The Swallow Who Was a Willow

After a man stuck in the middle seat of a long flight wishes he had more room in his row, his wish comes true: his seatmates start vanishing.

Genre: Mystery

Excerpt: But saying it out loud, he sounded a little foolish to himself, so he laughed and waved a hand. “I’m probably just being a worrywart for nothing. But I figure better safe than sorry.”

The flight attendants agreed. And they said they’d look for his missing seatmates, and if they returned in the meantime, they asked if John would come back and let them know. They would be serving the final snacks for the flight in about fifteen minutes. They would check in with him then.

What’s the Writing Prompt that inspired the story?Create a scene in a new environment. Make that environment extreme. Put your characters in unusual positions--working beneath a car or reaching for something while standing on a chair. By placing physical constraints on a character, you increase the dramatic effect of your words.

Source: The Observation Deck. Naomi Epel. Copyright © 1994. Chronicle Books.

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CREDITSStory: “John's Fellow Passengers” Copyright © 2019 by Nila L. Patel Narration, Episode Art, Editing, and Production: Nila L. Patel

Music: “Trip-Hop Lounge Abstract Background” by Digital Emotions (Intro/Outro)

Music by LEE ROSEVERE “It’s A Mystery” “Making A Change” “Small Steps” “Thoughtful” “Gone” “Decompress” “Betrayal” “Going Home” “Universe Calling”

Music by Lee Rosevere is licensed under CC BY 4.0Changes made to the musical tracks? Just cropping to align with my narration.

Find more music by Digital_Emotions at audiojungle.netFind more music by Lee Rosevere at freemusicarchive.org and bandcamp.comFind more stories by Nila at storyfeather.com

Episode Art Description: Digital drawing. Diagram. Partial view of an airplane, from nose to just behind the wings, displaying the configuration of seats. At top left are two fields. Top field reads, “Welcome, John. D.” Field below it reads, “Time remaining: 1:34.” A key to the right of the nose displays four boxes with text to the right: a purple box labeled “Available: First Class,” an orange box labeled “Available: Business Class,” a green box labeled “Available: Frugal Class,” and a clear box with a slash from top left to bottom right labeled: “Unavailable Reserved.” There is one center aisle. At the front of the plane are three rows of first class seats with four seats to a row. Behind this are five rows of business class seats with six seats to a row. Behind this are frugal class seats at six seats to a row, with rows more closely spaced than business class. The rows of frugal class seats continue to the bottom of image, separated into three visible clusters. One of the seats, third row down, second seat over is highlighted in red, and a line extends from it to a text box at left labeled “11B.” Above this box is a field labeled, “Your seat selection.” Below the seat number is a field with three buttons labeled, “Upgrade $29.99,” “Confirm,” and “Cancel.” Borders at right and left make the original vertical rectangular image into a square. The borders contain faded close-up insets of the main image. Watermark of “Storyfeather” along the side where the right wing connects to the body.