A character composition for Unknown
As I watch the rain pour down about my windows, I wonder. Wondering is just about all I can do now, it seems. All the questions in my mind never give me peace, any more than the constantly streaming water gives rest to my clanking tin roof.
Why do you hate me?
The puddles on the unkempt lawn are already forming a muddy swamp beneath the tall grasses. The hanging willow tree groans under the wind and the thunder, sometimes brushing against my tiny wood-and-tin shack. This tiny room, warmed only by this tiny fire, is my only asylum. One small room, just a bed, a chair, a fireplace, and little kitchen all cramped together, is the only place I can call home. It is both a refuge and a prison; here I escape the lighting and rain, only to be beset by the torrent of my own thoughts.
Why do you hate me?
The wooden walls are thin and creaky; the fire crackles beneath the strain of the wind on them. The wavy tin roof, sometimes leaky and staunched by rags and buckets, redirects the water down its edges and into a muddy river edging the stilt-raised foundation. It's a dangerous safe haven, but I don't worry about it. I've weathered worse nights than this beneath the nimbus clouds that hid the pale, shining moon. Many winter nights I've spent here, just me, the fire, and the weeping willow tree.
Why do you hate me?
My life on these nights is peaceful to the placid and tiresome to the adventurous; it suits me just fine, but in this deserted little piece of the world, it seems that it suits only me. My own life has been nondescript; I have neither bothered nor been bothered, loved nor been loved, and until recently, neither hated nor been hated.
Why do you hate me?
Do you hate me for who I am? Do you hate the way I live, my leaky tin roof and groaning weak walls? Do you hate the company I keep, the weeping willow and the crackling fire? Do you hate my personality, my still, emotionless disposition, my unattached, dispassionate nature? Do you hate me for who I am?
Or do you hate me for who I am not?
