Serial, by Cilla McQueen

Birdie 8

2010-02-09T09:00:00.000+13:00

No chance with this hip, Doris thought. Two years jogging every Sunday with Roger until Edwin put his foot down.

Physical training at Sling Camp, Bulford, 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-014067-G

Birdie 7

2010-02-06T09:00:00.000+13:00

Did you know Digby who won Lotto and went out of control? They didn’t find him for a week. Mrs Good straightened the bread. His daughter was out jogging.

Members of the Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service, at signalling training, during World War II
Reference Number: PAColl-8844

Birdie 6

2010-02-04T09:00:00.000+13:00

Mrs Good at the gate, the baguette drooping. Hello sweetie, are you all right?

Fine thanks. You’ve got your bread wet.

Kimberley Supply Committee: Permit to purchase bread
Reference Number: Eph-C-WAR-SA-1900-03-2

Birdie 5

2010-02-02T09:00:00.000+13:00

Chicken soup on a day like this, nipping off a few dead buds.

A splendid concoction. Stressing the second syllable like Nigella Lawson.

Nelson Lighthouse, Boulder Bank, Nelson, ca 21 March 1936
Reference Number: 1/2-032647-F

Birdie 4

2010-01-30T09:00:00.001+13:00

A swooping plastic bag tangled in the fence, brushing off pink rose petals. If the wheelie-bin had a celebrity voice, in what language would it thank you?

Miss Judy Young and Mrs W M Preston at Trentham race course, 21 January 1957
Reference Number: EP/1957/0298-F

Birdie 3

2010-01-28T09:00:00.000+13:00

City Council. The plot: from next year onwards those without reservations must go to town, not up the hill behind the pines. Gravestones on the sky.

Molly Mawk colony, Courrejolles Peninsula, Campbell Island, 1910-1916
Reference Number: 1/2-100366-G

Birdie 2

2010-01-26T09:00:00.000+13:00

No news but Olympics. Talking rubbish bins in Finland that speak with celebrity voices.

Modelling Jantzen bathing costumes, 1940.
Reference Number: 1/2-036931-G

Birdie 1

2010-01-23T09:00:00.000+13:00

Doris looked up and cleared a swathe on the window. Mrs Good coming up in the rain, a baguette protruding from her bag.

Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service recruit learning semaphore on Somes Island, during World War II.
Reference Number: 1/4-000164-F

Hotdog

2010-01-21T09:00:00.001+13:00

'Hotdog' is the second part of Cilla McQueen's 'Serial', which is being published on this blog in small sections every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The first chapter was titled 'Higgs' - the full text of 'Higgs' is available here.

Here is the full text of 'Hotdog'. Next, we begin 'Birdie'.

Marie Curie stirred sludge in a cauldron with an iron bar as tall as herself, reducing pitchblende to a grain of light.

Pierre Curie’s skull was eggshell on the cobblestones of Paris, thought Doris, flipping pikelets.

Waterblaster! shouted Roly. Three hundred, stainless steel tank, brand new.

He put the box in the wash-house, pulled his hoodie up and ran.

It was too expensive. She didn’t really need it.

At the dairy she was searching for eggs when Roly and his girlfriend came in and stood at the counter. The girl was laughing. Off the balcony!

I didn’t undo the twists, Roly said. Hotdog?

Green moss on the concrete, pine needles magnetised to the corners. Daisies. She put the radio on a stone and began gardening. It seemed the world was igniting in small puffs, bullet holes appearing in the Middle East.

A line of fire. She adjusted her glasses. Slowly tilting her head she gazed at the lobelia until at a certain angle through the lens the ultraviolet petals were thinly edged with red.

There was a spider dangling from her hat. She raised her hand to brush it off the brim but stopped, watching cross-eyed the minute creature climbing up. All elbows.

Waving the hat at the hydrangeas she went in to inspect the waterblaster.

It was only the size of a vacuum cleaner, smaller than the ones she had seen in Mitre 10. It had clean wheels but water dripped out of the hose. Looking for the guarantee she realised that there was no packaging and the box was battered.

The serial number on the machine didn’t match the number on the box.

No instructions, she thought, I don’t know how to work it.

There was a deep scratch on the black plastic knob at the front. The power cord was tied with plastic twists.

Marie Curie remained radioactive long after her death, thought Doris, but she found the element she was looking for.

Trying to reduce the focus she scattered shells and stones from the rockery. Something was stuck, the handle was leaking; one errant stream shot out of the side of the main jet.

She couldn’t work out how to turn it off.

The nozzle unleashed tremendous force in a gleaming nail of water that drilled into the Oamaru stone wall. Flowerpots skidded off a ledge and broke, scattering earth and polyanthus.

She slipped on the moss and the wildly swinging jet smashed the toilet window. She crawled to the outside tap and turned it.

Quiet. The wall drilled with holes as if machine-gunned. The drenched radio playing Tchaikovsky.

Images, from the top

c-axis rotation photographs of hyacinth from Snowy River
C. Osborne Hutton, 'Contributions to the Mineralogy of New Zealand—Part V'. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 88, 1960-61.

