(Young Authors Conference + Mom in Hospital…sorry I’m
late!)
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family
rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to
write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration
(quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind.
These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat,
irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if
anything comes of them.
Current Event:
http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/05/bats-open-wide-focus-their-ultrasonic-beams,
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150108-bats-animals-science-echolocation-israel/
Antonia Dobre
said, “Vampires are imaginary and, to tell the truth, were overdone once second
after Bram Stoker published DRACULA and someone else started a vampire story.”
Mihai Barbu
said, “It doesn’t matter if I agree or disagree, I want you to tell me how many
times in the last month someone has asked you if you ever seen a ‘real’ vampire
as soon as they find out you grew up in the Transylvanian Mountains.”
“No.”
Mihai busted out
laughing, “See?”
“See what? That
people who aren’t from Romania are idiots?”
He frowned,
touched her arm and said, “Hey, Tonia, what’s wrong?”
She jerked her
arm away, slapping his hand at the same time, “Don’t touch me!”
Mihai hooked his
foot around the leg of a nearby chair, pulling it toward them. “Standing in the
middle of the Transylvania Youth Hostel is no way to work out our problems.”
“I don’t have
problems!”
“Not you!” he
said, “Your disposition is always this sunny.” He snagged another chair and
gestured for her to have a seat.”
She glare at him
and finally cracked a sickly smile, dropping down on the chair.
“What’s wrong?”
asked Mihai, sitting down.
She threw up her
hands, than rotated one palm up. There was a bandage on it. “I got bit.”
“By what?”
She gave him an
exasperated look, “A bat – what else?”
He shrugged, “A
goat?”
That surprised a
laugh from her. Then she grew serious again. “Really. The bat’s got to be
sick.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’m not speaking
or hearing right.”
Mihai suddenly realized
that he hadn’t actually heard her speak the last two words. He’d read her lips
as he did when his airline mechanic father had him working with him under the
jet engines of at the airport. At the same time though, the hairs on the back of his neck had perked up – just like
they did when the sonar security scanner swept over him when he was being
scanned before going into the same airport. He said, “Are you speaking
ultrasonically?”
“I…” she stopped,
eyes brimming, then managed, “I think so…”
Names: ♀ + ♂
Romania
No comments:
Post a Comment