The exercise:
Write about: the ribbon.
I'm thinking either Thursday or Sunday for our final visit to The Colony. We'll see if I have some time and inspiration tomorrow, but I suspect the weekend is more likely at this point.
Looked for work in the morning, ran some errands in and around town in the afternoon. Not a super exciting day. At least it was slightly warmer out there.
Mine:
"You have a very impressive trophy case."
"Thank you."
"And did you win all of these yourself?"
"How else do you suppose I would get them?"
"Well, there are a lot of statuettes and plaques for school accomplishments..."
"Yes, I was quite the athlete in high school."
"... from a lot of different schools..."
"My family... moved around a lot."
"... over the course of about twelve... no, fourteen years."
"You have a keen eye for detail, don't you?"
"I've been told that on an occasion or two, yes."
"Then I'm sure you'll have noticed that there no ribbons for academic success anywhere in my collection."
2 comments:
Good luck with the jobhunt, I can't remember if I've wished you that already or not. And I was going to prompt you about the Colony on Friday since we've only just stumbled into December :) I'm looking forward to seeing you save (or kill) our heroes!
Hmm, I like the misdirection you were putting into the conversation today, and that last line doesn't completely rule out that the trophies might not have been earned. Nice work!
The ribbon
The museum was dark and quiet. Stone walls loomed overhead, supporting an arched roof that culminated in a moon-window. The moon was full tonight, and the moon's light fell through the window providing a soft, white glow into the heart of museum's great hall. Ben wandered up to the edge of the circle of light, and held a hand out into it.
"What are you doing?" asked Bill. They were both dressed in smart, soft clothes of varied shades of grey and seemed to vanish into the shadows whenever they stopped moving.
"You never know," said Ben. "It might turn out ot be magical."
"And the vase we're here to reposition might turn out to have legs and be in the mood for a stroll," said Bill. "Really, you've been watching too many Disney movies again."
"Did you know there's a porn version of Finding Nemo now?" Bill's laughter, hastily smothered, lingered behind them as they ascended the main staircase, turned left into the Natural History galleries and paused for a moment to unlock some doors that a guard had inconvienently locked behind her.
"Oh, now what's this?" There was a large red ribbon stretched across the bottom of the staircase in the Potteries and Fossils exhibition room. Bill reached out and delicately twanged it, watching it bob up and down with the attention of a cat.
"Ribbon," said Ben. He was already pacing around the pedastel the vase was on, looking for delicate wires, threads and signs of laser light. "They're opening this room officially tomorrow. They've got the Mayor's neice in to do it I think."
"Need a hand?"
"Not right now. You know, it looks like they've got nothing more than a pressure sensor for this vase! It's criminal how cheap security measures are getting these days." Ben knelt down and fiddled with his trouser cuff, eventually pulling out a short length of copper wire and a black box about the size of a key fob. "How heavy do you think the vase is?"
"It's Etruscan," said Bill, suddenly paying attention. "Similar examples have been found and exhibited elsewhere, and the pottery is of an unusually porous nature. It's climate controlled in here, so we can assume it'll be dry. About 2.8kg I think."
"Thanks." Ben pressed bits of the fob that looked identical to the rest of it and it beeped once. Red numerals – 2.8 – appeared and then faded. He coiled the copper wire, attached the fob and dropped it over the vase. Then he picked the vase up, and they both waited.
No siren sounded, and no cages fell from the ceiling.
"Sorted," said Ben. "Let's go." He looked round. "Oh Bill. Did you have to cut their ribbon already?"
Greg - thanks! For the record, in my mind the trophies were definitely not earned. The vast majority of them, at any rate.
Quite enjoyed this scene. Some great details, the back and forth between Ben and Bill is fantastic, and that ending is perfect :)
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