“I could do with some muscle tone, bicep build gymnastics.
The bones are rattling …. Am I starting to miss my former celebrity?
Exotic places it took me you.
The flashing cameras had this rhythmic chique.
It wasn’t overly intrusive but added layers to one’s self esteem.
Beads of sweat exuded from my pores at all the motion and commotion.”
Said Cosmo the dynamic inventor.
And he created quite a filibuster with his long winded dissertations and every conceivable gadget, accessory, vitamin innovation, the rainbow coloured spectrum and those shades rippled.
Those showcases at exhibitions knew no inhibitions.
Cosmos had only to peer into the wide blue expanse before those neuron ignited asides, slants, brains of his would wander off in every conceivable direction with Charlotte his co-brain and convivial partner in parameters and prestige, perspective.
But now after using their stunning creativity to vanish they now slipped incognito into an extraordinarily cheap apartment.
As both had become towering figures of initiative, whose cataclysmic significance though colossal yet only within the strict boundaries of the academic.
This inexpensive escape into a cocoon as respite seemed at one like an ill- judged retreat.
It resembled a quite mildly sinister dwelling used to introduce disquieting intrigue in vintage 1930’s films.
“Ah …. those wretched flies Charlotte I wish they’d fly away.”
Cosmos behaving so curmudgeonly as the dazzling array of foods prepared were now being peppered and nibbled at.
“You once dodged the dodgy limelight now it’s those infernal flies.
How spot on these flies are.
As precise as you and I were in our day.”
Professor arthropod,
not his actual name, that name that had an adhesive glue like sticking power that stuck also that miffed professor who didn’t like to envision such a prominent duo so sagacious, savvy, super nimble minded especially Cosmos and Charlotte ending their careers in midstream. Ccc
“You’ve me deserted me midflight.”
He said.
The professor was not necessarily agitated but had this spatial preoccupation with peaks, scales, and
and human projection.
Lift off and bird winging capacity an offshoot.
The professor had this hazy silhouette
of now you see now you don’t.
All his students felt he was omniscient.
Charlotte’s dry wit pry.
“Isn’t there some tiny quite annoying about pests yet fascinating about them?
Bearing in my mind the life’s that Cosmos and Charlotte both lived the buzzing flies now have replaced the probing depth interviews, the wily worded traps set, the expectations of another major innovation.
“We’ve now escaped the limelight sort of …. but are you having this wooly feeling, this ethereal feeling that … dare I say it we liked things as they were ?”
Charlotte’s uncomfortable probe which lead into many strange avenues that were now appearing on the faces of both persons concerned
“Oh now that wretched those wretched flies I left the window to get rid of them.
Rather odd that having a meal uninterrupted is fast becoming an obstacle race of sorts anyway.”
Cosmos wearing a bemused yet somewhat sinister countenance.
One could just as easily wonder were these invasive flies a symbol from the skies of moving from one strange state to another.
Cosmos wore this wry smile on her face as she wore this bland thought calculating look at what was transpiring at this point in time .
“Must mind that sweet tooth of yours … ours too and all the time we spend doing those dishes.”
It was extremely bizarre how on a certain reduced scale a couple, gifted linguist Charlotte and scientist cosmos made the unexpected transition from standard pursuits of success and attainment to a relatively unexpected attention from the mass media and general circulation press to a current situation where they were being hounded by flies … of all things.
It was part of the area they lived in.
Most of their nearby neighbours shrugged it off without qualms of any kind or the other.
Might be seen as an irritant, intrusive, nuisance factor without considering it to be something more than it is.
“The thing is we flew away in a somewhat different way eight or nine years ago.
Can you grasp that all with this situation we are in but victims of chase in ornate words
Cosmos and Charlotte peered out the window and then decided to go for a walk.
“We might get some peace shall we from those wretched flies that seem to be following us everywhere.”
They sauntered along hot steam emitting sidewalks knowing that they would no longer have to worry about secret cameras snapping, surprise requests on the spot for interviews, photograph requests.
“I seem to have this strange perception?
Do you think we are all somehow in flight?
Things of the nature and supposedly artificial are in a state of flux.
The word fly kind of brought us together when we first met?”
Cosmos scratched his brow, did some browsing on his iPhone and responded in a sluggish manner.
“Yes, remember the symbolism of it all.
There were birds in flight.
A helicopter overhead seemed an omen of sorts.
Yet as you say Charlotte our relationship has endured but flight?”
They both nodded simultaneously without either having to say much.
“Yikes, a seagull tried to nab my health food bar.”
A rambling stroll sort of picked up speed and a gust gave them impetus.
One could use the expression flying along without too much effort or strain and that’s putting it mildly.
They were impelled, driven, almost as if an external force was this Svengali figure was somehow looming about the place.
Two people who worked seamlessly together now were entertaining dark thoughts.
They had noticed things to do with movement, moving spaces, objects, time and space and things related to time and space somehow intruding.
“Ouch was that a bee a wasp or just my mind playing tricks or what.”
On this day of days a rapid unfolding of events had now this life of its own.
“What is this?
I’m seeing kites, flying, people flying up and down slides, more flies about, a buzz about, I’m seeing, are you seeing dodgems, go cars.”
The couple felt either as if they were passive observers in a dream, a mildly gothic comedy, or they were hallucinating.
“Cosmos, you have just leapt into the air to catch a fly.
Is it this your idea of a joke?
You are flying through the air.”
Charlotte now musing on what her options were this warm and blustery day.
“Perhaps, I’ll join you.
I’m still reasonably fit as you are,
That’s one aspect of us that might not have changed despite the bizarre nature of this day when a bunch of flies effectively booted us out of our compartment.”
Charlotte essayed an acrobatic leap in the air too.
They both then did this extraordinary sequence of otherworldly leaps which they had honed from their early yoga and keep fit days.
“Look at what we did start.
There are people copycatting us.
It’s funny people are brushing flies aside and they don’t like it one bit.
The flies that is.”
Cosmos was amazes as well.
People were simultaneously pointing at them the couple in amusement.
Splitting their sides laughing.
“People are surrounding us, they are approaching us with all sorts of ideas such as music.”
A whirlpool of coincidence now surrounding those couple who were apparently trying to escape flies, after trying if half heartedly to escape from the media and retire into would be anonymity.
After much fanfare cosmos and Charlotte returned to their stylish apartment.
Only to hear a knock.
“Professor, won’t you come.”
“Oh thank you
I’ve been thinking of this project about flies, flight simulation,
even a possible feature film with actors, actresses, you know.
Provisional title Fly Me Away.
“Wonder how that’s going to fly?
Or weren’t we flying already at an earlier stage.”
This professor dropped hints at getting away from the limelight.
“I could do with a little peace and quiet or do I?
People come out of retirement of course.”
Stares were shared all around.
“Maybe you might have some pearl of wisdom input?
I’d JUMP at the chance.
I’ve a feeling it’s going to FLY as a concept.”
At that point a fly landed in a fruit bowl Charlotte had in her hand.
Dedicated to my intellectually brilliant and beautiful sister, Jay A Pallen