LIGHTS OUT

Posted on Jul 9, 2016 by John Yeo | Leave a comment

A Prompt Response for Flasher Friday

http://ourwriteside.com/category/prompts/friday-fiction/

Ice Trucker

Images from the net

dance floor

LIGHTS OUT

By John Yeo

Visiting hours strictly between 2pm and 4pm

Sandy switched gears and climbed a slight incline, the snowy terrain was rough and stretched for miles with the edges of the forest in the near distance. The wind was howling as the truck sped along when a blustery gust picked up some loose particles from a bank of snow at the side of the track. At that moment a shadowy figure loomed up in front of the truck, Sandy never hesitated jumping hard on the brakes and clutch, forcing the truck to slide into a long skid, narrowly avoiding a large elk that was ambling along the road. The truck skidded forward, and came to a halt as Sandy re-assumed control; then the radio burst into life,

“Base here, come in 45. Base to 45, over, are you there Sandy?”

“Yup! What is it?”

“How long before you get here?” Came the tinny voice of the controller.

“About 45 minutes,” Sandy replied.

“Good! We will all meet up at the usual Saturday evening place!”

“OK!” Sandy replied grinning from ear to ear. “I’m looking forward to that!”

Please ring the bell to alert the staff before entering.

Sandy parked the truck in a lot and went to her home to change to go to the Saturday night dance.

Sandy looked stunning in a full-length blue gown with a turquoise necklace and earrings to match.

Heading for the cloakroom when she reached the bright lights of the dance hall, she suddenly realized she had picked up the wrong bag. The cloakroom attendant came to her rescue with the loan of a hairbrush.

Just then the orchestra began playing a quickstep and the dance floor filled with dancers, a big man, wearing a smart black suit with a red bow tie approached her and asked for a dance. Sandy smiled and got up, and soon they were moving around the dance floor in time to the music.

“I’m Joe! Pleased to meet you, I’m new here. What’s your name?”

“My name’s Sandy, nice to meet you too. You are light on your feet, are you a professional dancer?”

Whirling around the floor without a care in the world, both partners were soon overcome by the seductive dance music and with each other. A foxtrot followed a waltz, and Sandy was soon entranced by the magic of the moment.

A little later Joe, suddenly left Sandy on the dance floor and wrestled a man to the floor.

“He was stealing your bag, Sandy,” handing her a large cloth bag he had retrieved.

“Thanks, Joe, it’s only a bag of wool, I bought the wrong bag out!”

Grandma clutched her knitting needles and sat in the corner of the lounge Dreamily watching television, Strictly Come Dancing, and an episode of Ice Truckers was vying for her attention before the nurse came in with her afternoon tea.

Lights out at exactly 9pm.

(486 WORDS)

Copyright © Written by John Yeo ~ All rights reserved

This is my response to a prompt from Our Write Side to their Friday Flasher prompt. A short story in no more than 500 Words using four elements

Place: on a dance floor
Character: an ice trucker
Object: a bag of wool
Weather: blustery

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http://ourwriteside.com/friday-flasher-dance-floor/

Friday Flasher

PATSY

Posted on Jul 4, 2016 by John Yeo | 3 Comments

A Prompt Response for Flasher Friday

http://ourwriteside.com/category/prompts/friday-fiction/

Free Image from Pixabay

PATSY

By John Yeo

It was winter, just after the blizzard in early January 1999, there was still a lot of snow around, the emergency services were busy, responding to rescue calls.

Angelo Cini, a rough, tough gang boss, had been planning this latest bank robbery for months now until the snowstorm struck and held things up. The Midwestern bank on Main Street was located between a diner on one side and a dry cleaner on the other side.

The gang had a series of meetings in the diner where Patsy, a very pretty waitress looked after them and became so friendly with the gang members that she was accepted as part of the team.

Everyone had been well versed in their roles, Angelo, briefly went through the final details.

“We take over the dry cleaner’s shop, hold the Manager and his family in the flat above, break through the dividing walls from the dry cleaner’s cellar into the bank vaults, where we blow the safe and leave with the cash. I have arranged for a couple of horse-drawn sleighs to be waiting outside. I think this will be the easiest form of travel at the moment. Any questions?”

Billy interjected. “Just one Boss, where will we meet to divide the spoils?”

“Ah yes!” Angelo replied: “The sleighs will head North where we have hired a remote cabin. I have included the address and details of how to get there in the envelopes in front of each of you. After the raid, we will separate and meet up there. OK!”

Billy nodded, then sat cleaning his fingernails with a small bent paperclip.

There was a general murmur of assent from everyone present and the meeting closed.

Later that night, the gang members imprisoned the dry cleaner and his family and the raid was underway.

Billy switched off the hammer drill and took a breather from drilling. A short, well-built, man he turned to his partner in crime and said, “This is hard work, my blisters are forming blisters of their own.”

Dan, 6 foot 2 inches tall, a ladies man with his long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, grinned at that remark. “ Hopefully, we’ll get through soon Bill, I can’t wait to get my hands on my share of the loot. I fancy Patsy the waitress in the diner, will come away with me after this job.”

Dan took a few hefty swings at the wall and they were through the dividing wall into the vaults, then Billy set explosive charges and the safe door was swinging open.

There was a moment of exhilaration, as piles of cash were swiftly transferred to sacks and passed back into the dry cleaner.

Suddenly as the sacks were loaded onto the sleighs, two police helicopters lit the whole scene up from above and mounted police moved in to arrest everyone in sight.

Detective Sergeant Patsy O’Rourke highly commended for her undercover work, went on to become one of the greatest detectives of all time.

(498 WORDS)

This is my response to a prompt from Our Write Side to their Friday Flasher prompt. A short story in no more than 500 Words using four elements

Place: a dry cleaner
Character: a diner waitress
Object: a small paperclip
Time/Date: winter, 1999

Follow this link To comment: Join in and have fun

http://ourwriteside.com/friday-flasher-dry-cleaner/

Friday Flasher

DISSONANT SERENITY

Posted on Jul 2, 2016 by John Yeo | 2 Comments

A prompt response for ~Inspiration Monday: Dissonant Serenity

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Images © Copyright ~ John And Margaret

DISSONANT SERENITY

By John Yeo

Bertram was so excited! “Today is the day! I have had a message on my PC. Today is definitely the day; my new iPhone is on the way.” Jumping up from the breakfast table, he sat down on the stairs by the front door waiting.

“Calm down Bertie!” Mother was desperately trying to stem the excitement generated by her 14-year-old son’s enthusiasm. “It will be here soon.”

“I can hardly wait Mum, I have learned so much about these cool phones from my friends. I need to keep up with the class.”

At this moment, as if by a prearranged signal, there was a polite knock on the door. Bertram opened the door to see a smiling delivery man with a small box.

“Hello young man, I have a package here for Mrs Saunders, I need a signature, is she here?”

Bertram’s Mother signed for the parcel. Then with an excited, ‘Thanks, Mum!”

Bertram quickly grabbed it and disappeared.

Bertram had soon unwrapped his new phone and with the help of his older brother Trevor, had his new possession set up. he was soon online, relaying his number and email details to all his classmates. Then it was time to visit the Apps store, where he quickly downloaded his favourite social media App and then his favourite games. At his teacher’s suggestion, he also downloaded a rolling news App.

“It is important to keep up with what is going on in the world.”

It was a couple of days later that the iPhone started to play up. The news App somehow got stuck, and would break into whatever Bertram was doing with a headline.

Bertram was checking with his friends on the latest fad when a message popped up.

NEWS FLASH! ~ Gunman kills 21 people in a shopping mall.

Bertram clicked a button, got back his page, and continued to have fun with his phone, he downloaded an App from the games centre to play farming.

