{"id":1850,"date":"2023-11-23T14:00:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1850"},"modified":"2023-11-23T14:00:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T14:00:39","slug":"fire-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/fire-works\/1850\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow was it?\u201d Alfie screwed his eyes in concentration and anticipating the usual sotto voce response, leaned forward in his riser-recliner. He had declined the invite to the Council’s Annual Fireworks Display. Storm Ciar\u00e1n was rolling in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cBrilliant!; not the wash-out expected.\u201d Fiona’s explosive response caught him unawares. Hovering on the remote (retaining maximum control over his environment was important), his hand reacted in a surprised tremor. The chair, rented courtesy of his son, responded to the manual \u201crise\u201d command; Alfie slid to the floor, pinned under the strategically placed wheely frame, a gift from his daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cFuck Me… Save me from this hell.\u201d   On his back, glasses dislodged, Alfie surveyed the intricate cornicing and central rose of the \u201csmall lounge.\u201d The tantalising mistiness of detail recalled to mind that entertainment he and his late wife had so enjoyed at the Couples Parties before any of the seven veils had been removed. Sporadic pyrotechnics of private parties continued outside; Roman Candles, Peonies, and Diadems were corralled in raindrops as they burst across the uncurtained picture window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

            \u201cI didn’t fully understand your 2 commands. Please rephrase\u201d His son Frank had chosen the chair’s seductive female voice. \u201cSuitable for an ageing Lothario like Dad,\u201d  he had confided to his sister Jo. \u201cMight help him settle\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201c My help alarm… press it, idiot machine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank and Jo visited every Sunday for lunch. Dad appeared to be settling in quite well. His developing friendship with Fiona had helped. He was even becoming more confident instructing. \u201cthe idiot machines.\u201d Fiona was now an additional primary authorising voice. Chair and frame had been paired, the former’s manual keypad was decommissioned in favour of spoken programming and Management  had agreed they could share a twin room. The clincher,- Fiona could help Dad position the frame at his bedside, in the shower. \u201cIt’ll maximise his independence… less work for the staff,\u201d the siblings argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cLike that Hitchcock film.\u201d  The Fire Service Chief was running the footage from those security cameras that had survived the blaze past the assembled committee of crime scene investigators, police and forensic scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cNot that Laurence Olivier was in a wheelchair….. nor Joan Fontaine scrambling to keep up with him on an assisted AI Tripod Frame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan’t hear their conversation. Can you turn the volume up? \u201d someone requested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStill learning\u201d Alfie was saying. \u201cMust have mis-processed again. Heard ‘fire works’ instead of ‘fireworks’. But did remember ‘Save me from this hell.’ I wonder how \u201cshe\u201d arsoned the building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRemember that moving-in-together meeting.\u201d A third voice joined the conversation. ‘We get on like a house on fire’  that’s what you said Alfie and ‘it’ll save us money; it’s not as if we have money to burn.’  And Frank and Jo were so enthusiastic afterwards, stressed the importance of not  burning too deep a hole in their inheritance pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut fifteen deaths?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou never said save us all\u201d  purred the chair and frame in unison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLike that Hitchcock film.\u201d\u00a0 The Fire Service Chief was running the footage from those security cameras that had survived the blaze past the assembled committee of crime scene investigators, police and forensic scientists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[695,1026],"tags":[1061,1062,541,1060,370,1063,95,8,1064,122,20,1065,1066,11],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-nov-2023-fireworks","tag-alfie","tag-chair","tag-dad","tag-fiona","tag-fire","tag-frame","tag-had","tag-he","tag-help","tag-him","tag-his","tag-response","tag-son","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-tQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1852,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions\/1852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}