The exercise:
Write about: the navigator.
Max made a treasure hunt map this morning and insisted on bringing it in the car this afternoon so that we would know where we were going (in reality, to get smoothies from a place we've been many times before). I told him he could hold on to the map and be the navigator then.
"A whatagator?" he asked (one of his new favorite games is to pretend to not understand what we just said).
"A navigator," I said.
"An alligator?" he asked.
"Sure. You can be the alligator navigator."
And then suddenly there were alligators on the map that we had to get past in order to get to the X which marked the spot.
Parenting life, you guys.
Mine:
"Take the next right."
"You're sure about that?"
"Trust me. I've got the map, remember?"
"Yeah, but you also don't have your glasses."
"I don't need them - this is big print. Take the next right."
"... okay."
"All right, our hotel should be coming up on the left in a few blocks."
"There are literally zero buildings on the left. Do you mean the right?"
"Did I say right? No. Keep driving."
"There's nothing remotely hotel-like on the left. And it's starting to get dark. Are you sure we're in the right place?"
"Of course I'm sure! I've got the... oh."
"Oh?"
"It's nothing, don't worry about it. You might want to do a U-turn though."
"... did you just turn the map around?!"
From the games to the alligators you suddenly needed to get around... that all sounds about right for children to me. Clever children, mind you, which is also a good sign :) And it seems like you managed to get the smoothies without the alligators getting you too, which has got to be a win!
ReplyDeleteI can't quite remember, but I think I've been in the situation you've described today where someone else has had the map upside down... thankfully I'm sure it wasn't on any of the orienteering stuff I did as a kid! Your narrators seem comfortable with each other, which is probably a good thing now they're lost and heading into the unknown!
The navigator
"Hold on a second, let me get this straight." Juliet adjusted her many-layered crinoline dress, a pre-requisite for attending court this season, and managed to sit, a little precariously, on an ottoman. "You just happen to know Baron Harkonnen, quite possibly the richest man I've ever met, and notably single, and you've not bothered to tell me this until now?"
Rayban nodded, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other as subtly as he could manage.
"Not only that, but you might have accidentally killed a Mentat? The kind of assassin that you can't stop because they've actually planned your entire life up to its death from when you were born, partly because they're all in bed, though not literally, with the Bene Gesserit. Who are witches so mad and cackling that the Wizard of Oz would have recognised them."
Rayban nodded again, not trusting himself to speak. His throat felt dry and scratchy.
Juliet rustled like an aggressive tree. "And then you've fled from that planet to here, in the hopes that the Emperor won't realise it's all your fault. Which is entirely possible," and here she sighed and fanned herself with her hand, "because he's dribblingly insane. Rumour has it that he eats his underpants if his staff don't watch him like a hawk."
Rayban ventured a smile.
"But when I ask you if we can take a little jaunt out to Reba-7 to pick strawberries before the season ends, you tell me it's too dangerous?!"
"It's the navigators," said Rayban, his voice sounding rusty. He wondered if Juliet would think he was going through puberty.
"What's the navigators? What's the matter with the bloody navigators that isn't the matter with killing a Mentat? Or knowing the most sadistic Baron in the galaxy?"
"They're all drug addicts," said Rayban plaintively. "How can you trust them?"
Greg - yes, Max is clever all right. Clever like an especially annoying fox, some days :P
ReplyDeleteBut yes, we did manage to escape the alligators. Must have had a good navigator...
Ah, a return to prose! I *guess* you're also good enough at this stuff that I won't miss all the poetry *too* much :P
I am intrigued by this pair. And feel like we might be hearing from them again. I would approve of that.