#set 34

VIII: drawing

Douglas’s fridge door is almost entirely obscured by children’s drawings by now: Verity has always provided a very regular service, choosing for herself which one to take down every time she wants to display a new work - and now Aida too is contributing to the gallery. Mostly, her efforts are monochrome spirals, but there are also the occasional smiley faces and something which is labelled, in Martin’s neat handwriting in the corner, “Magic Fairy Uncle Douglas”. 

V: chopsticks

Douglas’s cousin Joan taught him to play Chopsticks on the piano when he was quite small - and thereafter, at every family gathering where a piano was available, someone would get him to play it. One of the perks of being the youngest in the family was that everything Douglas did was automatically wonderful, adorable, and ‘so advanced for his age’. 

III: randomness

Herc had quickly grown accustomed to the element of randomness that came with living in the same house as Arthur: Breakfast Dancing, non-denominational holidays, the eternally-unexplained scoreboard, which he never saw anyone add any points to, but which somehow kept accumulating tally marks. Herc had no idea what Arthur was counting, but still felt secretly proud to see his score edge ahead of Carolyn’s - even though she soon overtook him. 

IV: rainbow 

Rainbows were, in Douglas’s opinion, the best thing ever to happen to the sky. In his third year with Air England, he’d been lucky enough to see one in full: a perfect circle of coloured light, so vivid against the pale clouds that the experience somehow transcended mere sight. He couldn’t explain how - only his captain understood what he meant, because he’d seen it too.

II: howl

The sky exploded again, and Snoopadoop gave a great howl of despair. It was too bad that the world was ending. Arthur had said he would take her to the woods tomorrow, but now everything was exploding and they wouldn’t be able to go. It really was a terrible misfortune.

She hid underneath the table and howled some more. Soon, Arthur appeared next to her. He put his arms around her and said, “Don’t worry, Snoop! It’s only a few fireworks. It’ll stop in a minute.”

IX: skyline

When people think of great cities, they picture, perhaps, majestic skylines, or famous monuments - or maybe a secret haunt known only to them. Martin thinks of cities as giant, sprawling creatures laid out beneath his feet; living maps, impossibly intricate tapestries of human endeavour. He has never been terribly impressed with the reality of a city from the ground - but from above, they are works of art. 

X: flash

Sometimes it boggles your brain somewhat: the flash of light that clouds all your senses for an instant, resetting your timeline according to whatever's been changed. Carolyn insists that they'll get used to it eventually, but for now it leaves Douglas with the distinct impression of having had a knife slice through his brain.

From the look on Martin's face, he's not much better.

"Chaps! Have some of this, it'll get rid of the funny feeling!" Arthur chirped, holding out a bowl of what seemed to be mostly rice. "I made it myself!"