NEWS FLASH! ~ Crop failure. Starvation kills thousands in Africa.

“That’s funny, I wonder why that App is popping up with news like that, I will have to get in touch with the mobile phone firm,” Bertram said to his friend Tommy. Grinning with a happy contented smile.

“Yes, that’s not right, ask your Dad, when he gets home he should help you. Who won the football last night? Check that page on the news.” said Tommy

NEWS FLASH! ~ Global Warming is expected to kill millions.

“Funny, I thought I pressed the Sports page button then, Ah! We won 3-0, good result.” Bertram announced grinning serenely.

Tommy, have you seen these cool photo’s I have taken with the camera on my new phone? I like the one of our fireplace in the front room.

NEWS FLASH! Forest fires are out of control in Australia. Hundreds ordered to evacuate their homes. The damage will cost millions!

At that moment Bertram’s Mother came bustling into the room, “Bertie, your tea is ready now, put that phone away and eat before your Dad gets home!”

“Yes Mum, I’ll see you tomorrow Tommy”

“OK, Bye Bertie! I love your new phone.” Tommy said smiling.

Bertram grinned back with a contented serene look of the sheer joy of ownership.

NEWS FLASH! An asteroid is approaching the earth that could wipe out all life on impact!

Bertram’s Father, who had just arrived, looked over his shoulder and asked, “Is that your new phone Bertie?” Very smart, how are you getting on with it?”

Bertram said, “I love it, Dad! Just one problem I keep getting strange messages up from one of the Apps”

“Oh that’s easy son, just dump the inconvenient App. Press that button there and enjoy some uninterrupted surfing.”

There was a click and the news App was deleted, Father and son smiled serenely as the football game began on television.

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SHOPPING MALL

Posted on Jun 27, 2016 by John Yeo | 4 Comments

A Prompt Response for Flasher Friday

http://ourwriteside.com/category/prompts/friday-fiction/

Image © Copyright John and Margaret

SHOPPING MALL

By John Yeo

Saturday night, the stores in the mall put the shutters up for the night. The last shoppers made their way to the exits, joined by the last of the mall staff. The night security staff arrived and manned the CCTV cameras continuously filming the whole of the shopping area. Joe and Pete were night security men who did regular foot patrols outside the mall.

The Saturday midnight patrol was always eventful, many a time they came across drunks arguing with each other or young lovers canoodling in the rear doorways and entrances to the mall. This Saturday was different, one Joe would remember for the rest of his life. The two men came upon, what looked like a bundle of rags heaped in a shop doorway.

Pete, a large stocky man with a shaved head, and a tattoo on his right cheek noticed it first.

“Hey Joe, look at that! someone has dumped a heap of rags in the doorway. No, wait, it’s moving, someone is asleep under there. We will have to wake them up, we aren’t allowed to let people sleep on the mall property.”

“You’re right Pete, I will just shake the bundle with my foot, to get a response!” Then without thinking he kicked the edges of the rags gently. Joe was the shorter of the two men with dark, greasy hair, he was the most aggressive of the two.

Both men stepped back, extremely wary, as the bundle of rags came to life with a squeal and a thin, unkempt woman, began furiously attacking them with a tatty umbrella.

“Please leave me alone you ignorant sex-starved animals, I have no money and I am afflicted with an STD, that will infect you instantly.” The lady screamed.

“Now hold on,” said Pete. “What are you doing here? You can’t sleep here, you should go home and sleep! We are security officers, doing our job. What’s your name?”

“Mary,” said the lady, now noticeably calmer. “I have tried all the night shelters and hostels, even the Salvation Army hostel is full. I knocked and the duty security man just said,

“Sorry we have a full-house, there are no beds available.”

Joe said, “You can’t sleep here, it is more than our jobs are worth to allow that!”

Mary started sobbing uncontrollably. The two men were both taken aback at this turn of events.

