Urban Fantasist
Menu
Picture
Follow @urbanfantasist
We're living in dangerously weird times... smart people just shrug and admit they're dazed and confused

Surveillance Society? Big Brother? You ain't seen nothing yet! New fiction on the Grievous Angel

24/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
A chilling story – Report Any Suspicious Activity by Pat Tompkins – that could all too soon become reality if the current trends for Surveillance Society and the world of Big Brother continue along their present path. Pat Tompkins is an editor in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her shortest fiction has appeared in Nanoism, Mslexia, KYSO Flash, and other publications.


​​Report Any Suspicious Activity
by Pat Tompkins


The airport at Kona was more patios than buildings. Still, it had a security check, so Anna surrendered her bottle of water. As she sat outside, waiting to board, she tracked the rising moon, not quite full, like a freshwater pearl dangling above palm trees. Her fellow passengers were hunched over cell phones.

For the six-hour flight to California, Anna had a new paperback novel, but it wasn’t grabbing her. She’d never been able to sleep on planes. At her window seat, she watched cloud shadows on the ocean until nightfall. 

From her purse, she withdrew a paper notebook and pen. During the past week in Hawaii, she had made notes but focused on exploring – snorkeling, beachcombing, hiking – not recording. Now she could reflect and write. She began jotting things she’d seen that might inspire a poem or essay: the seahorse farm, stargazing atop Mauna Kea, petroglyphs, manta rays. 

Anna was absorbed in her scribbling when a flight attendant asked if she wanted something to drink. “Yes, thanks. Tea?”

“Sure thing. Milk and sugar?”

“Just milk.”

The woman handed over a small cup. She nodded toward Anna’s notebook and said,

“You don’t see that much anymore.”

“Guess I’m old-fashioned,” Anna said.

Certainly old. Also less than current, partly because she had no children or grandchildren. Long ago she’d have tried kite surfing; now, snorkeling was adventurous. She had snorkeled daily, hoping to spot giant sea turtles. On the fourth day, she spied one a few feet away; it swam along, completely disinterested in her; then she’d seen another and followed it past coral walls; she trailed a third, losing track of time, aware only of the turtle.

A cold current had jolted her out of her reverie, and when she popped her head up, the shore was a distant smudge. No one knew where she was. You weren’t supposed to snorkel alone. Swimming slowly, Anna worked her way back to the beach.

Floating beside turtles resembled how she felt when her writing went well. She entered another world. For Anna, that rarely happened with a keyboard, so she liked to use a pen and paper, drawing words with ink.  

The young couple next to Anna had barely glanced up from their screens. He played games on a laptop and she watched a movie on a tiny rectangle. Glancing at her watch, Anna realized she’d been sitting three hours. Time to stretch her legs.

She strolled the narrow aisle twice; passengers who weren’t sleeping used electronic devices to work or distract themselves. No one wrote with a pen; they just tapped thumbs. Anna recalled when airplanes offered a selection of magazines, back when meals were free and there was no photo ID requirement. Hawaii was her first vacation in years. 

After crawling over the couple to return to her seat, she resumed writing in her notebook. The man beside her stared at her. Anna glanced at him. He seemed annoyed. Then the flight attendant came by, collecting cups; Anna felt her stare, too. OK, she conceded. What she was doing was unusual but not noisy or harmful. 

Perhaps it wasn’t done in public anymore. Or maybe they were jealous, lacking the skill. Anna had heard that some people under 30 barely knew how to use a pen, aside from signing their name. 

In a poem about snorkeling, she included some Hawaiian words. She’d made a list of fish: moana, nunu, kahala, ala‘ihi, kihikihi, and the triggerfish called humuhumunukunukuapua‘a. Sea turtle: honu, whale: kohola. Writing poems helped her connect things and pay attention. Maybe Shelley was right in declaring, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” 

By the time they landed, she had first drafts of several new poems. The flight attendant asked her to wait while others disembarked. Before Anna could ask why, the woman moved away. The couple in her row exchanged a “told you so” look.

A security guard escorted her off the plane. He took her to a room and asked for her notebook. “I don’t understand,” Anna said. 

“Your notebook, please.”

She pulled it from her purse with a sweaty hand, reluctant to release it. The list of fish names fell out.

“What’s this?” He squinted at the words. “Some sort of code?”

