h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello all!

Thanks very much for all of your comments. I really enjoyed reading thru and can see a lot of deep thinking has gone into this one....

Well JWF. (LOL about the tune). When I go out and about these days I seem to carry a bag in one hand and a mobile in the other - so I don't imagine holding a lighter as well as a shopping bag would require too much effort. It's true - we women can multi task!

And if I was going to start a fire I think I'd want the pleasure of sticking around to watch it - yet at the same time I might be afraid of being caught so I'd want to blend into the location. A shopping bag might be a very good way to achieve this. It could of course be a decoy for the readers, whoops - I meant the onlookers. That's if I started the fire of course!

And if that was so - would a woman who was criminally insane think of such a devious plan to fool the onlookers? Hmmm, I wouldn't think so. Maybe she was calm and calculating and knew exactly what she was doing. That's if she was doing anything!

Waz - She felt almost like an intruder - but something seemed to hold her there. I think that what I was trying to get across is that in this day and age of living, and living longer, death seems almost like an intruder. It almost seems that when we die we have failed in some way. So I may have to adjust that a little. Thanks...

Who knows what she might have had in that bag. I have loads of things in my own. I'm sure each and every cherished item in my bag will come in useful - well maybe one day!

And for those who suspected Valerie from the start, did she actually end up doing exactly what you thought she was going to do?

Initially I only wanted to know if this story worked. And as it seems to have you all thinking about it - I have to assume that it does. But I'm just the writer. Only you will have the answers to this tale....

Flame

<>

You bet.
The better you write, the more your readers think.
The more they think, the more they take the piece away from you and make it theirs.

So, to answer your other question, of course Valerie did what I knew she would do all along.
I say she did, because it's my piece now.
You're just the writer.

Do you get brownie points pin?

The American habit of putting the shopping in brown paper bags without handles is just plain daft! The only purpose must be to be able to spill the contents to engineer one of those meeting on hands and knees on the pavement moments you get in the movies.

So, in _my_ version it’s a plastic supermarket bag with handles. Tesco's to be precise. Because of its cold white, blue and red. And while Flame leaves me free to decide the contents, it’s groceries, because I like the chill of the idea she’d do her normal shop first. And because the fact that she doesn't know the occupants of the house suggests opportunism.

See what you mean about death being an intruder, Flame, – something out of place. But Valerie’s allied herself to it. I’d have thought she’d feel … separate, yes, but in a superior sort of way. More set apart, maybe, than intruding. Difficult not to give the game away if you say too much there.

It’s interesting picking over the story – as long as you don’t mind it.

I don't mind at all....

I'm not sure Valerie had very much in her bag - although I'm sure she intended to go shopping that day. After all - a shoppig trip it very therapeutic, and will cheer you up after almost anything!

>> intended to go shopping <<

Aha! Then it was not one of those paper or plastic jobbies provided by the retailer at the point of purchase but rather a personal device of her own choosing.

No doubt it was large and colourful affair with surprising carrying capacities. Not everyone has one of those; relying instead on the the store staff to supply such wrappings and bags as and when needed to get our purchases home.

This insight does seem in keeping with the character of her frustrated motherhood (as mentioned above, ie: a capacity for planning and preparation rendered unable to carry out).


~jwf~

Whatever the content, size and colour of the bag - the <./>underguide</.> would like to feature this .

Congratulations Flame, , it will add to your already not inconsiderable UG entry list.

It's an entertaining read, as this thread proves! Thank you for posting it here.

On a technical point, I wonder if the UG should add a disclaimer that they, as a body, h2g2, as a community and the BBC, as a corporation, do not condone arson around.

~jwf~

That's fantatic. Thank you.

I'm working on a new story. So watch this space....

Thanks again,

Flame

Hi there Flame, just to say this was on the front page on Friday and is this week's UG entry. The front page link has actually slipped back to last week's today but should be corrected on Tuesday and will be there for the rest of the week. If it's not, we'll give it another week instead.

I'm hoping for more theories on what was in the bag .

A lottery ticket?

Sorry for the slow response. I've been in the UK for a few weeks. Arrived back in Bahrain yesterday. It is hot, hot hot! High thirties! Phew!