The 4 a.m. Breaththrough - exericse 3

Take four words that seem to recur in your fiction: Study their etymologies. - a piece of prose that is a comment on your previous stories. Kiteley

Pristine Curious Manifest Admonition

Still uncorrupted by the southern hemisphere, the exotic woman responded to her co-travellers' unintended reprimands. Her liquid hem fell limp around her ankles as she crouched onto the linoleum of the arrivals hall in Sydney International airport. She wound her dark tresses quickly into a chignon pinned to the back of her head with ivory. Curious she may have been initially, but quickly that state rearranged itself upon her face as she clung to her cloth bag that had broken open as she lifted it from the rotating carousel. Jars and bottles clamoured to the floor, rolling under the feet of other passengers waiting for their own luggage. Suddenly on her knees, she reached for tubes of make up and perfume bottle stoppers.

When she alighted from the plane, her pristine psyche had been as shiny as the polished floors of the airport. Now,her embarrassment was clear, her attempt to rectify the circumstances manifest.

Uniformed airport police descended upon the scene admonishing. Immediately the now frightened non-Australian speaker attempted to gather her belongings into a small pile away from the feet of her co-passengers.

Finally, a friendly employee offered a green Woollies fabric shopping bag into which she could load all of the escaped items. With relief, the lithe traveller stood apologizing in Thai to those around her, thanking several who had helped by gathering the unbroken glass into one spot. Several youngsters holding various rescued tubes and vials encircled her.

No worries pristine evaporated; the environment smouldered with incense and various spices that escaped as their containers roiled out of the broken suitcase. Oblivious to the change in the fragrance of the arrivals hall, the young woman breathed relief as the last item was returned to her green shopping bag.

Her companion, arriving from a bathroom stop between airline exit and baggage carousel, cautioned her lovingly as the two of them waited together for the remainder of their luggage.