Using Dialogue to Show Not Tell Backstory

A few months ago, a daughter mentioned to her mother that her uncle had called her. They were cleaning out the garage and were in the back, where all the boxes were stacked.

Her mother went very still. She was holding a box filled with cleaning bottles. She said don’t call him back.

The daughter said he seemed really nice.

Her mother said he always does.

They did a bit more organizing, then the daughter said he asked about you.

Her mother dropped a box and it spilled its innards and she got down on her knees to scoop them back in, and she said what did you tell him?

The daughter said I said you were fine.

Her mother made a noise, a rough noise, and lugged the box away.

The daughter said should I not have said that?

Her mother didn’t answer that. She said just don’t call him back.

But the daughter said he asked me to—

Don’t call him back!

And that was the end of it.

Now, I want to call your attention to something. Nobody in that exchange explained anything.

Nobody named a history or described a wound or told the other person, or the reader, what had happened between this woman and her brother or how long ago it happened or what it cost either of them or even the nature of it.

And yet you already know a few things about that history that, right now, doesn’t quite have a shape yet.