The exercise:
Write about: the bribe.
We had a pretty smooth trip to Comox today, despite fog surrounding the ferry all the way across the straight. The plan had been to visit the Vancouver Aquarium in the morning before catching the ferry, but we ended up being too tight for time. Hopefully we can take Max there another day, when we won't have to be so rushed.
It's weird to be at home with my parents, but not really feel like I'm home. Going to have to drive by the old place at some point, just to see it.
For now, Max is having fun entertaining his Nana and Pop and we're looking forward to getting settled in and having a proper rest.
Mine:
No price is too high,
Nor too many tears be wept
When it comes time
For a secret to be kept.
Some targets can be
Harder to buy than others;
If they're too tough
Try the sisters or brothers.
Everyone has it,
There's always ways to entice;
Sooner or later,
You'll find we all have our price.
2 comments:
I thought for a moment that you were going to see the Vancouver aquarium in the fog and wondered how exciting that might actually be. I guess there's a certain frisson to be had when a shark looms out of the mist ahead of you, but I'm not sure Max is quite old enough for that kind of entertainment :)
Hmm, I like your poem, but it confused me a little since at the start I thought it was about keeping secrets and then at the end it seemed to be about finding out secrets. Both fit nicely with the theme though! And the usual professionalism of your work is clearly apparent: no forced rhymes, a tidy rhyme scheme, a lilting rhythm that carries the reader through... very nice!
The bribe
The police car stopped them by the simple expedient of pulling in front of them and hitting the brakes. Miss Snippet sighed heavily, glaring out of the windscreen at it. It was a battered black and white thing that seemed to have slipped through a time warp from the seventies; though here in rural Poland a lot of things seemed like that. The officer, a middle-aged man with a greying walrus moustache and a receding hairline, got out of the car with a spring in his step and came over to the mini-bus as though it was Christmas.
Sonja wound down the driver's-side window, and the police officer smiled and held out his hand.
"He wants a bribe, miss," said Sonja. She was nine, and driving the van as though she'd had eight years of experience.
"I expect he does," said Miss Snippet. "How robust do you think that car is?"
Charlie leaned forward from the seat behind, squinting slightly. "Looks like a Ford," he said. "Wonder how they got that over here? Well, with that plate it'll be mostly an iron framework so it's going to be heavy. We won't crush it, but we'll push it easily enough. This clunker of a minibus used to be a fire-engine."
"How do you know that?" asked Sonja, a hint of admiration creeping into her voice. Outside the window the police-officer coughed, wondering if perhaps they'd not noticed him.
"Well, we've still got the fireman's uniforms back here," said Charlie. Miss Snippet facepalmed, knowing immediately that when they arrived she'd have a van full of fireman-attired children. "And also we found the water hoses and radio control centre."
Miss Snippet unfacepalmed and brightened. "Right," she said. "That's useful! OK, Sonja, tell buddy boy that if he doesn't pay up and sharpish we're going to ram his car off the road." The children looked to the side of the road, where the countryside fell away steeply to a river some two hundred feet below. "And then let's see if we can find a water station to charge those hoses up with!"
Greg - ah, I meant for the second and third stanzas to be about the difficulty of making more... decent people... accept bribes to keep their mouths shut. Reading it over now I can see where your confusion comes from though.
Oh dear, Miss Snippet and her charges on the loose in rural Poland? No good can come of that. Interesting fun, certainly, but no good.
I quite enjoyed the firetruck details, and the policeman's little cough :D
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