The exercise:
Write about: a busybody.
But not like... well, interpret it as you wish. The inspiration, however, was Max's busy day: full day of school, followed by a dentist appointment, followed by his first Taekwondo class since June, followed by a couple hours with a babysitter.
Not to forget Miles, who also did the school (his first full day) and babysitter parts.
Anyway. They both did great today. Hopefully they fell asleep early enough this evening for tomorrow to be manageable.
2 comments:
That does sound like a very busy day, and hence I guess at least one of you were very busy bodies :) How long is a full day of school then, if there's a babysitter involved afterwards?
I hope I've taken the prompt the way you intended:
A busybody"This is a very busy body," I said, poking the corpse with the toe of my shoe. My new deputy, a kid fresh out of the morgue by the look of him, frowned.
"I don't think you're supposed to kick them," he said.
"Where did it say that in your textbook, son?" I asked kindly. He looked at me, his eyes tightening and his brow furrowing as though trying to remember.
"I think... I think it was assumed that didn't need to be said," he said, sounding less confident than his words suggested.
"Well," I said. "It didn't say it because it's not true. Sometimes these bodies get very busy indeed and you want to find that out before you're kneeling next to it with your hands right next to it. Gloves or no gloves, if there's a beetle infestation in there and it explodes out into your face, you're not going to be doing me any good for the next week or two."
"Beetles? I thought you got maggots and flies...." His voice tailed off as he studied my face. I pointed at the corpse, which had once been Jane Mysore, the town's postmistress.
"See how there's movement under the skin there," I said, pointing at her left arm. There was dark bruising at the top in the classical finger-print pattern so I was pretty sure this was a violent crime and the police would find out more, more quickly, than we would from trying to pull fabric fibres from what's left of her skin, or find surviving partial fingerprints that might be matched to a koala by a talented prosecutor. The movement was about the size of a coin and looked almost like burrowing. "Think that's just a big maggot?"
"No-o-o-o." He would probably have paled if he wasn't already as white as milk.
"Then what might it be? If I hadn't told you beetles already, what would your books have told you?"
"Um, rats maybe?"
I barked a laugh, I couldn't control it. He looked hurt, his eyes turning down and his hands starting to wash one another with anxiety. "Have you actually seen a rat, son?"
"Only in the labs."
"They were mice. A rat is about eight times the size. It definitely wouldn't squeeze inside a human arm, at least not Miss Mysore's. And it wouldn't bother, it would just chew into wherever looked tastiest. Rats aren't much fussy either."
"Ok." He looked quite woebegone now, and I almost felt sorry for him. Then I remembered I'd stolen this identity from the real Forensic Officer about two years ago and this kid, might, if I didn't watch him, just blow my cover. He probably knew more than I did already and I'd been making an effort to catch up. Probably best to impress him a little more.
I poked the corpse again, and the very busy body split down the middle; chest to pubis opening up like old fabric tearing apart and shiny beetles spilling out everywhere. I stepped back and the kid screamed.
Greg - the babysitter was needed after dinner, as Kat and I had an online appointment and needed someone to watch the boys. Probably too much for one day but everybody managed pretty well.
Intended? Well, not exactly. Fully within the scope of the prompt? Absolutely!
(this is so, so gross by the way... just for the record)
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