The Trouble With Flying (Weekend Five Minute Free Write X 3)

in #freewrite6 years ago

cabin-70165_1280.jpg

Hey, Buddy. Can I Get The Time?

It was my first time in an airplane and I was nervous. Still it was totally unexpected when no more than two hundred miles into our flight, the plane hit turbulence.

"This is your captain speaking," came a barely audible voice over the rattling of the plane, "I need to ask everyone to return to their seats and strap in. We're in for a bumpy ride."

"Oh, no," said the woman next to me. "I hate this."

"I'm sure we'll be all right," I said, hardly convinced myself.

There was another jolt, and then another, and the plane seemed to veer sharply to the left. There was some correcting and then the entire passenger compartment lit up and there was a loud boom.

Shrieking from he passengers followed. The woman beside was hysterical. I looked over at her to see if she was okay, but she was looking down at her lower right leg, where something dark was streaming from her skirt.

"Man, this is pretty bad," a male voice said. It was the woman's husband. He'd gone to the bathroom a few minutes before the turbulence began. "Hey!"

When he saw the rip in her dress, he had a hard time controlling his anger. He looked at me, back at her, and then over to me again. The plane rocked, sending him back into the passenger across the aisle. Angry words were exchanged and a brief scuffle ensued before he returned his attention to me.

"What did you...?" he started.

"I think she's hurt," I said, "Is there a doctor somewhere?" I stood up and looked around the compartment. "Anyone know how to bind a wound?"

"Yes, here," a woman's voice said. She was about forty, sitting next to a child four rows back. She whispered something to the little girl and then came up to see the bloodied woman, still crying, holding her leg.

"We need towels, some pain killers and some disinfectant," she said to a fight attendant after a moment's assessment. "Do you have anything sharp? I'm going to need to remove that piece of plastic."

"I'll be right back."

I could feel the husband closer to me, breathing down my neck. "Don't think I've forgotten," he said, making no move to console his wife. "You don't belong here."

I was about to tell him to back off when another loud boom shook the cabin. I tried to keep from falling but I was shoved further off balance by the husband. I must have hit my head, because things went black.

When I came to, I was laying in a bed, staring out the window. There were clouds in the sky, and aside from a slight ache in my head, there was nothing to suggest that this wasn't just another ordinary day.

I sat up easily and eased myself up. So far so good. No hint of any problems. I was in some form of hospital gown, so I went looking for my clothes. I didn't find them, but there was something resembling a uniform that looked like it might fit, so I tried it on. It was as if they had been tailored made for me.

I went to the door, and finding it unlocked, I entered a dimly lit corridor. No one seemed about as I walked the length of it. Eventually, I came to a reception area, where a lone nurse sat at a desk. She looked up as I approached. She didn't seem surprised to see me.

"Well, Mr. Marks. How are you?"

"I'm okay," I said. "I am a little confused, though. I don't seem to remember how I got here. I think I was on a plane..."

"Yes, you were," a voice said. I turned to see a male, who looked like a doctor. His tag said his last name was Hama.

"Am I okay? Can I go home?"

"Yes, you are okay," Doctor Hama said, "but going home might be a problem."

He took me over to the big double doors leading outside. As we stepped through them, I saw futuristic buildings and unfamiliar vehicles whizzing by. They floated above the ground as they passed.

"Welcome, Mr. Marks," he said, "To the twenty-fourth century."

This post is a part of the the weekend freewrite. Image source—Pixabay

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Dude! That is a cool little story!

Thank you, sir! Since it was a freewrite, I had to follow their prompts and had only fifteen minutes to write it, or I would have probably embellished it more, and ended up with a completely different story. :)

It was good to have fifteen minutes to write rather than five, which the single day freewrites are. Anyway, keeping the creativity flowing, just quicker than normal. :)

I actually started reading because I thought this could be about me. Always having troubles in airplanes because I'm over 2 meters tall in length. But in fact the story was much more fun to read.

If I'd known you were that tall, I would have written about you instead!

Well, I'm glad it was fun. I have a good time writing the freewrites, until time runs out and I'm not really at what I consider a good stopping point. I guess that's the not the purpose of them, though. It's just to get some ideas flowing in as short a time as possible. So, I plan to continue with them and see how it goes.

Perhaps you should also join the fantasy leagues. Do you know them?

Maybe not. This isn't related to SteemMonsters is it? Or is it something else? I'm not sure how much I want to be taking on, though. I guess I'll let you tell me first before I continue to think outloud as I write. :)

It's a bit of a soccer contest for the premier league and two other soccer competitions.

https://steemit.com/steem/@acidyo/steem-fantasy-premier-league-general-preview-and-league-is-now-open-to-join

This was great! The only thing about theses is that they have to end so soon. Just when things get interesting boom time is up.
The word today is helpless. Debating if I want to try that. Some days inspiration is aplenty and words just flow. Other days even comments are slow in the making.
Wish I had your skill. You seem to spew forth massive amounts of print each time you encounter a keyboard. Bet you were overjoyed to find Steemit.

Overjoyed might not describe it. Hesitant, willing to try, and 'what the heck did I just get myself into' are more accurate descriptors, really. :)

however, I'm still here, and Asher's leagues are the biggest reasons for that. I do get to converse people I normally wouldn't, and so that's good, and I do get to write much more than I have in a very long time, so that's good too. And over a fairly wide range of topics.

