* I have just learned about Narritivia. It is Sir Terry Pratchett's recently-created film company! They'll be the ones behind the upcoming Good Omens (!!! ! ! !) as well
as thirteen episodes (so far) of a series ('The Watch') about
Ankh-Morpork's police force.
* Neil Gaiman is writing another Doctor Who episode. YAYYYYYYYYYY
* I keep coming up with really good opening lines for books and nothing to do with them. I think I might just write a book that includes a lot of references to fictional books and then I can use the opening lines.
* IT IS ALMOST CHRISTMAS. We've been thinking about decorating the house rather earlier than is socially acceptable. (It's only the inside of the house, anyway, so it's not like anyone will care.)
* I've just discovered that an independent bookstore near us is having their Annual Sale starting next Wednesday! THIS IS VERY EXCITING.
* Kedgeree.
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Regarding Long-Awaited Arrivals
Art by Wayne McLoughlin
The book will be out on the fifth of March - that's nearly half a year away, but at least I have a book-and-a-bit to tide me over until then (plus four more Special Thick Books).
And I must speculate on the promise encapsulated by that reddish-orange dot - a written scene? Or an illustrated scene? Either would be most welcome.
In other news, I have recently looked out the glass door to see a leggy black cat helping itself to some cheddar crisps from the boards of the deck. We didn't exactly have cats in mind when we placed the crisps out for various wildlife, but okay. That works too.
French onion soup makes a wonderful gravy for colcannon. Heart.
Monday, 8 October 2012
Regarding Pumpkin Filling
Today is a cooking day.
My mother has chosen a wonderful way to express this: she is making little sweet rice-flour-cakes stuffed with pumpkin filling.
Well, she's trying to.
After realising that Just Pumpkin Paste was far too thin for ournefarious industrious purposes, we set about trying to find ways to make it thicker. Cornflour, we decided, was too boring - and thus was born a magnificent scouring of fridge, pantry, and cupboards as we frantically lazily searched for anything which would improve the taste and texture of our pumpkin paste.
Here are a few of the things we rejected. Some of them are lies.
-Peanut butter
-Beets
-Sweetened condensed milk (I was bitterly disappointed when they shot this one down)
-Another form of pumpkin custard that I'd made a few days ago
-An entire stalk of Cabbages on a Stick
-Sweetened condensed milk again
-Chocolate truffles and cream (which we would have done if we hadn't been out of cream)
-The Immortal Yam-Creature (which may be explained in the future)
Eventually, sugar was added. Then Mummy, inspired by the pumpkin custard suggestion, decided to add some cream cheese. She did this by pulling the remaining half-box (left over from the custard) out of the fridge and tossing it into the bowl of pumpkin paste. Not quite satisfied with the visual effect, she scooped a bit of paste out of the bowl and set it on top of the white brick.
'Beautiful,' we pronounced. Kristebel took pictures (with a desk lamp for lighting).
Then we began to stir the contents of the bowl. This attempt was met with moderate success until the two ingredients stopped blending and sat next to each other in small, unappetising clumps. Kristebel took more pictures of this while I pointed out that the food-processor was amazing at blending creamy things like this, and we got that out and used it instead. We began tossing in ingredients to thicken and sweeten the mixture (Mummy and I had the same reaction after licking the traces from the sugar-pumpkin bowl, and this was a mixture of grimacing, blinking, and teeth-licking).
Another excerpt from the Hunt for Thickeners:
Mummy's muffled voice from inside the cupboard: 'Marshmallow fluff!'
Brief pause.
'I can't open it!'
Another pause.
'Have we got any more marshmallow fluff?'
I managed to get the jar open and we scooped most of that in. (In retrospect, we were basically creating George's Marvellous Medicine all over again except that none of us is called George and we were making pumpkin filling rather than any actual cure for anything but hunger and curiosity.)
In the end, we'd cobbled together a mixture of
pumpkin paste,
cream cheese,
three sorts of sugar,
two permutations of marshmallows,
two eggs,
melted chocolate,
cardamom,
and a glorious sense of bliss fuelled by a determination to be victorious in the face of adversity and thin pumpkin paste (sometimes these things are one and the same).
As I write this, the filling-creature is in the oven. The rice-flour-cakes have been finished and stuffed with smooshed red-beans*. As you may have guessed from the previous information, none of the pumpkin mixture actually ended up in the rice-creatures. We are planning to eat it as a custard.