Pete turned to Joe and said, “We may be jobsworths, but we are not made of concrete.” Then he turned to Mary and said, “Come and have a cup of tea with us, we have a storeroom you can use, for tonight!”

Photographs Mary carried, revealed she was Maria Popova a famous ballerina who had been missing for weeks. Joe gained her confidence and informed the authorities. It turned out Maria had suffered memory loss, becoming isolated from her family.

Joe and Pete became her personal security guards, both men were substantially better off for their kindness to a stranger in distress.

(498 WORDS)

This is my response to a prompt from Our Write Side to their Friday Flasher prompt. A short story in no more than 500 Words using four elements

Place: a shopping mall
Character: a ballerina
Object: a full house
Mood: wary

Follow this link To comment: Join in and have fun

http://ourwriteside.com/friday-flasher-shopping-mall/

Friday Flasher

CHEAP AT HALF THE PRICE

Posted on Jun 26, 2016 by John Yeo | 1 Comment

A Coldly Calculating: Prompt for Our Write Side~”Cheap at Half the Price”

Write a story 700 words or less answering the challenge.

http://ourwriteside.com/coldly-calculating/

CHEAP AT HALF THE PRICE

by John Yeo

Cecil Wharton, held his audience spellbound with a smooth flow of well-rehearsed patter.

“Hi, everyone! The drinks are on me! Business is booming! Sales have gone through the roof. Our products are beginning to be recognised everywhere. Step forward and enjoy a glass of this fabulous tonic and cure-all. We guarantee you will not only feel better physically, your bank balance will swell. Join our successful team, we will show you the way to enhance both your health and your bank balance.”

These encouraging words were inwardly digested by Coral and Doris; both married with young families, this was a situation neither of the two friends had ever experienced before. Immersed in a world of friendliness and positivity, they were introduced to some high-powered successful people and made to feel special. Doris and Coral were fired up, excited, they soon signed up to become entrepreneurs, with this successful company. They began to start taking orders from their friends and acquaintances. Business soon boomed, with an impressive turnover, although there was a negative reaction from several customers regarding the beneficial effect and the complaint that prices were too high.

Coral’s Aunt Bessie, was very vocal in her unhappiness with the price, and flatly refused to have anything to do with this elixir.

Coral was an attractive young lady who made friends easily and was soon successfully selling high levels of the product. Coral was invited to five-star hotels to attend conferences and introduced to many successful employees.

One fateful day, Coral was attending a sales meeting at a venue, not far from Aunt Bessie’s home, and she called in to see her unexpectedly.

“Hello! Aunt, I am working nearby and I thought I would drop in and visit, to see how you are getting along.” Coral said; smiling, as she hugged her Aunt.

“I’m fine Coral, except for my aches and pains, this arthritis is always painful and I can’t seem to shift it whatever I do.”

“Aunt Bessie! I know you won’t believe me but I have just the thing for your painful arthritis, we have a new product that will ease your pains.”

“Now Coral, you know I can’t afford the high prices your firm charges for their products and I don’t believe in them anyway!”

“Aunt Bessie: I insist, I want you to try this elixir. I will pay the cost and you will feel tons better. Here take these two Bottles, follow the directions and I am sure you will ask for more as you begin to feel the effects of a pain-free life. Just take one tablespoonful a day.

The afternoon passed swiftly before Coral had to leave to get back to the conference.

“Goodbye, Auntie Bessie! Let me know how you are getting along with the elixir, OK!”

“Goodbye, Coral, I’ll give it a try, if it gets rid of these horrible pains it will be cheap at half the price!”

Coral was in New York, when she heard the news, the firm she had been employed by was wound up, due to a number of unexplained deaths linked to their products. The Managing Director was facing charges of criminal negligence.

Horrified, Coral boarded an aeroplane and was soon knocking hard on the door to Aunt Bessie’s home. A neighbour asked if she could help.

