Portrayal:  saddened and crushed

Physical Description Sentences:

The man’s face was etched carefully with wrinkles.

A greying, fraying wool cardigan hung loosely over his shoulders, his stick-like, trembling arms swimming in the sleeves.

His eyes were a washed out blue.

Setting Sentences:

The night pressed into the man’s little, dingy apartment.

The Christmas lights tacked around his only window struggled to shine onto the table where he sat.

One glinting bulb from the lights gave of more light than the others.

The floorboards sagged and creaked like the man’s knees.

Action Sentences:

The man slouched in his chair, sighing.

He slowly picked up the letter that had been slid under his door.

The letter shook in his hand.  He pulled his sweater closer to his body as if trying to keep out the bad news like it was the cold.

He started to cry but tried to stop the tears by closing his eyes.  The tears were too many, and they streamed down his face and into his lap, smearing the ink of the letter.

Mini-Character Sketch

The man turned his washed-out blue eyes toward the door until they came to rest on a scrap of white on the floor.  He shuffled over the floorboards that sagged and creaked as badly as his knees.  He stooped to pick up the icy-white letter that had been slid under his door.  The letter shook in his hand.  He pulled his greying, fraying sweater closer to his stick-like body as if trying to keep out the bad news like it was the cold.

The night pressed into the man’s little, dingy apartment as he went to sit at a table by his only window.  The man slouched as he read the letter.  A tiny, glinting light from the tired Christmas decorations tacked around his window illuminated the letter in his hands.  He sighed, a sob in his throat, as his hands began to tremble.  He slowly closed his welling eyes, the careworn wrinkles of his face providing ravines for his tears to run through.  A single drop plummeted from his chin, beginning a stream that would try to drown the letter that had fallen into his lap.