By Roald DahlBy Roald Dahl

Work made by:Work made by: Luisa nº58Luisa nº58 Daniela nºDaniela nº Inês G. nº56Inês G. nº56 Nadia nºNadia nº 11ºA11ºA

23th February 200723th February 2007

The Characters… The Driver

He is a writer who is driving his new car to London.

The HitchhikerMichael Fish is a man who is asking for a ride and a nice man stops his BMW to help him.

The policemanHe is a small character who gives to the driver the opportunity to know what Michael does.

The story starts…

Michael got in the car and the journey continued. He looks like a rat (“he was a small ratty-faced men with grey teeth. His eyes were dark and quick and clever, like rat’s eyes, and his ears were slightly pointed at the top”). Michael said that he wanted to go to a horse race in London. The driver started asking a lot of things about his personal life but he recalled that he hated the questions made by drivers in his hitchhiking years. Somehow, they came to a new matter: car speeding. He passed by a policeman at full speed (that they didn’t see) and they had to stop the car.

When he was driving his car, he saw a hitchhiker asking for a lift and he nicely stopped. One of the reasons for this attitude is that a long time ago he had been a hitchhiker too.

The cop firmly requested their identification (including their address and their occupation), and he wrote them in his book tickets.

They drove on and Michael took from his pocket a tin of tobacco and a pack of cigarette papers and started rolling a cigarette. “I was watching him out of the corner of one eye, and the speed with which he performed this ratter difficult operation was incredible. The cigarette was rolled and ready in about five seconds. He ran his tong along the edge of the paper, stuck it down and popped the cigarette between his lips. Then, as if from nowhere, a lighter appeared in his hand. The lighter flamed. The lighter disappeared. It was altogether a remarkable performance.”The driver was amazed. He had never seen anyone roll a cigarette as fast as he did it. After that, the driver tried to guess what he did for a living, to be able to have such fantastic fingers.His fingers were beautifully shaped, slim, long and elegant, they didn’t seen to belong to the rest of him at all. They resembled fingers of a brain surgeon or a watchmaker.

Some of his guesses were:• A piano player;• A conjuror;• A card player.

But none of them was right. Michael said that his job was a lot more difficult that any of the jobs that he had mentioned.

Then Michael showed him a black leather belt. Quickly the driver discovered that his own belt was gone and that that belt was his.Next it appeared in Michael’s hand:

• His brown shoelace;• His watch;• His driver's license;• His key ring with four keys on it;• Some pound notes;• A few coins;• A letter from his publishers;• His diary;• A stubby old pencil;• A cigarette lighter;• A beautiful old sapphire ring with pearls.

The driver concluded that he was a pickpocket. The hitchhiker felt offended with that word because for him a pickpocket is an amateur, someone who performs easy tasks.So he called himself a fingersmith. (“Me? I’m a fingersmith. I’m a professional fingersmith.”) when he said his profession it sounded very proud. And he explained the meaning of the word: “it’s the name given to those who’ve risen to the very top of the profession. You’ve ‘eard of a goldsmith and a silversmith, for instance. They’re experts with gold and silver. I’m an expert with my fingers, so I’m a fingersmith.”

And, the driver figured out why he was going to a horse race. Because “race meetings is easy meat. … you just stand around after the race, watchin’ for the lucky ones to queue up and draw their money.”

But he is a good fingersmith. he never takes anything from a loser. or from poor people.

He never got caught. According to him only pickpocket are caught.

The driver started to talk about the officer because they gave their names to him, and so he would check up on him (Michael).

But he didn’t seem a bit worried about that. And… on his right two little books appeared . The policeman’s books.

The driver was really excited. No one had his name, his address… nothing!He thanked Michael in his own way… “You’re a genius!”, “You’re brilliant!”,

“You’re a fantastic fellow!”.

Michael only said: “thank you, guv’nor, it’s always nice to be appreciated”

Presented by: Luísa nº58

Daniela nº