10 August 2011

"Man from the South" by Roald Dahl


The narrator is lounging by a pool at a hotel when he meets a strange little South American man in a white suit. They are joined by an American boy and an English girl,
and the boy offers them all a cigarette. When he boasts that his lighter always lights, even in strong winds, the old man asks if he’s willing to bet on it. The boy is surprised but agrees to bet a dollar. The old man laughs and offers to up the stakes: If the boy can light his lighter ten times in a row, he will give him a brand new Cadillac. If the boy loses, the man will cut off the little finger of his left hand.
After some deliberation, the boy agrees to the bet. They all go up to the old man’s room where he prepares for the bet. The boy’s hand is tied to the desk with his little finger sticking out and the man holds a chopping knife at the ready. The boy makes his lighter light successfully eight times when the door suddenly opens and a woman rushes in yelling in Spanish. She says that she should not have left him alone and that he has already cut off fortyseven fingers in the place where they come from. She had managed to win everything from him, but it had taken her a long time. The last thing the narrator sees as he leaves the room is the woman’s hand … with only one finger and one thumb left on it.

After reading:
Write a different ending for Man from the South. The woman does not come into the room and stop the bet. Think about which man will win the bet and what will happen then.

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