Hey Blog! Recently, I have been doing a lot of studies, and so I have some more English to share with you. This is for two reasons: firstly because the prompt was to write a dialogue between a character called Kaito and his grandmother about taking a selfie, while my own grandparents are coming to see us soon; and secondly because Mum annotated at the end of it, “That’s brilliant! I hope you get that writing prompt in the exam!” which suggests what I did was good. I hope you like it too.
“No, Grandma, you tap this button here, see? This one reverses the way the photo’s pointing; it takes one of you, not the door!” Kaito said. “There, and… snap, picture taken!”
His grandmother was getting a little flustered. “Deary me, they never used to be so complicated. This one here, you said, darling?” she asked, pressing the button.
A pair of virtual reindeer horns appeared on Kaito’s grandmother’s head on the phone screen. “Ahhh! What is it?” she shrieked, a hand patting her head to try and feel the horns. “What did it do?”
“Grandma, that’s the setting which alters your filters. There are hundreds. You could grow a beard… or wear a fancy hat. Once you’ve taken a selfie, you can edit it. I’ll show you where you can find them on your own phone.” Kaito was eager to help. “Where is it?”
“I don’t use it much, love. It’s in that drawer on the sideboard,” Grandma said. “There, in the case with flowers on.”
“I can’t see a phone, Grandma. All you’ve got is this,” Kaito said, pulling out a Nokia brick. “How long have you had this? It looks like the dinosaurs used it.”
“That’s the phone, duck. A bit old these days, but a great comfort when your grandfather was away. I could text him every day on that.” Kaito’s grandmother was evidently surprised by Kaito’s reaction, for she said, “What’s the matter dear? I thought you knew how to work phones?”
“This… isn’t a phone, Grandma,” answered Kaito. “I’m not sure what it is, but there’s no camera on here. It doesn’t even have a search function, no internet whatsoever. All there is are a few funny numbers.”
“Those will be my passcodes, dear. The rest of the Secret Service still used paper, but I was one of the very first who had it digital.” Kaito’s grandmother seemed immensely proud. “We’d soon live in a Digital World, they said. And I was a pioneer! To think of it. But have you got the photo Apple-cation or what you said working?”
“You were in the Secret Service, Grandma?!” Kaito exclaimed. “When?”
“Not was, dear, but am. They’ve never dismissed me yet,” Kaito’s grandmother continued. “In fact, they sent a message a few days ago. Wanted me to learn how to take a selfie. Photo evidence, you see. Good way of staying undercover, yet getting the tabs on those you want to watch.” Grandma sighed. “Shall we get on with it then, dear?”
N.B. relation to Kaitos, Grandmas, and the Secret Service completely coincidental. No fictional characters in this piece are based on real people, least of all my own grandmother!