I'm afraid that this month, with just a few hours to go before the deadline, neither Bertie nor his assistant had even started on their monthly Final Friday Fiction assignment for dear YAM-Aunty. In truth, they had been wondering whether to take part this year.
But late on Thursday evening Gail picked up her library book, 'Swell: A Waterbiography' by Jenny Landreth, and on page 87, located these lines as per the FFF instructions:
Line 8: at all suitable for swimming. Some women's clubs had
Line 12: Premier Club. Other familiar names pop up - on a 1903
Line 16: is this our Mrs Fawcett, famous suffragist? The dates fit, the
But by then Bertie was very tired, and as he drifted off to sleep words and phrases from the selected lines mingled in his mind with a scene from a recent watery weekend....
.
.....So the bold little dog confidently crossed the narrow bridge, pausing as he did so to look down at the raging torrent beneath. Gosh, this river does not look at all suitable for swimming, he said to himself. A few minutes later his owner tried to follow him across, but she tripped as she was stepping on to the bridge, tumbled down the bank into the water, and within seconds was being carried down towards the sea. At times she was completely submerged, then, buffeted by the powerful current, an arm, a leg or her head would pop up again. Initially the little dog did not panic. He thought, well, my owner is, for a woman of her age, a reasonably fit and strong swimmer, surely she'll be OK? But as she was swept further downstream, doubts intruded and troubling thoughts flitted across his mind. Who would feed him and take him for walks in the hills if she didn't survive? Would he find another home where he would be allowed to cuddle up to his human at night, and be given a dinner of fried liver on his birthday? Oh it was all too terrible to contemplate...
But then Bertie felt a warm foot nudging his rear end, and woke up with a start, and was mightily relieved to realise that it was all just a bad dream and he and Gail were safe and dry in their home in Aberdeen.
Oh well, perhaps you should go over to the links on YAM-Aunty's blog to see if any of the other FFF-ers did better with the 'fiction' element of the challenge this month...
