The syrup tin

Original fiction extract.

The pancakes were already on the plates when Mum opened the syrup tin. Davi held out his fork, ready to begin. His sister had chosen jam and was halfway through her first pancake. Mum put a spoon into the tin, lifted it above his plate and waited for the syrup to follow.

A golden hesitation hung beneath the spoon. It lengthened without seeming to fall, a slow minute being pulled into a shining string. Davi leaned forward until Mum told him to move his nose. The first drop arrived with absurd importance, folding onto the pancake as though it had travelled a great distance. Behind it came another, carrying all the confidence of a queue which knew nobody could pass. His sister’s fork clicked cheerfully against her plate. The syrup kept its own thick calendar, indifferent to the breakfast growing cold beneath it.

At last Mum turned the spoon once and returned it to the tin. Davi spread the syrup farther than it wanted to go. He took a large first mouthful and could not immediately speak. When his sister asked whether it had been worth waiting, he nodded, still looking at the spoon as if it might have kept something back.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to convey the child’s impatience as the syrup pours.

Write about 200 to 250 words.