Tuesday's Tales ~ Picture Prompt

Tuesday's Tales - Curly

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

 

 

This week is our picture prompt  and my snippet moves on a bit from last week My heroine has found a deserted place where she can safely release her unwanted passenger from the boot/trunk of her car.

Quarter of an hour later she spotted a turnoff that appeared to head in the general direction of a wood.

“Turning off,” she sang out.  “Hopefully I’ll be able to let you out if there’s no one around. Just hang in there.”

Encouraged by the bumpy track Kate slowed right down and came to a stop beside row of overgrown bushes. Not a known public recreation area, more likely private property, she thought as she slid from the car and raced round to lift the boot lid. Light bounced off nearby water. A lake? A pond? Did that mean she had stopped near someone’s house? She hoped not.

Sweat shone slick and damp on the man’s skin. His eyes remained closed and he didn’t shift when she struggled to remove the case she’d wedged behind his back.

“Damn.” Her curse echoed on the humid air. She’d forgotten to get a knife to cut his ropes. Dashing to passenger door Kate delved into her bag and came up with her nail scissors. The nylon cords binding the victim may not be very thick, but she expected her small pair of scissor would struggle to cut through them. Not sure what she was looking for Kate searched her surroundings for something that might cut through the bonds more easily. A long dilapidated shed, its wooden doors all hanging off the hinges, and the corrugated tin sheeting on the roof looked as though it my dissolve into dust if something touched it. It looked too lonely and neglected to be part of someone’s home.

With a sigh she cast another assessing glance at the man and found herself under observation.

“I sincerely hope you were not the person who knocked me senseless this morning. At least I presume it was this morning.”

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

On A Wing and a Prayer

Origin:- This phrase originated with the WWII patriotic song Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer, 1943, by Harold Adamson and Jimmie McHugh, which tells of a damaged warplane, barely able to limp back to base:-  (You can find the lyrics HERE)

So what does this have to do with my blog?

This morning on my way to collect the paper I cam across what I thought was a baby bird in distress.  So imagine my surprise when I picked it up and recognised it as a Swift.  I took it home and let it rest in the warmth of my hand for almost an hour before it made any attempt to move around.

Then DH and I took it outside and attempted to release it.  Unfortunately, every time we encouraged it to fly it simply fluttered to the ground. 

I knew Swifts live their lives on the wing and that when they land they are unable to take off again because of the length and shape of their wings. So after several fruitless atempts, I rang round various places for advice.  Finally I connected with Diane from The Wild Bird and Owl Haven which is run as a non-profit, un-incorporated Association with Charity status applied for and is based in Norfolk, UK.

Until Diane told us, what I didn't know was that to release a swift you need to 'chuck it out of a bedroom window' too give it the height to fly freely with enough up-draft beneath its wings to keep it airborn!  Wonderful, we had a solution, but also we had a majorp problem.  We don't live in a two story property with high-level bedroom windows!

So what to do?

Sheds!  We have a couple of sheds in the back garden, so we hauled out the step-ladder, climbed onto a shed roof and hurled the little guy into the air.  Ans WOW!  He took off like a rocket, straight over the field next door.  We wer thrilled, and then amazed as several more Swifts joined it and flew round together for a few moments before taking off to higher realms after their natural food source.