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stupid.'
    'Ah, nonsense!' erupted Scoop. 'You're not stupid, Jimmy! Not stupid
thick
anyway. Stupid
headstrong
probably; stupid
I always know best
maybe.'
    Jimmy gave the smallest shrug.
    'Jimmy, son, that's the kind of stupid that gets things done, that changes things. They call people stupid when they just don't understand them. Guy that came up with the wheel, they probably called him stupid. Guy that invented aspirin, they probably told him he was thick. Photography, there's a stupid mistake, if ever there was one, and where would we be without it? Do you understand what I'm saying? You can do this, Jimmy, I know you can. It's your chance to prove to yourself that you're not the sort of kid they say you are. So are you on, Jimmy? Will we do this together?'
    'No,' said Jimmy.
    'I'll pay you,' said Scoop.
    'OK,' said Jimmy.

6
Earthquake
     
    T housands of miles away from the
Titanic
a small earthquake shook the city of San Diego in California. One person was killed, twenty-seven injured, and a dozen buildings collapsed.
    'You see,' said Scoop, 'that isn't particularly massive news — but if you were to check with our passenger list, you might find that dozens of them come from San Diego, and you can be sure it'll be big news for them. They'll be worried about relatives, their businesses — do you know what I mean?'
    Jimmy had found the story on a newspaper website. Now he proceeded to copy it into the cruise ship newspaper they'd begun to put together that morning. Scoop stopped him. 'No, Jimmy you can't just copy it. You have to make up your own story, based upon what you've read here.'
    'Why?'
    'Because those words, in that order, belong to that website. You have to take the facts that are there, and rewrite them.'
    'So I can steal their facts?'
    Scoop sighed. 'Up to a point. You should look at this story on perhaps a dozen different news sites, because each one is going to have their own version of it. One will know the name of the man who died, another will have an interview with the leading expert on earthquakes, yet another might know how long it will take to repair the damaged buildings. Do you see what I'm getting at?'
    He did, kind of.
    'Any story you write has to answer the five basic rules of journalism, and they're quite simple: you ask
who, what, where, when, how.
All right?'
    'Who, what, where, when, how,' Jimmy repeated.
    'That's it —
who
is who was killed,
what
is what caused him to die,
where
is obviously San Diego,
when
is clearly when did it happen, and
how
is what caused the earthquake.'
    'Who, what, where, when and how,' Jimmy repeated again.
    'Exactly.'
    'So
who
is going to get me my lunch? Is that what you mean?' Jimmy asked.
    'Well I . . .'
    ' What
are you going to get me? And
where
are you going to get it from?'
    'Jimmy, it's only eleven . . .'
    ' When
are you going to get it then? And
how
are you going to get it before I starve to death?'
    'That's very funny, Jimmy,' Scoop commented dryly.
    'It's not funny. I'm starving. Being a journalist is hard work.'
    Scoop took a deep breath. 'All right Jimmy, even though we've hardly started, I'll go and get you something.' He turned his wheelchair towards the door. 'Although if you weren't a wanted criminal it would most certainly be the other way around.'
    ***
    Jimmy was a bit concerned about the design end of things, but Scoop quickly reassured him:
    'Don't worry, Jimmy — there's software for that. A monkey could do it!'
    'Are you calling me a monkey?'
    Scoop gave him a long look. And then: 'There's some very bright monkeys around, you know.'
    ***
    In the late afternoon Scoop said: 'I'm just going to stretch my legs, as it were.'
    When he'd gone Jimmy returned to surfing the Internet for the latest news, and it was while doing this that his thoughts returned to home. His parents would be tearing their hair out (and his dad didn't have much to spare). He had the opportunity now to send them an e-mail — if only they had an e-mail address, access to