Clare Williamson
Mr. Breaton
EWC 4U1
10 March 2015
Life Through A Lens
She dragged me off the bedside and pulled me upward to look at my face. Good morning human! How are you today? I said, and once again she did not answer me.
“Dammit, it’s already noon.” She said as she glared at me. Correct. It is also Sunday, March 8th 2015, I added.
“Honey, come downstairs for food,” her dad called from the lower level. She slid me into her pocket and began her routine.
“So any homework this weekend?” Her dad said habitually.
“Actually, I’ve got this creative composition, I’ve been brainstorming for weeks for, but I’m completely stumped.”
“What’s it on?”
“Anything. I can write about anything, I just have to present it to the class by Tuesday,” she said.
“Okay, well if you need any help, then let me know.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she said. She pulled me out and opened my search engine: subway route ttc. I provided her with my top sites, excited at the opportunity to start working again.
“I think I’m gonna go out for the day,” she said.
“No worries, just make sure your phone is charged so I can reach you,” her father acknowledged.
“Got it,” off she went.
She moved me from her back pocket into a warmer lined coat pocket, as she closed the door to the house. How thoughtful of her. She put her headphones into my audio jack and shuffled my music library. I played one of her most frequently played song.
“Inspiration where are you?” I could hear her mumble.
Fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds later she checked me again, but this time we were in a narrow metal room that was moving. My choppy signal relayed back our location as I judged the characteristics; I determined it was a subway. She opened up my camera application and focused my lens onto a couple sitting diagonally from her. The male had a stark face with long brown hair, and the woman had much smaller features, and silver hair, but they both held the same embellished expression. I had never seen such look on a person before, and I searched for similar faces in my repository. Infatuation. They were infatuated. She took two quick photos of the scene and then placed me on her lap. She sat there staring at the couple with very little discretion. She then picked me up again and found my notes, quickly jotting down, characters for composition? and several details about their interaction. Three minutes and twenty-three seconds later, they stepped off the subway at what I could presume was their intended stop.
“I must be such a creep” She whispered as she shoved me back into her pocket. She rustled around, and I could feel her stand up and get off the moving transport. I swished back and forth in her pocket as I felt her elevate from the subterranean level. I was brought out again to take photos of the steel tracks, in what I could calculate were routed to Union Station. She put me to sleep and carried me in her hand this time. I swung in the rhythm of her walk, and took the time to sort through e-mails. Where are we going human? I tried to communicate. No answer.
When I was awakened and unlocked this time, there was so much overwhelmed noise that I had to mute my microphone. I could see people running past the crowds, shoulder to shoulder, all different shapes and sizes, wiggling and moving to take a look at the large walls of glass. My owner navigated me through the humans and brought me directly in front of the largest glass panel. She opened up my camera and start snapping photos as I review them in her gallery. Originally all I saw was colour: bright blue; tropical oranges and yellows; dazzlingly bright golds and silver; the entire colour spectrum was right in front of my lens. Then they began to move, and each colour became a distinct shape. Human! Human! These are fish, I told her. No reply. As the motions behind the glass came alive, I could see the beautiful reefs towering over my view; the schools of fish zipping by me; and the sharks that menacingly mocked the crowds of their spectators. She pointed me towards a sign, “Danger Lagoon”. Oh silly human, that isn’t a lagoon, it’s a tank! A tank full of marine life! I corrected it for her. She quickly exited the gallery of aquatic animals, and moved from room to room photographing the different scenes.
Human I am tired, I said as I checked my battery, six percent. Just then I received an incoming call. Oh human, it is Dad calling! She moved away from all the noise and answered me.
“Hey, how’s it going?” her father asked.
“Ah, it’s okay. The aquarium’s packed.”
“When are you coming home?”
“Soon, my phones almost dead” She checked me, I had gone down to two percent.
“Did you find any inspiration?” Her dad asked.
“Not at all” She said and then hung up. I was reserving my battery at one percent. Please charge me, I asked. She didn’t answer, it went dark.
This was a really adorable point of view piece, as well as hysterical. I loved the personality you gave the cellphone, and how you never actually explicitly stated it was a cellphone!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the personality of the cell phone. The fact that the "human" never acknowledged the phone even as it was dying made the audience sympathetic. Using "mute my microphone" and such phrases made the piece better as it reminded the reader that the phone was not human.but did not take away from the phones personality.
ReplyDeleteLoved the emotional roller coaster the phone went through. You made me rethink how much I neglect my phone.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really cool point of view, I enjoyed this one a lot. You captured and portrayed the emotions of phone. I love the descriptions too!
ReplyDeleteIt was an awesome POV with great description and detail. You had a nice presentation. Not only was a good POV but also and amazing narrative. Good job mixing the two!
ReplyDeleteIt was very amusing for myself to have to keep thinking that you were talking about a phone and not a person! The personality that you gave it was very real and showed human like actions of getting tired or being ignore, or like a small child just simple trying to understand new things. It was a very good way to tie the end and the beginning together as the phone died.
ReplyDeleteI cannot emphasize enough how brilliant this is. You sneakily, but effective introduced the POV. You related to the audience with the subject, because we all walk around with our phones. You had a lot of good subtle indicators that it was a cell phone, too, so I was never confused. Your vocab is also impressive. I am literally in love with your phone. It just has such lovely emotions and character developments. "Silly human" still makes me laugh. Your ending was also stellar. Anyway, good job creating an adorable phone.
ReplyDeleteThis Creative Comp. was great!. I really liked it because there was a sense of interaction between the cell phone and the human even though they never talked and the human never acknowledged the phone's consciousness. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the part about the fish and how well you portrayed the emotions felt by the phone. Really funny, kind of sad, and well delivered! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThe POV was great! The subtle indications really helped, and it was funny to see the emotional state of one's cell phone. Loved it!
ReplyDeleteAs others have stated already this POV was great. The portrayal and dialogue of the phone was spot on. This comp kept me interested the whole way through. Keep up the great work!!
ReplyDelete-Andrew H