Need a throwaway line

[HareBrain]

My imagination, which I once thought so limitless, has found yet another limit. I need something a teenager in a modern setting could have hold of that someone else would yell at him to throw away, or put down, or let go of, because they're scared for his safety. The more dangerous (or apparently dangerous) the better -- something like a tarantula or a hand grenade, but more ordinary. The context should be obvious enough to need no explaining, and would ideally be domestic or on a boat.

There are no prizes, but you're welcome to feel smug if you give the best answer.

 

[Mouse]

A flare?

 

[Perpetual Man]

A mouse?

 

[Mouse]

A mouse?

How rude. Mice are too super-cute to fling!

 

[RJM Corbet]

Good question. Very good question ... a chemical perhaps?

 

[terryweide]

A dead rat would do it, although that's more gross than dangerous, or any type of handgun or anything that would explode.

 

[Hex]

Firework? can of lighter fuel (somewhere with naked flame?), um super powerful weedkiller?

 

[RJM Corbet]

A dead rat would do it, although that's more gross than dangerous, or any type of handgun or anything that would explode.

TEENager

 

[Hex]

One of those things in fields for scaring crows - they go BOOM! but I have no idea what they're called or if they're dangerous...

 

[terryweide]

If I see a teenager with a gun, I'm sure going to tell them to get rid of it, unless they're a thug, in which case I may run, or unless they're on a shooting range.

Some people freak out around snakes, so a snake may be another option.

 

[Susan Boulton]

"Stop waving that knife around and put it down before you cut someone."

Especially in a small cabin on a boat, re a gutting knife. If the teenager is scared etc. Or the adult has come in or on board and is not known to said teenager.

 

[RJM Corbet]

I think a chemical, especially on a boat, some type of solvent or something that is dangerous to inhale and skin toxic? Hydrochloric acid, perhaps, labelled 'Spirits of Salts'? That could be on a boat, and most teenagers wouldn't know what it was?

 

[Colbey Frost]

The knife sounds good - deadly without being havng to come into contact with fire or be activated. Dangerous to everyone close by if he lets the power go to his head or if they are clumsy...

 

[alchemist]

A leaking battery?

A flick-knife?

A poison-tipped umbrella?

 

[The Judge]

Dangerous in itself, all I can think of is something like a poisonous snake or scorpion (which might be ordinary in some countries, after all), but I can't see a teenager picking one up by accident.

How about a bottle, eg of spirits, which he's waving around. Not dangerous per se, but if it's smashed, leaving jagged edges, it's pretty nasty.

 

[The Spurring Platty]

Perhaps some electrical item with faulty wiring?

Or a rope on a boat...something that might be yanked away quickly and really mess the hands up.

 

[RJM Corbet]

Perhaps some electrical item with faulty wiring?

That would work too ...

 

[chrispenycate]

From my misspent youth (and thus probably only suited to historical novels):- a condom full or drain cleaner, an inhabited wasps' nest in a plastic bag, a spray can of hair lacquer and a cigarette lighter, a vivarium containing scorpions, and a very distorted transistor radio tuned to Radio Caroline playing "A walk through the Black Forest" by Engelbert Humperdink.

Still, I'm not sure 'throwing away" is the correct solution for any of the above.

I did once see someone carrying a large box of fireworks in both hands, and puffing away cheerfully at a cigarette, but he survived to put them in the boot of his parents' car, so it can't have been that dangerous…

 

[HareBrain]

Seventeen replies, I thought with glee. Surely, one of these ...

Seriously, thanks for the suggestions. Not sure any of them are quite it yet, inventive though they are. It should be enough of an immediate threat to induce a panic response of "get rid of it!", so I'm not sure a knife would quite cut it (ha harrrzzzzzzzzzzz). The command should definitely be to drop or put down the object, rather than to stop using it dangerously.

Just to make it even more challenging, I should also mention that it needs to be something either recognisable to someone from about 1900 (even though it can be from 2011) or something so easily described that the reader will know what it is from a few words even though the viewpoint character doesn't. Which sadly rules out most of Chris's suggestions.

Keep thinking, people, please! This could make or break my novel!

 

[RJM Corbet]

Hmmm ... this isn't easy ...