Sent to all from gmail account, since yahoo is being a cow and not letting me attach anything.

Can you let me know if the attachment is, well, attached?

so, hi.

anyone mind if I play too? If there's a handy reference to the rules, feel free to send me to it. I get the topic, and that it's supposed to be short - I think this may be a tad long, I'll try and work on that.

Flight to Fort Good Hope

The pilot seemed too young. The plane seemed too old. The wind bellowed across the airstrip. She tugged up the hood of her parka and followed the pilot across the tarmac.

The plane rose up, and her stomach with it. She pressed her forehead against the window. The Mackenzie River meandered below, choked with ice in chunks, spring break-up only days earlier. If the plane went down, there would be no time to recover, only cold water, icy death.

And then the plane tilted down, ice cubes growing bigger. She stared, imagining her bright red parka adrift among the ice.

And then back up. The pilot looked back and grinned, shrugging an apology.

She reached for the barf bag.

backflung to the same address, Deb.

I like it, Sophie. Try to trim it to 100 words exactly, and see if it's better.

Heh. Very nicely done, Sophie, if a bit long for a straight drabble.

Astarte, backflung twice, bebe, and to Anne and Bev as well. I did a small change that I think makes a metric fuckload of difference. Will send.

thanks guys!

I edited to shorten it up. I'm not sure, but I think that does make it better. This drabbling is good writing exercise of exactly the kind I need - I tend to blather without much discipline.

off to do some office type work. thanks!

Anyone available to read a 631 word article on background screening for me? It's due tomorrow and I'm not sure I hit all the salient points with the humor the client's hoping for.

eta: Too tired to wait for a response. I'm just going to hope it's good enough. Night everyone.

Bombies

It’s not that there still isn’t clean water. Or that there are no jobs. It’s not that her aunt and uncle cannot work their farm.

It’s not that her brother was killed in the street in front of her house. Or that her father was, thirteen years ago. Or that her niece is dying even now, for lack of simple antibiotics.

It’s that every night she sleeps under a wall embedded with an unexploded bomblet. She watches it with exhausted eyes until she cannot keep awake. And closes her eyes to the death that sleeps above her, one more night.

Jesus, Liese.

One question, though - can "hence" be past tense?

Huh. I dunno. Merriam Webster says no. So I wonder what I mean. I'll just make it "ago" I think.