Before the audience arrived

Text C: an original fiction extract.

Mira had spent three Saturdays helping her aunt Sal prepare a domino display for the community fair. Six folding tables carried a blue line, two spirals and a raised bridge ending beside a bell. The last falling piece would release a wooden ball and make the bell ring. Mira imagined the audience leaning forwards, then applauding. She had already written a caption for the photograph she planned to share afterwards: Three weeks of work, one perfect minute.

While setting up, Sal left small breaks between sections so an accidental touch would not start the whole display. The breaks were to be closed just before the demonstration. At half past two, most visitors were still watching another event outside. A volunteer photographer asked whether she could take a picture while the hall was quiet. Mira closed the breaks because the missing pieces looked untidy. She wanted the finished route in the photograph, not the precautions that kept it unfinished.

As she stepped back, the strap of her camera bag brushed the first blue piece. The line began moving. Mira reached out, then stopped, afraid that her hand would knock down another section. The photographer lifted her camera too late. The first spiral had already fallen. From across the hall, Sal called to leave it alone. The movement passed through the bridge, released the ball and rang the bell. Three people heard the ending. None had been standing where the audience was supposed to stand.

For a few seconds, Mira could not look at anyone. Then she asked the photographer whether she had recorded the whole thing. She had caught only the final part, with the first tables already lying flat in the background. Mira wanted her to delete it. The picture would show exactly how much of the display everyone had missed. Sal asked the photographer to keep the file for the moment and gave Mira somewhere quiet to put down her bag. She did not say that it was only a game.

The first family arrived before they had decided what to do. A boy read the demonstration sign and asked when the pieces would be stood up again. Sal explained the accidental start and said rebuilding the full route would take longer than the afternoon allowed. Mira expected the family to leave. Instead, the boy asked whether he could make a small line on the empty end table. His younger sister wanted to arrange a circle. Sal checked with the organiser and brought a shallow tray so pieces would not spread into the aisle.

By three, several families were building short patterns. Some fell before their builders were ready; others ended with a finger tapping the bell because no ball mechanism had been made. Mira helped without pretending that this was the demonstration she had promised. When someone asked to see the original, she showed the incomplete recording and explained what was missing. Afterwards, she rewrote the caption. The lost minute still hurt. The new version mentioned both the accident and the visitors who had stayed. Next time, she would leave the safety breaks open until the people, the camera and the display were all ready.

You are Mira. Write an article for your school magazine about the domino display and what happened at the fair.

In your response:

• explain your expectations and how the display was prepared
• describe the accident and your response to what was lost
• explain what happened when visitors arrived and what you would do differently next time

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.