My Name Is Mina

My Name Is Mina by David Almond

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Authors: David Almond
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yakkity yak yak yak.”
    “I had a teacher like that,” said Karl.
    “Was she called Mrs. Scullery?”
    “Nah. It was a bloke. Blotter, we called him. Can’t remember his real name.”
    “But he went yak yak yak?”
    “Aye. He had more of a snarl in it, though. So it was like more vicious. Yek yek yekkity yek! That kind of thing.”
    “Did you attack him?”
    “Naah. He was a great big bloke, and I was just a titch. He had a hell of a temper, and all. So I just shut me lugs and let him get on with it. Yek yek yek yekkity yek.”
    “Pity. Anyway I’d had enough of Mrs. Scullery and her yak yak yak, so I done her.”
    “With the pen.”
    “Aye. I done her good, with the pen.”
    “Murder?”
    “Not quite. She’ll survive.”
    I looked down at the water that flowed beneath us toward the sea. I said,
    “Are you as good as Pelé, Karl?”
    He grinned.
    “Aye,” he said. “In fact, I’m even better.”
    “Really?”
    “Really. You should have seen the goal I scored in the park last week. Breathtaking.”
    We grinned at each other in the mirror.
    “So why are you driving taxis?” I said.
    “Cos I love it. Who’d want to travel the world and make a million quid and be adored by all them fans? No, it’s journeys to CorinthianAvenue for me! And look, here we are, safe and sound.”
    He stopped the car and opened the door to let me out.
    He pretended to flinch as I stepped out. He put his hands up as if to protect himself.
    I laughed and he grinned.
    “Keep them pens under control today,” he said.
    “I will.”
    “See ya, Miss. Savage.”
    “Bye-bye, Mr. Pelé.”
    He winked at us and drove away.
    And there it was, a redbrick house surrounded by Tarmac and a steel fence, and tubs with blue hydrangeas in them.
    I pause. I need to mess about before I go on. I’ll play with words for a while. I’ll do a single sentence and a single word. Good games to play while I gather my memories of that day.

     
    Sometimes when I’m at my table or in my tree and I want to write I start a sentence to see if I can write a whole page before I need a full stop which at first can seem rather difficult but which is really quite easy, because a single sentence could go on forever just like numbers could go on forever, which is difficult for little children to understand because they believe that a number like 100 is so huge that there can be nothing higher until someone says there’s 101 and 102 and 103 and they say O yes and so they begin to understand that numbers have no true end and can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on until the end of time, if there is an end of time which I think is maybe impossible because if numbers go on forever maybe time does too, but as I get closer to the foot of the page I know that this sentence must stop very soon which now makes me wonder if I am like God when I am writing and makes me wonder whether God could put an end to time if he decided he has had enough of it and whether one day he will speak the single simple cataclysmic word STOP and everything will simply stop .
    A SINGLE WORD

THIS MORNING THE SKY
HAS ONLY
A SINGLE BIRD IN IT .

THIS MORNING MY PAGE
HAS ONLY
A SINGLE WORD ON IT .
     
     
    SKYLARK
     
     
    EXTRAORDINARY ACTIVITY
    Write a sentence which fills a whole page.
     
    EXTRAORDINARY ACTIVITY
    Write a single word at the center of a page .
     
    OK. The Corinthian Avenue Pupil Referral Unit.
    We … No. Not we. Not I. Third person, Mina. She. They.

 
    And so one day our heroine, Mina, who thought she was so clever and strong, arrived at Corinthian Avenue. As Karl’s taxi drove away, Mina walked hand in hand with her mum towards the glass doorway.
As they stepped inside, a woman came to them.
“I’m Mrs. Milligan,” she said. “And you must be Mina!”
“Yes, I suppose I must,” said Mina.
“She is,” said Mina’s mum, “and I am Mrs. McKee.”
Mrs. Milligan smiled kindly, and led them into a small and brightly lit office.

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