Off to Seek a Wizard...
-5- Somewhere... Over Colorado, Way Up High by Erin Halfelven |
I went to the lavatory and took off my painful maryjanes. Then I dithered for a while on whether to take off my stockings. For one thing, it was cool enough in the cabin that having an extra layer on most of my legs was more comfortable, plus the added feeling of not being, you know, exposed. But the problem was that bunching up the stocking toes to fit the flops' between-toes what-do-you-call-that-part-a-post? looked excessively dorky.
Kind of like the music they played in the lavatory on the plane. Is it that annoying to discourage people from spending too much time in the bathroom? Show tunes from 1940s musicals on a lo-fi speaker, barf me out.
Eventually, I made the more girly decision and went with looks over comfort even though I grumbled about it in the privacy of the lavatory. One thing studying magic does is teach you that a successful illusion is created by attention to as many details as you can control. At least my toenails were painted to match my fingers in a nice glossy pearl white.
I stuffed my shoes and socks into the carry-on and spent some time with the mirror, touching up my makeup. Not that it needed much, but I guess I was a bit insecure about my looks with a hunky guy like George sitting next to me. Huh? George was a hunk? Well, yeah, compared to the original me, he was.
I flipped my hair and admired my little emerald earrings too. I was glad I had got my ears pierced and Daddy bought me the expensive earrings for my seventeenth birthday which was not for another few weeks. He said I could later sell them to help with college tuition when I went back to being Dale Steffani instead of Stephanie Dale.
Looking in the mirror, I had to convince myself that I couldn't see even a trace of the boy I really was. I had to have the confidence to go out and be Stephanie to make this work. And in order to not be all mopey and paranoid, I had to enjoy being Stephanie. Well, why not? I'd already found out that no one holds doors open for a skinny boy or smiles as much as they do when they see a pretty girl. Being Stephanie was pretty cool, actually.
Finally, I put everything away in my purse and carry-on and left the lavatory to head back to my seat just as the fasten seat belt lights went on again. The flops made that sound they make as I hurried down the aisle and got buckled into 12B after squeezing past George without even thinking about the fact that I had had my butt probably right in his face. I stuffed the carry-on under my seat before I thought about what I had just done.
I had to not look at George and fight off an attack of the giggles just when the captain's voice came on the intercom and talked about turbulence and gaining a bit more altitude to get past the last of the storm clouds. What he didn't tell us was that there were still tornados from Colorado to Louisiana and points between and that we had flown a more northerly route to avoid them.
And what no one mentions is that when there are tornados, there is debris in the air, sometimes as high up as four miles or more. And at the time no one knew that a small church near where Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas come together had been hit with a tornado and completely destroyed, fortunately with no one inside.
So it took everyone by surprise when the plane flying along at 26,000 feet got hit by a piano.
Comments
Off to Seek a Wizard -5- Somewhere... Over Colorado, Way Up High
OUCH!
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
And people said this was slow paced...
What the.... Whoa. I didn't expect the piano either!!! Still, I guess a tornado is very in keeping with the Wizard theme. That being said, if I was Stephanie I'd not be worrying so much about the extra mile in her shoes as the five miles between the plane and the ground!
I'm now fascinated to see where this goes!! :-)
"Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life."
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
So Cool
Hit by a piano at 26,000 feet. Nice touch. I am enjoying this.
Thanks and kudos.
- Terry
Act of God, huh?
I naively thought angels played harps. Now, two things to consider, size of piano and aircraft and where the two meet, oh and distance from ground at 32'/sec/sec, not to mention pressurised cabins...
Angharad
Angharad
Things to consider :
Well here are a list of things to consider :
A) The speed at which the piano hit the plane and the plane's speed.
B) The angle of collision .
C) The pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the plane(
D) Will George try to steal a fast one.
I'd have to go with...
"D) Will George try to steal a fast one." as the most likely to occure more than once.
Peace be with you and Blessed be
Peace be with you and Blessed be
I heard
Erin, I've heard of Pink elephants and that pigs can fly, but pianos is a new one.
Hugs Roo
ROO
ROO
We finally get to a Key part of this drama
... after all the other silliness :)
Well the question comes down to which part of the plane got hit. Now if it destroys the vertical stabilizer then that may be the end of the tail erm ... tale.
My suspicion is that it somehow hits the airplane cabin causing decompression but man what are the oz erm ... odds are that?
Kim
Somewhere Over Colorado Way Up High....
...we got hit by a spinet, or maybe a baby grand, oh my!