Three people weighing and packing eggs
Reference Number: 1/1-008480-G

Painting for the cover of an unpublished book featuring paintings of the Napier earthquake.
Reference Number: B-155-023

Detail of a kitchen interior, ca 1932
Reference Number: 1/1-015728-F

The Petone Fire Station, with hoses hanging up to dry, after the fire at Bailey, Austin & Arcus timber yards, 1910
Reference Number: APG-0411-1/2-G

Couple with Frigidaire electric appliances in Wellington Botanic Garden, 1972
Reference Number: PA12-3461-1

Unexploded Turkish shells at Gallipoli, 1915
Reference Number: PA1-o-308-21-4

A village priest on his way to attend badly wounded civilians, France, 19 April 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-013148-G

Rear view of a man in doublet and hose
Reference Number: E-312-q-091-4

Photograph of Anisotome latifolia, Campbell Island, ca 1959
Reference Number: PA12-1425-060

Hutt Railway Workshops at Woburn. Interior view with new heating apparatus, 1929
Reference Number: APG-0891-1/2-G

Insect life
Reference Number: B-131-06-001

Windmill owned by the milling business of Jas Hassell, Oamaru
Reference Number: 1/2-002002-F

Woman working in a munitions factory in Hamilton during World War 2, 1944
Reference Number: 1/4-000857-F

Lawnmower with attachment for trimming lawn edges
Reference Number: 1/1-009068-G

'The spider web' ride at fairground, Wellington
Reference Number: 114/121/06-G

Woman using a vacuum cleaner
Reference Number: 1/1-015757-F

Aix massage douche, Sanatorium, Rotorua, New Zealand
Reference Number: PA1-f-051-26-3

National Panasonic 8 transistor radio
Reference Number: EP/1971/4303/35-F

Hotdog 19

2010-01-19T09:00:00.001+13:00

Quiet. The wall drilled with holes as if machine-gunned. The drenched radio playing Tchaikovsky.

National Panasonic 8 transistor radio
Reference Number: EP/1971/4303/35-F

Hotdog 18

2010-01-16T09:00:00.001+13:00

She slipped on the moss and the wildly swinging jet smashed the toilet window. She crawled to the outside tap and turned it.

Aix massage douche, Sanatorium, Rotorua, New Zealand
Reference Number: PA1-f-051-26-3

Hotdog 17

2010-01-14T09:00:00.001+13:00

The nozzle unleashed tremendous force in a gleaming nail of water that drilled into the Oamaru stone wall. Flowerpots skidded off a ledge and broke, scattering earth and polyanthus.

Woman using a vacuum cleaner
Reference Number: 1/1-015757-F

Hotdog 16

2010-01-12T09:00:00.002+13:00

She couldn’t work out how to turn it off.

'The spider web' ride at fairground, Wellington
Reference Number: 114/121/06-G

Hotdog 15

2010-01-09T09:00:00.001+13:00

Trying to reduce the focus she scattered shells and stones from the rockery. Something was stuck, the handle was leaking; one errant stream shot out of the side of the main jet.

Lawnmower with attachment for trimming lawn edges
Reference Number: 1/1-009068-G

Hotdog 14

2010-01-07T09:00:00.000+13:00

Marie Curie remained radioactive long after her death, thought Doris, but she found the element she was looking for.

Woman working in a munitions factory in Hamilton during World War 2, 1944
Reference Number: 1/4-000857-F

Hotdog 13

2010-01-05T09:00:00.002+13:00

There was a deep scratch on the black plastic knob at the front. The power cord was tied with plastic twists.

Windmill owned by the milling business of Jas Hassell, Oamaru
Reference Number: 1/2-002002-F

Christmas break

2009-12-24T09:00:00.000+13:00

Serial is taking a break over Christmas. The next installment of chapter 2, 'Hotdog', will be published in 5 January 2010.

Hotdog 12

2009-12-23T09:00:00.000+13:00

The serial number on the machine didn’t match the number on the box.
No instructions, she thought, I don’t know how to work it.

Insect life
Reference Number: B-131-06-001

Hotdog 11

2009-12-21T09:00:00.000+13:00

It was only the size of a vacuum cleaner, smaller than the ones she had seen in Mitre 10. It had clean wheels but water dripped out of the hose. Looking for the guarantee she realised that there was no packaging and the box was battered.

Hutt Railway Workshops at Woburn. Interior view with new heating apparatus, 1929
Reference Number: APG-0891-1/2-G

Hotdog 10

2009-12-18T09:00:00.000+13:00

Waving the hat at the hydrangeas she went in to inspect the waterblaster.

Photograph of Anisotome latifolia, Campbell Island, ca 1959
Reference Number: PA12-1425-060

Hotdog 9

2009-12-16T09:00:00.000+13:00

There was a spider dangling from her hat. She raised her hand to brush it off the brim but stopped, watching cross-eyed the minute creature climbing up. All elbows.

Rear view of a man in doublet and hose
Reference Number: E-312-q-091-4

Hotdog 8

2009-12-14T09:00:00.000+13:00

A line of fire. She adjusted her glasses. Slowly tilting her head she gazed at the lobelia until at a certain angle through the lens the ultraviolet petals were thinly edged with red.

A village priest on his way to attend badly wounded civilians, France, 19 April 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-013148-G

Hotdog 7

2009-12-11T09:00:00.000+13:00

Green moss on the concrete, pine needles magnetised to the corners. Daisies. She put the radio on a stone and began gardening. It seemed the world was igniting in small puffs, bullet holes appearing in the Middle East.

Unexploded Turkish shells at Gallipoli, 1915
Reference Number: PA1-o-308-21-4

Hotdog 6

2009-12-09T09:00:00.000+13:00

I didn’t undo the twists, Roly said. Hotdog?

Couple with Frigidaire electric appliances in Wellington Botanic Garden, 1972
Reference Number: PA12-3461-1

Hotdog 5

2009-12-07T09:00:00.001+13:00

At the dairy she was searching for eggs when Roly and his girlfriend came in and stood at the counter. The girl was laughing. Off the balcony!

The Petone Fire Station, with hoses hanging up to dry, after the fire at Bailey, Austin & Arcus timber yards, 1910
Reference Number: APG-0411-1/2-G