Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Person, Place, Weather, Time



6 comments:

Morgan Davie said...

“I saw Great Zimbabwe once,” Gerry said, pouring another drink for both girls. “Before all this nonsense, back when everyone thought Mugabe was going to be the saviour. Amazing place, don’t you know. I can show you my slides later...”

“Cherie’s going on her OE soon,” said Michelle, clinking glasses. “Aren’t you Cherie?”

“I’m going to London,” Cherie said. “My mates are all going over to Oktoberfest right after I get there, it will be awesome?”

Gerry smiled, sinking back into his chair. “What about you then, doll?”

“Aw, I don’t think I want to do an OE, I’m happy here and besides I don’t want to leave my boyfriend behind?”

“Boyfriend!” Cherie grinned. “You’re broken up Michelle!”

“Shut up,” Michelle said, winking at Gerry.

“Here, clink me good luck!” Cherie said, and Gerry clinked and they all drank.

Gerry liked the way this was going. “What say we all get into my new Beemer and go back to my place?”

“But it’s still early!”

“And it’s storming out! There’s lightning!”

“No way, that’s not lightning, that’s just cars going past!”

Gerry sank back further into his chair and finished off the drink. He was feeling very relaxed. This was going to be a great night. A really great night, one that he had deserved for a long, long...

...he woke up in the corner three hours later, his watch and wallet and keys gone. He knew the beemer was gone too. The musty roofie hangover had dried out his mouth.

Bloody kids, he thought.

(8:57 to 9:07)

Matt said...

Zing! You get an Achieved with Excellence! (today you were in my Y11 class and you pwned them. Next time you might be up against my Y12's, who choose more local elements).

Did you type your story straight up or write it longhand first? I wrote longhand as I was in class and it's hard work when you're out of the habit...

Morgan Davie said...

Straight into the comments box. I am an impatient morgue :-)

I like your piece too, I didn't read it until after I'd written mine so I didn't end up copying you!

Jenni said...

3.18

My Dad left one night after dinner. Mum and me and my brother Neil were all sitting in the lounge watching American Idol and Dad was upstairs packing the whole time. We didn't even realise.

The next morning was weird, Mum was all pale and weepy and wouldn't say much. I knew that Dad might have gone for good, you know, fallen in love with his secretary and moved in with her, that happened to Julie in my class. She had to stay over with her dad and his new girlfriend because the courts said so but she hated it, she said the new girlfriend was always trying to be friends with her.

Neil didn't understand, he was only little then, like 6 years old. I was in year 8, I knew heaps more than him. He kept asking 'where's daddy?' and I kept saying 'ssh'. I gave him froot loops to eat even though it wasn't the weekend because I knew it would shut him up.

That day Neil and I waited outside school together in this rain. It was freezing and Neil got scared because there was thunder. Thursdays are Dad's day to pick us up. I guessed he wasn't coming after about 15 minutes and I got us on a bus. Mum had given me some emergency money a while ago so I could pay for our tickets.

When we got home Neil was soaking wet and crying and I was feeling kind of like crying as well. Mum looked really bad when she saw us, I guess she'd forgotten that dad wouldn't be picking us up. Or maybe she hoped that he would.

A couple of weeks passed without Dad and we had to kind of make a new routine. Neil wouldn't stop asking where he was but Mum stopped crying all the time. She said we just had to make do without him but I liked it because it meant we could have chocolate croissants for breakfast if we wanted.

Then one day in the mail we got this postcard. It was from Zimbabwe, which is in Africa. I looked it up in the big atlas Dad had in his study. The postcard had a picture on it and on the other side there was a message from Dad. It said "Having a great time, wish you were here!"

Mum tore it up, but me and Neil snuck it out of the rubbish bin later and taped it back together. I keep it under my mattress.

3.27

Matt said...

Far out, that's awesome :-)

Jenni said...

Thanks! It was really fun. Turns out I really like writing with prompts and a time limit. Bring on more!