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Showing posts from February, 2006

Army Property

  Part 1 I was 18 years old and on a peace demonstration at a military base in East Anglia, England. We had come equipped with ladders and mattresses in order to climb the boundary fences and safely scale the coiled barbed wire at the top. About 20 of us from my group managed to scale the perimeter fence, and once inside we headed for the nearest military equipment we could locate armed with mallets, etc. to smash it to pieces. Some women made for an aircraft, climbed up on it and smashed the cockpit windows before climbing inside and smashing up the controls. I somehow got separated from the others, and decided I'd head for a light armored vehicle and see what damage I could do to that. Suddenly I tripped and fell flat on my face. As I tried to scramble up, I felt a boot in my back pressing me down into the ground again. Then I saw another pair of boots in front of my face; army boots beneath khaki trousers. `OK, we've got another one,' said a voice abov...

Waiting for Ross Part 19 - 22

Waiting for Ross #19 Surveying the audience from the stage behind the podium where he stood, Tim inhaled slowly and held his breath as he paused in his speech. Aware of the moderate restriction across his chest, easing as he exhaled, Tim looked down at his notes to rearrange the order of the papers in his hands. He was at the halfway point in his presentation. Despite his exhaustion and lack of time to prepare, it had gone smoothly up until now. An assembly of faces, familiar and strange, looked up at him from the seats in the audience. Tim could sense the expectation in the air. The large gathering of about 250 coworkers studied Tim as he arranged his notes and clicked the mouse of the laptop to move to the next slide on the large projection screen behind him. His boss, Judy, stared at him from the front row. Disregarding the stiffness in his lower back and muscle fatigue in his legs, reminders that he had spent much of the night and early morning in a standing position, Tim shift...