Ten Short Stories - The hitchhiker

        “Ten Short Stories” is written by Roald Dahl, a famous writer.  One of his short stories is titled “The Hitchhiker”.

        “The Hitchhiker” is a story about the author going to London one day during June on his BMW. On his way, he meets a hitchhiker. After letting the hitchhiker in, the author drove off again. On the way to London, the two men started chatting. Then, they talked about the author’s car. The hitchhiker asked how fast the BMW is. The author states that the car can go up to 129 miles an hour, but the hitchhiker does not believe. Therefore, the author started speeding up. Just when the car reached 120 miles an hour, the deafening sound of the police siren could be heard. Then, a policeman with his police motorcycle stopped them, and after some questioning, the policeman demanded for the author’s driver license. The author obediently handed over his license. After recording both the author and the hitchhiker’s particulars, the policeman drove off. The author and the hitchhiker continued their trip to London. Then, the author asked about the hitchhiker’s job. Finally, the hitchhiker told him that his job is a finger smith, a better word for a pickpocket. The hitchhiker had shown the author the speed of his fingers, which was very fast. Then, at the end, the hitchhiker took out the books in which the policeman had recorded their particulars. The author was very surprised. Finaly, the hitchhiker gave the idea to destroy the books by burning them.

           I feel that the story “The Hitchhiker” is very interesting and a bit of suspense is included in the story. The author keeps pressing the hitchhiker for his job but the hitchhiker refuses to reveal till the end, which will make the readers want to read on. Therefore, I feel that Roald Dahl is very good at writing so he can come up with such an interesting book.