EB
*This choice of filling prompted us to invent a new game show ('Potato or Giant Bean?') based on Mummy's honest queries during the handling of red-bean paste.
My mother has chosen a wonderful way to express this: she is making little sweet rice-flour-cakes stuffed with pumpkin filling.
Well, she's trying to.
After realising that Just Pumpkin Paste was far too thin for our
Here are a few of the things we rejected. Some of them are lies.
-Peanut butter
-Beets
-Sweetened condensed milk (I was bitterly disappointed when they shot this one down)
-Another form of pumpkin custard that I'd made a few days ago
-An entire stalk of Cabbages on a Stick
-Sweetened condensed milk again
-Chocolate truffles and cream (which we would have done if we hadn't been out of cream)
-The Immortal Yam-Creature (which may be explained in the future)
Eventually, sugar was added. Then Mummy, inspired by the pumpkin custard suggestion, decided to add some cream cheese. She did this by pulling the remaining half-box (left over from the custard) out of the fridge and tossing it into the bowl of pumpkin paste. Not quite satisfied with the visual effect, she scooped a bit of paste out of the bowl and set it on top of the white brick.
'Beautiful,' we pronounced. Kristebel took pictures (with a desk lamp for lighting).
Then we began to stir the contents of the bowl. This attempt was met with moderate success until the two ingredients stopped blending and sat next to each other in small, unappetising clumps. Kristebel took more pictures of this while I pointed out that the food-processor was amazing at blending creamy things like this, and we got that out and used it instead. We began tossing in ingredients to thicken and sweeten the mixture (Mummy and I had the same reaction after licking the traces from the sugar-pumpkin bowl, and this was a mixture of grimacing, blinking, and teeth-licking).
Another excerpt from the Hunt for Thickeners:
Mummy's muffled voice from inside the cupboard: 'Marshmallow fluff!'
Brief pause.
'I can't open it!'
Another pause.
'Have we got any more marshmallow fluff?'
I managed to get the jar open and we scooped most of that in. (In retrospect, we were basically creating George's Marvellous Medicine all over again except that none of us is called George and we were making pumpkin filling rather than any actual cure for anything but hunger and curiosity.)
In the end, we'd cobbled together a mixture of
pumpkin paste,
cream cheese,
three sorts of sugar,
two permutations of marshmallows,
two eggs,
melted chocolate,
cardamom,
and a glorious sense of bliss fuelled by a determination to be victorious in the face of adversity and thin pumpkin paste (sometimes these things are one and the same).
As I write this, the filling-creature is in the oven. The rice-flour-cakes have been finished and stuffed with smooshed red-beans*. As you may have guessed from the previous information, none of the pumpkin mixture actually ended up in the rice-creatures. We are planning to eat it as a custard.
EB
*This choice of filling prompted us to invent a new game show ('Potato or Giant Bean?') based on Mummy's honest queries during the handling of red-bean paste.
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Regarding October
* It is the best month.
* It is coming soon!
* I have now had a Pumpkin Spice Latte! HEART.
* For something like half an hour I've been wondering about the strange chemical smell which comes in waves and is terrifying (not really) and confusing (really). Just now it has turned out to be a lemon, which managed to stay yellow and nice-looking for (approximately) four hundred years before going off a day later. It has become all brown and strange-looking and smells like nothing should. Seriously - the next time you have a lemon, save the peel and put it in your fruit basket until it turns all brown and horrid and then sniff it for an experience unlike anything you could ever have imagined. You will thank me.
* TEA! We ordered some Davidson's Earl Grey a few days ago and it arrived today. IT IS AMAZING.
* Mum has harvested one of the bushes of jewelweed growing rampant in the garden. She means to chop it up and boil it and freeze it in ice-cubes for use in case of poison ivy (which is also growing rampant in the garden). Simple, yes? Not for my multitude of siblings (who are very clever but still remain confused by some things occasionally):
-Brother was outraged that Mum had uprooted ALL THE JEWELWEED, until I informed him that it was ONLY ONE OF THE JEWELWEED, at which point he switched to being outraged that she had uprooted AN ENTIRE BUSH OF THE JEWELWEED.
