“Some people find this pretty heavy going. I regularly offer a headset, with your choice of music, while we proceed”, Katie said. Her warnings didn’t really do justice to the goings on!
“Just move your shoulders up a bit. Yep, ah no, back. That’s good. It’s going to be very loud. So do you have any musical preferences?”
I don’t really get into ‘piped’ music, more so since I observe 98% of society disconnected, wandering around with little white earbuds, ensuring minimal contact with nearby humanity. “Nah, I’ll be right, thanks.” Katie put the headphones on me anyway, explaining the need for noise cancellation.
A head-mask descends. I steel myself not to panic, after all, this is routine, not some wild, unchartered adventure. OK just think about the shopping. What do we need in the pantry. More self-raising flour, soy, biscuits, maybe more tomato paste, pasta spirals. Ah, what’s for dinner tonight? Hey, and it’s also my Flash Fiction weekend: 42 hours remaining to write my 500 words. It’ll be fine, I’ve still got the rest of today, and all tomorrow up my sleeve.
I realise I am moving, friendly words of encouragement blur as I’m slid into the chamber! I hear Katie through the headphones, alerting me to things about to start. A weak, distant whirr, builds rapidly. There are ‘bongs’, ‘taps’, I think I hear the deep ‘plucks’ from a bass instrument. I forget the shopping list; this symphony is far more engaging!
At one point, there is a series of loud ‘bonks’; a trilling of a thousand sparrows, then screeching – has gotta be corellas, and I am sure a long cawing represents a murder of crows somewhere close. There is honking – geese, maybe, providing quite an appropriate syncopation, keeping everyone in synch.
This is raw music – an avian symphony. I wonder if it has ever been recorded. I could do a rerun, bring a recording device, some judicious editing. I could play it at next month’s Jazz Festival.
I’m interrupted. “How ya doing? We will start the next regime in a moment.” Things start to vibrate, the music darkens, a lot more to take in. Katie’s in my headspace again, explaining that they are opening my ‘shutters’. I shift my focus upwards and am looking into a cleverly positioned mirror. I’m looking through slightly open venetian blinds, somewhere behind me, I presume. Is this real?
Something else to occupy my brain. It’s an everyday scene, parked cars, people, even dog-walkers moving through this panorama.
I refocus. This is a great time to consider where my Flash Fiction might go. I mentally run through the subthemes to be inveigled. I reckon I have most of them covered, although using ‘glamorous’ will be tricky! Maybe I’ll write about a group of glam wannabees. Yer, that’ll work.
I’m interrupted with the advice that things have finished. I’m slid out of the cocoon. “You can get dressed again now, and your scan results will be with your doctor on Tuesday.”