Under the paper

Original fiction extract.

The teacher placed a thin sheet over the magnet and scattered a little iron dust across it. From the back of the table, I could see only a dark untidy patch. She asked us to come closer, then tapped one edge with her finger. The patch changed before anybody had time to speak.

A black crop stood up across the paper. Tiny bristles leaned into curved rows, each one apparently certain where the next ought to be. The space between the ends became a pale valley, bordered by narrow ranks which crowded most densely at its mouth. When the teacher moved the magnet below, the whole little landscape shivered. Lines broke, searched and found one another again. Nothing visible touched the filings, yet they behaved like a crowd hearing instructions from someone behind a wall.

She took the magnet away. The rows lost their certainty and fell into ordinary dust. A boy beside me asked to see it again. I looked beneath the sheet before she replaced the magnet, wanting to catch the hidden movement at the same time as its visible answer.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to describe the changing arrangement of the iron filings.

Write about 200 to 250 words.