-Smallest sister was absolutely flabbergasted that Mum might possibly want to chop AND boil AND freeze jewelweed, and besides, she thought it was strange that there was just a jewelweed lying there.
-Slighly larger sister was at first frightened (I think) and then confused as to why Mum might possibly want to chop AND boil AND freeze the stuff if she wasn't going to put it in glasses and drink it.
Love my siblings. They are very funny.
* It is coming soon!
* I have now had a Pumpkin Spice Latte! HEART.
* For something like half an hour I've been wondering about the strange chemical smell which comes in waves and is terrifying (not really) and confusing (really). Just now it has turned out to be a lemon, which managed to stay yellow and nice-looking for (approximately) four hundred years before going off a day later. It has become all brown and strange-looking and smells like nothing should. Seriously - the next time you have a lemon, save the peel and put it in your fruit basket until it turns all brown and horrid and then sniff it for an experience unlike anything you could ever have imagined. You will thank me.
* TEA! We ordered some Davidson's Earl Grey a few days ago and it arrived today. IT IS AMAZING.
* Mum has harvested one of the bushes of jewelweed growing rampant in the garden. She means to chop it up and boil it and freeze it in ice-cubes for use in case of poison ivy (which is also growing rampant in the garden). Simple, yes? Not for my multitude of siblings (who are very clever but still remain confused by some things occasionally):
-Brother was outraged that Mum had uprooted ALL THE JEWELWEED, until I informed him that it was ONLY ONE OF THE JEWELWEED, at which point he switched to being outraged that she had uprooted AN ENTIRE BUSH OF THE JEWELWEED.
-Smallest sister was absolutely flabbergasted that Mum might possibly want to chop AND boil AND freeze jewelweed, and besides, she thought it was strange that there was just a jewelweed lying there.
-Slighly larger sister was at first frightened (I think) and then confused as to why Mum might possibly want to chop AND boil AND freeze the stuff if she wasn't going to put it in glasses and drink it.
Love my siblings. They are very funny.
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Regarding Pasta
Today we made cheesy sauce and brown rice pasta for supper. It was tasty - and exciting. The packet claimed that a variety of eighteen different pasta shapes were contained within, but we managed to find even more than that. Here are a select few of our discoveries:
-Penguin with rocket-propelled grenade launcher
-Fancy hat
-Throwing star
-Hermes' shoe
-Monocle
-Microscope
-Brass knuckles
-Shark
-Crossbow
-Beef heart
-Cassette tape
-Eucalyptus tree
-Bone with a bit of sinew
-Alien skull with attached vertebrae
-Giraffe riding on a unicycle
-Cufflinks
-Cow
-LEGO arm
-Wolf standing on the bonnet of a vintage car and howling at the moon
-Human arm
-Rooster with arms
-Rabbit hiding behind a very small hill
-Boot for the Little People
-Camel being frightened by a smallish rock
-Penguin with rocket-propelled grenade launcher
-Fancy hat
-Throwing star
-Hermes' shoe
-Monocle
-Microscope
-Brass knuckles
-Shark
-Crossbow
-Beef heart
-Cassette tape
-Eucalyptus tree
-Bone with a bit of sinew
-Alien skull with attached vertebrae
-Giraffe riding on a unicycle
-Cufflinks
-Cow
-LEGO arm
-Wolf standing on the bonnet of a vintage car and howling at the moon
-Human arm
-Rooster with arms
-Rabbit hiding behind a very small hill
-Boot for the Little People
-Camel being frightened by a smallish rock
Friday, 14 September 2012
Regarding Some More Things
Increasingly vague titles: a sure sign of an excellent blog.
* I painted Prague the other night. Well, not all of it. Just a bit. A fictional bit, really. But it's quite a good bit. Pictures to follow (the paper won't fit in my scanner so I'll have to take it to the library and scan it there).
* More reading news: I've chewed my way through to Warriors #4.5 (The Forgotten Warrior). This is the penultimate book of the currently published array! Of course, I've got three (soon four) Super Editions to work my way through - as well as a narrow companion book and a half - so that should keep me busy until March, when 'Dawn of the Clans: The Sun Trail' comes out! I hope the cover art is released soon (but not too soon - the waiting makes it sweeter).
