Conflict Assignment

In no fewer than 300 words, describe the central conflict of a story you might construct, based on the character described below.  Keep in mind Maass' principles of compelling conflict: it must be meaningful, immediate, surprising, not easily resolved and it must happen to a sympathetic character). 

A 65-year-old widower who lives alone in a small coastal town.

When she was 53, she lost James to a shark attack. They were fishing just off the coast of Atlantic Beach, Rhode Island, when he slipped and fell into the water. She couldn’t recount the latter events now because they were just too painful. Her memory had become selective with age. Sometimes, like now, it was a gift. Other times, like when she was buying her new house, it was a curse. She’s always loved Rhode Island for its views and beaches but due to her selective memory (or was it memory loss? She couldn’t remember), had forgotten it was the same state where she’d lost her husband.

            Now Anna sat on the beach overlooking the sea and wondered where the last 12 years of her life had gone. Their, she and James’, children had all grown up and moved out of the house. They had families of their own now, too. She didn’t mind. Of course she missed them but she never minded being lonely. She wasn’t lonely now though. She had the waves and the salt-water smell to warm her heart. Anna, who was finally starting to feel at ease for the first time since she’d moved into her house, started to let her eyes close. The peace was coming to her and she felt a smile creep onto her lips.

            Anna was just about to fall asleep when she started to hear splashing coming from the shore. She didn’t open her eyes. She didn’t remember seeing people on the beach with her earlier but then again, she didn’t remember much these days anyway. She wasn’t concerned.

            But then the splashing turned violent. It wasn’t the splashing you’d hear when someone was simply running through the waves. It was a big whooping sound…like a giant hand slapping the water. Anna lifted one eyelid slowly; she wasn’t sure that she wanted to see what was making the sound.

            She wished she hadn’t opened anything. Lying in front of her was a huge shark. Before she had the chance to scream, move or do anything, something caught her eye. There was a scar on the shark’s left side. The scar reached from its mouth to its gills. She’d seen that scar before. She knew how that shark got that scar. Anna screamed. Her memory was working now. All of those years that she pushed the memory away but it started to resurface. She saw her husband fighting, losing, being dragged away from her forever.