The exercise:
Summer time... and the living is easy...
What's that, Mr. Weatherman? Rain on Wednesday? I can't heaaaar yoooouuu...
Today's starter: the papyrus document. Inspired by ancient papers filed away at work. It was either going to be 'papyrus' or 'cave drawings' - I flipped a coin.
Mine:
As gentle as my touch was, the words still threatened to crumble to dust. There was no way to move the document without destroying it and my camera was charging in my hotel room two miles west and a hundred meters up.
I wanted to scream but didn't dare to. Would it still be there in the hour it would take to retrieve my camera? My discovery could be stolen from me by David or Michael or, worst of all, Thomas. But there was no way to conceal it during my absence - my jacket would have surely ruined it and using sand would have been madness.
I had no choice. There could be no other way - I had to leave it there, in the open, plain to see for any eyes that happened upon it. With my heart in my throat, I left that room with my torch extinguished to avoid attention. If I knew then that I would never return, would I have done anything differently?
I wish I could say.
Ancient papers filed away at work sounds intriguing -- are these the personnel files by any chance?
ReplyDeleteI think the oldest papers I still have are all writing pages of one sort or another, but too many house moves as a student meant that little else got kept. And at work almost everything except personnel files are electronic.
I like your prose, there's hints of a Wilbur Smith action-adventure novel in it. For tomorrow it would be nice if you explained why you never returned :-P
Papyrus document
Palimpsest
At your behest
I call forth this age of technological wonder
Inside
Is where you hide
Your secrets of millenia ago
X-rays
Sing your praise
And make the esoteric clear once more.
PS Congrats on reaching 25 followers too!
No, they're really, really old engineering drawings. I'm working at BC Hydro and they have a library of dam drawings (heh) that need updating when changes are made. Every now and again I open up a binder and find drawings so old they're almost dust.
ReplyDeleteNo explanations - always leave 'em wanting more!
I like yours, very investigative :D
And thank you - it appears I'm up to 26 now!