Coral nervously said, “Yes I am trying to contact my Aunt Bessie.”

“I know where she is darling, always so kind and good-hearted, several of them went at the same time, all ladies of the church!”

“Where?” Screamed Coral! Now very nervous and upset. “What happened? When?”

“Don’t worry love, she’s fine, they all went on a church pilgrimage, I can give you a contact number if you like,” said the neighbour.

“Yes, please! it is very important, I need to speak to her!”

A few minutes later Coral shakily dialed the number and got through to her Aunt Bessie. “Auntie, you remember that elixir I gave you, please stop taking it. I will explain fully when I see you! Don’t take any more at all!”

“Oh! Don’t worry darling, I flushed it all down the toilet. I don’t trust things that I don’t know anything about.

Coldly-Calculating-Featured-Image

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DISTRESS CALL

Posted on Jun 18, 2016 by John Yeo | 5 Comments

A Prompt Response for Flasher Friday

http://ourwriteside.com/friday-flasher-seat/

SAM_4957

DISTRESS CALL

By John Yeo

I woke with a screwed-up face, distorted at the intrusive sound of my cell phone, jangling urgently, aggravatingly, to grab my attention. The digits on the phone registered 11.30pm!

“Hi, Carl here! What”s up?”

“Hello is that the 24/7, TV repair service?”

I cursed inwardly. ‘Why the heck did I advertise a 24-hour service? That was Mary’s dumb fool idea. You will make a fortune in call-out charges, she had said.’
“Yes, Carl here! How can I help?”

“The TV has just packed up during an important newscast! We need to get the thing working again, to be able to find out news of flash floods in our area, our houseboat is moored by the river?” An agitated male voice was on the line.

“Hold on!” I replied. “Are you sure you want me to come and fix it at this time of the night? I have to inform you our callout charges are high, and I may not have the parts on the van. I will need to know the make of your TV now, and what exactly happened when your TV stopped working.”

“Oh, I don’t care about the cost! Just come and fix it, I will pay you well. The TV stopped, just like that!”

“Whereabouts exactly are you?” I asked, sighing inwardly.

“The Moorings opposite, 37 Canal Street.”

“OK! I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.” I said, dragging myself out of bed, throwing on my overalls and heading for the door. The wind was blowing a force nine gale with driving rain, I cursed as I jumped in my van and headed for the canal. As I reached number 37, I saw a figure on the dark towpath ahead, outside a long, well lit up houseboat, waiting. The man was thickset, well-built, with a shock of red hair.
“Hi!” I said, “TV repairman?”

“Yeah! Come aboard. The TV just stopped working, I dunno what happened, but we need it urgently as it is the only way we can keep informed.”

As I entered the lounge on the houseboat I almost tripped over a pair of what looked like human legs sticking out from behind a long seat. Ignoring the implications of this I started to work on the TV set, and simply put in a new fuse, then switched it on, it was working perfectly.

“That’ll be £150 pounds please?” I said, nervously pondering on the strange pair of legs that were clearly visible under the seat.

Suddenly they moved as a tall blonde young lady, wearing nothing but a life jacket, leaped out from behind the seat. “How much?” she asked in a shocked voice.
I recognised her instantly as a well-known celebrity, married to a clergyman.

“Don’t worry Darling!” exclaimed the man and peeled the money from a wad of notes, handing it to me. “ Keep quiet about who you have seen here. OK, fella!”

I took the money And left without a word.
(495 WORDS)

This is my response to a prompt from Our Write Side to their Friday Flasher prompt. A short story in no more than 500 Words using four elements

A TV repairman (Character)
Under a Seat (Place)
Night (Time)
Life Jacket (Object)

Follow this link To comment, Join in and have fun

Friday Flasher

http://ourwriteside.com/friday-flasher-seat/

SCI-FAE

Posted on Jun 16, 2016 by John Yeo | 5 Comments

A prompt response for ~Inspiration Monday: Sci-Fae

http://bekindrewrite.com

SCI-FAE

by John Yeo

I woke up in a haze of non recognition of where I was, who I was and how I had arrived here.

