The Evil Drawing Board
As I glance at my schedule for the day I see that I have “Drawing Board” for the first two hours. I’m sleep deprived from a weekend of drinking and sleeping in a tent in some hill with some friends and some locals. I’m dressed in my hunting-orange uniform vest and probably have on a spiked collar I forgot to take off for work; lack of sleep makes me forget things and makes my legs shake uncontrollably. This is how I came in every day that summer.
I’m about to face a line of snobby tourist kids. A companion and I are in charge of managing a contraption that creates designs on a large sheet of paper. The kid picks the color, 50 cents each, and pushes the drawing board to make a design.
First one, I didn’t put the marker in tightly and it shakes uncontrollably like my leg—maybe that’s why I didn’t notice it. “It’s supposed to look like that kid, sorry.”
Second one turns out beautiful, but I screw it up by wrinkling it like the skin of that guy from Tales from the Crypt.
Third kid comes in, and my drawing board companion says, “Let me handle this, one day those parents are gonna kick the shit out of you.” So I step back, but not far enough from the board; the kid pushes the drawing board and it hits my leg and wobbles, but nobody saw that, so it’s the kid’s fault. That’s the last day I went near the drawing board.
posted by cueto at 2:58 PM
3 Comments:
Believe it or not this took a long time to create. I think the main trick to producing something this small and making it interesting is deciding how much backstory to put in. I needed a little bit, but originally I had a few paragraphs. I could have explained the place I worked at better, the people I worked with, the fact that everyday the workers at the science museum trade off on activities. I'm happy with the first paragraph, it set the mood of a guy who didn't care about his job and wanted to have fun during the summer instead. The second paragraph describes the actual event about to take place and the rest is the event.
I agree with nearly all of the comments made so far. Your first paragraph is the strongest. Good concrete images and sets a strong overall tone for the piece. But the others are right in wanting some basic information about the drawing board. You don't want to leave us in the dark about basic information that sets the scene.
Well Scott make it more than 250 words and maybe I can give you the entire history of the Drawing Board. Maybe I should have picked a more concrete story. Like me walking a dog or a car accident.
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