The three writers are once again in two countries. It was D-L's prompt choice and the idea was to select a "victim" at the last minute. The woman on the bike was talking on her mobile. We don't take photos of faces for reasons of privacy.
D-L's Free Write
Maria pushed her bike because the tire was flat, the second time in two days. She needed a new tire.
Her mobile was buried in her bag. She pulled it out to call her daughter. "I'll be late." She hung up.
Anyone looking at Maria would think of the village mamies of 30 or more years ago. Housedresses, hair shoved into lifeless chignons. Those mamies wouldn't have had a mobile phone.
No one would guess that Maria had a sophisticated computer set up at home. Also, no one would guess that she earned close to 100,000 Euros a year as a coder.
People who talked with her without ever seeing her thought that she was a pretty, young French woman who spoke, French, German, English and several computer languages.
After she found her first job, one followed another. People in the industry would hope they could get her to work for them.
She developed a mystique and was known as the Secret Coder.
Visit D-L.'s website https://dlnelsonwriter.com, is the author of 15 fiction and three non fiction books. Her 300 Unsung Women, bios of women who battled gender limitations, can be purchased at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/300-unsung-women-d-l-nelson/1147305797?ean=9798990385504
Rick's Free Write
We had never seen her before. Perhaps she had ridden the bicycle from another village. Yet it was not a market day, no fete, nothing special. Maybe she was staying at one of the many campgrounds near the beach and she was curious about centreville itself. Who was she talking to on the phone? Stopping every several feet. No idea.
There are a lot of strangers in the village this week. Tourists. Older couples mostly. Many schools in Europe had started back last week. A few families with small children. Several Arabic women with head coverings. A couple of African men wearing long black robes.
Almost no one we knew. Few locals in the cafés and shops.
This would change next week when friends start to arrive from the UK, the US, Canada. A reunion of sorts. Because after Brexit the easy travel back and forth got complicated.
The merchants are familiar. The fruitier. The boulangerie. The charcuterie. (At least we can eat well.)
There must be a lot of foreign dogs because Sherlock is taking a long time to sniff on the street. Does Weinerschnitzel urine smell different?
Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com, a weekly newsletter reporting the top stories about the airline industry. He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.
Julia's Fee Write
It was a great day: finally home, finally decent weather, not too hot nor too cold.
She pushed her bike through the village: yes, she was on foot as one is supposed to in a pedestrian zone, never mind the crazies who thought that they were above the law, dashing through at full speed, scattering those who had the right-of-way.
On foot she didn’t have to pay so much attention but could think and daydream.
Thoughts first went to the mundane. She had her basket and needed to pick up fresh produce from the corner stall, perhaps a few things from the minimart, and, as she had been saving, maybe even a small piece of meat from the local butcher: she lived on very restrictive means.
Daydreams would be of days gone by, days when she and her family had their own home, modest as it was, days when she grew her own vegetables. Days where her family surrounded her.
It had been a wonderful life.
Now she was alone in a foreign country, the only survivor of the bombs in her homeland.
Visit Julia's blog. She has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends. Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment