Skip to main content

The Last Dance

The light in the room was low, candles close to burning out over an eaten meal and an empty bottle of wine. A Frank Sinatra record played quietly in the background. It’s the last dance...

His voice was low, hushed as though he might have been hiding from an intruder. “I had a dream about you last night.”

Her reply grew soft and quiet, to match his tone, “What was it about?”

“I dreamt that we said goodbye.”

“Goodbye?”

“I woke up sad, almost crying.”

She had nothing to say. Sinatra filled in the gaps, still I want to hold you forever and more...

“I don’t know why we said goodbye, but it seemed so permanent. I got the idea in my dream that I’d never see you again and I couldn’t bear it.”

To read the rest of this story, you can purchase it here for the Kindle in the collection "The Accidental Date and Other Stories of Longing, Romance and Woe", or click the button below to order a .PDF of the collection.

The collection contains 11 other stories from me, Bryan Young.






Comments

Anonymous said…
I like this story and I honestly think it is one of your best pieces to date. The conversation was believable enough to induce an eavesdropping like effect. You wrote this at 3am? Wow!
4:44 PM
Shelly said…
You have several great pieces, but I agree with english muffin that this is a story that feels true.
1:48 AM
Bea said…
i love his mini monologue in the middle, it flowed and was so...perfect.
i think i'm in love with your writing lol, but everyone is always having an affair, who am i to say this to the master ( ;) ) but can you write one about married people being in love?
if you already have, can you tell me it's name?
1:10 AM
Unknown said…
A Friend Indeed is about a well-adjusted married couple.

http://shortstorycorner.blogspot.com/2006/06/friend-indeed.html

I'm really glad you like my short stories... And people are always having affairs because they're more fun to write and think about... I think...
10:07 AM
Unknown said…
Also, it's because Graham Greene takes over my brain sometimes.
10:07 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Scene - City Lights

We're going to break down another scene this week, and it's one of my favorites in cinema history. It comes from the ending of City Lights by Charlie Chaplin, which I think is the greatest romantic comedy ever made. 
It's a touching film from 1931 and I would make it mandatory viewing for anyone who wants to learn to tell a story.
The scene we're going to be breaking down comes from the very end of the film, so if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil it for you. Go watch the film. You can rent it for $3.99 in HD on Amazon or for free on Hulu with a free trial or plus subscription. You should just buy the Blu-ray, though. You're going to want to revisit it.
For those of you familiar with the movie, or for those of you who are going to ignore my pleas to watch it and go ahead with this post anyway, I'm going to set this clip up a bit before you watch it.
City Lights tells the story of Chaplin's Tramp and how he falls in love with a blind flower …
Post a Comment
Read more

Anatomy of a Scene: The Third Man

It's time again to break down a classic scene. One that's well-written and, in my view, a fine example of excellent craft.

I've done some of these articles from books (like The End of the Affairand Starship Troopers) and other movies (like Citizen Kane, City Lights, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), but now it's time to take a look at a scene from The Third Man. It blends the best of Orson Welles (as he's in the film and drives this scene) and Graham Greene, who wrote this particular screenplay.

Before we get to the scene, we need some context.

The Third Man is a tale of the black market in Vienna, just after World War II. It's about a cheap, dime-store Western novelist named Holly Martins (played by Joseph Cotton) and his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles.) Lime offered Martins a job in Vienna, so Martins leaves America and arrives, only to find that Harry Lime is dead. Penniless, without a friend or reason to be in the country, h…
Post a Comment
Read more

50+ Rules and Tips About Writing I've Collected Over the Years

I have twenty or thirty notebooks and journals filled up with snippets about writing, my plans for stories, bits of dialogue, interesting ideas, plotlines, scraps of short stories, and a dozen other things. I carry one with me at all times and it takes me a couple of months to fill one up.

One of the things I've kept in one of my notebooks was a collection of writing tips and rules that I've collected over the years in my travels. From teachers, from books, from wherever. Most of my career has been spent screenwriting, so a lot of these are most applicable to that, but I wanted to present them so they might be of use to you as well.

I've never stopped collecting these over the years and I never will.

To start the list are Kurt Vonnegut's eight rules of writing. They are the first in my notebook and, I think, the most useful. I'll add a star to those I think are applicable most to screenwriting. Some of these aren't applicable to everyone in every situation, but…
3 comments
Read more