She hoped he was joking, but his face said he wasn’t.
 
“We consider this,” he indicated the notebook, “unpatriotic. The government can’t track handwriting. Why were you using a pen?”
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Weird Tales in Weird Times:
    powered by green tea & pink wine

    Here to inform and entertain you with tales of geek, folklore and the weird. "Fun and high strangeness" is how one reader described it. Prone to sarcasm.

    Curated by Reuters correspondent and barrister turned writer, podcaster, editor, award-winning tech journalist and sometime werewolf hunter Charles Christian. The site also has links to Charles Christian's books and latest reviews plus his Weird Tales Radio Show.

    Charles was born a 'Chime Child' with a caul – according to folklore, being a caul-shrouded chime-child means he can't drown at sea but he can see and talk to ghosts and the Fae (faerie folk) without fear of coming to harm. Superpowers he's so far never needed to use.

    Vital Statistics

    Weird Tales Radio Show now goes out on syndication across 36 FM & internet radio stations, as well as all major podcast platforms plus Spotify, Mixcloud, SoundCloud, TuneIn Radio, YouTube, RSS & Amazon Music.
    Picture
    Click the <Play> button below to hear the latest show. Follow this link Weird Tales Radio Show to access archive.
    Picture
    Tweets by urbanfantasist

    Contact Details

    Email: urbanfantasist@icloud.com
    ​Tel: +44(0)1986 788666
    Tel/Txt: +44(0)7786 738172

    ​Skype: ChristianUncut
    Twitter: @urbanfantasist

    Quote, Unquote

    "Charles Christian... a man of paranormality" ...Howard Hughes, Talk Radio UK

    "A great witty intelligence in the world. We need more CC and less monkey-brained politicians" ...Julia Bohanna

    "Just found the show, absolutely love it. Will be tuning in regularly and catching up."

    "I host a daily morning show in Las Vegas and I like your shows very much. I love the way you pace your voice and thoughts is fantastic and you have a way of making your guest interviews sound more like conversations. Just wanted to let you know" ...Clay Baker

    ​"The ever wonderful Charles Christian and his Weird Tales Radio Show"...Into The Portal Podcast 

    ​"The Master of Mysteries & Folklore" ...Fantasy Radio UK

    "The witty and knowledgeable Charles Christian." 

    ​"We poled our fans on their favorite podcasts and that's how I heard of Weird Tales Radio. You are well loved by the geekiverse, and fans of folklore history and monsters!"

    "Charles Christian is really out there cool."
    ​
    ​"Check out Urban Fantasist for more fun and strangeness."

    ​"Charles Christian defiantly makes my world a brighter, funnier place."

    "
    Wonderful show tonight full of all the usual delights we've come to expect."
    ​
    "The legendary Charles Christian at his eclectic best... his insight and humour alone make this a must-read blog."

    "Charles Christian is my inner spirit animal, thank you for making me laugh."

    ​"You always make me laugh! Thank you for brightening my day with your dark humour."

    ​"the funny, wonderful and slightly cantankerous Charles Christian"

    "Carlsberg don't make clients, but if they did... they'd be Charles Christian"

    "His tech journalism is always witty. He has a talent for pricking the overblown claims of suppliers."

    "Charles Christian does awesome!"
    Picture

    Charles Christian's Books

    Picture
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087N3NB7M
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087N3NB7M
    Picture
    ​https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MELTC84
    Picture
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DKCKPT

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Picture
Copyright © Charles Christian 
& WordsandVision Limited 2021
​Powered by green tea and pink wine
Tel: +44 (0)1986 788666
Tel/Txt: +44 (0)7786 738172
urbanfantasist@icloud.com
Contact Address: Oak Lodge, Darrow Green Road, Denton, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 0AY, United Kingdom

Weird Tales in Weird Times

  • Home
  • Weird Tales Shows
  • Charles Christian Bio
  • Interviews & Speaking
  • Charles Christian Books & Reviews
  • * Fiction
  • * Non Fiction
  • * Poetry
  • All My Links
  • Americana Shows
  • Old Grievous Angel
  • Home
  • Weird Tales Shows
  • Charles Christian Bio
  • Interviews & Speaking
  • Charles Christian Books & Reviews
  • * Fiction
  • * Non Fiction
  • * Poetry
  • All My Links
  • Americana Shows
  • Old Grievous Angel