Never underestimate old men on park benches

By Greg Turnquist

Greg L. Turnquist worked on the Spring team for over thirteen years and is a senior staff technical content engineer at Cockroach Labs. He was the lead for Spring Data JPA and Spring Web Services. He wrote Packt's best-selling title, Learning Spring Boot 2.0 2nd Edition, and its 3rd Edition follow-up along many others.

March 18, 2015

Tonight, our Writer’s Group had an exercise. Based on the statement above, write something in five minutes or less. This is what I crafted:

* * *

It surprised me. I usually have my tea. Somtimes crumpets. Then I sit in my usual spot. London Financial Times, that’s what I read.

But today was different. Somtehing was falling out of the sky. A jet? Heathrow’s noisy traffic nearby was my first thought. Nope. Not that. Several large boxes from nowhere were crashing in from high above.

My eyes widened with surprise. Not because a whole bunch of boxes landed in the park’s pond. Sure that was awkward. But the fact that the boxes opened up and several animals emerged. And they started talking!

“Where are we?” a green frog asked.

I did the only thing possible. I replied, “You are in the United Kingdom. The gem of the North Sea. The great Britannia.”

And then they were off. My wife would never believe this.

* * *

Do you have a clue what this scene depicts? If so, drop a comment.

Happy writing!

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