* The Educational Endeavours are going well. I'm doing some really brilliant maths entirely involving triangles, and this week's topic was extraordinarily thrilling (Prove the Validity of the Triangular Ratio Statement Utilising Only Your Wits and the Inherent Validity of Equivalent Statements, or something like that). It makes my head feel all smug and pleasant inside.
* Lucy (aliases include Oosy, Lucy-beast, and Cactus Cat or just Cactus) is settling in well, and she's discovered that she really loves paper sacks. I was holding one today and she was Curious About It, so I placed it on the ground and she immediately went inside and began punching the insides of it. Trillian/Puff/Bee was watching intently, flattening her ears and going all sideways over the edges of her chair, so that's a good thing - she's been the most frightened of Lucy and it's good to see her being not-so-worried.
* Autumn is settling in! Soon the world will be a riot of colours. I haven't had a Pumpkin Spice Latte yet, though. This must be remedied.
* AVENGERS IS COMING OUT ON DVD SOON. We've re-watched all the related films in preparation, and it will be amazing.
* Our hibiscus bush/tree-creature is monstrously tall. I'm quite convinced it's grown several feet over the past few months.
* The London Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of Korobeiniki (more commonly known as The Tetris Theme) is absolutely stunning. I do not use this word lightly. Go listen to that and also their Angry Birds theme. I wish it were easier to find more songs in the Korobeiniki style - Mummy says klezmer and I think 1920s - but maybe some will turn up.
* I just looked up J C Amberlyn on a whim and she's got a new book coming out! This one - her third - will be published on 20 November and looks much more promising than her sadly lacking Second Book. Third Book is about drawing cats, dogs, and other pets - perfect for me because I've been wanting to get into an amazing cat-drawing spree! Amberlyn's first book, Drawing Wildlife, is utterly spectacular; it's probably the one drawing book I'd choose if I were offered such a difficult choice. (Her second book, unfortunately, buys into the manga trend and makes me sad because it does nothing to illustrate the magnificent high points of her artistic abilities.)
* We're nearly halfway through September.
* Edit because it's just that amazing: YES. YES. YESSSSS. Terryl Whitlatch has a new book coming out too - 'Principles of Creature Design: From the Actual to the Amazing'. Look for it on the fifteenth of March!
* I painted Prague the other night. Well, not all of it. Just a bit. A fictional bit, really. But it's quite a good bit. Pictures to follow (the paper won't fit in my scanner so I'll have to take it to the library and scan it there).
* More reading news: I've chewed my way through to Warriors #4.5 (The Forgotten Warrior). This is the penultimate book of the currently published array! Of course, I've got three (soon four) Super Editions to work my way through - as well as a narrow companion book and a half - so that should keep me busy until March, when 'Dawn of the Clans: The Sun Trail' comes out! I hope the cover art is released soon (but not too soon - the waiting makes it sweeter).
* The Educational Endeavours are going well. I'm doing some really brilliant maths entirely involving triangles, and this week's topic was extraordinarily thrilling (Prove the Validity of the Triangular Ratio Statement Utilising Only Your Wits and the Inherent Validity of Equivalent Statements, or something like that). It makes my head feel all smug and pleasant inside.
* Lucy (aliases include Oosy, Lucy-beast, and Cactus Cat or just Cactus) is settling in well, and she's discovered that she really loves paper sacks. I was holding one today and she was Curious About It, so I placed it on the ground and she immediately went inside and began punching the insides of it. Trillian/Puff/Bee was watching intently, flattening her ears and going all sideways over the edges of her chair, so that's a good thing - she's been the most frightened of Lucy and it's good to see her being not-so-worried.
* Autumn is settling in! Soon the world will be a riot of colours. I haven't had a Pumpkin Spice Latte yet, though. This must be remedied.
* AVENGERS IS COMING OUT ON DVD SOON. We've re-watched all the related films in preparation, and it will be amazing.
* Our hibiscus bush/tree-creature is monstrously tall. I'm quite convinced it's grown several feet over the past few months.
* The London Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of Korobeiniki (more commonly known as The Tetris Theme) is absolutely stunning. I do not use this word lightly. Go listen to that and also their Angry Birds theme. I wish it were easier to find more songs in the Korobeiniki style - Mummy says klezmer and I think 1920s - but maybe some will turn up.
