January 27, 2011

week #3/52: batteries not included

People were refusing to go out for New Year’s Eve this year – or at least some people were. Parties were being kept to small groups of friends, safe indoors, with candles and bottled water, canned goods and books to read. Maybe it was a bit silly, but I took note. I knew where our flashlights were, and yes, we had plenty of batteries. Some of those fat Ds our flashlights needed, and piles of the AAs that ran everything else. I even changed that stupid little 9-volt in the smoke alarm (with all those lit candles, who knows what might happen). And since it couldn’t have been any more than twelve degrees outside, I went shopping for extra blankets, in case we lost heat. And while I was at Target, I saw some Duracells on sale. And I had a coupon too – buy one get one free – so I bought four packs and got four free. Four free packs of batteries!

“Maybe we should stock up on ice and coolers,” Danny said. “So we can keep our beer cold when the power goes out.” His smart-ass grin spread cheek to cheek.

Really. No one was ever hurt by being adequately prepared for something. I don’t think anyone had serious regrets about knowing where their batteries were when the power didn’t go out.

– Lexi, chapter 4.5, Paper Birds

***

week 3: this is not an advertisement for Duracell or anything, lol!

(Might also be useful to note that this story takes place around Y2K-time, not sure if you could guess that from this excerpt alone.)

I almost went with another photo for the “official” week 3 shot – the slanted one in the outtakes below – but in the end, I just didn’t. It was, I don’t know, a little too off-putting? Lexi is clearly too much of a control freak for such a skewed photo, lol! Maybe that’s it.

A question, which I’ll need to know for my real project when it’s time: If I were to take a picture with a product brand in it like this, can I publish it in my story (for money)? Are there permissions needed for something like that?

outtakes: