Introducing the third main character in the series...
Tradewinds 05: The Flathead Experimenthttp://www.absolutechaos.net/viewstory.php?sid=10494Summary: Wherein a certain young man takes a wrong turn on his way home from work one night, the tale of his last day on Earth…
Categories: Original Fiction
Characters: None
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction
Rated: 18+
Warnings: Death, Violence
Series: Tradewinds
Challenges: None
Published: 02/24/11
Story Notes: The characters and events in this story are purely fictional. Any resemblance to any real person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Much of the setting of this story is real, though used fictitiously, and creative license was taken with some places, as the author has never attended some of its institutions.
excerpt, from the Chapter 1:
“…some people like to sensationalize everything, from aliens to Elvis sightings. The only people who are trying to prove all this mumbo-jumbo are the world’s most unbalanced and gullible. There is a logical, rational, scientific explanation for everything, and one day science will unravel all of the so-called ‘mysteries’ of the unknown…”
Shades tried to take some consolation from the fact that Chris was even putting Mrs Eastman to sleep. When he looked around, he couldn’t help wondering if Chris himself was the only one paying attention to the last portion of this speech. Of course, he doubted his classmates were too broken up about it; as annoying as this sophomore prodigy could be when he went full-bore, at least his lectures didn’t come with homework. He had burned up enough class time to ensure that there would be no extra work to do this weekend.
He looked out the window at the Rocky Mountains beyond, under a sunny blue sky that offered the promise of another Montana summer.
“Anyone else?” Mrs Eastman asked, looking among her students. The US Government teacher tried not to betray her relief, or her regret. She occasionally liked to have discussions about unusual topics, but not since her college days had she seen someone who could hold forth for as long as Chris Nimrod without panting for breath.
A girl in the second row raised her hand.
“Yes, Amy?”
Shades perked up noticeably at that name. Unlike Chris, he could listen to her all day. And he was especially keen on hearing what she had to say about a subject so near to his heart.
“I’d just like to say that most scientists are way too closed-minded about the paranormal,” Amy O’Connor remarked as she brushed some of her long blonde hair out of her face. Ordinarily content to leave the task of annoying the little know-it-all to someone else, for some reason she felt compelled to put in her two cents on this matter. “Since when did ignoring something just because it doesn’t fit in your explanation of reality solve any of the mysteries of—”
Then the bell rang.
Though Shades was looking forward to hearing her views on the paranormal; he had never dreamed he would ever hear her speak about such a bizarre topic. Now he wished he had said his piece earlier, perhaps he could have filibustered Nimrod and delivered his classmates from terminal boredom, but what was done was done. In middle school, he had written his first “practice” term paper about the Bermuda Triangle mythos; it was an easy extension, research-wise, of his favorite reading material. Though Mrs Eastman sometimes chose weird topics for her tangents, this was the strangest subject he could recall— a whole high school class (mostly Nimrod) spending forty-odd minutes discussing the Great Unknown.
Shades shoved his US Gov text into his backpack as he stood up. Throwing one strap over his shoulder, he turned and gave Amy the victory “V” for her upset against Nimrod. And she again gave him that quizzical tilt of her head, as she always did when he saluted her.
“Don’t forget, there’s a paper on the Civil Rights Movement due Monday!” Mrs Eastman called after her students as they filed out the door. More efficiently, she noticed, than they did anything else in her class. “Have a nice weekend!…”
As an ordinary day takes a detour into the Twilight Zone…
Author
Topic: shadesmaclean/Tradewinds updates (Read 41471 times)