think it’s real. Why would people call events in our history books fake?

Sally: Oh, Trisha, I don’t know what to tell you about that. Your dad has met people at his job who think it’s fake, and some were alive when it happened. And it’s far from the only event that people question the validity even though it happened. Which events have you learned about already?

Trisha: Well, we started with World War I, then we did the Great Depression, World War II, the civil rights movement, and now this is the last major event we’re learning about this year.

Sally: World War II. That’s another event that people like to twist facts about, especially the part about the Holocaust.

Trisha: Yes, the Holocaust. 6 million Jewish people died there.

Sally: Yes, that’s correct. But there are people who are even questioning the number of Jewish people that died there. Why? Some are anti-semitic, and others follow along with it even though it’s completely wrong. All of them are the same people who call 9/11 an inside job.

Trisha: So, 9/11 was a real event?

Sally: Yes, and that is the lesson I want to give you. Whatever is on official records is real. The things people say to divert you from official records are untrue and must be pushed back. I don’t know if your teacher is going to cover misinformation and disinformation, but if not, I’m sure by next year you will learn about it.

Trisha: I think I want to know more about how people get information on events

Sally: It’s an interesting topic, I can tell you that. That’s why your mom Megan (sister-in-law and Jerry’s wife) is advocating for the country’s true history to be taught in classes.

Trisha: Yeah, mom was saying something about people not knowing US history, but I didn’t know why that is.

Sally: I think you will go deep into it. You seem like you’re interested in it.

Trisha: I’m just fascinated by it. I might do something about it when I grow up.

(And so Sally and Trisha spent the day going through some more historical events with Megan joining in halfway through)