Going Home - Quick Write 9/29/10

(I didn't do my quick write until after work today, and I can feel the difference in my focus and creativity.  Gonna have to make sure I do my writing in the morning from now on.)

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I hadn't seen Jackie in twenty years, yet there she sat. 
"Girl, you are a sight for sore eyes!" she said as she engulfed me in a bear hug.  "Where have you been keeping yourself?  What are you up to?  Sit down here and let me take a good look at you!"  Setting her knitting aside, Jackie thumped the cushion next to her.

She looked just like I remembered.  Her curly, black hair drifted loosely around her plump face as she gazed up at me.  Her fingers sparkled with several gaudy gemstone-filled rings - probably all paste unless she had made some dramatic changes to her income lately - and any number of chains in varying sizes and styles encircled her comfortable neck.  Her housedress was a grass green field scattered with tiny pink roses.  I could picture her standing on the front stoop, calling me in for supper, in this very same pattern, although it seemed that the field had increased some in acreage over the years.  Her feet, clad in matching green slippers, were tucked demurely under the edge of the loveseat.  She was such a perfect match for my fondest memories that I wanted to climb into her lap and rummage through the pockets of her housedress for hard candies as I had when I was 5 years old.

"Well, what are you waiting for, dear?" she asked.  "Come over here and tell ol' Jackie what's what in your life."  After everything that had happened, I was finally home. I realized I was finally back where it was safe to let down my hair, open my heart, and reveal my sorrows.  I didn't need another invitation.

"Oh, Jackie!" I wailed, throwing myself into the empty seat next to her.  "I just don't know what I'm going to do!"

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I thought this was a great beginning sentence, but it took me most of my 20 minutes to figure out who Jackie was talking to.  That's why so much of this writing is focused on Jackie's appearance.  That was my way of stalling until the other character decided to reveal herself.  I have no idea what the dramatics are about... kinda curious about that, actually.