Monkey See, Monkey Do

When monkeys go to Rome, they do as the Romans do, because they feel the need to fit in by eating what they see others eat.  Monkeys are known to be adventurous eaters and they will try almost anything that they see another monkey eating.  Monkeys are capable of learning a process without understanding why it works and they mostly learn from their parents.  If a monkey sees their mother eating something, it knows that it is safe for them to eat it also.  The mama monkey is a model for her young, and her offspring will mimic what she does.  This is why you should try to be a good role model for your children, because what a monkey sees, it will repeat.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #274.

Built on Stilts

Fogo Island is the largest of the offshore islands in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.  Stilt houses date all the way back to prehistoric times and using stilts can allow homeowners to build on rocky, steep or unstable land.  Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding, but they are also useful for keeping out vermin.  You need a foundation to be able to build anything that you want to last, as the foundation is what makes your structure safe and secure.  If you do build something without a foundation, it may be able to support the downward thrust of its load, but it will experience sideways motion and that will be a problem.  As the ground changes temperature with the seasons, it expands and contracts, causing instabilities that make the building lurch, and movement causes cracks in your foundation.  Building a foundation is usually a pretty straight forward process, but due to the rocky, undulating topography on Fogo Island, stilts (known as ‘shores’) were used to extend the top section (third and fourth floors) of this inn.  The modern inn was built using ecological and sustainable elements, as they bored into the rock and sunk dozens of narrow columns to support the protruding end of the building.

Fogo Island is a bit off the beaten path, but I needed tranquility to finish my novel, so I booked a room there for $1,000 a night.  The hotel was great, but mostly I stayed in my room, which did have expansive windows, so I was able to look out at the Northern part of the Atlantic Ocean.  One day I saw a few whales go by and another day I saw some icebergs.  The birds seemed to love it here and this puffin landed on the rocks below me with its pudgy body making it difficult for it to kept in flight, as it frantically flapped its wings.  That puffin gave me the inspiration to finish up my writing, as I noticed that the feathers on its wing were opening during the upward stroke of the wing when the bird rises to reduce drag and aid in the generation of both thrust and lift.  When in flight, as a bird flaps its wings down, the feathers move together.  Then, as the bird moves its wings up, the feathers move apart to allow air to pass through.  I used what I learned by studding the birds to make my characters work with the plot and I opened up my characters, so my plot could proceed and that allowed my book to take off.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #273.

Rocket Raccoon

Guardians of the Galaxy has a talking racoon, who started out as Subject 89P13 being genetically and cybernetically modified by High Evolutionary (a geneticist who sought to create a perfect species out of what he viewed as lower life forms, and build his own utopia), and this gave him enhanced intelligence and the ability to speak.  Rocket chose his name because he liked the Beatles’ song ‘Rocky Raccoon’, but then he discovered that the High Evolutionary planned to kill him and his friends, so he attacked and mutilated him, and then fled into the cosmos abord a ship.  In his travels Rocket meets Groot, a Flora colossus (plant like species) that is almost invulnerable to physical harm because he has a highly accelerated healing factor, so he is able to regrow limbs and even his entire body from nothing more than a twig and they become friends.  Rocket and Groot get involved in a battle over the Power Stone and they get captured along with Peter Quill (leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy) and Gamora (a green-skinned humanoid race known as Zehoberei and she is referred to as The Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy) and they are all sent to space prison.  Groot sacrifices himself to shield Rocket.  Rocket plants part of his destroyed body which gives birth to a newly planted baby Groot.  The new Flora colossus has a foul mouth, but he is mostly incomprehensible to the untrained ear, however he does learn some English words and is able to say, “eye hmmm grew root”, but everyone thinks he is saying, “I am Groot.”

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #272.

A Dreamer

Lemurs are primates that spend most of their time in the trees eating fruit, leaves, buds, insects, small birds and birds’ eggs, but this leaping lemur princess had higher ambitions and she always wanted to show off her aerial maneuvers, because she figured that she could become the next Simone Biles.  She climbed on these ropes and then did a leap with her back toward the landing target.  She was able to reorient herself in midair, and always landed on her feet, even when she threw in a twist with a partial backward somersault.  I parked my BMW in my driveway and the lemur loved climbing all over my beamer.  I tried to keep her off, but she always found a way to get what she wanted, because this lemur was a real schemer.  I got really mad and cursed at her, becoming a blasphemer, before I threw my juice reamer at her which turned her into a screamer.  I have never been a mainstreamer, but I do know that the longest, strongest, and heaviest bone in the human body is the femur, however I can’t drink my coffee without creamer.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #271.

