Writing Project, week 2
Ok, here is this week's entry:
Dates: 01-07 February 2010
Theme: Ridiculous Voiceovers
Word lists: Wove, Logic, Homes, Breeds, Ranged, Glacial, Runes, Jades, Tins, Fail, Ye, Toothy, Plait, Pox, Tug
Henry patiently wove a plait into the small girls hair to match the one she’d already made on the other side. She looked around at the zoo’s patrons and then back to her works as she finished up the simple style the girl had requested. She didn’t say anything to the girl as she ran squealing back to her parents. She thought it was good that there were so many people out, instead of staying cooped up in their homes, but she had learned long ago that in her job, talking to the customers just wasn’t a good idea. Her coworker at the hair stand disagreed though, and spent each day chattering away with all the sense of a cuckoo.
Still, she’d managed to have some decent conversations with Tins, the enormous salt-water crocodile that lived next to the stand. He listened well, anyway, and since she had started working there the previous summer had taken to sunning on a large flat rock next to the stand. The zoo was an older one, and there was no safety-moat in this part of the crocodile’s pen. The children loved being able to get closer to the animal, but it often made the parents a little nervous, which she thought was hilarious. Especially when the occasional oaf of a father or young man would try to pick her up, she’d just lean over and say something to Tins, and he would glare at the unwanted suitor with this toothy grin that never failed to scare them off.
She felt a tug on her apron, and looked down to see a boy, perhaps eight, looking up at her. He was carrying a toy sword and shield from the zoo’s conjoined amusement park, both etched with nonsensical runes. “What can I do for you, young man?” she asked, wondering if the boy actually wanted something from the stand or was just lost.
“What kind of alligator is that?” the boy asked slowly.
“Er, Tins here? Tins isn’t an alligator at all, he’s a crocodile.”
“Nuh-uh, he looks like an alligator. I’ve never seen a cro-… croca… hippo-pot-o-dial before!”
Henry blinked at the boy’s logic, and tried to hold in a snicker. “Not a hippopotamus, a crocodile. It’s similar to an alligator, but it’s not the same thing. Kind of like how dogs have different breeds, right?” She knew that this wasn’t exactly how it worked, but it should be close enough for now.
The boy nodded sagely, as though he had already known the answer and was just testing her. “Those are pretty rocks.”
“Er…” she looked around, seeing only the one big rock that Tins was hanging out on.
“Around your neck, those are pretty rocks. What are they?”
“OH. These are jades,” she explained. The boy listened attentively as she explained the differences between the stones in her necklace, until he asked her another question.
“Can you lift me up to see it better?”
“Huh? My necklace?”
“No silly, the alli- crockpotodial.”
“Crocodile,” she corrected. She looked around, and seeing that there actually weren’t any customers at the moment: “just for a few moments. I have to work if anyone comes over.” She bent down and hoisted the boy under the arms, enabling him to lean out over the safety wall so that he could get a closer look at the massive reptile.
“But little did Henrietta know, that today the beast had finally decided to eat one of these wiggling morsels that the humans kept teasing him with, and she could only watch in horror as the event unfolded….”
Henry quickly put the boy down and turned around to glare at the speaker, Bill, one of the other zoo employees with a penchant for practical jokes, ventriloquizing, and pretending he was life’s narrator who also had an unfortunate crush on her. “Dammit Bill, cut that out, you scare the children!”
Bill just laughed. “Come on Henrietta, it’s funny!”
“No it isn’t you idiot, now go back to work and leave me alone. And my name is Henry!”
“Oh, i’m off work now, an’ i don’ have t’ be anywhere for a span. Ye get off soon too, yeah? Ye wanna grab some coffee?”
“Bill, you fail at reading schedules: I don’t get off until closing. Now go away before Tins eats you, i’m trying to work.”
“Aw, a’right, mebbe t’morrow, eh?” He moseyed away, not really listening to her sputtering denials but occasionally eyeing the grinning crocodile.
“Ok, sorry about that kid, but… er…” she trailed off, the boy no longer to be found. Sighing, she turned back to her chair and found a girl waiting in it. Mechanically she again went through the motions of asking what she wanted, watching the girl’s mother for approval of each item. As she worked, her chatterbox coworker walked over and started talking to her.
