July Writing Exercise

 These are the results of the writing exercise held at the July meeting.  Each writer received a book  chosen  at random from the library.  They were to turn to Page 40 and read the 3rd paragraph on that page. That was to be  the inspiration for a 20 minute writing sprint. 

Barbara's writing 

I had arrived in Dublin, travelling alone for the first time. Vacationing with others never appealed to me. I had made a resolution to see something of the world before I die and the freedom of doing my own thing suited me.

The first day was spent in the hotel room reviewing maps and points of interest, determining how I would get from point A to point B. It was a good day and I had everything planned to start my sightseeing tour on day two. But day two began with a downpour. A once in a hundred year storm, so they reported on the news. Best to stay indoors, so I spent the day resting up for day three. The weather cleared the next day, but it became dreadfully muggy, too hot to travel very far, so I remained in my air-conditioned room planning for day four.

The next day I really wasn’t feeling very well. Jet lag I presumed.
Day five, I slept in, finally waking in time for lunch. In a local restaurant a pleasant young man approached me and bought me a drink. He made me nervous. I drained my glass and hurried back to the hotel.

Nancy's writing 

The hardest part for Annie was explaining it to her young son. He had never experienced death. Wrong... he experienced death about twice a month. Every time he went to the pet store beside the grocery store, he bought a new gold fish. It was their shopping routine. Each time he got a new fish, the pattern was the same. He'd watch it swim for a couple days, watch it float for a couple days and then flush it down the toilet. Soon he'd have a new gold fish on grocery day.

But how was Annie going to explain that grandfathers were different than gold fish? Jacob was only four years old. Jacob had a pretty good idea of life and was always asking relevant questions. He was pretty matter of fact. Like the day she told him the doctor was sick and grandpa's appointment had been cancelled. He had thought about it and then asked his mom, "Who will make the doctor better if the doctor is sick?"

Now his grandfather was terminally ill and in the hospital and it was up to Annie to help him understand death and leaving and grief. She had feelings of her own--anxiety, sadness, regrets and grief but she wanted to help Jacob through the process.

She sat down with Jacob and gave him some paper and crayons. "What are your favourite things about grandpa?"  she asked.

"I love going fishing with him. I love going out in the boat. I love reading books with him and eating ice cream," he said.

"Well, let's make a little book about these things. I will write the words and you can draw the pictures!"

Jacob worked away all morning and Annie wrote down the memories of Jacob and Grandpa fishing from the dock. The sunfish he drew was just a little bigger than his last gold fish. Then he drew a picture of himself with grandpa out in the boat on a sunny day. They both had orange life jackets on. On the last page he drew a big ice cream cone with two scoops of ice cream--one for him and one for grandpa.

That afternoon Annie took Jacob into the hospital to visit grandpa. He showed his grandpa his book and grandpa smiled. "I think I'll take this with me," he said.

Adrian's writing

I don't consider myself to be evil. Certainly, I've done some lightly wicked things. But evil? I don't think  so.

Although,  come  to think of it, there's one fellow who considers me evil and he must have  a reason. But I've never intentionally done anything to hurt him. So, question is, can you be evil  by omission?

Let's suppose, say, as is the case here, that I was overheard to say something malicious and disparaging about someone and they were hurt by it, would they be in their rights to  say "by God, he's an evil  man. Saying all that nasty stuff about me." Or am I innocent and, in fact, can only be  considered to be ill-mannered.  Further, what if that person, hearing my out-of-context slight,  threw himself off a bridge? Could my general lack of consideration brand me as evil?

Certainly, a third party hearing that a man jumped off a bridge because I said something, might find me to be evil. If he passed that on to others , I would quickly find myself to be at the centre of the evil universe. Possibly up there with Hitler or Pol Pot. 

Is it intent or pure action that puts  us in the evil ranks, even  if  out  of ignorance say.

I suspect, much  like murder (which  is definitely evil) there has to be motive.  I never particularly cared for the fellow I'm referring to but the thought of causing him grief never occurred to me. But there we are. He hates me with a passion and has labelled me evil.

Can you be labelled evil by a non-objective source?And to what degree is it so?

I'm sure Hitler didn't consider himself evil and, if you didn't know about all the atrocities and met him at a cocktail party, would you merely say "Well, that's an interesting fellow. Except he's eaten all the sausages!" I'm sure Hitler didn't exude evil on a daily basis. Well... jury's out. Except that Hitler, of course, was definitely evil. 

