Night Flight Mike is a novella of twenty short chapters, posted over twenty business days -- by me, your blithering host, Cheeseburger Brown. Readers who may be subject to access surveillance or content filtering please be advised that this work of fiction contains profanity and describes adult situations, but is relatively free of political subversion.
This story was filmed in front of a live studio audience.
And now, today's chapter:
2/20
Three months after Christmas Mike's white sister India won the district spelling bee championship and Mike's black sister Bianca was warned that she was in danger of failing English. It was decided that both sisters would attend the Grand Bee in the big city, the former to make an attempt for the cup and the latter to be kept close by and out of trouble. As a corollary it was hoped that Bianca's spelling might improve after sitting through two days of master beeing.
Mike's parents made a generous offer: "We've decided that you're responsible enough to stay home alone. Mom will freeze you a set of dinners."
"If it's all the same," replied Mike, "I'd like to come along."
His parents looked at one another. "But you'll miss the science fair, honey," said Mother.
Mike shrugged. "Somebody else can win this year."
She took his temperature. Father was also concerned. "This is your chance to get away from the girls for a few days, champ. Don't you want to give independence a whirl?"
Mike considered this, rolling the glass thermometer from one side of his mouth to the other. "I wanch 'o shee uh shitty."
"Stay still," said Mother.
"You want what?" asked Father, furrowing his brow.
Mike's mother withdrew the thermometer and examined the grade seriously. "Normal," she declared.
"I want to see the city, Pop."
Father sighed. "I suppose he can sleep on the floor of our room, can't he?" He was thinking about his credit card.
Mother seemed nervous. "I've already frozen a quiche."
Father shrugged in unconscious imitation of Mike's conscious imitation of him. "It'll keep."
Wednesday, 23 August 2006
Night Flight Mike, Part Two
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3 comments:
Dear Simon,
I'm trying to strike a balance here -- over the last while I have had very little time to devote to writing, so I had to make a call as to how best to deliver this story.
In many ways it might work better being posted in one fell swoop, but that would mean I'd be left with nothing to post for a few weeks until I finish something else.
Ultimately I opted to go for a constant trickle of story rather than a lumpier stream of delivery. This approach is not entirely without its benefits, as I think it might help folks warm up to Mike if they have to digest his adventures over a period of real-world time rather than swallowing him up in one chomp. In a way I hope to nurture increased intimacy with the story by injecting that element of real-world time.
It seemed to work for Simon of Space so I figured it was worth a go.
Besides, I reckoned that twenty days worth of knowing you'll have something to read is better than reading something you enjoy, and then becoming frustrated as you check my non-updated blog for a month until I cough up something else.
This way I can promise that hot off the heels of Night Flight Mike we'll dive right into something else.
It is my ambition to make this blog a constant source of stories, even if sometimes that means the stories have to be short, or divided into twenty little bursts.
You can let me know whether or not it's working as we get deeper into Mike's adventure.
Love,
Cheeseburger Brown
After sitting through my first day of classes, I’m ecstatic that you’ve started another story. I was severely addicted to SoS and now have something new to facilitate my inattention of monotone teachers. One in particular drones for 2 hours and covers nothing outside of the textbook. A welcome escape - truly.
I also thank you for your comment on my blog. I concur that the last post was a terrible one to leave unexplained for a month. It wasn’t intentional, I assure you. So, I have begun blogging again and will probably post more frequently due to the aforementioned class.
Keep up the good work!
Dear Sash,
Well I'm sorry I can't provide enough stuff to take up two hours of dull class, but perhaps I can at least plant a few jokes in your head that you'll have to stifle laughter over.
Love,
Cheeseburger Brown
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