Writerly Beginnings and Humility

(First written for posintg to Julie E Czerneda's newsgroup on sff.net, August 11, 2007)

I'm spending the weekend cleaning up some of the 116 boxes of stuff that I stored at a friends after our flood in June. Clamped into a three ring binder I found some writing from the summer I turned 12. It was the first time I wrote something because I wanted to, for myself, and was during summer vacation, barely a month after I turned twelve (roughly 32 years ago this month). If I recall correctly, it was partially inspired by visiting my closest cousin in age, Lisa, over vacation and partly by having watched a James Bond movie that week. At this writing, despite it being 1975, I had never heard of Star Trek. As will be apparent from the piece, my reading to then was primarily kids adventure/mystery, (Hardy Boys, Enid Blyton and the like) with a fair chunk of mythology thrown in. A month later I got into grade 7, and gained entry to the junior-high portion of the school library. Within days I discovered “Tomorrow's Children” and anthology of science fiction edited by Isaac Asimov. I never looked back.

Here, then, the first writing I ever did out of my own desire. I'm not doing any touch up, other than the fact that the original only had three apparent paragraph breaks (though it's hard to tell since it is written on a 3 inch wide notepad). I'm even leaving the grammar and punctuation flaws as they appear on the original. If you find it painful to read, you can begin to imagine how I feel to expose it to the light.

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The small car pulled off the gravel road into the shade of a group of trees. In the dim light 2 figures got out of the car and walked over to a large evergreen at the side. One of the two reached up into the tree and a click could be heard. The figure peeled back a section of the bark disclosing a dimly lit panel of buttons. Adept fingers punched in a series of keys then waited.

“I.D” said a softly whispered voice from within the tree.

“627” said the first figure in a female voice, placing her thumb against a small square of glass on the panel.

The glassy square glowed briefly then darkened. “Confirmed” came the voice from the tree again. The woman returned to the car and the other figure stepped up and entered a series of numbers.

“ID?”

“624” a man's voice this time. Again the process was repeated and the man returned to the car. After a moments delay, a humming became audible and the car dropped slowly out of sight. After dropping about (30 or 80) feet, the platform stopped and the drove into a small concrete tunnel. As they left the platform it began rising behind them, smoothly pluging the gaping hole.

The small foreign car slid smoothly (Hey! cool, I didn't even know what alliteration was at this point) forward into the tunnell and around the corner into an underground parking lot. “Hey! great Lee's here” (my favourite, and several years older, cousin) said the man, “I hope theres time to talk to him.”

After parking the car the two walked over to a steel Door and entered a small cubicle. (This would be where “Get Smart”'s influence appears.) Again the womman went first, standing on a square steel plate and facing a small video screen. Out of nowhere came a voice. “Weight 68 kilos height 187 cm Confirmed,” (woe unto the agent who gains weight while out on assignment.) A beam of light shot into her eyes “retinal match 99.985% confirmed ID 627 Confirmed”.

Now the man stepped forward “Weight 72 Kilos height 185cm. retinal scan 99.992% confirmed ID 624 Confirmed. you may both enter.”
Whith (sigh, 32 years later and sometimes I still put an “h” in “with” when I'm writing quickly.) a series of clicks and whirs a heavy steel door opened on the other side of the room. As the 2 strolled down the long hallway they Held a whispered conversation.

“You know uncle Vern Ken. The girl said.

“Ya.
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I know there was more than this, but I apparently no longer have the rest.

Kent