Thursday 7 February 2013

A Day in the Life


http://rochellewisofffields.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/100_7227-1.jpg
Image © Rich Vosa

A Day in the Life


I pushed off the bridge and the blessed concrete rushed up to stop my tears.
I’d cried innocent, watery tears that morning from the glare of the rising sun as they took to the Boston sky. I’d cried hot, wide-eyed tears that afternoon when I first saw the explosions, and watched people face the agonising choice between fire and fall. I’d cried frightened, pitiful tears that evening as the hard faced men quizzed me about “Serious lapses in your airport security.” 
I cried sad, lonely tears that night as I scaled the guard rail and looked down into the dark.



100 words

@nickjohns999



This story was written for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers Challenge

32 comments:

  1. this seems to be coming from the point of view of an airport official who felt great guilt about 9/11. is that where it's going? if so, it was very well done. and if not, it's still very well done, just about something else instead.

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    1. Spot on first time! In view of the impossibility of copyrighting titles, I even considered appropriating Philip K Dick's 'Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said'.

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  2. Strong and evocative. Good work.

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  3. Nick, that was excellent and a point of view I'd not thought of before. Sorry he felt he had to take this way out. Well done!

    janet

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    1. Hi Janet. Thanks for popping in. I just imagined what the person who let the terrorists board the aircraft might feel, despite being completely blameless.

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  4. powerful piece, emotionally wrenching and poignant.

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  5. I thought of 911 also. Such emotion here. How can we ever forget?

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    1. Hi Shirley. From my professional background, I know that every tragedy has ripples that impacts on many lives for many years. Those involved never forget, and their peers and their society owe it to them not to either.

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  6. That's a telling metaphor, the ripples of a tragedy. The impact is not always just about the victims and the rescue services. You captured this nicely.

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    1. Hi Sandra. I have seen those ripples become waves that swamp lives for myself.

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  7. Dear Nick,

    You tapped into a wellspring of tears with that story. I have always wondered what the men on duty that day felt as they saw what had transpired on their watch. Well done.

    Aloha,

    Doug

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    1. Thanks Doug. My thought exactly. I have been on duty at tragedies and have thought back on what I did or didn't do, so how much more when the impact was so huge?

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  8. I’d never thought of that perspective before. It breaks my heart.

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    1. I wondered what the people who passed them through check-in felt afterwards, despite them being faultless.

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  9. Damned powerful, that one.

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  10. You know officials felt this over many areas on that day just like others. Guilt is something we seem to grasp first no matter how impossible the odds we could have done something to prevent a tragedy. Very well done and so clear that it was from the perspective of an airport official after 9/11.

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  11. Hi Dobson!
    Thanks for stopping by. I'm pleased that the perspective was clear to a reader.

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  12. Dear Nick,
    I cried a few tears of my own, particularly at the last line. How it must've eaten at that airport official as he played over the events of the day in his head and wondered how much was his fault. Well done.
    Tearfully,
    Rochelle

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  13. Hi Rochelle. I feel humbled that it touched you. Thanks for commenting - and, as ever, for hosting.

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  14. A haunting story, and it's a very interesting change of perspective. I caught the story immediately.

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    1. Thanks Bjorn. Pleased the story was clear for you.

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  15. Yes this week's photo has stirred things up. I am sick this week! Even though not American, 9/11 impacted on my life. One day, when appropriate, I'll do something with my apparently premonitory drawings ... where I was standing when my husband phoned me to tell me about the WTC. It seems many visual artists around the world were connected in this way. There are web sites. I wonder if 'wordsmiths' found themselves writing words they otherwise would not have been at that time? I'll bet this is the case. Your story is similar to mine. Not quite the same. You wrote a truth, I think.

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    1. Thanks Ann. That is an interesting notion.

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  16. Painful. Well written!

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  17. Pain and sadness...very powerful writing.

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