The Prompt
“I weighed this against the odds that I was doing something incredibly stupid, and I went ahead anyway.”
The Author
Fleet Sparrow writes queer fan fiction, queer flash fiction, and queer novels. Generally, things are pretty odd in Fleet’s world.
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I decided to return to the Camino outline I wrote in May and I have produced a great plan for a novel. I have my character portraits written for the protagonists and antagonists and two prominent supporting characters. I have also outlined the ending and am working on an opening paragraph. Then I shall moth ball it as I am working hard on a Portuguese novel at the moment. Thank you for the wonderful inspiration.
My story is about an old couple with health issues and limited mobility who had always planned to walk The Camino from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella in Northern Spain. Against everyone’s advice and better judgement they decided to follow their dream. They had frightening experiences and arduous challenges but the spirit of the Camino supported them . Other pilgrims and various locals who devote their life to enabling pilgrims to continue their journey, encouraged them. These new found friends elevated their spirits and gave them physical help to keeping them moving towards each passport stamp . Arriving at their final destination had added unexpected joys and rewards.
550 words
Favorite so far. I wrote a story about a man who spend his life savings to fly to China and follow his dream of becoming a kung fu master! Despite having no knowledge of chinese culture and being completely unable to speak the language. It had a lot of comedy, but a good amount of drama as he comes to form a relationship with a retired villian, as they develop a deep rivalry and become friends.
Had fun with this one. Got to use the prompt on my comedy character Jason Mourn. Poor guy. It never works out for him.
Airplane Blues.
By Alan Grant.
I weighed this against the odds that I was doing something incredibly stupid, and I went ahead anyway.
I know I should have waited, it would have made things less awkward. But I was never one for inside the box thinking. I like to do the unexpected, and so the unexpected came to pass, for both of us, for very different reasons. There we sat, high in the air, nowhere to go, only each other to keep ourselves entertained. It wasn’t ideal, as the occupant of the window seat was a heavy sleeper and was using Hannah’s shoulder as her personal pillow. It should have been me, but I needed the aisle for what I was about to do. Hannah was a little salty about my refusal to give up my seat. Actually, quite a bit salty, but it was out of my hands. A baby was screaming on the far side, which Hannah couldn’t abide. Of course she was also dealing with the sleeper’s train-like snoring and drooling, not to mention the kid behind her who kept kicking her seat like there was no tomorrow. And on top of that, her phone wouldn’t play the in-flight entertainment and my phone was low on battery, so she only had me for company on the eight hour flight to the States, which was not good, as she wasn’t speaking to me. But I thought my plan would make her forget all that misery and kick our holiday off right. Make her smile, you know? Make her happy, like she deserved to be. I waited with baited breath for the ‘fasten seat belt’ sign to subside to make my move. When it finally did, I took action right away, nervous as I was, but it could only end happily, right? I stood up in the aisle, as did a few others, all looking to use the airplane bathroom which they would now have to get past me to avail of. I knelt down on one knee and produced the ring. A small queue was already building up behind me. Hannah gasped, and all eyes were on me. And her.
‘Hannah,’ I said. ‘Will you marry me?’
The whole plane was on tenterhooks, waiting for her answer.
‘Absolutely not.,’ was her reply.
Titters of laughter began to circulate around the cabin.
‘What?’ I said, my eyes welling up.
‘She said no, buddy,’ a man behind him said, ‘could you move? I need a shit.’
I was frozen. I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed. Murmurs were flying around the cabin of my failure. And angry annoyance from the bathroom queue was growing.
I snapped back to reality when the food cart smacked me right in the head from the opposite side.
‘I’m sorry , sir. ‘The flight attendant said, ‘You can’t kneel there. Could you please sit down, sir?’
I slowly rose to my feet and sat beside Hannah, who was beyond mortified. She had sunk far down into her seat with embarrassment, the snoring still serenading her.
Life in the cabin resumed. But I was stuck. Stuck with Hannah, the woman who rejected me. Stuck beside her for another
seven hours of a flight, and two weeks of a holiday. Another day in the life of Jason Mourn.
Great prompts. It made me think of dreams I have. Of planning for those dreams but not doing them because I would lose my security. I started writing a story where the main character has taken the risk of living his dream and it inspires me to do the same.
I went through the Star-gate. I figured if I hit the right time-period, I’d hit pay-dirt. Forgot to set the dial.
My short story has a foot in my reality right now, with the decisions we need to make with regards to going back to school as early as 1st. June…