Morning all. I woke up this morning thinking it was Friday. I was quickly corrected, but I suspect it is going to throw me off just a little bit for the rest of the day. Maybe my brain needs recalibration. For now, let’s jump into the morning prompt. Timers set for fifteen and off we go.
Okay I like this probably more than I have liked any other prompt this year thus far. I will be spending my ling time figuring out the story behind it. I don’t know it yet, but I will.
Thursday, August 8th: The radio played a song I had never heard before.
The radio played a song I had never heard before. I blinked in surprise. This was not a station known for their adventurous spirit. They did not try new things. They had exactly twelve songs they played. The rotation didn’t even change. Everyone in town knew them by hear and knew the run time of each song.
Jed Waterman owned the radio station and served as its only disk jockey. He set the twelve songs on rotation and interrupted them at seven am to give the weather report, always adding the disclaimer of ‘At least that’s what the weather man said, don’t blame me if it’s wrong’. With timing it always came on at the end of track eight. It delayed the start of track nine by exactly 2 minutes and forty-five seconds.
The second break was at noon. It lasted exactly 15 seconds. Jed, who also owned the one dine in town, came on at exactly noon, right after track two, announcing the dinar’s special of the day. He then went into track three. The third interruption of the day occurred at five pm. This lasted exactly six minutes as Jed recounted all the news he saw fit to pass along. It could be a birth or death announcement, although not always of the human variety. When his cat had kittens, it was announced and the number given in case anyone wanted to claim one. Jed’s old hound dog Rufus’ death took up the entire six-minute news window when it occurred and had more than half the town in tears by the end.
Sometimes nothing local would be going on and Jed would interject something he heard about the world beyond their little town. He avoided any talk of politics or war and usually used the international time to interject random scientific facts. Occasionally he would simply read a short passage from one of the books he was currently reading. He always had at least three going at the time, usually more. Any literary passage was read with only the announcement of the book as a preamble and ended with, ‘Now ain’t that something to think about?’
As Jed favored philosophy books, it usually was and sometimes residents stopped by the diner to complain as the words of his something interesting had wiggled into their subconscious and kept them up half the night as they thought about it. It was sometimes humorous, occasionally informative and often irritating, however, like everyone else in town I tuned in to hear the end of the day report even if I missed the earlier ones.
At the end of the six minutes Jed would sign off and the musical rotation would continue on its merry way. The same twelve songs repeating through out the evening and night only to be uninterrupted by the morning weather report.
This wasn’t one of the twelve songs. I looked around and saw various looks of shock on the faces around me. Some were blinking as though awakening from a long sleep. As one we all looked out of the front window and towards the diner.
Ten til Midnight 