Lizzy's Short Story Proposal

Exposition: Eli, 16, is standing on the old white line that was drawn many years ago to indicate the city limits. Staring off into the distance, he taunts himself as he always does, asking himself what would happen if he only took a tiny step and crossed the line to the other side. He doesn't, though, as all his life, everyone in his city has told him never to cross the city limits. His shadow of 5'8 casts onto the other side, but as he is often reminded of, he can never be his shadow. With his bright blue eyes, he takes one last look into the other side of the city limits where the sun mysteriously never sets. He pushes the dark brown hair out of his eyes, puts up the hood of his brown hoodie, turns and walks back to city in his worn out sneakers.

Inciting Incident: As Eli begins to approach the center of his city, he walks past dark store fronts and houses with only one or two lights on inside. As he gets closer and closer to his home, he feels that he needs to be reasoned with again about why he cannot leave the city limits and why nobody else does. This feeling becomes more and more frantic as he gets closer and closer to his house. By the time he is outside his front door, the information about the city limits is so crucial that he needs to know it or he will mentally break down.

Rising Action: He knocks quickly on the door, trying to calm himself down so as not to worry his mother. Nicole opens the doors and looks at her son with sweet, teal eyes. She pushes the black hair out of her young looking face, but doesn't notice any sense of anticipation within Eli. He looks up at her, wanting so badly to know the information that he knows he can't get an answer to. He has been trying all his life. He walks in the door without a word and sits in his grandfather's old armchair by the crackling fireplace. Nicole, now noticing Eli's agitation, walks over to the adjacent chair. He asks her why no one leaves the city and she answers like she always does: Who would want to leave when everything they need is right here? Eli can feel his emotions starting to boil. Tonight, he needs to know more. He asks her why everyone always told him he couldn't leave. Why none of the other children were ever told that. She answers as she always does: We just want to keep you close to home. Eli begins to have restless legs. He asks who drew the lines of the city limit. She replies that when the city was built the founding fathers drew it. Eli stands up. He asks why no one else stands at the city limit line. Nicole looks at Eli with upset eyes. She makes the confession that Eli was never supposed to know about the city limit line.

Climax: Eli, realizing he can never achieve the answers he wants, sprints out of the house without saying another word to his mother. As he runs through his city, his stream of consciousness brings him back to the line. The achievement he would feel if he finally crossed it. He continues to run and suddenly stops with wide eyes. Looking down, he sees that he has run across the line. Frozen, he turns to look at his city from the other side, the perspective he has never before had. He watches with horror and confusion as each building in his city, each house, each playground and street light and grocery store and tree disappears. As if coming out of a trance, he turns around, closer to the mysterious other side than he has every been before. he freezes again, as he watches each building, house, playground, street lamp, grocery store and tree reappear ont he other side. Watches as the sun disappears, as he is enclosed into darkness, and then as it reappears on the other side of the drawn line.

Falling Action: Eli stands again at the edge of the line. He is trying to figure out what has happened. He crosses the line again, watches as the same events occur and realizes why he was never told to leave. If he goes, the city goes. The line suddenly seems more like a barbed fence than a simple white line. Suddenly tired, Eli turns back and slowly walks past everything that now seems so fragile.

Resolution: As Eli walks home, he thinks about how he could leave. How tempting it is not only to cross the line, but now to take away the life of the city, the lives of everyone he's ever known. He could not only explore the mysterious other side, but anywhere he ever wanted. He looks at his house, a house that doesn't seem able to hold an entire city inside it. He knocks again on his door. Nicole opens the door, pretending nothing out of the ordinary has happened. He looks at her, comprehending how fragile she is, just like everything else. He tells her that he knows he can never leave the city limits. Nicole looks at him with innocent eyes and says again: Who would want to leave when everything they have is right here? Eli, feeling like he is listening to a broken record, goes upstairs to his room.

Dénouement: Eli packs a suitcase. Looking around his room, he looks outside his window. Having not hung the curtains, he stares out at the other side. Feeling as if the world is coming down on him, Eli feels a single tear fall down from his eye, down his face, and land loudly on the hardwood floor.