Storytelling for Week 3: Unfortunate Events in Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a nice neighborhood to live in, especially for men and women living in their twenties. This part of London has a certain vibe that gives the people who live their the feeling of excitement and youthfulness.

Piccadilly Circus
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James was 26 and from Manchester originally. He moved to the big city because he got a high profile job working for Google. His flat in Piccadilly Circus was beautiful and considered to be worth a fortune. He liked living in London because, with it, came a sense of accomplishment and success. He liked to think his parents were very proud of him and that he was setting a good example for his younger siblings. James drove a luxury car that was built for pure speed. It was extremely expensive and rather poorly suited for the city but he didn't care, he had it so people would look at him. He came from a family of money and was taught about the finer things in life and believed he was of a superior breed of man.

Emma was 25 and although she was in her mid-twenties she radiated youthful joy. She was originally from Vermont and had moved to the London in order to pursue her dream of working at the Museum of Natural History. She loved history and getting lost in stories from times long ago. She felt like it was the closest thing to time travel and when she visited London her senior year in college she knew she wanted to work at her favorite museum. Her grandmother had recently passed away and left her apartment in Piccadilly Circus to her so it seemed like fate brought her to the city in a way. It took her a while to figure out the subway system and get used to the city but now she felt almost like a local. 

Museum of Natural History, London
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What James and Emma didn't realize was that they were almost perfect for each other.

Emma first saw James when she was walking home from the subway and he was in his car stopped at a red light. Her gaze was drawn to him by some subconscious force. She saw the man in the car looking at the mirror. She thought maybe he was looking to see if he had something in his teeth. Regardless of what he was doing he was beautiful. She was hoping he would notice her but instead he drove off without glancing her way. The next week she saw him again at the cafe near he apartment. She sat down after getting her coffee and noticed him sitting with a friend right in front of her. They were close enough to where she could overhear his conversation with his friend about the recent bonus he had got from redesigning something, she didn't understand all the vocabulary he was using. Once again she was hoping he would notice her but he ended up leaving without breaking his conversation with his friend. The last time Emma saw James was actually when she was walking to the market on a Sunday afternoon. James was crossing the street when he accidentally stepped into a large puddle. It was the kind of puddle where your whole foot is wet up to the top of your ankle. It happened right beside Emma and she couldn't help but smile and laugh a little. James however did not laugh. Instead he scowled at her and told her his shoes were Italian leather and that she probably couldn't imagine how expensive they were. He scoffed off in a hustle before Emma could react.

From that day forward when Emma saw James she made an effort to avoid him at all costs. In fact, they did not ever come in contact with each other again. 

If only they had known what they could have been thought Cassandra sitting on the bench in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. 

Cassandra
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Author's Note:

This was inspired by the story in Ovid's Metamorphoses called Narcissus. Being narcissistic means being absorbed with yourself. In a way a narcissist is constantly consumed with themselves and experiences life solely from their own point of view. In the story about Narcissus he is consumed with himself and his own image that he first notices in the reflection off of water in a pond. He actually falls in love with himself and longs for the image he sees in the mirror. Cassandra is a greek god that was able to see the future that I looked up in order to go along with the story. She is not part of the story Narcissus but she would be someone of the same genre of character.
For some reason I wanted to make this story seem somewhat realistic rather than purely mythological. I have noticed that I have began to write stories like that or at least think like that. A couple summers ago I went to London and saw Piccadilly Circus and the Museum of Natural history and enjoyed them very much. I also really like history and thought it would be interesting to work in a museum where you could learn about a lot of different things. I think in today's day and age it is more often that you run into people that are consumed with themselves and it makes me bummed out. It is very hard to have a conversation with them or have a  friendship, which makes me sad because they don't know what they are missing. Relationships with people are the best thing in life and I think by being narcissistic you aren't able to have a true relationship with someone because you are too distracted by your own self.
I chose the images to hopefully help set the scene for the reader and give them and idea of what it might look like. I really like the picture I chose to depict Cassandra sitting and watching the whole story unfold. I wanted her to come off as the old wise lady that was watching the scene in life she had already seen before.

Bibliography:

Narcissus, Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline, 2000.