The exercise:
Four lines of prose about: knots.
I'm still in Vancouver - be back tomorrow.
Mine:
We watched the sailor manipulate the ropes, his salt encrusted hands moving as though they belonged to our mother when she worked at her knitting. He could have done the same knot one hundred times in a row and we wouldn't have figured out how he'd done it. Maybe two hundred.
Knots
ReplyDeleteI stood in front of the baker’s shop. In the window were lots of pastries and bread rolls in the shape of knots.
Their crispiness beckoned.
Oh, if only I wasn’t a Celiac.
Salt-encrusted hands? I'm guessing this is one of Davy Jones' crew then! Hangman's nooses are actually one of the easier knots to tie – I don't know if that's because they were so frequently needed, or just a slightly-macabre coincidence though.
ReplyDeleteHope Vancouver's treating you well!
Knots
"Captain? How many miles per hour does the boat do?" Heiress Berlin Radisson stared up at the captain with huge, blue eyes.
"Madame," said the Captain stiffly, "This is a ship. We are doing nearly 40 knots. And you are within an inch of learning what a keel-hauling is, so if I were you, I'd leave my bridge at a rate of knots as well!"
Hangmen, Bread Knots, and Nautical speed. Could also do boy scouts or therapeutic kneads but I must be quick for at least on child in now awake.
ReplyDeleteKnots
"Why do ships travel at the speed of knots?" the little boy with big blue eyes asked.
"Well back before we had fancy technology and the like, sailors used to use a log tied to a rope that had evenly spaced knots in it," the Captain responded.
"Why?" the boy asked in the pause.
"So they could throw the log overboard and count how many of the knots passed over the gunwale in a set amount of time."
"But it they didn't have technology how'd they tell time?" the boy wanted to know.
Okay I did five lines, but the little blue eyed guy had to ask his next question
I was bored again our mine rescue team captain had zero imagination and had been doing this for too long. We could have been practicing anything useful and fun all we ever practiced was tying knots. My team members still didn't know what to make of me, I was a girl, a paramedic, an artist, a runner, and someone who had no problems venting her thoughts and frustrations. Some of them actually rolled their eyes in fear when I hung a voodoo doll resembling the captain from the ladder on the firetruck...wusses.
ReplyDeleteBo Baron stood in front of the green screen and adjusted his tie as his camera man counted down. "3,2,1, action."
ReplyDelete"Good morning Sandy and hello Pagoda Beach. I'm Bo Baron with your weather on the 8's update."
Sandy Waters sits at a news desk waiting to be taken off the air. She gives the camera an over exaggerated smile before replying "Good morning Bo how's the weather out there this morning?"
"A small craft advisory is in effect for this afternoon, leading into the early evening hours. Expect moderate to gale force winds coming out of the east at 25 knots."
Sandy's smile never wavers. "Hold on to your hats ladies and gentlemen it sounds like a rough day at sea. Now back to Frank Cates with more "Morons in the News.""
Writebite - aw, you make them sound so appealing and then that last line just snatches them away.
ReplyDeleteGreg - sounds like your Captain has had a little too much of the heiress' company :)
Cathryn - hah, well it's a fair question, I think, so I'll allow it :P
Iron Bess - love the attitude throughout this one :)
Krystin - I like how you managed to give such a good picture of what Sandy is like in such a short space. Also, rather appropriate name, I reckon :)