A plot overview (work in progress), plus paragraph about Mori’s house - sam
A plot overview (work in progress)
Matt Buckle, a 12 year old amateur inventor who is endowed with boundless enthusiasm and an unquenchable curiosity, has a deep affection for his grandfather, Mori Lahovsky, who he visits every day on his way home from school.Mori, a lovable eccentric who Matt idolizes, emigrated to the UK in the 1930s, as this was a difficult time for scientists in his native Russia. Mori survived in England by building a career as a confectioner and ice-cream maker, though he never lost his inventive streak. and is always coming up with new innovations. His heyday was in the 1950s and 60s when Mori’s Chocolate Sprinkles were the talk of the town, and his Psychedelick Lollies were on the tip of every tongue.
Lately, however, Mori has hit tougher times. He lives by himself in a dilapidated house that is overrun by the mess and chaos of his constant inventing, yet all the new flavours he invents somehow miss the mark. Though each flavour undeniably contain a touch of genius, they lack popular appeal. So whilst Mori once had a string of boutique ice-cream parlors, he now sells his wares from a solitary and ancient ice cream van that is always breaking down. Worse still - Mori himself is also getting old. Though a great optimist and always cheerful, he is aware of the ravages of time and knows that his mind is no longer as clear as it once was. He realises that he is becoming forgetful in his old age.
One afternoon Matt visits Mori as usual, and finds his grandfather in a bit of a fluster. He cannot remember where he put the keys to his trusty van. After several minutes of fruitless searching Mori goes to the freezer and takes from a special compartment a box of ice-cream that Matt has never seen before. He eats the tiniest spoonful of this special ice-cream and then immediately knows where he left the keys. ”Silly me! Of course, I left the keys in my brown coat pocket- and I left my brown coat at Alfred’s house - how very forgetful of me.” Matt and Mori rush off to see Alfred - and of course Mori is quite correct, the coat is there and so are the keys.
Matt is amazed - and he asks his grandad how its possible that by eating the ice-cream he was able to work out the whereabouts of his keys. Mori explains to Matt that he has invented a way of preserving his memories by freezing them in ice-cream. ”Memories are very delicate things”, he explains, “And as I get older, there are many valuable things that are starting to slip away from me. I’d never want to forget, for example, how I met your grandma.” - and he shows Mori where he has stored this particular treasured memory in its own special tub.
Mori has created a whole archive of frozen memories, everything from mundane everyday necesssities, like remembering that he should brush his teeth before going to bed, to the most valuable recollections of his personal past, are carefully stored away in ice-cream form. He’s even made a special Index ice-cream to remind him which flavour is which.
Matt is dumbfounded. “This is terrific, Mori” he tells his grandfather, “It’s the best thing you’ve ever made. Why did you never tell me about it before?” Mori confesses that he was a little embarrassed, and hadn’t wanted to reveal to his grandson just how forgetful he had become. Besides, he didn’t see why his memories would be of any interest to anyone else.
“Nonsense!” says Matt, “There could not be anything more exciting!”, and he begs his granddad for permission to try a taste of one of his memories. Mori is unsure what might happen if someone tries a memory that does not belong to him, and is a little reluctant at first. But Matt is so desperate to try it that eventually he relents. Matt gets to sample one of Mori’s memories and finds himself instantly transported into another world; a delicious bitter-sweet memory that is full of rich insights into Mori’s turbulent past. He sees the past through the eyes of Mori’s younger self, and joins him on his adventures. He get to meet his grandmother for the first time, and is delighted by the antics of his own father as a tiny child.
As the last remnants of the ice-cream melt away in his mouth, Matt finds himself back in the present, and back in Mori’s house. The whole experience has in fact taken just a few short moments. Matt is jubilant, but Mori is still cautious. “I hope I didn’t give you too much”, he says, “I don’t want you getting nostalgic”.
Matt tells Mori that he has created the best ice-cream known to man. Not only is it delicious, but it full of rich stories and adventures, emotions and dreams. “You’ve got to start selling this in the van!”
They do and Mori’s Frozen Memory proves to be incredibly popular. Soon the whole town is eager to try this new invention. People also are eager to offer their own memories to make new flavours. And Mori develops special new flavours containing blends of different people’s memories. These prove to be such useful tools for teaching children about the past that the government ammends the National Curriculum, so that eating Mori’s Ice Cream is mandatory during school History lessons. History becomes a much more popular subject as a result.
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I feel like maybe its ok to leave it there - not entirely sure what happens next in any case. But it did occur to me that there are lots of repercussions that we could try and deal with - but wary of making it longer and more complex than necessary - possible things that could be in there include:
*Memory-Libel : Not everyone is happy with the new ice-cream, - perhaps Mori has some embarassing memories about the headmaster of Matt’s school. It becomes a popular flavour with school-kids and the headmaster is cross and feels like he is being ridiculed.
*Some of the memory blends include memories that are contradictory - these have a very sharp, jagged taste. Mori realises that memories are not necessary all accurate accounts of reality, and some people have very different ideas about what happened at a particular event. There is not an ‘objective’ truth, just lots of subjective flavours of it - some perhaps a little biased!
*Some memories are upsetting to some people.
*Aspects of the memory world ‘melt’ into the real world. The past is being dug up and there could be real consequences of this.
*What happens when all the ice cream is eaten - or if it melts? Are those memories lost forever? Do the people who they belonged forget them too?****************************************************************************************
Short Paragraph - 3rd person on Mori’s house
Mori’s House
Pretty much every day after school Matt liked to stop by his grandfather’s house. Mori lived in a little terraced house that looked pretty much like all the other houses on Cathedral Avenue, except a little more dilapidated than most. Whilst most of Mori’s neighbours seemed to spend their afternoons pruning hedges, mowing lawns and sweeping paths, Mori himself had little time for such trivialities, and the overgrown wilderness at the front of his home often elicited tuts of disapproval from Mrs Perkins next door.
It’s probably a good thing that Mrs Perkins had never been inside Mori’s house, because if the state of his garden made her eyebrows twitch, there is really no telling how she might have reacted to the interior. Mori’s home was a celebration of all things chaotic, a monument to that which Mori held to be magnificent - the amazing marvelousness of mess.
