This week’s writing challenge asks us to try to write on a style that is different from ours. Some style that reflects how some of our favorite authors would tell the story if it was them writing.

One of the authors that have a most unique writing style among the classic Brazilian authors is Machado de Assis. He has lived in the 19th century and was part of the Romanticism and Realism literary movements.

Most of his work was written as if he as engaging in a conversation with the reader.
I wish I could have had more time to try it better, but here is how I retold last week’s story on a style that could be considered somewhat similar to his…

In this story I’ll tell you how my friend Etol got a little critter toy she is so fond of. That’s how the story goes.

Going back seven years in the past, our character was working at a little company, not the big corporation she works at this present moment. That former company had a very friendly and cozy environment and all colleagues had a very amiable relationship. To some she considered being good friends with.

One of those friends of sweet Etol, was a very handsome and good-spirited gentlemen, who worked on the technologic department of the company. This gentleman had at his desk a little critter toy, picturing a gecko lizard, on a very nice blue shade. The lizard was always placed on the gentleman’s desk. That little critter reminded our friend Etol of her childhood in the rural area of her native country. She has never really seen one with a blue shade, but the toy gecko still looked a lot like the little real white ones she was so used to see at her childhood home. And I believe that was the reason  – or maybe possibly  the fact that the toy was a fun object to manipulate – why she would take it and keep playing with it on her hands, every time she had business to talk about to her dear colleague. He was a smart and very attentive gentleman and could not help but notice the fondness she had for the little toy.

Time has passed and, after 4 years providing a good deal of work, spending long hours at the office and delivering several projects for that company, our friend, Etol, found that it was time to go on a more challenging adventure and asked to leave the company.

On her last day – which was the 10^th day of February year 2006 –  Etol, who was very excited about the new adventures that waited for her on her new endeavors, but at the same time very sad to leave her friends behind, went to all the offices of the company to bid farewell to her good friends. When she finally arrived at the office of her dearest friend, he presented her the as a gift the little blue lizard toy, saying it it was now hers to keep.

Our friend was very touched by the gentleman gesture and still has the lizard toy up to this date. And now, the toy serves her to remind her of her native land, but also of her dear friends she left behind at her previous company, friends that are much missed by her.

This post was written in response to this week’s writing challenge. For more details on the challenge, check it out here.