Friday April 15th, 2011

The exercise:

Four lines of prose about: the scales.

In honor of the scale I purchased today in Burnaby, for use at our stall at the farmers market. It was pricey, but not as bad as I suspected it was going to be. And thankfully it's already certified (a requirement of the market association) so I don't have to go through the hassle of arranging to have that done.

This is going up earlier than usual since people are coming over tonight and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get back on the computer before midnight.

Mine:

The words on the investigative report began to blur and I put it aside to rub the palms of my hands against my eyes. I didn't bother looking at the clock on my bedside table - I already knew it was too late for my own good.

With a heavy sigh I returned to the report on my brother and pushed on. I had paid good money for that information but it would all be for naught if I couldn't find a bit of dirt that would finally tip the scales in my favor.

4 comments:

Greg said...

I hadn't thought about it before, but I think it makes sense that the market organisers would want 'approved' scales used on all stalls selling by weight to clear away a swathe of potential complaints at the start. (I wonder if USA stalls sell in cups, since most recipes I see from there eschew weight measurements (except for liquids)?).
Hunting for dirt on his brother? If it weren't for the lack of arrogant tone, I'd suspect this was Henri keeping a low profile!
Nicely done, with the two paragraphs it's hard to spot it's only four lines long.

The scales
The floor was covered with green-yellow iridescent scales, and DI Playfair grinned. This had to be the place. He looked up at the young man behind the counter, who was leaning back in his chair and idly strumming a banjo.
"You're under arrest," said Playfair, "for running a shop that strips down and replates lizards."

Heather said...

Marc- We have talked a lot about the scales of justice, but I couldn't bring myself to deal with politics in yet another arena of my life. Your story, though, brought to mind the smear campaigns that have become all too prevalent here.

Greg- I love the idea of rescaled lizards. I wonder, are the new scales more of a battle armor?

To answer your question about USA stalls, they sell in pints, quarts, bunches, pounds, and gallons. Cups, as used in most recipes, are used to measure both liquid and solid items. I'm guessing you didn't really want to know all that though.
-----

Laurie looked at her BFF sitting sullenly across the table. It had been three weeks of meeting her and her sour attitude in the tiny cafe in Mayfield, a 30 minute drive from both their homes. Any other time, Laurie would have been thrilled to make the drive and hang with her friend but now she just quietly rolled her eyes when the desperate phone calls came. "What kind of commitment did you expect from a man who said he was going to scale every mountain in the Southern Hemisphere?" Laura asked when her fried let out a long and lonely sigh.

Marc said...

Greg - yeah, the inspector came by near the end of the season last year and did a check on all the vendors (apparently someone had complained). He was quite nice to me... but that might have been because he visited me after the vendor using a bathroom scale to weigh his produce :P

I wouldn't mind a floor replated with... I mean, that's terrible. For shame.

Heather - I'm guessing he did want to know all that :D

I like your interpretation of the prompt. And an excellently concise portrayal of the friend too.

Greg said...

Heather, thank-you! I can't begin to imagine what would be measured out in gallons(!), but I am fascinated. Over here in the UK things are pretty much weighed; it's supposed to be metric by law, but a lot of places will still weigh Imperial as well for the benefit of the older generation who find the change hard!