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
I was surprised too
... and put in mind of Monty Python's routine about flying ("... aren't we grand? Oh, no more crumpets for me, mater, I'm off to play the grand piano...")
Still a very cute, fun story!
Kaleigh
A Piano Light as Aire
Hi Erin,
I - KNOW - this piece is just for fun. I have to wonder about a flying piano, though, that jut seems to be a bit of a sour note. I know the name for a grand piano in German is 'Fluegel' ('Wing' - I think maybe because it is faintly wing shaped) but that doesn't mean they can fly. I almost expect the next big revelation to be a candalabra and Liberacci to come along to play the darned thing.
LOTS of fun - Thanks hon.
with love,
Hope
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
They never expect the
They never expect the piano!
Will this become "The Wizard Of OZ" meets "Lost"?
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Author's license
According to NWS analysis* of the Oklahoma City F-5 tornados, it is very possible for piano-sized debris to be at that elevation or higher. The catch is it would still be IN the upper reaches of the tornado. So the AC had a lot more to worry about than the piano.
But hey, it is part of what we call author's license. I trust nobody is here to learn to be a spotter or a chaser, so no harm, no foul! I just had this mental image: The piano hits the nose of the plane and knocks both pilots out. When they regain consciousness, instead of the cockpit displays there is a piano keyboard! The pilot turns to the copilot and asks, "Do you play?" LOL!
Karen J.
*I've seen that analysis, runs about an hour and a half including recorded Doppler radar displays, Power Point slides, numerous graphs, video, and all sorts of neat stuff. It all happened within a mile or two of the NWS Storm Prediction Center; it's the best documented F-5 ever!
* * *
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. - Winston Churchill
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
No, it's more like "Anyone
No, it's more like "Anyone know how to tune a piano?"
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
But but but but...
They might have a keyboard that has just physically interfaced with their flight computer, right?
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
My idea
My idea is that the storm winds threw the piano several miles higher and tens of miles further north, by the time it encounters the plane, it's on a downward trajectory. It isn't impossible, it's just statistically improbable to a high degree. :) Or as you said, Author's license. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
WHAT!!!!!!!
Author's license?? I don't have one of those. Is this a government thing? I hope it's only needed in the USA. The United States Constitution is getting weirder and weirder. .....
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
The only thing that would make me NOT believe it...
The only thing that would make me NOT believe it would be if someone was playing the piano as it flew.
I could believe that a man on a piano stool could be blown up into the sky by a hurricane, but it hardly seems likely that he would be close enough to the piano and in the right position to play it.
There are plenty of anecdotes of things and people being blown all over by hurricanes. A woman I knew (she's dead now) had a number of grand pianos deposited on her lawn by a hurricane, and none of them were damaged. (No men on piano stools though... that's how you can tell the story is true.)
Downward trajectory
If it falls on an army base...
A flat major
If it falls on a mine...
A flat minor
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
That was a really nice chapter
'enjoyed all that happened in the bathroom and how you show him totally immersed in the role. Methinks he enjoys it.
Steinway up high
I imagine the pilot will be having a grand time trying to keep the plane upright.
A Steinway-playing-stairway to heaven?
or was it an organ on its way to Oregon?
Does the pilot get a clavichord lodged in his clavicle?
Is it a CEUS that's come aboard to see us?
Or a Spinet that's out gone out for a spin?
Did the pilot forget his key?
Was the planes rollers & pitch off/out of alignment perhaps?
These and other questions... may only be answered by checking the box... you know the one! the one with the hidden things in it, in the dark recesses of your big closet!
It's sure to be SMASHING!
Yes, stay tuned for our next spine tinkling episode
... of 'seeking' :)
Okay, okay, I will give it a rest :)
Kim
But what I'm concerned about is…
…Does the pilot know the score? :-D
The Rev. Anam Chara+
Anam Chara
"George was a hunk? "
I'm no expert, but could our girl be ... heterosexual, (Ie: like guys)?
Dorothycolleen, member of Bailey's Angels
I never expected ...
... a sort of piano in collision.
Amy!
A woman on a bike?
Ah, but did anyone see an old woman on a bike?
Michelle B
Ha, Ha, Ha, hit by a piano!
Ha, Ha, Ha, hit by a piano!
These chaplets are wonderful!
Karen
Uh-Oh
That's got to be a one-in-a-billion chance. What kind of damage occurs when a piano slams an aircraft at a relative velocity of 550 mph? That leads to a question: why was the plane flying so low, even after rising up to avoid the storms? Was the piano a shout-out to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"? ("A Toon killed his brother. Dropped a piano on him.")
-- Daphne Xu