Everything was strangely unrealistic, unusual, unrecognisable a colourful arena on a world of kaleidoscopic strangeness. As if a disturbed artist had poured and continued to pour his paint in rivulets of colour on an ever changing landscape. An orange flare dazzled the permanent light that shone from the multi coloured suns lighting up the distant horizon with a green fire that seemed to be all-consuming. Billows of purple steam suddenly sounded loudly, hissing and spluttering as blue liquid stone flowed down a yellow ochre liquid bed on a river of jagged rocky liquid. There was a silent crash of electric thunder as a winged figure sped up from the bowels of the middle sky. Emerging from a point that mystically merged with the pink of a rising horizon and the disappearance of the future into the past. A point in time that was midway between now and then.

“Welcome to the world of Sci Fae!” Boomed a falsetto base sound, that seemed to convey communication as if a note composed of a base clef swimming in an ocean of liquid soprano had arrived together to assault the ears with pure music.

Then a loud buzzing as an alarm sounded on the machine that lay in waiting. An information loaded gadget waiting for the button to be pressed to silence the alarm.

I tore myself away from my dreamworld of the night, to face the familiar mundane music of snarling, honking, beeping traffic that I would certainly become a part of soon. An alarming prospect indeed.

“Morning Darling!” I mumbled as I dragged myself out of bed.

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CLASSICAL GARBAGE

Posted on Jun 10, 2016 by John Yeo | 1 Comment

A PURELY FICTIONAL prompt response for ~Inspiration Monday: CLASSICAL GARBAGE:

A prompt response for ~Inspiration Monday: Classical Garbage

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CLASSICAL GARBAGE

by John Yeo

Mind to mind communication had arrived! Prater collected all his gems of high Philosophy from the aether, a secret translucent medium that allowed concepts and ideas to be transferred from mind to mind, and person to person, without the need of papyrus or parchment. Known only to a few members of the higher inner circle, this secret was kept close to the hearts of the chosen few. The higher thinking was that if the aether medium was open to all and sundry, a certain, quite high, percentage of world knowledge, would be contaminated by the everyday dross that passes through the average mind under the guise of pure thought. The inner circle were the most arrogant, supercilious, patronising group of people, that has trod the earth, since the dinosaurs ruled the world.

Many students barred from entrance to the thought patterns of this inner circle of minds, would follow this elite gathering of intellectuals, who became known colloquially as Prates, in honour of the founder and high-minded Prater, who discovered the magic of the effects of the mysterious aether.

Time passed and many of the lesser Prates, would follow the inner circle of closed minds around, writing and gleaning every word that dripped, amid the saliva that exuded, from the mighty mouths. Quite soon a huge body of writings and fantastic verbiage was amassed, and became generally known as the philosophical quantum mass of unsorted verbal diarrhea.

One disastrous day as the inner circle were meeting to exchange thought-processes in the closed cavern of the rock-adversity, a huge volcanic eruption exploded and wiped out the inner circle completely.

Thus was the final loss of the mysterious aether and the accumulated wisdom of the ancients. The lesser Prates then produced their enormous volumes of accumulated verbiage and during a lesser eclipse of the third sun, piled every manuscript into an enormous heap and set fire to it, destroying every last word.

A far-sighted seer from the interior of the continent of Africa, suddenly appeared on the scene, declaring. “Let’s start the whole thing all over again!”

Then began the millennium of peace and sharing of wisdom between all the differing mystical scientific communities around the world.

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DOUBLE VELVET

Posted on Jun 7, 2016 by John Yeo | 2 Comments

Smooth
Daily Prompt on WordPress ~ 5th June 2016 ~ DOUBLE VELVET

Prompt for the day on WORDPRESS ~ ‘SMOOTH’

The Daily Post

DOUBLE VELVET

by John Yeo

Robin was leaning against the bar, relating his meeting and his experience, with Mellita Mann a well known rising star of film and television.

