Wednesday February 24th, 2010

The exercise:

Those of you who were enjoying my Hard Road posts might be interested in checking this out.

Today's prompt: rivalry.

Mine:

Team Canada versus Team Russia.

Men's hockey.

So much history. So much emotion. So much national pride on the line.

The game was meant to be played on February 28th. It was supposed to be for the gold medal.

Instead, Canada faltered in the early stages of the tournament. Now the two teams that together form one of the most storied rivalries in hockey history meet face to face tonight. The winner moves on to the semi-finals and a shot at bringing home a medal. The loser goes home. The puck is about to drop.

Game on.

Update one: 4 to 1 for Canada after the first period.
  
Update two: 7 to 3 for Canada after two periods.
  
Update three: 7 to 3 final. Bring on the semi-finals!

3 comments:

g2 (la pianista irlandesa) said...

Alright, so mine is semi-unrelated... I started this a little bit earlier this evening, but your prompt fed the inspiration a bit; it's not direct, but it kind of makes some sense. It may not be completely relevant, but oh well. I understood a lead sheet, got to hear an awesome violist jam, and I'm plotting how to bother that violist for the piano concerto he recently wrote. I'm in too good a mood for relevance.
- - - - -
Butter knives on the windowsill

I saw them there, just lying innocent in the corner of the sill. The glint of them caught my eye. How curious, to find the kitchen utensil sitting on the windowsill of an art gallery space. I dared not disturb them, eyeing them with an interested wonder. What turn of events landed them here?

Perhaps a circumstance as innocuous as a luncher forgetting his utensils in the middle of a busy day left those knives there, but I let my mind wander... what else could've gotten them there?
. . . . .
She eyed the exhibition set-up, careful to keep the flash of jealousy to a minimum. Her work was of this caliber, and they dared to reject her? "We already had what we were looking for," they told her.

And instead they submitted this garbage? Her eyes narrowed at the thought.

She took a deep breath, reaching into her pocket for solace. Two innocent butter knives whispered against her fingers. By the end of the night, she thought, they'd be as innocent as a repeat offender.

And by the end of the night, she would show them all the true nature of this so-called art.

She would show them.
- - - - -

Greg said...

Ah, I'd spotted you'd added a new story, but I've not managed to make time to read it yet. What I thought would be a relatively straight-forward week has developed some odd little kinks (including the casually-dropped suggestion I might fly to Gibraltar before Tuesday) that I'm now trying to smooth back out.

Congratulations on the win over Russia though, that's got to be a confidence boost for the team!
I like this prose, the steady building of content in each paragraph is crafted to build interest in the reader, and the neat snapping of the tension with the last, two-word paragraph is masterfully done. I stand by my believe that you write an editorial column somewhere.

Re yesterday's haiku, it's the openendedness of the second haiku that bothered me a little :) Given the form, it's like there's nowhere for it to go from there, so I prefer it to be wrapped up. That's probably a personal thing though, and it was still a good haiku in its own right.

Rivalry
"Not that! That's the Green Lightbulb's autohagiography!" My brother squeaked with emotion, but I threw the book on to the bonfire regardless. The flames caressed the book, but it refused to burn.
"You're always talking about him," I said, glaring at my brother. Despite his wheelchair he still flinched away from my angry stare. "Why?"
"He's my hero. He's a supervillain with a disability, he just shows you what you can do if you put your mind to it."
"He's a bit funny in the head," I said. My scorn shrivelled my brother like the fire was finally shrivelling the book. "He's not a cripple."
"Why are you like this towards me?"
I'd worked the answer out with my therapist three hours earlier, and my anger over it was why I was here, burning things my brother loved.
"Sibling rivalry."

Marc said...

g2 - oh, that's definitely relevant :)

And congrats on the musical goodness!

Greg - oh dear, I hope work calms down sooner than later for you. And yeah, that was a very satisfying win and hopefully the momentum takes them all the way to the gold.

I very much like the idea of the Green Lightbulb having a follow/fan/what have you :)