Sunday September 18th, 2011

The exercise:

Write about: the cruise ship.

Kat and I are off cruising with my family to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary - be back on the 25th.

Mine:

We watched the ship approach our island from the cover of the trees. Andy was already running his thumb over the handle of his knife.

"Patience," I whispered. "It'll be any second now..."

He didn't answer, instead running a rough tongue over his cracked lips. My stomach grumbled loudly.

The monstrous boat edged steadily closer, its white hull nearly blinding us in the late afternoon sunshine. Was it close enough to shore? It was difficult to judge.

"There it is!" Andy said, louder than I liked.

But he was right - the boat had come to a halt. They had dropped anchor.

Now all that was left to do was wait for the cover of nightfall.

2 comments:

Greg said...

Heh, this feels a little like a Tom Clancy novel; hijacking a cruise ship is definitely an adventure! I like all the little details, the rough tongue and cracked lips and the grumbling stomach.

The cruise ship
Was this really such a good idea, wondered Miss Snippet. It had seemed like one three weeks ago, back in the classroom. Now that she was aboard the cruise ship though, she was beginning to regret bringing her class with her, and definitely regretted agreeing to share a room with Miss Davenport, the Religious Instruction teacher. Who in their right mind brought a nun with them on a cruise ship? Miss Davenport, that's who, it seemed.
"Miss, miss! Miss!" Some small child tugged at her sleeve, and she bit her tongue to keep from snapping at them not to bother her. She looked down.
"Miss, a seagull just landed on Kevin and flew off with him again!"
"It can't be a seagull," said Miss Snippet automatically. "They're not big enough. It must be an albatross. Go away, find everyone else, and tell them all that today's art lesson is drawing a picture of the albatross flying away with Kevin. The best one will go to the Captain to help him find Kevin, and the worst will go to Kevin's parents as a souvenir."
The small child ran off looking happy and excited, and Miss Snippet found herself hoping that something like this would happen every day of the cruise. Now, all she had to do was find a way to blame Miss Davenport.

Marc said...

Greg - that's quite the visual! As horrific as it would be in real life, I can't help but laughing at the image I have in my head...