How the Nurse Feels

Imagination has always existed. When we were kids it was insatiable. Imagination is a powerful tool to have; it allows you to disappear from the outside world and create your own truths and rules to live by. But it can be dangerous too. The little world that we live by in our heads can fall apart if the truth we believe in turns out to be nothing to pure imagination.

"How the Nurse Feels" was first published in Scribner's Best of the Fiction Workshops in 1998. It's adapted from a short story written by Greg Changnon.

The story rotates around topics like dreams and imagination. Tess, the 15-year old teenager, is a bit of a dreamer herself. Her biggest dreams rely on running away and never looking back.

"I want to live in New York City. (...) I want to have three lovers at three different theaters." (ll.98-101)

Tess doesn't like the idea of living a life like her parents. She thinks they're dreary and she would hate to end up like them. Tess makes fun of her parents' professions by stating that her father, with a profession as a priest, has a "direct phone line to Jesus" (l.145) Tess is behaving like the typical teenage girl. She has big unrealistic dreams about her future, she thinks that the town she lives in is too little and she doesn't believe that her parents ever were her age and that they dealt with similar problems in their teenage years. Another teenage thing about Tess is that she acts in order to be someone else - to escape. She is not happy with her life revolving around school, church, her home and her mother's fabric store. She just wants to be free and acting gives her that advantage.

(When talking about her parents)

"Neither of them (...) know what it's like to have your whole world contained in the ten-block radius of the school, church, home and the fabric store. This, I know, is why I act. I have to feel what it's like in someone else's skin." (l.144-148)

To Tess acting is a big deal in her life and in some ways it might even be too big of a deal. She has a tendency of letting the acting affect her life of-stage too much. He head keeps spinning around the play, the persons who are in it, the way they are feeling and why they are feeling it. It's almost as if she was starring in a Broadway show instead of just a high school play.

Tess also has a tendency of comparing her life with the different plays she is showcasing in. She has a tough time dealing with the reality. Because of her wild imagination, and the lack of love she has for her own personal life, she begins to believe that Tiger De Soto is living the crazy and fun life she wants.

She admires Tiger for being so free and for having the courage to run away from home. At least that's what she thinks he did. She likes the idea of Tiger being a bad