“So was Bill hitting on you again he’s such a cad, that guy he doesn’t seem to ever even notice the other girls around here but he’s always coming over to talk to you and i don’t think Tins likes him so much ‘cause every time her comes over here Tins is all teeth for a while and are you guys going out and just don’t want to tell anyone or what ‘cause i think he bothers some of the customers and….”
Henry started to just tune her out, unable even to start comprehending the torrent of words that flooded the airspace around her coworker. Instead she started to hum a song she’d heard on the radio that morning, some nameless tune that had a catchy rhythm to it. Her next customer was an older girl, probably in high school, who wanted to know how she managed to keep all the different hair modifications straight. Actually the process was fairly simple: although the styles on the display board ranged from simple braids with ribbons to complicated, over-the-top pieces with bits of ribbon and laces and artificial hair of various colours, they were mostly just a few simple techniques repeated over and over. The girl lost interest long before she completed her explanation, but Henry kept talking anyway because her boss said that the customers complained if she just stopped talking mid-sentence.
The day progressed at a glacial pace, the stream of customers seemingly unending, steady and without breaks. Henry liked breaks, mostly because she was paid hourly instead of on commission, but also because she simply didn’t like her job anymore. It had become a pox upon her life, and she needed rid of it. And of Bill. She would miss Tins, she was sure, but today had to be the last: she simply couldn’t stand it anymore….
Next week's dates: 08-14 February 2010
Next week's theme: Winged Minion(s)
Next week's word lists:
List One: Piece, Yippee, Pig, Java, Woven, Nearer, Nazi, Dominos, Snout, Tax, Nulls, Doffs, Buked, Qi, Yet, Re, Mu
List 2: Pirate, Rightly, Mage, Vane, Arrow, Wan, Dozed, Doff, Tattoo, Beach, Bulb, Hex, Tattoos, Us, Din, Fa
Ok, will post new words and a theme as soon as i have them, see you next week!
--dunerat
Dates: 01-07 February 2010
Theme: Ridiculous Voiceovers
Word lists: Wove, Logic, Homes, Breeds, Ranged, Glacial, Runes, Jades, Tins, Fail, Ye, Toothy, Plait, Pox, Tug
Henry patiently wove a plait into the small girls hair to match the one she’d already made on the other side. She looked around at the zoo’s patrons and then back to her works as she finished up the simple style the girl had requested. She didn’t say anything to the girl as she ran squealing back to her parents. She thought it was good that there were so many people out, instead of staying cooped up in their homes, but she had learned long ago that in her job, talking to the customers just wasn’t a good idea. Her coworker at the hair stand disagreed though, and spent each day chattering away with all the sense of a cuckoo.
Still, she’d managed to have some decent conversations with Tins, the enormous salt-water crocodile that lived next to the stand. He listened well, anyway, and since she had started working there the previous summer had taken to sunning on a large flat rock next to the stand. The zoo was an older one, and there was no safety-moat in this part of the crocodile’s pen. The children loved being able to get closer to the animal, but it often made the parents a little nervous, which she thought was hilarious. Especially when the occasional oaf of a father or young man would try to pick her up, she’d just lean over and say something to Tins, and he would glare at the unwanted suitor with this toothy grin that never failed to scare them off.
She felt a tug on her apron, and looked down to see a boy, perhaps eight, looking up at her. He was carrying a toy sword and shield from the zoo’s conjoined amusement park, both etched with nonsensical runes. “What can I do for you, young man?” she asked, wondering if the boy actually wanted something from the stand or was just lost.
“What kind of alligator is that?” the boy asked slowly.
“Er, Tins here? Tins isn’t an alligator at all, he’s a crocodile.”
“Nuh-uh, he looks like an alligator. I’ve never seen a cro-… croca… hippo-pot-o-dial before!”
Henry blinked at the boy’s logic, and tried to hold in a snicker. “Not a hippopotamus, a crocodile. It’s similar to an alligator, but it’s not the same thing. Kind of like how dogs have different breeds, right?” She knew that this wasn’t exactly how it worked, but it should be close enough for now.
