Avon's Bit of Paper
Just before Avon has his first line in "Space Fall," he is sitting at a table on the prison ship London, reading a small piece of paper. Here are a few speculations on what that bit of paper might have been.
Susan Cutter:
- Application form for a tuition refund from the Dale Carnegie "How To Win Friends and Influence People" Course. There was this guarantee of success, see......
- An employment offer from MicroSoft? Join us or we tell the Feds about your little scam. (And Avon had thought it was a bluff.....)
- A notice from CompuDate informing him the only match was currently involved with a man named Ensor.
- Servalan's birthday, which he'd somehow managed to forget.
- The cell number of the prisoner who'd been paying so much attention in the showers.
Chris Blenkarn:
- Perhaps an announcement from the Federation Prison Prize Draw saying, Congratulations, you have won an evening of departure candle-lit dinner with the Supreme Commander, plus a complimentary half-bottle of sparking wine. (Of course as the ship left early--Blake's fault--he never got to eat it, which may explain why he was cross with his leader) or
- A flyer introducing Windows 2001 or
- An Inland Revenue self-assessment form or
- Servalan's phone number or
- An evaluation sheet for holding cell accommodation [Please rate the enthusiasm of our torturers on a scale of 1(indifferent) to 5 (slavering sadists--Susan Cutter] or
- A hot tip from Vila for the 2.30 at Chepstow or
- A journal cutting he was reading to Gan from What Implant? or
- His very last piece of Alpha soft toilet tissue or
- The latest re-write of his lines
- Plaintive letter from his bank manager
- Inter-galactic driver's license
- Invitation to a preview of the Ideal Dome exhibition (I fear this is a British joke only)
- Last packet of Rothman's
- Sainsbury's car park ticket
- 20-year guarantee certificate for Alpha Deluxe Leatherwear
- Signed photo of Elvis Presley
- Dry cleaning coupon
- Invitation to take out a Freedom City Express gold card
- Cygnus Alpha visitor map and guide
- Packet of jet lag tablets
- Schematics of the London
- In lieu of a keepsake teddy bear, the instructions for assembling his
- first ever Lego set
- Notes on How to Teach Yourself the Harmonica in Just Two Weeks or your Money Back
Kathy M:
In "The Way the Game is Played," I had Avon being called in on a consult to a problematic project just prior to his arrest. After one of his interrogation sessions, he had an idea on the type of interface which was required and sketched it on the back of piece a paper his lawyer brought. Being Avon, he wasn't going to tell the project leader what the solution was, but he kept the paper as a reminder of who he was.
Robin H:
A chain letter he didn't pass on. Some bad luck....
Alicia Ann Fox:
There's those old chestnuts, either a love letter from Anna Grant or a "I'm going to kill you, you bastard" note from Del Grant.
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