“Self assured and sophisticated, a social siren. Queen of all she surveyed, I tell you this is so unlike her.”

Raving madly about the lady he had bumped into in his local supermarket, Robin sounded, shocked, surprised and visibly shaken.

“Her hair was in curlers, she had no makeup on, and she was rude, pushy and rude. I would never have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it myself! She actually stole something, picked it up from the shelf and put it right into her pocket!” Robin went on.

“I have seen her acting on television, I feel as if I know her intimately. There she was looking like a scruffy scarecrow, stealing from the supermarket. I called out loudly, ‘Stop thief!’ Then I was manhandled and pushed away by this Gorilla of a man, who swore at me several times and told me to get lost. The police then arrived, and I was threatened with arrest, for a breach of the peace. I asked to speak to the manager to report the theft of the property, but I was stunned when the manager suddenly burst out laughing, the Police officer was also smiling. Then a tall smartly dressed man stepped forward, his next words took me totally by surprise.”

“We are in the middle of filming an anti-theft short film here. Please accept our apologies for your embarrassing, worthy reaction, we would like you to accept this money to go some way to smoothing over this unfortunate situation!” I am Henry Hills, the director.

Robin grimaced, made appropriate shocked remarks, reflecting his hurt feelings at this unforeseen embarrassment, and left with, £1000.00 in cash.

Later he would be found in the local bar drowning his well smoothed feelings with a velvety smooth Guinness, having passed on £500.00 to his daughter, who worked in the store.

Life’s like that!

The Daily Post

BLIND PILOT

Posted on Jun 5, 2016 by John Yeo | 2 Comments

A prompt response for Inspiration Monday: Blind Pilot

http://bekindrewrite.com

BLIND PILOT

by John Yeo

Thomas settled himself and began to give a running commentary of the flight to the instructor.

“We are heading due East over the rainforests, everywhere you look is a sea of trees, reaching out in every direction!” Intoned the Thomas the pilot, over the internal intercom. “The slight movement that is observed is the canopy of the rainforest waving with the motion of the winds. White flowers adorn the tops of some of the trees, giving the illusion of foamy patches moving in synchronous harmony. Occasionally birds will appear and disappear again into the safety provided by the thick green moving tree cover.”

The observer, Brian Bell, looked down with a totally different perception; puzzled, he enquired, “What is that square object in the distant horizon?”

Thomas answered, “It is hard to tell from here, I have an idea that is a man made structure, probably an ancient abandoned Indian temple, the distinguishing feature from here is the way it merges into the surrounding forest.”

Brian then suddenly said, “From the look of that sky, you will have to watch out; a storm is gathering, and could be approaching fast. You will have to ride the air currents and fly up above the storm clouds, to escape. Do you agree? “

“OK! Yes you are right, I haven’t liked the look of that sky, since the exercise began.” Thomas replied.

“Thanks Thomas, you can climb out of the Flight Simulator and we can discuss your performance.”

“Certainly!”

“Thomas, your handling of an aircraft is excellent, your reflexes are sharp and fast. However there are several areas that need some explanation, and clarification.

Firstly, we were flying over a blue sea that was moving with the motion of the waves. The white patches, you described as flowers, were actually flecks of foam on the top of the moving waves. The birds you described were a couple of dolphins and some flying fish. The structure in the distance was a bright red container ship, quite a long way off, but clearly visible. Finally we have been flying in a clear blue sky with wispy clouds.”

Thomas was stunned at this and couldn’t believe his ears!

“In my opinion,” Brian went on: “You need to get your eyes tested for colour blindness, it is a common condition, not insurmountable. Colour blind pilots can get certification, with restrictions. No night flying for example.”

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