The Story of Peter and Tricia, by Tucker

Today I am teaching Tuck the grandiose beauty of the Working Lunch. We each have writing deadlines we’re working on.

I’ve taught him the secret to it all: a great environment with just enough stimulation to keep you engaged in what you have to do, keep a great drink close by, and only let yourself snack after you’ve finished another sentence.

So we are working side by side. I am working on a book manuscript, and he’s finishing his final draft of a fictional story about two characters named Tricia and Peter. They story takes place in China in 1792. Tricia and Peter are fed up with their cellular service, and they’ve decided to leave Sprint and switch to Verizon. (Which is how you know it’s fictional, since I’ve long been a Verizon girl.)

They discover that Tricia’s iPad has been sending unsolicited texts to people, and they rush to the Verizon store because they’re concerned that the iPad is possessed. After an hour of searching to see if the Possessed Button is turned on, there is grand relief in the story when they all learn together that it was only a problem with the Automatic Texting App. They go into settings and turn off the automatic texting, and then they all live happily ever after.

Tucker’s writing is filled with great verbs—nobody ‘says’ anything, but Peter and Tricia whine, blurt, declare, mutter, giggle, shriek, yelp, cheer, bark, and sing their way through the Verizon store.

Incidentally, Tricia is a “beautiful woman with curly hair and blue eyes.”

And Peter wears a cape.

Tuck whispered, “Mom, just so you know, everybody thinks this story is fiction, but I’m really writing about you.”