Friday July 8th, 2011

The exercise:

Four lines of prose about: the security guard.

Twas a long day of harvesting but hopefully it will all be worth it. They're calling for a sunny day in Penticton tomorrow, so at least there should be a lot of people out and about.

Mine:

He sits in his chair, chin resting on his chest, breathing deeply. But he is not asleep. I'm certain he just wants me to think that he is. Now the only question is: what shall I do with this knowledge?

6 comments:

Greg said...

I guess that's the balance to letting the crops grow by themselves -- all the hard work comes when you want to get them up and out of the ground (or off the tree, vine, shrub, etc.) and put them somewhere more convenient. Still, it must be pretty rewarding to see what you've harvested at the end of a day!
Heh, your security guard sounds a lot more alert than most I've ever seen!

The security guard
Charles Ascugimeto, Head of Building Security, sat in his chair trying to spot the store detective. Every now and then there would be a flicker of movement caught at the corner of his eye, but he couldn't see to turn his head fast enough to spot him/her.
"OK," he said at last, "you can join the security guards and stop being a store detective. But you have to be more visible to me, and you have pick a wretched gender and stick to it!"

Andrew said...

I hope you get a lot of your crops sold this weekend! Good luck!

The Security Guard
He lay asleep in his black swivel chair, his fat spilling over the sides. I just laughed as I walked right on by, all of the cameras picking me up, but no one to catch me. I sidled right up to the priceless diamond.

When the guard woke up a moment later, I was gone, and so was the object he should have been guarding.

***
Well, looks like I made the sleeping guard. Cool.

Denin said...

At dawn, he scrutinizes the scene mercilessly. Nothing may rise against him and his God-given duty. The children scurry past in silence, their youthful banter growing to a whisper, then nothing, as they draw within his earshot. The proud tower erected in the ground, the security guard had yet to fail.

Monica Manning said...

A good question, indeed. Will you share the answer?

* * *

Security Guard

I have to take off my shoes and socks to count how many years we’ve been together, it’s been so damn long; an eternity some days. You’ve broken almost every promise we made before god and man, though I don’t think god was really listening that day, so maybe it doesn’t count. What pains me most is that you promised to take care of me, protect me, never hurt me.

You let your guard down.

Marc said...

Greg - the market and local sales are definitely the reward for all our hard work. But there is certainly reward to be found in the work itself too.

Good to see (or not) the store detective moving up the corporate ladder!

Andrew - thank you :)

And yours is much more like the guards I've seen...

Denin - your third line was definitely my favorite.

Monica - good to see you again! And perhaps some day I shall answer it. If I'm pestered enough :P

Great first line, and the remainder were very good as well. Nicely done.

Ruby said...

As i run of with the pearls in my hands. The Security Guard runs after me. I then see the Security Guard stop to take a breath but he then runs back after me.
I stop, the Security Guard cathes up to me. I hand over the pearls and he wonders why.