The boy nodded sagely, as though he had already known the answer and was just testing her. “Those are pretty rocks.”
“Er…” she looked around, seeing only the one big rock that Tins was hanging out on.
“Around your neck, those are pretty rocks. What are they?”
“OH. These are jades,” she explained. The boy listened attentively as she explained the differences between the stones in her necklace, until he asked her another question.
“Can you lift me up to see it better?”
“Huh? My necklace?”
“No silly, the alli- crockpotodial.”
“Crocodile,” she corrected. She looked around, and seeing that there actually weren’t any customers at the moment: “just for a few moments. I have to work if anyone comes over.” She bent down and hoisted the boy under the arms, enabling him to lean out over the safety wall so that he could get a closer look at the massive reptile.
“But little did Henrietta know, that today the beast had finally decided to eat one of these wiggling morsels that the humans kept teasing him with, and she could only watch in horror as the event unfolded….”
Henry quickly put the boy down and turned around to glare at the speaker, Bill, one of the other zoo employees with a penchant for practical jokes, ventriloquizing, and pretending he was life’s narrator who also had an unfortunate crush on her. “Dammit Bill, cut that out, you scare the children!”
Bill just laughed. “Come on Henrietta, it’s funny!”
“No it isn’t you idiot, now go back to work and leave me alone. And my name is Henry!”
“Oh, i’m off work now, an’ i don’ have t’ be anywhere for a span. Ye get off soon too, yeah? Ye wanna grab some coffee?”
“Bill, you fail at reading schedules: I don’t get off until closing. Now go away before Tins eats you, i’m trying to work.”
“Aw, a’right, mebbe t’morrow, eh?” He moseyed away, not really listening to her sputtering denials but occasionally eyeing the grinning crocodile.
“Ok, sorry about that kid, but… er…” she trailed off, the boy no longer to be found. Sighing, she turned back to her chair and found a girl waiting in it. Mechanically she again went through the motions of asking what she wanted, watching the girl’s mother for approval of each item. As she worked, her chatterbox coworker walked over and started talking to her.
“So was Bill hitting on you again he’s such a cad, that guy he doesn’t seem to ever even notice the other girls around here but he’s always coming over to talk to you and i don’t think Tins likes him so much ‘cause every time her comes over here Tins is all teeth for a while and are you guys going out and just don’t want to tell anyone or what ‘cause i think he bothers some of the customers and….”
Henry started to just tune her out, unable even to start comprehending the torrent of words that flooded the airspace around her coworker. Instead she started to hum a song she’d heard on the radio that morning, some nameless tune that had a catchy rhythm to it. Her next customer was an older girl, probably in high school, who wanted to know how she managed to keep all the different hair modifications straight. Actually the process was fairly simple: although the styles on the display board ranged from simple braids with ribbons to complicated, over-the-top pieces with bits of ribbon and laces and artificial hair of various colours, they were mostly just a few simple techniques repeated over and over. The girl lost interest long before she completed her explanation, but Henry kept talking anyway because her boss said that the customers complained if she just stopped talking mid-sentence.
The day progressed at a glacial pace, the stream of customers seemingly unending, steady and without breaks. Henry liked breaks, mostly because she was paid hourly instead of on commission, but also because she simply didn’t like her job anymore. It had become a pox upon her life, and she needed rid of it. And of Bill. She would miss Tins, she was sure, but today had to be the last: she simply couldn’t stand it anymore….
Next week's dates: 08-14 February 2010
Next week's theme: Winged Minion(s)
Next week's word lists:
List One: Piece, Yippee, Pig, Java, Woven, Nearer, Nazi, Dominos, Snout, Tax, Nulls, Doffs, Buked, Qi, Yet, Re, Mu
List 2: Pirate, Rightly, Mage, Vane, Arrow, Wan, Dozed, Doff, Tattoo, Beach, Bulb, Hex, Tattoos, Us, Din, Fa
Ok, will post new words and a theme as soon as i have them, see you next week!
--dunerat