Thursday December 5th, 2013

The exercise:

Write about: the briefcase.

Okay, I didn't have time to give it any thought today (and it will require a lot of thought indeed), so the adventure in Mejaran shall draw to a close this Sunday. And I was only a little bit tempted to do it on Saturday with four line poems.

Mine:

Wally was a funny old fellow. Dressed in his wrinkled brown suit and poorly knotted black tie, it was never hard to spot him around town. The thick grey beard and long ponytail helped him stand out from every crowd he found himself in too.

Not to mention that tattered briefcase of his. It must have been just as ancient as he was, perhaps more so. If that was even possible.

If Wally was making his rounds, hitting up all of his usual haunts, that briefcase was guaranteed to be with him. The barber shop, the library, even the bowling alley. As sure as the sun setting in the west, that thing would be right there with him. Just as attached as his feet or hands, Wally never, ever put that thing down.

Which made stealing it a pretty tall order.

2 comments:

Greg said...

Finishing Mejaran off in four line poems... it's a tall order, but I'm sure we would have risen to the challenge! I'm looking forward to the ending now though, since it was left in a fairly exciting place last time.
You do a nice job of character creation, Marc, and Wally is no exception. I like how you sketch just a couple of details and then let the story fill in the rest of the character as it develops.

The briefcase
"Look at me Mavis!"
"Derek? I can't see you, Derek. Where are you hiding?"
"Hah! I'm so clever, see if you can find me!"
"You sound very muffled... are you hiding in the stationery cupboard?"
"Hehe, no! Try again, Mavis."
"I really don't want to Derek. And anyway, you have visitors. Large men. They seem... serious."
"Oh. Oh you're no fun anymore, Mavis. Fine, I'm in my briefcase. I bet you didn't realise I could fold myself up and hide in there!"
"Not at all Derek. Ah. I see your visitors are quite happy to take you away in your briefcase though."
"Help! Mavis! Help! Call the police...."

Marc said...

Greg - perhaps a few less details would have to be included, but I suppose we could have managed it with four lines each. A little more open ended, at any rate.

Thanks for the kind words on mine!

I had no idea Derek was so flexible! Hopefully, for his sake, his equally good at escape...