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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Mag 109: the nuts and bolts of it


Coming to us today from Willow Manor, we have the 109th edition of Magpie Tales, aka The Mag.
Each week, a photo is posted as inspiration for writer-bloggers. There are no minimums, maximums, or rules for Magpies, just that the writer use the photo as a prompt. It might prompt one writer to create a poem, and another to post a different photo along with a story brought to mind by this picture.
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Here is my submission for Monday, March 19, 2012.
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Howard never knew why the operating system for the stadium's sliding roof had to be under the artificial turf. He only knew he had to get it working whenever necessary. It might be the middle of the night when a sudden storm threatened, or it might be in the middle of a ball game, when the fans needed to be distracted by cheerleaders, mascots, high school marching bands, performing poodles or, preferably, visiting rock stars.
While all available entertainers gathered around him to hide his busy-ness, Howard hauled on the giant bolts with his trusty wrench. He had been asking for an assistant for years, but the owner of the team, and the mega-corporation now sponsoring the stadium, both insisted the roof's secret never be revealed.
As he worked, Howard thought about the bitter truth: If just one cheerleader fell from the top of the human pyramid, creating a hole in the curtain of people around him, the under-turf workings of the city's favorite sports venue could be copied by a low-tech sports fan, and heaven help Howard if that ever happened.

12 comments:

Brian Miller said...

huh, def an intersting take on the prompt...unique and def opens a lot of questions....would love to hear more....

SquirrelQueen said...

Poor Howard, looks like he has quite the job to both operate the roof and keep the secret hidden. Perhaps he needs a giant curtain like the Wizard of Oz.

kaykuala said...

Great imagination play, Kay! Howard sure holds a big secret!

Hank

Unknown said...

What an imaginative tale.Poor Howard tormented by such a secret.

Rinkly Rimes said...

A very clever idea. I wish I'd thought of it.

izzy said...

Secrets ! I love it thanks!

Tess Kincaid said...

So unique and clever! I loved this, Kay!

Other Mary said...

Now that's original! I think Howard should get the MVP award!

Jinksy said...

Full marks for lateral thinking in this one...

Doctor FTSE said...

Very imaginative. Howard has a really stressful job.

S.E.Ingraham said...

a very cool take on this unusual prompt pic ...

http://nsaynne.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/the-rip/

Unknown said...

Keeping company secrets is very stressful for anyone, never mind in the middle of a 50 thousand fan stadium. A very interesting write about the prompt. Thanks for sharing this, Kay.