Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.
Continuing a scene from The Long Dark in Mikey’s point of view. Mikey is trying to make sense of the adults’ conversation over dinner after the loss of a crawler and one of its crew. He’s puzzling over Georgina’s last words: “It’s hell trying to get even a handful of spares to keep things running, but they always seem happy to replace whole units when they finally fall apart.”
“Sure,” Nick snorted. “Once we’ve completed a meter-thick wad of loss claims paperwork.”
“At least that’ll be easy this time,” Georgina added. “It may be hard proving a unit sitting in the garage can’t be patched up any more, but one that’s lost below the surface must be a bit of a no-brainer.”
“Actually,” Anna seemed hesitant. More strangeness. “It was still on the surface when we left it. Kinda. Will that be a problem?”
That’s ten sentences. The scene continues ...
Nick closed his eyes briefly. “We’ll be careful what we state in the reports. It’s lost to us for the coming season. Leave it at that. Once we’ve done the paperwork right, they’re happy to send a replacement. I think the loss claim allows them to set it off against tax or something.”
Mikel filed the strange words away for future reference. Here was a whole world of connections, causes and effects, that seemed to hover on the edge of understanding.
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9 comments:
So technically it's not lost?
That's definitely information to remember for the future for many reasons.
Hi Ian - sounds as though paperwork needs manipulating a little - as the powers that be ... have no understanding of their needs or life, can't be bothered with the detail. Interesting ... all the best - Hilary
Alex, that's what some people might try to insist.
Jessica, what makes it more confusing for him is that they don't use money here, so have no monetary concept of cost.
Hilary, you got that right!
He's going to have a lot of questions once this conversation he's listening to is completed! I like this way of presenting information to the reader, certainly keeps my interest, having his thoughts on the issues. Great snippet!
This book needs to be made into a movie. Seriously! The world-building is fabulous. :-)
Veronica, I found Mikey's perspective very useful from time to time.
Teresa, I would love to see this as a movie, too!
I guess all cultures have their red tape to cut through.
Very interesting world you created. Enjoyed the snippet.
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