The Minor Character

Mercedes Lawry

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The minor character dreams deep, complicated dreams. She has waited patiently for so many hours, so many days. She has cultivated invisibility, passes this one and that one without notice. Her laughter is not required, nor her tears. She can provide intensity in small doses. There is not much backstory. When she can, she weaves among the others, picking up phrases and intent, rolls up the sentences that reveal the function, the purpose, the drive within this scatter of time. She tucks them in her pockets to appraise later, piecing it all together, story and measure of motivation. She looks for the ways words filter in ever so lightly, so slightly, tipping an action or a revelation, gently, a small pebble rolling down a hill, foreboding or possibly insignificant, a diversion. In her dreams she moves like a fish, among colors of a strange, muted vibrancy. Here she belongs to the water and to each creature surrounding her with its profound existence.