The Royal We

Write a 600 word first-person-plural narration of an event from the POV of a very close-knit couple. Do not use the first person pronoun I in this exercise. The reader should be unable to discern which of the two is telling the story. Narration tempered by two ways of seeing the world alters every rule of narration we know instinctively.

Read my response:



First. We were both standing outside, Angie on her cell, Eddie just staying next to Angie. We were just standing there, minding our own business, when we saw it. It may or may not have been an UFO. Well, we can't identify it, so it was unidentified, at least. It looked like it was flying. We aren't sure if its an object, though, cause it might have just been light. Or it could be little green men in a spaceship. Anyone's guess is as good as ours. We were a little drunk, we should add, Angie at about four beers and Eddie at about eight. Plus we took a shot--that may have been after the UFO. Anyway, we are both a little tipsy, standing there, looking at the sky, when we we see this glowing orb, white with a row of green across the middle of the orb. We immediately turned to look at each other, and yes, we both saw it. And when we turned back it was gone. We didn't say anything for a bit, we just looked at each other. We were trying not to sound crazy. Then we both started talking, all at once, stumbling over each other to say the same things. Mainly that it was bizarre, and probably aliens. Everyone has seen fireworks, airplanes. Those are identifiable. And this wasn't anything like that, this was different, and we were both there, we saw it and thought like one person, unsure of what we saw until certain the other one had seen it too, and even then. We both thought alien. Mind you we were a little drunk, and maybe we smoked a little pot too, but way earlier. So, second. We both start running. We started running to the ocean without saying anything to each other. Angie taking off her shoes, Eddie taking off his shirt. Angie taking off her shirt, Eddie taking off his shoes. Next thing we knew we were waist deep in the water. In February. Neither of us could tell you what came over us. It was as sudden and instinctive as looking at each other after we saw the glowing green and white orb. We just ran and got naked and got in the water in February on a public beach in front of a busy bar. And just as suddenly--well. We tried. It was too cold for that though. We both wanted to but some things don't work in the cold. We got out right away and got dressed and we didn't really say anything to each other, we just put our clothes on and walked back into the bar. Third. We couldn't tell anyone really properly right away. Everyone wanted to know why we were soaked. And why we were acting so weird. But even we didn't know, we wanted to ask each other the same questions. So we told everyone “Angie dared Eddie” and “Eddie dragged Angie in with him and we took turns embellishing (except for certain parts of Eddie). We made it some other story that didn’t really happen, we made it all up, because it sounded better but also because it was easier. Finally, fourthly. We were standing out there, and we saw a light, and suddenly we were naked. But most importantly we can read each other’s minds. That’s what we’re trying to explain, that was what was so crazy. Crazier than UFO’s or skinny dipping in February, its that we know what the other is thinking. That’s what happened when we were standing outside.