The singing glass

Original fiction extract.

After dinner, my sister told us not to clear the table yet. She moved one glass away from the plates and wet a fingertip in the water beside it. Dad said that if this was another way of avoiding washing up, he would need to see a considerable improvement on last night’s method. She began moving her finger around the rim.

At first there was only a small complaint of friction. Then a note rose out of the glass, thin and astonishingly steady: a silver wire stretched across the room. Our laughter stopped beneath it. The sound seemed too tall for the little bowl which held it, reaching into a part of the air the dinner conversation had never occupied. My sister’s finger continued its quiet orbit. When she lifted it, the note hung for a moment like a thread reluctant to leave its needle, then faded into the ordinary clink of a spoon against a plate.

Dad asked whether she could do it again. She pushed the glass towards him instead. His first attempt produced a short squeak. She laughed, but moved the other plates aside to give him room. For once, nobody mentioned that the table still needed clearing.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to present the unexpected sound made by the glass.

Write about 200 to 250 words.