The 28 Minute, Five Minute Freewrite ~ The Elusive Concept of 'Discord' ~ Original Photography and Original Story ~

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Sometimes, You Just Gotta Finish The Story

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Five Minute Freewrite

Prompt: Discord

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My dad leaned back in his portable chair, to un-plug the movie projector.
“Dick! The CURTAINS!!!” Before you could shout “Zowwie", all sorts of mayhem burst forth in the room. The brown rubber plug sticking out from the wall-receptacle suddenly spewed blue and yellow sparks in a solid stream from the small, round hole where the projector cord USED to attach.

The sad little plug was efficiently spraying colorful shooting-stars all over our living room carpet, up the wall like a reverse-gravity waterfall, and onto the heavy draperies that covered our enormous picture window.

“DYAAHHHH,” was all my dad could come up with as he jumped to action, tipping his chair over backwards, then yanking at the drapes in one smooth move, while reaching down to try and pull the hot, melting plug from the electric supply in the wall.

The awesome display reminded my brother, sister and me of those whooshing sparkler tubes we were allowed out on the driveway on the 4th. But THIS was different. We're talking major, professional fireworks, in our LIVING ROOM. And in the dead of winter. The grand show was rapidly turning the flowered drapes and eggshell-white wall a dense shade of charcoal black.

Our house was on the brink of becoming a major story on the evening news, but we children thought it was GREAT. Nothing like this ever happened during movie night. Usually we just sat and watched a series of 3-minute films that my dad had proudly 'produced' with his new, Super-8 Winde-O-Matic 870 camera.

Really enthralling cinema. We children, sitting in the middle of a circular, three-rail Lionel track on the tile basement floor, watching a six-car freight go round and round and round and round. For three solid minutes. Or the dog, wandering about the yard, doing absolutely nothing of interest. For another three minutes. The best ones though, were of my mom, either mugging for the camera, or more often, putting her hand up in front of the lens and mouthing “DON'T ", for three minutes straight. Much to my dad's chagrin, and a whole lot of wasted film.

But THIS? This was WAY beyond the usual excitement. And totally new for Saturday movie night. I couldn't WAIT to tell my friends.

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My dad finally got the plug out of the wall, and beat the small, blueish flames that had begun to move up the drapes back into nothing more than a smoky mess.

Not a person to let a learning lesson be derailed by one of his 'stuck at age 12', adult antics, he didn't even break stride, puttering around in his newest mess. “See kids, that's why you always pull a cord out of the wall by the PLUG. Not by yanking on the cord, three feet from the wall.” He seemed proud in the wake of his latest demonstration of a learning moment.

We all nodded in unison with pious, humor-laden “Yes Dad " eyes, as my mom uttered HER usual fantastic father fare. Exasperatedly proclaiming over her shoulder as she exited the room, “You clean it up, I'm going to bed. " I don't think she was really all that disgusted, more likely just tired from watching another full set of exceedingly boring home movies on the fold-away screen.

But WE thought it was all quite wonderful. How many OTHER dads could demonstrate the finely tuned and artistically proper way to Dis-cord an extension cable plug, with such flair and grace? Only OUR father. We puffed up our little chests and thanked the gods of family matters for a dad that was so knowledgeable and used such proficiency when demonstrating home-safety protocols. Yes, all three of us were very very proud, beyond our short stature and early years.

My only regret was that the tripod, lights and camera were not set up for filming when it all went down, so we could watch our fun evening all over again NEXT Saturday night. Wouldn't THAT be something...

~ Finto ~

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Here is the link to the post about the Five Minute Weekend Freewrite, put on by @mariannewest:
Day 246: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: Discord
[Five Minute Freewrite Prompt Post]

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Thanks for stopping in and viewing the latest installment of the 28-Minute, Five Minute Freewrite. If you have any thoughts about the proper way to 'Discord' a plug, movie night at home, mother's with endless patience, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.

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And go to @ddschteinn -- There's a whole lot more...

_{Posted: 06/22/2018 @ 17:51}

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Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat

Fact Number 79