The Fall of Professor Higgins (Editing Exercise)

14.8.15

Melanie emerged from the office kitchen. The office kitchen was always gloomy (a bit like the office itself). The light bulb was blown. Melanie went back to her desk and picked up the phone to dial a customer.

Ten minutes later, she heard an almighty bang-crash, and then a shout: "Help, help me, Miss Manifold."

She ran to the kitchen. Professor Higgins was on the floor, his left leg bent back under his body at a weird angle. Well, there was no chance he was going to make the awards ceremony tonight, she reflected. The Professor was was due to collect a $40,000 prize from a medical supplies company for his contribution to science publishing. He had been the editor of Calgary Lancet for 45 years.

"Professor, what on earth happened?" asked Melanie, feigning shock. As soon as she saw the banana skin on the floor at the Professor's foot, she knew what was up. 

She thought back to the events of that morning and she wished she hadn't done it. The banana skin was in her hand. The contents of the banana she had already consumed for morning tea. Still feeling angry with her boss over the news yesterday she would not be promoted, she let the banana skin fall to the kitchen floor.


[Pic from FlickrDavid Goehring]
This was an editing exercise for class, using the same information as the previous post. The instruction was to "imagine you are a writer of short stories that usually have a bit of a twist, and you have promised this to an online creative writing magazine."

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