Saturday, February 23, 2013

Playing by the river

‘There.  It’s a body.’

Kevin prodded the black plastic bag with a long stick and it bobbed between the reeds.

‘It’s not a body, it’s just some rubbish.’

‘I’m telling you, I saw fingers sticking out.’

‘You’ve been watching too much Lewis and Midsomer Murders.  They always have nutters finding bodies in bags.  It’s just some crap that a litterbug has dumped.’

He speared the bag, piercing the thin plastic and dragged it to the bank, the stick creating a tear, exposing an arm.

‘Shit,’ Kevin exclaimed, jumping back.

‘Told you!'

‘You think it’s real?’

‘I think we’re nutters.’

‘Cool.’




A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh this is great, Rob! Now I'm intrigued...I could see it as the beginning of a story actually.

Marina Sofia said...

Ha! I like the reference to Lewis and Midsomer Murders - which gives us a clue about the age of the boys (older ones would have referred to Morse, perhaps?).

Rob Kitchin said...

Thanks for the comments. Yes, Margot, might be a longer story here.

Marina, I think even older boys would reference the more recent Lewis over Morse (which ended in 2000). 18 year olds now were 5 then. It's one of my problems when teaching - finding cultural referents they can remember. With the exception of mature students none of them were born when Thatcher was in power or the Berlin wall came down! I was talking about a choke on a car recently and they were all looking at me as if I was mad. They remember from about 2002 onward with any kind of clarity. They're making me feel old - the summer of 1976 was the first time I can remember well.