* I just looked up J C Amberlyn on a whim and she's got a new book coming out! This one - her third - will be published on 20 November and looks much more promising than her sadly lacking Second Book. Third Book is about drawing cats, dogs, and other pets - perfect for me because I've been wanting to get into an amazing cat-drawing spree! Amberlyn's first book, Drawing Wildlife, is utterly spectacular; it's probably the one drawing book I'd choose if I were offered such a difficult choice. (Her second book, unfortunately, buys into the manga trend and makes me sad because it does nothing to illustrate the magnificent high points of her artistic abilities.)
* We're nearly halfway through September.
* Edit because it's just that amazing: YES. YES. YESSSSS. Terryl Whitlatch has a new book coming out too - 'Principles of Creature Design: From the Actual to the Amazing'. Look for it on the fifteenth of March!
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Regarding Little Things
There are a lot of things in life that I really enjoy. Some of them are enormous (like the United Kingdom and the Animalia Kingdom and all the custard in the world) and some of them are tiny (like small meadows, small frogs, and the smallest bowl of custard ever). But I love all of them.
Here are some of the little things that I have to report.
* Our newest cat, Lucy, loves yoghurt. She loves anything made out of milk. When we've finished with our yoghurt-cups, we hand them over to her and she licks them clean. Once she's got all around the edges as far down as her tongue can go, she puts her paw into the stuff at the bottom and then licks it off. Many times.
* Recently we went to a beautiful botanical garden and saw many plants and bees. We also saw a lovely little stream full of small fishies! We noticed that one fish had a tiny yellow flower in his mouth. Apparently the rest of the fish noticed this as well - they were chasing after him trying to take it for themselves! We dropped in a leaf to see what would happen - they didn't want it. But when we found more yellow flowers and dropped those in, they pounced on them!
* The cover art for 'Wolves of the Beyond' Six (Star Wolf) has been revealed, and it's lovely. I need to read Five so I'll be ready for the series finale!
* I'm now on Warriors #4.1 (The Fourth Apprentice). It's really good!
* I recently discovered a website which offers free patterns for very interesting bits of clothing! It's perfect timing as I've been wanting to make some things to wear.
* We have a craft show scheduled for Sunday. Craft shows are always fun. Perhaps I'll even get a blog post out of this one!
Here are some of the little things that I have to report.
* Our newest cat, Lucy, loves yoghurt. She loves anything made out of milk. When we've finished with our yoghurt-cups, we hand them over to her and she licks them clean. Once she's got all around the edges as far down as her tongue can go, she puts her paw into the stuff at the bottom and then licks it off. Many times.
* Recently we went to a beautiful botanical garden and saw many plants and bees. We also saw a lovely little stream full of small fishies! We noticed that one fish had a tiny yellow flower in his mouth. Apparently the rest of the fish noticed this as well - they were chasing after him trying to take it for themselves! We dropped in a leaf to see what would happen - they didn't want it. But when we found more yellow flowers and dropped those in, they pounced on them!
* The cover art for 'Wolves of the Beyond' Six (Star Wolf) has been revealed, and it's lovely. I need to read Five so I'll be ready for the series finale!
* I'm now on Warriors #4.1 (The Fourth Apprentice). It's really good!
* I recently discovered a website which offers free patterns for very interesting bits of clothing! It's perfect timing as I've been wanting to make some things to wear.
* We have a craft show scheduled for Sunday. Craft shows are always fun. Perhaps I'll even get a blog post out of this one!
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Regarding Spoons (the finely crafted ones)
Quote of the day from Kristebel: 'How did you know about my segmented goat?'
Today I realised that our little stirring-spoons are very nicely made. My comments on them went something like this:
'This spoon is finely crafted.'
A moment's pause.
'I'm going to pretend that wasn't a Thor moment and move on with my life.'
I am now inspecting the spoon more closely.
'. . .Look! It's so perfectly balanced and things. It's like a sword only you can stir your tea with it without getting hurt.'
It's the little things in life that make it so full of little things.
Today I realised that our little stirring-spoons are very nicely made. My comments on them went something like this:
'This spoon is finely crafted.'
A moment's pause.
'I'm going to pretend that wasn't a Thor moment and move on with my life.'
I am now inspecting the spoon more closely.
'. . .Look! It's so perfectly balanced and things. It's like a sword only you can stir your tea with it without getting hurt.'
It's the little things in life that make it so full of little things.
