The Dinner Party – Erin Sullenberger Updated: July 31, 2020 After dreaming last night that I was given a certain assignment in one of my old English classes, I decided that it would not be such a bad idea to complete this task. My assignment was to create nine characters with completely different personality types, invite them to a dinner party (hosted by me), and organize them around a circular table. The objective of this task was to put them in the best order so that Character A would not bother Character B who would not bother Character C, and so on. Ultimately, the task was to create the easiest-going dinner party possible. So on that note, I will begin to describe my characters: Mr. Xander Jones was a drunkard, who could recite his ABC’s at his best, and he was never to be seen without at least two packs of cigarettes in his back left pocket. He had long, tangled hair, and tan skin (probably due to his lack of bathing). He did have a wife and three children, yet their mutual acquiescence was that he would not mind them so long as they did not mind him. He was about forty-years-old, and he worked at a small business firm in southern Philadelphia. His best friend from college owned the firm, which probably accounted for the reason Mr. Jones had not been fired for fifteen years. Nonetheless, Mr. Jones was well-known to smoke and drink excessively during meals, so I was not too thrilled that he would be joining us this evening. Ms. Delvia Ross looked to be in her mid-eighties, but nobody knew for certain. She had snow-white hair, wrinkles that covered her face as a mask does, and dull-yellow teeth from her many, many years of living. She was practically ancient, but those who possessed a certain palate of manners understood that it was probably more polite to not ask her in what year she was born. She seemed to want to cover her age with a handful of cosmetic products. Furthermore, she was a very judgemental old woman, for she seemed to only speak to young women so long as they appeared neatly groomed. And most of the time, it sounded like she only spoke to them about young men and partying. I believe she had a couple of husbands throughout her lifetime; although, I do not think any of them are still around. Nevertheless, it seems that if she was still capable, she’d be on, at least, her tenth husband. Mrs. Gally Hopkins was probably the most talkative person I ever met. She was in her late twenties, and I believe she was married to a young man named Fred, but I never really saw him around to say much about him. He must have been an introvert, however, in order to balance out her outrageously extroverted personality. Basically, she never stopped talking about anything: work, friends, handsome young lads (evidently, she got along well with Ms. Ross), pets, social media, and more than I can even remember. Therefore, I suspected that she would be the slowest eater at the table since she would never take a pause to eat her meal, and she certainly was not the type to chew with her mouth open! Mr. Wilmot Anderson was the stereotypical old man who hated almost everything about existence besides his ancient dog. He was never married, but he spoke of his dog Lady as if she were his wife. Sometimes I felt bad for him, for I often considered that he would not be such a pessimist if he had a wife. He needed some sort of light in his life, and unfortunately, I do not believe that his three-legged Lady was doing the trick.
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