Reports and thoughts on Jane Shirley Mary

Submitted into Contest #95 in response to: Write a story about someone who’s extremely impulsive — or extremely indecisive.... view prompt

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Fiction Teens & Young Adult

Reports and thoughts on Jane Shirley Mary

Jane Shirley Mary was quite a character indeed. This woman was somewhat of a legend in the small town she occupies. Some called her a free spirit, some called her impulsive.

At the start of her day, she gets up and chooses her outfit depending on her mood which is pretty tame and normal.

Then she will decide to whether to go to her work or skip it altogether. She was smart enough to pull this trick about once every two years so her boss believed her. He was not much of a boss really, she seemed to have the air of bossing everyone instead.

Anyway, note: Jane Shirley Mary was an impulsive women, not a dumb one.

She will usually stare at her clock which was conveniently placed at the head of her bed (also, the ticking sounds was not really good for sleeping but she got used to it, after all it was she in the spur of a moment that decided to nail it up there), which she can’t see lying down, and sometimes she will play a little game of guessing the time so she can be late for work and maybe skip it for the whole day. Other times, she will mutter “Screw it,” and then a bit louder “Screw it!” and you will know she will be skipping work today. After she has uttered those words, she will quickly run off to do whatever she wants without thinking much.

Another note: Most of her impulsiveness was highly influenced by her emotions on the spot.

After that, depending on whether she chose work or skip, her day will go accordingly. If she chose work, she worked diligently. Yes, you read that right. I said diligently, just because she was impulsive doesn’t mean she can’t work hard, and work hard she did and sometimes she worked smart.

However, if she chose to skip then I am sad to inform you that even I have not been able to pinpoint what she will usually do on her outings. She tries such diverse and different things on her “skip days” that I am afraid I cannot exactly say what she might be up to on those days.

I remember one incident where a group of people came in and asked for charity, and because of their story and her sudden impulsiveness she just went ahead and dumped the whole load of her month’s salary into their little brown box. She suffered later, oh she did, but during those times not a word of complaining could be heard from her.

So you see, she was an interesting woman. She was a hardworking, innocent, kind-ish yet also extremely impulsive woman. I mean we are talking about a woman who hurled her game controller to her brand new TV and broke the screen in a fit of excitement and just impulsiveness. She is also the woman, who ran inside her home and knitted all night for the kids that were shivering in the cold and had nowhere to go. She was a kind woman. She was also a thoughtless woman, she neither thought for the consequence of her actions or just thought about what she was doing, she would just jump head first into stuff. In my thoughts, she seemed to be racing with time, or some kind of something that she was so very impulsive.

Innocent also, doesn’t seem to be a word that went with impulsivity but she was the living image of that.

Now, what did she herself had to say about impulsiveness?

“Oh, impulsivity. I heard that word before, it rolls of your tongue doesn’t it? It also tumbles out of your mouth with such great urgency no matter how long you try to drag it out. They describe me with that word. I suppose I am it, aren’t I?

Anywho, life is full of choices. And I prefer to choose what I want and stick with it. I don’t want to fret over it and worry myself sick. How could one survive that way?? So enclosed and trapped, like in a deep grimy murky watered canal, or a tunnel, perhaps.

I get this feeling of freedom, and this strange feeling when I just throw that worrying out the window and not think for a bit, y’know?”

I told her I did. We all get that sudden impulsivity, we just don’t act on them.

“So, just that choosing and I don’t know, just-I really don’t know how to explain this. I am sorry.”

I told her it was fine. Sometimes, feelings are hard to describe, they are all felt differently, viewed differently and stems from the roots of something differently.

“I-, Just that kind of, it’s like I am sometimes on a sugar high that I used to have as a kid you know, you can’t say it’s not caring because I really do care, I am human after all, I just find myself not thinking and jumping and diving in head first for no reason, it’s just maybe a part me and maybe a part my choice. *She took a brief pause and sighed a bit* Yeah, I guess that’s the impulsivity they talk about.”

This was an answer we received right after I asked her about her feelings on how she felt after she spilled some facts she should really not have.

May I also add that she said “It’s better to be free than those darn indecisive fools,” which was a statement that I laughed at and also a statement that we don’t oppose or either support.

So, dear readers, that leads to the end of our report. I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to side with Jane Shirley Mary or oppose her views. Either way, one things for sure, Jane Shirley Mary seems to be quite content with her life though it’s quite a dangerous one.

I also told her a few quotes about impulsivity and she seems to find them funny.

“Impulsive actions led to trouble and trouble could have unpleasant consequences.” By Stieg Larsson.

She after hearing this laughed a bit and told me “There is still a chance that the trouble have pleasant consequences. However, there would be trouble, because I have a knack for finding trouble. Well, I don’t find it, trouble finds me.”

I also quoted her another one which went “So she became impulsive, scared by her inaction into perpetual action,” by John Green.

She did not laugh at this one however, and smiled a bit. She told me “I can see the reasoning here, but believe me my impulsiveness did not stem from fear for when you throw your thinking process out the window and just act sometimes, you feel somewhat, courageous and brave,” and shortly after I bid that interesting woman with fire in her eyes.

So think what you want dear readers, I will leave you to judge.

May 28, 2021 16:08

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5 comments

Valerie June
18:17 May 29, 2021

What a great comeback Emma! This was such a fun, quirky story in which I loved reading every bit of it. This Jane Shirley Mary is one impulsive person, all right. The format was also pretty unique which was a nice way to break up the usual way a story is told.

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Emma Bates
05:22 May 30, 2021

Helloo!! I did not think about the format at all, I just noticed when you pointed that out! 😂 Anyway, this story was a bit rushed, I did it in one sitting on the exact day it was due 🤣. So it's very kind of you to say that it was fun and quirky. Thank you. I am going to go check out ur stories now, because it's been a while since I read them, so there must be some great treats that are waiting for me :))

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Valerie June
04:36 May 31, 2021

Writing a story in one sitting just before the contest ends is no easy feat. Congrats for accomplishing that! Aw, thank you. You didn't need to. :)

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Emma Bates
04:38 May 31, 2021

But I wanted to :>Reading your stories are one of my favorite parts of the day :))

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Valerie June
04:40 May 31, 2021

That's so sweet of you to say! I've always wanted to touch people with my words.

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