Writing Right with Dmitri: Where Stories Come From
Created | Updated Sep 9, 2018
Writing Right with Dmitri: Where Stories Come From
In the course of one afternoon, I've heard enough stories to write one or two myself.
In the middle of preparing this issue, there was a prolonged siren attack down our street. Hey, wait, I thought. That's not the usual call-for-emergency-services siren. That's the tornado warning….
Turned on the radio. Chevy's are cheaper in Punxsy1, someone sang. Then I heard the weather warning. The computer was more informative: the map showed a cone of danger spreading northeast from New Bethlehem. It looked to be threatening several small burghs near us. It didn't appear to be headed toward the Hoggett Farm, but I called, just in case.
Over at the farm, it was raining buckets. The cats were 'sheltering in place', decoratively. (See photo elsewhere in this issue.) Turned out Farmer Hoggett was on the road somewhere, delivering the Baptists' pressure-wash truck to the Disaster Relief project on the eastern side of the state. Whereby hung a tale, naturally.
Mrs Hoggett never uses her mobile. Only just now, she wanted it to take the kitty pic to send to h2g2. As she stood there, telling the kitties to smile for the camera, the phone rang. It was the Baptist pastor in Scranton, who needed to get hold of Farmer Hoggett. Mrs H promised to relay the message. Called Farmer Hoggett en route…
….who was just about to call her, having lost the pastor's phone number on the highway. It seems he'd stopped for construction on the highway. He watched with interest as the driver of the car in front of him, a woman, got out of her car and busied herself with something in the back seat…. Suddenly, he noticed that this car was a lot closer to his vehicle than it had been a moment before. She'd obviously neglected the handbrake…. He jumped out to assist, and discovered the reason for all the urgency: a passenger in labour.
'Did you deliver the baby?' Mrs Hoggett wanted to know. Farmer Hoggett is capable of nearly anything. No, he said. But he did help them get around the construction and on the road to the hospital. It was a good thing she'd called, he needed that phone number. Which means it was a good thing the pastor had called. And a very good thing that Peanut and Mouse had made such a cute photo opportunity, because that meant that the mobile had been turned on….
'People don't believe me when I say the Lord works in mysterious ways,' said Mrs Hoggett. I did, and I do, and He does. See? I got that story for free, over the phone, just for worrying about the tornado siren.
The day is not over yet. Half an hour later, I am having a Skype conversation with Tavaron about the new Vienna train station. This brings up, by circuitous discussion, the fact that eating smelly food is now forbidden on the Vienna underground. Hilarity ensues as I quiz her about various obnoxious foodstuffs, from Weisswurst and pickled herring to Schashlik and other garlicky items. There are posters with a black sheep eating these items to warn people against this antisocial activity2. I want to know if they give out tickets….
Now tell me again how you don't have any good ideas for what to write about.
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