Your mistake or someone else's? Given the previous day's prompt I can only hope that one of your classmates has mistakenly turned in a summer-holiday-video instead of their presentation for the course :)
Mistake Miss Hood looked at Symphonia: the woman was referred to around the village as one of the Ugly Sisters as she and her sister Compositia had a music-hall act together and that was their stage name. There were also whispers, if you sat in the village coffee-shop and sipped a cup of tea and kept your ears pinned back, that they had a very ugly sister called Cinderella and that that was the source of the name, but only someone uncouth would think of repeating that. She wasn't ugly herself though; her face was round and slightly homely, a little red at the cheeks and a little too pale at the forehead. Her chin jutted out just a touch too much to be beautiful and her cheekbones were angular and needed a little more makeup to make her seem pixie-like. Her eyes, meeting Miss Hood's, were hazel and had a light of intelligence in them. "Mistake?" asked Miss Hood. "Someone put it into the wrong gear and accelerated? Or didn't brake in time?" "Unlikely," said Symphonia. "There's no engine. It was entirely horse-drawn. Making a carriage out of a pumpkin was a big enough task as it was, it's not like they actually grow to that size. It was constructed out of a lot of preserved pumpkins and balsawood." Her voice was melodious and Miss Hood wondered what it would be like to hear her sing. "I have to ask," said Miss Hood, picking her words as carefully as she could. "Because everyone else will. Could this have been Cinderella?" Symphonia smiled and Miss Hood felt she was being condescending. "It almost certainly was Cinderella," she said. "That woman will be the death of whoever is stupid enough to marry her. If it weren't that I don't want a death on my hands, I'd have married her off to the first tramp that came knocking, frankly. But look, it might not have been. I've not got any proof, love. So find me some of that, and then we can get on with going to the police and her batting her eyelashes around and getting off scot-free." Miss Hood felt a little abashed. "I see," she murmured. "I'm to find out what everyone already knows?" "No," said Symphonia with a tone of patience that Miss Hood thought should only be used with small children. With a start she wondered if Symphonia was just so used to talking to Cinderella that she didn't realise she was doing this. "No, I want you to find out if the obvious is just there to confuse us and if someone's framing Cinderella." "But," said Miss Hood. Symphonia held up a hand to stop her. "I think she did it," she said. "But I might be mistaken. Everyone will think she did it. And so there might be a real criminal out there who's taking advantage of Cindy's stupidity. So I want you to make sure that we're going to arrest the right person, even if they're going to sleep their way out of a gaol-sentence." Miss Hood nodded, now deep in thought.
2 comments:
Your mistake or someone else's? Given the previous day's prompt I can only hope that one of your classmates has mistakenly turned in a summer-holiday-video instead of their presentation for the course :)
Mistake
Miss Hood looked at Symphonia: the woman was referred to around the village as one of the Ugly Sisters as she and her sister Compositia had a music-hall act together and that was their stage name. There were also whispers, if you sat in the village coffee-shop and sipped a cup of tea and kept your ears pinned back, that they had a very ugly sister called Cinderella and that that was the source of the name, but only someone uncouth would think of repeating that. She wasn't ugly herself though; her face was round and slightly homely, a little red at the cheeks and a little too pale at the forehead. Her chin jutted out just a touch too much to be beautiful and her cheekbones were angular and needed a little more makeup to make her seem pixie-like. Her eyes, meeting Miss Hood's, were hazel and had a light of intelligence in them.
"Mistake?" asked Miss Hood. "Someone put it into the wrong gear and accelerated? Or didn't brake in time?"
"Unlikely," said Symphonia. "There's no engine. It was entirely horse-drawn. Making a carriage out of a pumpkin was a big enough task as it was, it's not like they actually grow to that size. It was constructed out of a lot of preserved pumpkins and balsawood." Her voice was melodious and Miss Hood wondered what it would be like to hear her sing.
"I have to ask," said Miss Hood, picking her words as carefully as she could. "Because everyone else will. Could this have been Cinderella?"
Symphonia smiled and Miss Hood felt she was being condescending. "It almost certainly was Cinderella," she said. "That woman will be the death of whoever is stupid enough to marry her. If it weren't that I don't want a death on my hands, I'd have married her off to the first tramp that came knocking, frankly. But look, it might not have been. I've not got any proof, love. So find me some of that, and then we can get on with going to the police and her batting her eyelashes around and getting off scot-free."
Miss Hood felt a little abashed. "I see," she murmured. "I'm to find out what everyone already knows?"
"No," said Symphonia with a tone of patience that Miss Hood thought should only be used with small children. With a start she wondered if Symphonia was just so used to talking to Cinderella that she didn't realise she was doing this. "No, I want you to find out if the obvious is just there to confuse us and if someone's framing Cinderella."
"But," said Miss Hood. Symphonia held up a hand to stop her.
"I think she did it," she said. "But I might be mistaken. Everyone will think she did it. And so there might be a real criminal out there who's taking advantage of Cindy's stupidity. So I want you to make sure that we're going to arrest the right person, even if they're going to sleep their way out of a gaol-sentence."
Miss Hood nodded, now deep in thought.
Greg - oh man, I wish. No, but I can't remember the actual inspiration for the prompt, so... maybe?
Ah, so pleased you've continued this. Now I'm left wondering if there's a criminal mastermind at work after all.
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