Friday, August 01, 2008

Do I Have To?

It's Sunday Scribblings time again!

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“Do I have to?” to pleaded Orville.

“Yes you bloody well do” said Wilbur

“Well I’ve changed my mind”

“Look” pleaded Wilbur “You’ll be all right – I’m your brother for god’s sake. I wouldn’t let you do it if I thought you’d be in danger”

“Well, why me anyway?” said Orville “If it’s so safe you do it!”

“But you know I don’t like heights” shouted Wilbur. “In the winter I can’t even wear two pairs of socks because I get dizzy. Now sit down and I’ll surround you in cushions so if it goes wrong you won’t hurt yourself”

“What do you mean ‘if it goes wrong’, you said it is safe”

Orville’s pathetic pleas went unheard, the engine on The Flyer stuttered into life, and seconds later the Wright brothers fragile timber and cloth contraption wobbled its way off the ground and into the sky. Well, not really the sky, but it did lift itself off the ground!

Above the noise a little voice could be heard “Oooo ... get me down.... I don’t like it”

Twelve seconds and one hundred and twenty feet feet later, the flying machine bumped down to the ground again. Wilbur and his mates ran to catch up and Orville , green faced from his ordeal, tumbled out and sat with his hands clutching his tummy.

A proud Wilbur raised himself to his full height – he wasn’t very tall – then with a quivering voice announced to the assembled crowd “One day man will fly across oceans”

“Bugger that” shouted Orville “They can do it without me! I'm off for a beer?”
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16 comments:

  1. very cool post! I bet they are glad they did it :)
    and that beer was well worth it too!
    :)

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  2. Great post! Loved it! "Bugger that!" new one of me, it's great!!

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  3. Very Funny Keith.And, the brothers are still spoken of in the history books as being a team?

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  4. "I can't even wear two pairs of socks because I get dizzy"! I'm still laughing! I'll have a hard time thinking of the Wright brothers in quite the same way as before. The point of view bounced nicely from one brother to the other to the other through the clever use of dialogue.

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  5. Ah!! so that's what actually happened!!

    loved this take, you always do come up with something totally different each time...

    :D

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  6. very "inventive" and humourous - great take!!!

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  7. LOL. I love this - two pair of socks caught my funny bone and I'm still giggling. You write great dialogue!

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  8. Quite humorous, and what a clever take on the prompt!

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  9. i needed to smile this day and i glad i read this one. liked the way the story unfolds and the last line is a great ending!

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  10. Very entertaining!

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  11. Clever take on O & W--I hadn't even thought. . .and great dialogue, especially the last line. Oh, and the fear of heights! Very, very nice work.
    Thanks so much for sharing!

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  12. hey liked your angle of the conversation..very unique look at the story :)

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  13. Keith,
    Well done sir, and I'm quite sure that's exactly how it transpired. And to think that beer might make it's way onto a flight.
    rel

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  14. The 2 pairs of socks was hilarious - I may have to use that one. And "bugger" is my favorite curse word, because Americans don't know what it is.
    I've been to the very place they took that flight. I could see why they thought it was possible.

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  15. haha.. good one.. and loved the English English... :)

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  16. LOL cheers to him and one day we did and continue to fly across the oceans what a great thing. I hate heights as well.

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