Monday, 6 August 2012
Regarding Nothing In Particular
It is beginning to get cooler again. This is an excellent development. I'm looking forward to the mornings when I'll get to put on SOCKS just to walk about the house. AND SNOW.
Oh, here's a thing: Mummy has begun blogging again! Go check out her posts for amazing pictures of things that are growing in our garden. Also flowers.
I have actually made some things.
FIVE OF THEM. I'm currently plotting my next avian endeavours (Lady Amherst's Pheasants, anyone?) and rummaging through our collection of papers for suitably beautiful sheets and colours.
Also, I may sew a skirt. We've discovered this fabric which is completely the most amazing and it is brown with adorable patterns of spiky trees and things. It looks like IKEA as a fabric. I want to make a skirt out of it and add some pink ruffles or something.
Aaaaaand OH! Things have been coming together with my bookworld recently and it's been really exciting. I love finding out that sometimes the things you've had written down for ages can all be connected in totally unexpected ways.
In other news. . .
*Regarding Pinterest: of course. But instead of making me less productive, it's actually inspiring me to do great things (mostly). I still need an endless supply of fabric, though.
*The ever-amazing Lauren Child has begun writing a new series featuring Ruby Redfort (of Clarice Bean fame) and I've scored the first book from the library. I've only read the first chapter so far but it looks good already. Ms Child is very good at loading innocent-looking sentences with lots more information than is obvious at first sight (examples to be posted later).
*An addendum to the title should read '(Or Maybe Lots Of Things)'.
Oh, here's a thing: Mummy has begun blogging again! Go check out her posts for amazing pictures of things that are growing in our garden. Also flowers.
I have actually made some things.
 |
| Eurasian Bullfinch. (Plus damask [not included]!) |
FIVE OF THEM. I'm currently plotting my next avian endeavours (Lady Amherst's Pheasants, anyone?) and rummaging through our collection of papers for suitably beautiful sheets and colours.
Also, I may sew a skirt. We've discovered this fabric which is completely the most amazing and it is brown with adorable patterns of spiky trees and things. It looks like IKEA as a fabric. I want to make a skirt out of it and add some pink ruffles or something.
Aaaaaand OH! Things have been coming together with my bookworld recently and it's been really exciting. I love finding out that sometimes the things you've had written down for ages can all be connected in totally unexpected ways.
In other news. . .
*Regarding Pinterest: of course. But instead of making me less productive, it's actually inspiring me to do great things (mostly). I still need an endless supply of fabric, though.
*The ever-amazing Lauren Child has begun writing a new series featuring Ruby Redfort (of Clarice Bean fame) and I've scored the first book from the library. I've only read the first chapter so far but it looks good already. Ms Child is very good at loading innocent-looking sentences with lots more information than is obvious at first sight (examples to be posted later).
*An addendum to the title should read '(Or Maybe Lots Of Things)'.
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Regarding That Man In The Parking-Lot (Part I)
It was dark.
Iulius Caesar Stravinsky sweated noisily as he swerved to avoid a marauding shrubbery and veered into the serpentine curve of a parking-lot entrance, swishing into the lot with the noise of tires on rainy cement. This was peculiar - partly because the parking-lot was paved with asphalt, not cement, and partly because Iulius Caesar Stravinsky had been killed three hours earlier.
But neither of these conditions was the reason for his distress. Stravinsky was sweating because he had sped past the town furniture store at seventy miles an hour and the proprietor and his family had spotted him anyway.
Stravinsky could not do long division. He had no idea how one might go about finding hypotenuses (nor was he certain what they were exactly) and he'd never been able to make sense of a periodic table. But if there was one thing he knew, it was that he was being followed, and if there was another thing he knew, it was that the people who were following him would like very much to kill him.
Again.
This was the reason that he was now sitting in a very dark car in the shadow of three enormous paper-recycling bins, holding his breath for abnormally extended periods of time and wondering whether he should risk trying to use his mobile phone.
He had no idea how long he'd been waiting when the Jeep's headlights lit up the world around him.
x-x-x-x-x
Sjburgsteon Pootisson had waited for exactly three minutes and nineteen seconds before turning into the library parking-lot. He had done this mainly to avoid letting Stravinsky escape with a sort of Crazy Ivan manoeuvre, but also to add a sense of tension to the story.