Bill's writing 

Shep wandered along the mountainside sniffing everything in sight. Yesterday he had flushed a partridge and had great fun chasing it down. Eventually it fluttered to a tree branch out of his reach but boy was it enjoyable. He had the scent of a rabbit earlier but lost it when the rabbit scent crossed those of coyotes. While intrigued, Shep could sense that there were more than 1 coyote on the rabbits trail. 

Shep perked his ears at a distant sound. His ears shifted focus trying to locate the sound. When he heard nothing he put his head down and sniffed along the path. The faint scent of skunk was interesting. He was considering pursuing it when he heard a distant sound again. This time it appeared to be a bit closer. He lifted his head and walked a bit more staring to hear the sound once more. His nose started to pick up the scent of humans. His nose perked up some more as he found the scent of food. He picked up his pace and made it to the edge of the mountain ridge where the scent ended. 

Shep traveled back and forth when the scent of food became stronger. He edged over to the lip of the ridge carefully. Following his nose he looked down and spotted a man a few feet below him dangling from a tree.

“Hey boy,” called out the man. “Am I ever glad to see you.” Shep turned his head to listen to the man. “Is there someone with you? Hello,” called the man. "I need help!”

Shep backed up a bit.

“No! Wait! Don’t go,” called the man. “If it wasn’t for my wife and kids I would have been long gone” he said out loud. “I have to get back to them.”

Shep poked his head over the edge of the ridge again. “You’re still here? Good boy.”

Shep wagged his tail. 

“Listen boy. I need help. Can you go and get someone to help me?”

Shep barked and took off on the run. At last he had a job to do. It had been so long since someone needed him to do something. His short retired life had been simply following his nose. He raced down the mountainside and leapt at the door of the man who lived there. His barks were loud and insistent.

The door opened revealing a barrel of a man. “Shep? What is it boy?” he asked. 

Shep began pulling on his shirt sleeve. “Well I’ll be,” said the man. “Some skills never get lost. Just a minute. I need my boots.” After tying his boots he picked up his emergency back pack and followed Shep to the edge of the ridge. When Shep laid down looking over the ridge the man called out, “Is anybody out there?“

“Hello?” called the man in the tree. “I’m down here. Please help me.”

At this time Shep wandered over to the cool shade of a tree and plopped himself down. 

Karl looked over the ledge to see what the situation was. While Dan was holding on to the tree it was also true that Dan was ensnared in the tree branches. 

“It’s going to take a while,” said Karl calmly. “It looks like you are tangled up well enough that you should be safe. Stay hugging the tree as a precaution.”

“Well, well, well,” called out a rough voice. “What do we have here?”

“Get me out of here. I want to go home,” was heard from over the cliff edge.

A second voice piped up. “I see that he is still hanging around.”

The first guy. “We thought we could hear his voice so we came back.”

Karl spoke. “Who are you?“

Shep's ears perked up. He recognized his owner's tone. He waited quietly for the command.

The first guy responded. “It doesn't matter who we are. Who are you?” The two men split and began walking as if to circle the dog owner. 

“I need your help to get him up from there,” said Karl. 

“The only thing we are helping you with is to help you over the edge of the mountainside,” they laughed. 

Shep’s owner quietly gave the signal. Shep moved quietly behind the man closest to him. A low growl stopped the man in his tracks.

“He’s just a mutt,” said the first man. “Deal with him.”

The second signal was given. Shep growled louder, slowly advancing on the man. All stopped and watched. Shep’s growls grew even louder as he got closer. This was causing some concern as reflected on the man’s face. 

“Hey mister. Call off your dog.”

“No.” Karl replied with a small smile, his arms folded across his chest..

As Shep crept within leaping distance the man started to shuffle sideways away from Shep. Shep quietly lunged forward but stopped. Both men scrambled quickly, turning and running off down the hill. Shep walked forward a few feet and sat down. 

His owner pulled out his sat phone and dialed a number. “We need help up here. A man is over the side of the cliff holding on to a tree. There are also a couple of tough looking characters on their way down.” he listened. “See you shortly.”

He walked over to the edge of the cliff. “You ok down there?”

“I am cold and tired. I need to go home. I want to see my wife and kids.” 

“How’d you get down there?”

“Those two guys tossed me over the ledge.”

“How come?

“I don’t really know. I don’t know them.”

“There was no reason?”

“I am walking along. They asked me for directions. The next thing I know I am swinging here.” 

A little while later the man was back on top of the side of the mountain. He was giving thanks. “That is some special dog you have there,” he said as he patted Shep’s head.

“Shep is a retired search and rescue dog. You were lucky he came around. It would have made for a long, cold night.”

“Thanks Shep,” he said. “I will never forget this.