Eating Crow

A person who is starving may be willing to eat almost anything in order to survive and that crow is starting to look good to me.  Eating crow is a colloquial idiom, used in some English-speaking countries, that means humiliation by admitting having been proven wrong after taking a strong position.  The reason for this idiom is because the crow is a carrion-eater that survives on roadkill rotting flesh, which is usually considered unfit for human consumption and is presumably repulsive to eat in the same way that being proven wrong might be emotionally hard to swallow.  Crows have powerful digestive systems that kill bacteria and viruses preventing them from getting sick on what they eat, and they don’t pass any illness on to whatever eats them.  You have to cook them a bit longer than other birds, but I read they taste like quail, but a bit more gamey.

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #270.

I Love God

I was very active on my church till I met an atheist named Cynthia who I called Cindy, and she explained that I was part of a cult.  I was in an organized religion that had a mass following with stated beliefs and not part of any fringe group and I wasn’t required to practice any rituals.  Cindy said that my religion taught me to have blind faith and to never question authority, because the church always knew what was best for me and I didn’t see anything wrong with that.  Cindy went on to say that cults want to completely overtake your social life to ensure you are only around other members and this isolation occurs so they can inundate you with their ideology.  Cindy then mentioned that besides her that I didn’t have any friends that weren’t in my church and that is how they keep their tight grip on me by motivating me with fear and guilt and shame.  Cindy also said that I could leave my church, but not without being ostracized by them.

My church organized a retreat to Hawaii, and they asked me if I would be a mentor for a bunch of younger students that had signed up to go, where I would be given a free flight, but I had to pay for everything else.  It sounded like a fun trip, so I agreed to be a helper with the two other members that organized this trip.  On Sunday morning the church leaders got everyone into a prayer circle, where individuals were asked to share any of their current struggles.  The leader zeroed in on this young woman and told her that her and her boyfriend to stop having sex.  This made me feel uncomfortable and I felt bad for the young girl being singled out by the church for interrogation.  I began to think that Cindy was right that I was being controlled by fear and guilt and shame, which was the same thing that cults do to control their members.  I stood up and told the church leader that he had no business prying into this girl’s private life.  I realized that I was being brainwashed by my church and that they were grooming me for a leadership role.  The leader called me a sinner and said that I was not doing God’s will by trying to interfere with the young girl’s education.  I told him that I no longer wanted to be a part of this cult anymore and the excommunicated me.  I found Cindy when I returned, and we lived happily together for many years till I died.  Cindy knew that I still believed in God, just not the same God that my church believed in, so when I died, she buried me on a grassy mountain with a crucifix to mark my grave.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #269.

Hold On Tight

Navy Pier is home to one of Chicago’s most iconic attractions and the magnificent Centennial Ferris Wheel offers a soaring view of the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan.  There is nothing more fun than the Wave Swinger, which is a classic amusement park ride that can be found in parks all around the world.  Wave Swinger is a German themed ride that has 48 swings attached by metal chains to a dome and guests enter into woven basket style seats.  Each seat contains a bar that connects to a seat belt.  Wave Swinger starts by lifting its riders 31 feet into the air.  As it lifts riders, it starts to spin in a clockwise circle.  As the ride gets to full height it begins to tilt to its side, creating a wavelike motion, which makes the riders scream.  The incredibly exhilarating ride only lasts for 2 minutes, but the whole time, you feel like you are floating through the air.  As you rotate 360 degrees in a circular, wavelike motion, your body will be arcing upwards and accelerating downwards.  Riders must be at least 48 inches tall to ride Wave Swinger.

The first Wave Swinger ride was built in 1972 and since then several options have been added to this ride.  Some models have a higher seating capacity, and they can extend to a height of up to 12.6 m / 41.3 ft.  Fountains may further increase the attractiveness of the ride.  Additionally, there is the option of reversing the moving direction, which will let riders fly either forward or backward.  Another option is the Wave Swinger’s elaborate illumination of 3,000 light bulbs that will display its breathtaking magic after sunset and at night.  Your free-floating toes will be lowered to the ground when the ride stops.

This ride is only open weather permitting, as lightning, high winds, and extreme cold would probably close it down.  Due to the nature of the restraint, this ride may not accommodate Guests that are of larger size.  Guests with a cervical collar, neck brace, braced arm cast, or full leg cast are not permitted to ride.  You should not use the ride restraints for support as they will shift.  These rides are known to have an excellent safety record, but accidents have happened.  In Canada, 14 children were injured after the ride came crashing to the ground and in Spain, the center collum of a Wave Swinger snapped with 18 children on the ride.  You certainly don’t want to be swinging around above the ground when one of these rides has a mechanical failure.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #268.