It worked. As he hurtled toward the parked car, Pootisson saw Stravinsky tense, somehow becoming even stiller than he had been. In the seconds before their cars collided, Pootisson smiled, thinking of the reward money he was about to collect for the second time.
Time seemed to slow as the impact shuddered through both vehicles, and though neither Pootisson nor Stravinsky was aware of the other's thought processes, they both found themselves being vaguely disappointed that the noises of the crash did not seem to be amusingly slowed, but in fact remained jarringly real.
x-x-x-x-x
Stravinsky exited through the windshield of the car and performed a spectacular double roll down its bonnet, landing on his feet but falling over almost immediately. Before long, however, he was up again and running for the field ahead. He heard a car door slam and assumed (correctly) that it was Pootisson's; without looking back, he sped up, narrowly avoiding a few inconveniently placed rabbit holes.
It took him a while to realise that the noises around him were gunshots. Once he'd registered that, he smirked a bit, wondering if Pootisson was just a poor shot or if the weaving trick he'd been taught really did work.
Unfortunately, it soon turned out to be the latter. As soon as Stravinsky's running pattern straightened out (on account of more shrubbery, of course), something hit him in the leg and he was on the ground before he knew what had happened. He could hear Pootisson behind him now, gaining rapidly (which was unsurprising but still annoying) and making the horrible noise he tried to pass off as a laugh.
No human being should be capable of making that noise, Stravinsky thought absently. Then something connected with his head and the world became very quiet.
TO BE CONTINUED
Iulius Caesar Stravinsky sweated noisily as he swerved to avoid a marauding shrubbery and veered into the serpentine curve of a parking-lot entrance, swishing into the lot with the noise of tires on rainy cement. This was peculiar - partly because the parking-lot was paved with asphalt, not cement, and partly because Iulius Caesar Stravinsky had been killed three hours earlier.
But neither of these conditions was the reason for his distress. Stravinsky was sweating because he had sped past the town furniture store at seventy miles an hour and the proprietor and his family had spotted him anyway.
Stravinsky could not do long division. He had no idea how one might go about finding hypotenuses (nor was he certain what they were exactly) and he'd never been able to make sense of a periodic table. But if there was one thing he knew, it was that he was being followed, and if there was another thing he knew, it was that the people who were following him would like very much to kill him.
Again.
This was the reason that he was now sitting in a very dark car in the shadow of three enormous paper-recycling bins, holding his breath for abnormally extended periods of time and wondering whether he should risk trying to use his mobile phone.
He had no idea how long he'd been waiting when the Jeep's headlights lit up the world around him.
x-x-x-x-x
Sjburgsteon Pootisson had waited for exactly three minutes and nineteen seconds before turning into the library parking-lot. He had done this mainly to avoid letting Stravinsky escape with a sort of Crazy Ivan manoeuvre, but also to add a sense of tension to the story.
It worked. As he hurtled toward the parked car, Pootisson saw Stravinsky tense, somehow becoming even stiller than he had been. In the seconds before their cars collided, Pootisson smiled, thinking of the reward money he was about to collect for the second time.
Time seemed to slow as the impact shuddered through both vehicles, and though neither Pootisson nor Stravinsky was aware of the other's thought processes, they both found themselves being vaguely disappointed that the noises of the crash did not seem to be amusingly slowed, but in fact remained jarringly real.
x-x-x-x-x
Stravinsky exited through the windshield of the car and performed a spectacular double roll down its bonnet, landing on his feet but falling over almost immediately. Before long, however, he was up again and running for the field ahead. He heard a car door slam and assumed (correctly) that it was Pootisson's; without looking back, he sped up, narrowly avoiding a few inconveniently placed rabbit holes.
It took him a while to realise that the noises around him were gunshots. Once he'd registered that, he smirked a bit, wondering if Pootisson was just a poor shot or if the weaving trick he'd been taught really did work.
Unfortunately, it soon turned out to be the latter. As soon as Stravinsky's running pattern straightened out (on account of more shrubbery, of course), something hit him in the leg and he was on the ground before he knew what had happened. He could hear Pootisson behind him now, gaining rapidly (which was unsurprising but still annoying) and making the horrible noise he tried to pass off as a laugh.
No human being should be capable of making that noise, Stravinsky thought absently. Then something connected with his head and the world became very quiet.
TO BE CONTINUED
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