The exercise:
Write about: the puzzle maker.
Pieces of the puzzle finally starting to fall into place here. Found someone who wants the pavers currently residing in our backyard (we're going to replace them with sod) and I'll be picking up a kitchen cupboard for badly needed extra storage after work on Tuesday.
2 comments:
Sod sounds better for a backyard when you have kids -- it's more fun to play on I think :) And I think it's great that you've found a new home for the pavingstones rather than just dumping them at the tip, or stacking them by the side of the house to sit, unwanted, for years :)
The puzzle maker
The Mayor of Sixticton had liked to tell people that it was an administrative issue; paperwork had been lost and mixed up and by the time anyone in power had realised what was going on it was too late to do anything about it. Forms had been signed, documents had been transferred and exchanged and the deed was done.
The Clerk of Records, a man whose title belied his seniority and gave no hint at all about his temper, disagreed very strongly with this, and could be found sometimes, late at night on the veranda out at Vinipassa Farm with a bottle of beer in one hand and a children's story book (self-penned) in the other explaining that everything that was done had been done at the express instructions of the Mayor herself. And that things had been much better back when the Mayor was a dog.
Whatever the truth of the story was, the Mayor had lost re-election to Sandy, the Golden Retriever who had previous been Mayor and she was now the Mayor-in-waiting and required to carry the Mayoral pooper scooper on all ceremonial occasions, and Sixticton's attempt at establishing a sister city meant that they were now twinned with an IKEA in Hopping Toad, Indiana.
"It's not like it's all bad," said Emma, one of Sixticton's teachers at the WrongStart educational facility and amateur pickleballer. "It does mean that we get a lot of furniture for free."
The Clerk of Records grunted. He'd just put his children to bed and come out to the veranda for some fresh air and to let his wife have a little peace and quiet in the living room. Crickets hummed in the orchard behind the house, and dark shadows that might be night-birds passed infrequently in front of the moon. A faint smell of roses wafted through the air, but that might have been Emma's perfume.
"The original plan was to be sister cities with somewhere in Japan," he said, running his fingers through his beard. It probably needed trimming again. "We could have had a Japanese garden. We could have had koi ponds and a student exchange programme. We could have had an official Puzzle Maker."
"Well," said Emma carefully, who already had a list of students she would willingly exchange. And not just for other students but for IKEA flat-pack self-assembly furniture, if that was part of the deal. "Well I did hear that the IKEA put in a garden on our behalf. And a lot of their furniture is a puzzle when you try and assemble it."
"The Geraldinium Holmes memorial Asbestos Garden," said the Clerk of Records. "Its not even as though she's dead yet and she's got a memorial garden." He sounded a touch bitter. "All I wanted was to do something next to the dog park with maybe some wisteria, a bit of landscaping and a small temple. Perhaps a gazebo to house some puzzles as well."
"We closed Asbestos Park didn't we?"
"It's covered up with tarpaulin while the Mayor-in-waiting tries to figure out how to monetise it," said the Clerk. "She's in talks with Dignitas, and that's a puzzle I can't solve."
"Ah," said Emma thoughtfully. "Not ideal, I suppose. Mar--"
She was cut off by a shriek of horror somewhere in the night.
"That," said the Clerk with solemnity, "sounds a lot like someone discovering that the deer gate is electrified."
Greg - yeah, it would have been expensive to dump them. The boys will be happier on grass, plus we'll be putting in a sandbox for them at some point.
One thing at a time though.
Hahaha. Man, you touched on a lot of points in this one. I am impressed with the range of references you managed while still telling a cohesive story. I'm not sure I could have managed that!
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