Sunday August 23rd, 2020

The exercise:

Write about: putting the pieces back together.

2 comments:

Greg said...

Is this a reference to the Canucks, by any chance? Putting the pieces of victory together to win the Stanley cup this year?

Putting the pieces back together
We asked Josie, naturally enough since she's about the only person we've really spoken to while we've been in Elizabethtown, and she wrinkled her forehead and tapped a pot with a wooden spoon, and finally said that we'd probably need to talk to the mine foreman. She sighed a little, and then she seemed to brighten up.
"It's Thursday," she said, though I've no idea how she knew that. Without a newspaper for occasional reference I had no idea what day it might be. "Simon'll be along for dinner; he always comes when I make sopapillas. You can talk to him then."
Ben and I walked away together towards where Jimmy was frowning at the broken basket and moving the pieces of it this way and that.
"She really doesn't want us going into that copper mine, does she?" I said.
"Must be something down there that's gold related," said Ben. "I'd suggest sneaking in--"
"But they're obviously guarding it," I finished. "I guess they might actually have the chupacapra down there, you know?"
Ben chuckled. "Bet it's hungry then. Jimmy, haven't you fixed that basket yet? What's taking you so long to put a few pieces back together?"
Jimmy looked up, and his smile clearly indicated that he was pleased we weren't heading off down the mine to find gas.
"When you broke this apart, were you angry, or just really, really furious?" he asked. "I've done jigsaw puzzles that were easier."
"I don't believe you," said Ben easily. "I met your pa, he wasn't a man for games. 'Cept his own of course."
There was a moment of silence which passed without remark, and we carried on as though nothing had been said. After a fair amount of arguing over what bits went where we managed to get the basket into something like it's original shape, and then Jimmy and Ben went off to the general store to see if they had anything at all like what we were going to need. I sat down on the porch, which was a fancy name for the mostly rotten wooden planks that ran around our temporary hovel, and tried not to kick the basket. The sun was heading up to its peak in the sky and the heat was starting to get oppressive; like a blanket around my shoulders that I couldn't shrug off.
I stood up when I saw the other two coming back and felt beads of sweat roll down my back under my shirt. They were carrying a long roll of canvas between them, and my surprise warred with my delight.
"We got something," said Ben as they got closer. "Might be more intended for camping, but I think it'll keep us from falling out. We're going to have to build the frame ourselves. Likely out of wood."

Marc said...

Greg - more the balloon, actually, but sure, let's be optimistic about the Canucks at the same time :)

Ah, a meeting with the foreman. That should be entertaining. Also: I appreciate that there are still references to Jimmy's dad, as that story isn't something that will ever fully go away for these three, I reckon.

Also, also: I just looked up sopapillas and now I want some :(