Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Excerpt of... Something, and Other Insignificant Somethings

This is part of something I wrote one day when I was bored, without any idea of a plot, or answers to any of the questions. I just know one thing: these two characters do NOT fall in love, just in case you're wondering, and just in case you think that's where it's headed. It's not. ;)

The girl weighed the pendant in the palm of her hand, “It’s a good imitation,” she began.
“Imitation? Of what?”
“I’d say it’s worth about $50 dollars,” the girl continued, as if the shopkeeper hadn’t interrupted. “If you’ll take that much for it, I’ll buy it.” She looked at him questioningly, yet confidently.
“I’m really confused,” the shopkeeper whined after a pause. “What the heck is going on? What’s this an imitation of, and how do you know whether it’s a good imitation or not? Why do you want it?”
The girl gave him a look that didn’t seem to mean anything, but it also seemed to mean everything he didn’t know about. It didn’t answer any of his questions. It only created more questions, although he wasn't sure what they were and why he wanted the answers.
“What’s your name?” he asked quietly, but inwardly he felt irritated. Why do I even care? She’s just some weirdo-girl that dropped into this shop like a… he searched for a simile, but couldn’t think of anything befitting of the strange girl in ripped jeans and sneakers who could tell a “good imitation” from an elusive original that he hadn’t known existed till now. Just get her out of here, he commanded himself sternly. She is going to get me in so much trouble. He knew this with amazing certainty. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew that she was trouble. “Trouble.” It would be written all over the necklace where she had left her fingerprints, and it would be written in her footprints when she walked out of the store. She had said, “After today you’ll never see me again,” but the shopkeeper had a terrifying feeling that she was wrong.


It's dramatic and freaky and confusing, I know. But for some reason, I like this cowardly shopkeeper with a bad attitude, and this weird girl in ripped jeans. I like them enough to find out more about their story. Someday. Maybe.

As for the other insignificant somethings, I bought the Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. II for only $6 at Barnes & Noble on Saturday. I was rather pleased.

And apparently my blog's readability level is Junior High:

blog readability test



I'm not sure how I feel about that. I know it doesn't mean that the people who read my blog have junior-high-school minds - it just means that junior-high-school-minds could read my blog and not be left scratching their heads in confusion. Well, some confusion, perhaps (my fault, not theirs) but not utter confusion. ;)

And my Books And Windows blog is a high school reading level. Hrm... must be because of the "A Word A Day" posts I've done.

And speaking of words, my sister and I spent a few hours last night on FreeRice. Marvelous website. I started keeping track of all the best words, and filled up two pages, front and back, and half of another one. Some of the words I came across that I liked best (these are the meanings given by FreeRice. The actual dictionary definitions are most likely better):

lachrymal: tearful (Yes, I do like those moody words like "morose" and "animosity" and "melancholy" etc.)
embrangle: confuse
waggery: jesting (sounds Shakespearean. There were actually several words we came across that caused me to spout off a Comedy of Errors quote. "Abject" and "upbraid" were among them. ["Thou sayest his meals were sauced with thy upbraidings..."])
munificent: generous (you can just TELL that this word means generous. Seriously.)
ineluctable: unavoidable (This is a totally unfamiliar word, but it's cool...)
dolor: grief (I only knew this because my grandparents live on a "Dolorosa" street, which means "way of sorrows," I believe)
pertinacious: Stubborn
shellback: worldly sailor (Whoah! I love this one!)
blithesome: cheery (happy word)
spindrift: sea spray

At one point Desirae and I had gotten several words right only because of The Roman Mysteries, and the Latin names and phrases in those books. And there was one word that we knew the meaning of because of Arsenic and Old Lace or the Andy Griffith Show. And some ("transubstantiate" and "genuflect") because we're Catholic. It's sort of ...homeschoolery.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't worry about the Junior High thing... Guess what? I got Elementary!! *Coughs, blushes* Heh, yeah, a bit embarrassing.

Anyway, I like where the story is heading. It sounds interesting :D

Rose Marchen said...

Cool story beginning. Hmm... maybe I'll post some opening things I've written for class....

Same here! I got Junior-High, the Fellowship blog got Elementary... and apparently you have to be a genius to understand my mom's blog! :O Which says good things about me, because I understand it perfectly! =D Must be all the meditations she puts on there...

Cool words!

Grace K. said...

That sounds really intruging, Delaney! I agree with Mamma, very cool story beginning...

I love words and posts about them...thanks! That is really cool. Dolor I knew because of Our Lady of Dolors (Sorrow)...

I wrote a post similar to yours about a week ago. I was on wordpromt.com (or something like that)and decided to do one of their things.

So I pulled ten random words out of my dictionary and typed what I thought their meanings were and entitled it Hatters, Hares and Wiggles for lack of anything better...it ended up being hilarious (to me), and I had so much fun!

Delaney said...

Thanks, girls! :) But it's not the beginning. There's about a page more before that, I just wanted to post an itty little bit - because really, the rest isn't worth it. (Um... I don't even think this part is worth it either, but... )

Yes, I read that post on your blog! :D

Yes, Auntie Rose, do, do! :D

Grace K. said...

Hee hee, thanks! I'm glad you did!

Hey, I got your comment, but now it's disappeared! I clicked it along with Edge's, to publish it, but only Edge's showed up! Gah!

I was guessing mostly...lol. Yes, he does. I think I scared him off the Operation Cupcke thread!

*gets sad* My forum life is almost non-exsistence now...

Alyosha said...

Ahaha, nice story. Especially the last bit. But that's cruel--what happens? Who is she? What does it mean? Aauuuugh.

I got Middle School also--drat, I thought I used enough big words on that thing! Guess not.

Free Rice is addicting. (Though some of their definitions are not quite right...I was so looking forward to saying "cinnabar" instead of "red," but apparently it's some sort of red mineral or something. An impostor. Alas.)

Q said...

My blog is high school level. I think that's good?

Melissa Cecilia said...

*whistles the Andy Griffith Show theme song* Man, that thing's been burned in my brain since I was a kid.

Anonymous said...

WOW. That excerpt was AWESOME. I want to read more! Post more, Delaney! That was so good! Is that the story you were telling me about before...?

It's so bizarre, but my new blog got Elementary, and my old blogs got Junior High. My review blog got High School (which surprised me). There's a glitch in that readability thing, though; if you ask for the reading level of it for a private blog, it'll say Genius. :P

Delaney said...

No, this is just a random story that doesn't have anything else. I can PM you the rest of it, though, if you like. It's not very long. :D