Lucy's story was about a journey she undertook on, of course, an airship. She would have gone on to meet lots of interesting characters and take part in fabulous adventures.....if I'd ever gotten around to writing more than nine chapters. These were short chapters too - my writing time limited to those moments when both management and customers weren't looking. But for a while, me and Lucy were having fun.
Each chapter took me a day (/shift) to write. On the way home, I would put the story into an envelope. I wrote "Free story (please take)" on it. And then I left on this bench, in the park:
Not that my stories were anything special. It's not like I thought they'd brighten up anyone's day. I just did it because it's the sort of thing I'd like to find.
So I left them, and every time I went back, they were always gone. After nine chapters, I stopped, and that seemed like the end of Lucy. But......
It was a while later. Months, probably. I got a Facebook message. The first paragraph of text quoted chapter four of Lucy and the Bubbly Airship. I'd signed it with my name, and someone had tracked me down. He was called Charlie Fox, and he looked like this:
I'd never met a Charlie Fox. I didn't know anything about Charlie Fox. He didn't reply to my messages, his profile was brand new, and empty, seemingly made just to send me this one message. As I said, the first paragraph contained part of Lucy's story. In the rest of the message, he continued it. He wrote about her. The story he wrote is possibly the best thing I have ever read. I sent him messages back. I told him what I thought. Nothing happened.
I never heard from Charlie Fox again.
"Up on the deck you could see for miles . The floor of clouds looked soft and inviting. Once an old man saw her looking, and told her that you weren't human if you didn't want to jump in.
She held onto the rail, and leaned out as far as she could. From there, in the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a huge letter B, written on the side of the hull. That was the start of the ships name. "bringer."..."
Her whole body fraught, feeling chance through the clouds, such a unique point, she had been through the clouds before, every one of them. Not this time, this time she was transient, beyond previous lives. Life had no more lessons, she was going far from everything she knew. She held on. Other people jumped.
The captain made a crackled announcement, "#The distance between here and where we are going is getting bigger, we are almost half as far as where we were when we started, so we should arrive in sections depending on our constant ability to fluctuate.#" she wondered if the captain was on the same ship just as the next announcement came, this time clear, "~This is my maiden voyage, so I'd ask passengers to finalize themselves if they feel comfortable on board. You know who
you are so you know you should. We don't want any stowaways! I see we will run out of cloud soon, and from there, theres no turning back, we won't be going home, ever.~" Lucy knew life, and death.
She suspected the captain as one of the passengers. Everything pulsed with more color. Fresh. She, besotted beyond excitement, newer and older than she had ever been, went inside to meet the other passengers.
With a song and a color in her soul, a feeling of a question she unknowingly posed to herself asked; Had the captain realized something? Anything? And where was Bringer going?...