Ever see something weird and think to yourself, “There’s a story there, I’ll bet”? Well, if you’re just idly wondering and not planning to use the idea, why not share it here? Could make for an interesting writing prompt. I’ll start. I just saw an interesting scene while gazing out my window. I live on a busy avenue, and a guy on a dirt bike stopped and laid his bike down right in the middle of the street, then ran back to chase after something. It looked like a car had stopped further down in another lane, too, and the driver and passenger got out of it, because I saw three guys running around in traffic, picking up something (I couldn’t tell what from this distance) scattered all over the road. They were yelling at each other and didn’t seem at all concerned about the cars the stopped and crept around them. So, what was so important?
As a five year old forces brat I boarded a plane with my mother (Hong Kong to the UK the plan). On settling in and mucking about with my seatbelt clasp I spotted a woman up the aisle, a very generously proportioned woman, who, I'm afraid to admit, reminded me of the Michelin Man on account of the many tyres I imagined beneath her dress. Lo, as the Vickers VC10 left the concrete of Kai Tak did a tyre, a very real tyre, on the aircraft's undercarriage itself, relieve its very self of its gases with a super loud..Bang. I observed the adults observing each other with frightened/quizzical eyes but no hysteria ensued. The captain quelled the fear/quizzicalness by tannoy—No biggie, we were to 'emergency land' on the island of Gan (a British territory then (I think)) as soon as we reached it, where we'd stick around for a replacement wheel. It was all fun to me, a fearless/unwitting child, adopting the brace position and riding out the bumps and thuds of the landing. In Gan we stayed, equatorial and tropical the 24hrs in which I can only imagine, via prompts of a rusted memory, I consumed many lemonades whilst beguiled by the the slow rotating fans in the tiny airport lounge. Anyway, the wheel came in, it got put on, we were asked to reboard. The large tyre lady only then did kick up a hysterical fuss. There was no way (BA Baracus), she was gettin' on that plane! Crowd and peer pressure to zero convincing avail; it looked like she'd be getting a boat home many weeks down the line. Until her husband agreed they could inject her with a sedative, yes, puncture the tyre lady in order that she may fly.
I guess I’ve also got an incident on a plane. I think it was winter 2016 and we were sitting in a row of 3 seats. I was sitting in a seat next to my mum and a 3rd passenger was travelling on his own on the same row. We didn’t talk to him very much. Then when the journey was over a few passengers in front of us asked him for his autograph. That was weird. He was someone who’d participated as an athlete in the 2016 Olympic Games apparently. Who knew?
On the airplane note, once I was flying to a state on the other side of the U.S. but actually planned to rent a car and spend a day driving out to a tiny rural village in the neighboring state when I arrived. The lady in the seat behind me was talking about her plans with her husband, and I realized that she was going to the exact same village. After talking to her we realized that our families were only a mile apart from each other. We got on very well, but weirdly enough we just never swapped last names and lost touch pretty much as soon as we deplaned. Just mutually didn't feel inclined I guess. Sometimes when I return I wonder if her people still live there. Sometimes I wonder if I'll see her on a hiking trail. Both of our families sounded so deeply rooted and there is so little civilization out there, it's kind of odd that I haven't seen her yet.
