When I started 1000 Days I thought I’d be pursuing work on some of my existing story thoughts. Early on a touched a couple but none seriously and none for long. Everything I did here after the first couple of months was new. Today I’m pulling up a story I’ve held for a long time but never written about or even alluded to here. There’s no reason for it; I just haven’t.
This story came to me during my Freshman year in college at the University of Kansas. A magazine, maybe Rolling Stone, had an article titled “The Selling of Tiffany”. The graphic that included the singer’s name used a block background which only highlighted the five internal letters of her name: ‘iffan’. From that I came up with the title “The Selling of Iffan”.
I don’t recall the order of what happened next, but I quickly had a second title and a second story in “Ten Beads for Iffan”. This story is the opener and “The Selling” is the closer in the couplet.
When I first read the next master plot in my book I thought it might have a figurative component, but the author insists on its literal definition. Iffan fits, and deserves to be plotted.
Theme – Metamorphosis
Setup – Iffan is cursed to live in the shadow of God’s love as a bat-like beast; his blood-lust drives him to kill. He tries to restrain his kills to just criminals. Initially I imagined he’d only speak in apposite but off beat song lyrics—like he’d taught himself to speak via a CD collection (probably wouldn’t do that now).
Meanwhile, a young boy from New Mexico packs up with his artist/photographer mother to go to New York and consequently get separated from her.
Hook – Iffan slays some hoods in a New York alley.
Plot Point 1 – Iffan mopes around New York blood-letting criminals and feeling sorry for himself when a little boy stumbles into the tail end of one of his killings. Despite his lust he’s able to restrain himself and shield the kid from the completed slaughter and from the potential beserker spill-over that would have Iffan killing the boy too.
Pinch 1 – Investigations by the police into the brutal vigilante slayings uncovers Iffan’s where abouts; they also see the boy Iffan’s been protecting. Iffan is forced to fly off with the boy to protect him from harm. The police quite rightly misinterpret this action.
Mid-point Twist – Iffan’s self-imposed moratorium on quenching his thirst comes to a violent end and the boy witnesses all of Iffan’s fury. He runs away.
Pinch 2 – Police find Iffan’s main hideout; there they discover evidence implicating him in the murder of an innocent and promoent NY politician/businessman. Before they were reluctant to put too much force into apprehending him, but now tht they know he killed an innocent they’re 100%. (lame I know).
Lull – Iffan confesses himself to a priest whom he’s about the slay for cliched reasons a priest would be need to be killed.
Plot Point 2 – Iffan finally finds the boy; rescues him from a bit of incidental peril. He resolves to return him to his mother even though it will mean getting caught most likely.
Conclusion – The cops are on him full time as he tries to return the boy to his mother. A helicopter chase through New York’s sky ensues and along the way Iffan proves himself to the boy as a good person. The cops shoot him up in a final capture scene. THe boy witnesses this and runs to Iffan’s side amidst the shooting to save him. He weeps for his friend’s immenant death and puts a beaded necklace around his neck. Through love and innocence (and 10 beads) Iffan reverts to his human form and dies peacefully. The cops discover him to be the prominent politician/businessman.
650 words on day 669