Pretty Bubbles

A soap bubble is a spherical layer of soap film encapsulating air or gas.  The film consists of a thin sheet of water sandwiched between two layers of soap molecules.  Soap bubbles seem simple, but they illustrate the mathematical problem of minimal surface, assuming the shape with the least possible surface area to contain a given volume.  The 19th century Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau described the structure of soap films and found that they obeyed certain laws, and they have a property called surface tension, which tends to minimize the surface area of the soap film.  Soap is made of pin-shaped molecules, and each soap bubble has a hydrophilic head, meaning it is attracted to water, and a hydrophobic hydrocarbon tail, that tends to avoid water.  The hydrophobic ends of the soap molecules crowd to the surface, trying to avoid the water, and stick out away from the layer of water molecules.  As a result, water molecules separate from each other.  The increased distance between the water molecules causes a decrease in surface tension, enabling bubbles to form.  Soap and water molecules assemble themselves into little bubbles called micelles, with heads pointing outward and tails tucked inside.

Inside the soap film, the air pressure is slightly higher than the pressure outside.  This pressure difference keeps the film stretched and stable.  A bubble is a closed soap film, due to the difference in outside and inside pressure, a bubble’s surface has a constant mean curvature.  Bubbles demonstrate concepts such as flexibility, color formation, reflective or mirrored surfaces, concave and convex surfaces, transparency, various shapes, elastic properties, and comparative sizing.  Soap bubbles interact with light giving them a rainbow-like appearance.  Light is made of different colors, and each color behaves differently when it meets the bubble.  Light is diffracted like a wave, leading to the interference of several waves that are superposed, generating off both surfaces of soap bubbles as they interfere with one another.  The colors you see depend on the viewing direction and angle, as well as on the film thickness of the soap bubble.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #267.

Contemporary Art Trends

New styles are emerging as artists continue to express themselves, which in turn creates more kinds of art and Asako intends to stay at the top of her game, being the early bird that catches the worm.  She expects to embrace fresh perspectives, by using innovative techniques, leading to her thought-provoking creations.  Asako wants to challenge herself by envisioning a future where art becomes a powerful catalyst for positive change.  She takes her work seriously and she is more than ready to construct captivating, and inspiring pieces for all the world to enjoy.  She started off her wall mural painting a red plus sign inside of an x on the top left portion, creating an 8-pointed star symbol, known as The Star of Ishtar.  The eight points of the star are thought to symbolize different aspects of the goddess Ishtar, including love, fertility, beauty, sex, magic, divine law, political power and war.  From the star, a rainbow trails off at the top of its arc, bending the path of its light as secrets diminish its colors designed to reduce the effect of the sunlight.  Asako placed a red handprint under the arc of the rainbow to signify hope and inclusion that her art would become a promise of a better future.

Asako painted some letters along with a menagerie of other symbols, including swirls, and squiggles that held deep meaning to her as she poured her heart into her latest work. She stepped back away from her painting, taking a few deep breaths, wondering if it was complete while looking at her masterpiece, or if she should continue painting.  She was able to see that her intention was met for Earth Day and that her work was making the world a better place, so she knew that it was almost finished.  As she dipped her brush into the blue paint, she had this feeling that since our planet looks blue from outer space because two-thirds of the surface is covered with water, that it needed an ocean on the bottom, so people don’t go around taking water for granted.  Asako understood that water connects every aspect of life, reinforcing the viability of every living thing.  She sat down cross-legged on a floor, deciding to paint the boundless, dark, and turbulent primeval waters residing below the chaotic atmosphere of the rest of her painting, and she would title her piece Ce Magnifique.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #265.

Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls

Rose looked at Jack’s drawings, the ones when he spent a lot of time in France drawing naked prostitutes and she asked Jack to draw her naked.  Jack asked Rose if she was sure she wanted this and he wanted to know why this interested her.  Rose said that she would share the intimate sketch with her close friends or partner.  Rose said that her whole life she had been conditioned to feel shame for her body and she was tired of that and now she wanted to take off all of her clothes and feel powerful instead of being embarrassed.  Jack sketched Rose in a sensual and alluring manner, similar to what he learned in his French art classes depicting her as a beautiful cat.  Rose got over her vulnerability and insecurity and this liberating portrait made Rose feel exhilarated, while also inspiring intimacy and romance between them.  The portrait helped Rose to overcome body-image issues and feel more comfortable and confident in her fur.

Written for Melissa’s Flash Fiction Challenge #262.