Tuesday, June 1, 2010
What's In Your Wallet?
A detective stands behind the tape of the crime scene and looks down at item flagged as #10 near the edge of the snowy embankment. He puts out his cigarette and snaps his gloves into place as he bends over to pick up the old black wallet from the ground. He slowly walks toward the squad car for light assistance from the headlights as he opens it up to see what it contains. He lays the contents out on the hood of the car and starts to look at each piece individually.First he looks at my drivers license with the expiration date of MILITARY which coincides with my military ID and the two dependant ID's from two of my sons, my military emergency contact numbers card and my government driver's license. Obviously, I'm in the military with height of 6'3" and 220 lbs, 38 years old, brown eyes and hair. Next he puts my government visa, my VIP Hilton Honor card, World Mark vacation card and my airline cards together and figures I must travel quite often. He glances briefly at my Borders cash card and deducts that I must buy books for all the traveling time. Next he groups my hydraulic formula card, my air conditioning and refrigeration license, and my air conditioning troubleshooting card together seeing I must be some type of engineer. The next grouping gives him some humor and some confusion as he groups four bank cards, five credit cards, a Costco card, a Safeway card, and a community vanpool card making him wonder why a guy that looks like he spends money would waste his time with these little saving incentives. Lastly, he sees a picture of my son Billy, a current student card for Everett Community College, and an ASB card from graduation year 1989 and for the first time, the detective is scared. What kind of sick individual holds on to his ASB card for 21 years!The wallet told him many things, but not any that are too important to me. It did not tell him I am raising five boys and one girl. It did not tell him how I was freshly married to an awesome woman. It did not tell him who I really was to the military, the men that trust me there, or how long I've been there. The wallet could not explain how overloaded I feel sometimes with work, family, and my new school work load and why I just had to stop at that spot earlier in the day and go sledding to clear my head before the crime even happened. Even though the sledding was fun, it did not help that I lost my wallet.
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First question, why the ASB card, i think i tossed mine with all of my old high school papers.
ReplyDeleteGreat post I really like how you based it on a crime scene, true story or just creative writing?
Once again our writing is vary familiar and tries to get the same point across.
I have just taken up reading mystery stories, the series written by Michael Connelly, great books, I think you might enjoy reading one on one of those trips you take. Thanks for sharing the post, does look like you know a lot about the subject, yourself.
William,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this piece and am glad you picked it for your writers choice. Your blend of fulfilling the drier aspects to the assignment combined with the imaginative storytelling aspect of the crime scene really brought it to life. This was an assignment which I also had some fun with.I share your opinion on the contrasts between what can be deduced from a wallets' contents and who that person really is. In my piece, I differentiated between what Sherlock Holmes would deduce vs what a poet might imagine about the wallets' owner. I think we were following similar lines. Your entire portfolio was great and I sincerely enjoyed reading it.