Now, if we could just get STEEM to go up some, that would be great, and if I could get faster with these five minute freewrites, that would be great, too.

re: time is up

Yeah, well, this one had fifteen minutes, so the problem here is there's more you can say and then it's over. almost better not to have such a set up because it probably should be winding down far sooner than I was able to do it this time. :)

I think longer may be better. My longer postings have been the best performers in both votes and comments. However those took a bit more time to produce. You cold have probably gone a lot longer and had retention. Seems like fiction readers always hate the story to end.

I agree about the engagement leagues. I think the biggest reason I am here is the social aspects.
Being an introvert hermit myself this is perfect for getting in a couple extra conversations per day.
You guys at the top of the list amaze me. I don't see how you ever keep up with it all. If I recall you don't even use Ginabot.

I also agree about the diversity of topic range. I could spend years here and not get bored.
You and most others seem to settle right in to a handful of regular themes to stick with. I am still all over the place experimenting with this and that.
I don't mind the low prices of Steem much. I kind of hope to come up with a little play money to buy some before it goes up too much. My SP needs a booster. My delegation ends in four weeks. Organic growth is super slow for me. Did you buy in any?
I know Dave Mcoy and a few others have had some great growth without putting anything in.
I should scroll back see what they were doing at my level. Probably boils down to posting more.

It's hard to know what to pick out as chief among what Dave has done because there's so much to look at. It's probably going to be an accumulative effect in his case.

I try not to keep within the same range of topics, but that tends to be all I get time for if I'm trying to chase janton all over the place (not literally, but you know what I mean). I probably don't need to do that as much, and maybe go back to concentrating more on getting posts out.

The problem is, people need to know you're here, and the best way to do that is to comment where they are. But you do make more on posts, and within a certain word range, and subject matter, so you need to pay attention to all of that, too. it's definitely a balance, and it's not easy to find it or maintain it, because there's always something that comes along to knock the routine off kilter.

I finally managed to get some more STEEM, so lower prices are good for that. Not so good when it comes to earnings. I do have a small investment going. Most of what you see there, roughly 75% now is investment.

I do use GINAbot. It's great. What I don't do is spend my time on Discord or private messaging. Every once is a while, but I think way too much of that happens off platform that should happen on, so I'll be the odd man out and maybe suffer because of it, but I'm okay with that. We do what we think is best, and then be happy with where the chips fall.

Hm! Quite an unexpected ending. Truth be told, I expected any other development of this story, but... You really surprised me :) . Thank you @glenalbrethsen !

Well, @madlenfox, I tend to go for the biggest surprise I can think of when I'm doing something like this. That doesn't mean I always pull it off, though. The biggest problem with the freewrites is you're running out of time, and since there's not a whole lot of thought going into them other than the prompt, the story goes where it goes and then there's a need to wrap it up. I have ideas going in, but when the time is running out and you realize you need to start wrapping up, the story can go in a totally different direction. Which is sometimes cool, other times not cool, and always keeping me guessing, even if I'm the one writing it. :)

Well done!! One could think that you are a professional writer 😉

I guess one could think that. I appreciate the kind words, @mariannewest. Still trying to get the hang of writing so quickly, but it was nice to have the fifteen minutes this time. The prompts were a little bit challenging, too, considering we're on a plane with a dress getting ripped. :) Anyway, I had fun, and it turned out okay for the time I had. Definitely want to continue, so thanks for providing an opportunity to do it.

You are welcome - and challenge is the name of the game LOL

Well, okay then. Challenge it is. Need to get over to the freewrite for today. I'm behind as per usual on Monday. Guess we'll see how long it takes for me to catch up this week. I'm amazed at how much you get post each week, but hopefully you're seeing good results with all you do.

Hi glen. One bonus is if he had Steem it may be worth quite a bit lol. Wasn't expecting that end, nice one.

Hey @cryptoandcoffee. Always a silver lining, right? Maybe he does have STEEM. Or some other investment. Three hundred years of growth. Can't beat that. :)

I'm not totally convinced that he is in the 24th century, though. There's something kind of fishy going on, with what the husband said and all. But we'll probably never know because the time ran out on me and I had to wrap it up. :)

Hello @glenalbrethsen, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!

Once again, @creativecrypto, I appreciate the recognition and the patronage. I know this is an automessage, but still feel like I should express some appreciation, even in a small way, for the work you all have been doing to highlight creative work. I appreciate it very much as I'm sure the others you cross paths with do too.

oh man! that dang clock! this was the best beginning to a story.. and now what? shoot. well, that was great while it lasted.

I got 15 minutes on this one, but three different prompts, and instead of just a word, they were all phrases this time. So, every five minutes there was a new phrase to lead off with and it had to go in whatever direction that new phrase took it.

The last one was supposed to give it a twist, so I had to end it that way. Ending wasn't that original as far as sci-fi goes, but it served a purpose, I guess.

I am glad you liked it, though. I will try to get back to the yard decoration stories next week (hopefully).

sir Glen, I not only liked I loved it, and that was a more challenging was to write it or was it easier to have three prompts and to change every five minutes and to have 15 minutes to put it together instead of just 5?

I think I would have a blank screen at five minutes! lol.

¡Very good post!

Dear @glenalbrethsen I recommend that you delegate or sell your voting power to a page known as minnowbooster or smartsteem. In case you are interested here I leave my referral link and I would like you to use it if you are interested, regards! https://smartsteem.com?r=androssgb

Hey @imagen. Thanks for the kind words, and for the recommendation, but I'm not really interested in delegating STEEM to anyone or any project for the time being. I'll think about it when I'm a double dolphin, whenever that might happen. And, just for the record, it's probably not necessary to do this comment in bold type, either. My eyes are still good enough to see regular font. :) Thank you.

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