mbarrick: (Default)
[personal profile] mbarrick
When I was about 12 or so I read a series of thirteen short stories. The stories themselves didn't stick with me, but the prologue to them did.

The author explained that he had been on a flight from Capetown to Cairo in the 1970's and the plane had stopped for refuelling in Uganda (which was under Idi Amin at the time). On the tarmack, in the hottest part of the afternoon, was a white woman and boy of about twelve. The woman was wearing an elegant evening dress and the boy was wearing a tuxedo.

It was, of course, so odd that the author wondered what brought these two people to this place at this time, dressed as they were. He wished that there was some who could explain it to him. Then he realised that it was such an unusual situation that he would have accepted any remotely reasonable explaination -- so he wrote 13 of his own.

The game then, is to pick someone out of the crowd and make up a story about why they are there. Make up lives for the people you gave names to in the last game.

Date: 2006-01-09 07:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mermaid23.livejournal.com
A sort of a side note, my parents were living in Uganda in the 60s and early 70s! It is a long story, but my dad was an American citizen and was drafted during Vietnam. He went to court to dispute it, and he won with the condition that he pay his debt to society in another way. He and my mother ended up going to Uganda for a few years as well as Goose Bay (up north) on an aboriginal reserve.

Date: 2006-01-10 01:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seymour-glass.livejournal.com
i always make up stories about people i see out and about...and why they might be at this place at this time...same goes when i'm walking by a house i might imagine who lives there and what they do...it's an entertaining game...

January 2026

S M T W T F S
    123
45 67 8910
11 121314 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 2324
25262728293031

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 26th, 2026 05:23 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios