I'm insane - are you just getting that now?

schampusmitlachsfisch:

jeanjacket7:

DOUGLAS (will use proper HTML once I’m on an actual computer)

—-

There were very few things Arthur Shappey didn’t look forward to. One of them was his father’s annual phone call, which it was always his responsibility to answer, because Mum would have… not been nice.

This year, he told his father goodbye as usual, thanked him for calling as usual, and, as usual, stopped himself asking why he only called that one time every year. (He’d asked Mum once, when he was younger, and she’d given him a hug and said rude things about Gordon.)

And, as usual, when he hung up, there was a fresh cup of coffee waiting for him in the next room, with more cream and sugar than he normally allowed himself (or Mum allowed him).

-

After ten minutes of arguing with the engineers, who were claiming that the hat they had clearly stolen from the flight deck was something one of them had brought from home (“Been passed down in my family for generations! Uh, though, obviously not MANY…”), Martin finally gave up and stalked toward the portacabin. He hated having to defer to a higher power, but at this rate the whole thing was only going to turn into a childish game of keep-away. And if anyone could (and would, seeing as the last flight had gone exceptionally well) put the fear of God into the engineers, it was Carolyn Knapp-Shappey.

But when Martin returned with an amused Carolyn in tow a few minutes later, the apparent leader of the gaggle of tormenters merely handed the hat over with a sheepish apology before she could even open her mouth.

-

Carolyn had a love-hate relationship with flights containing quiet, content passengers. On the one hand, they didn’t ask for much, which left her with some free time.

On the other hand, free time tended to turn into boredom fairly quickly on an aeroplane.

On this quiet and content occasion, Arthur was staying behind in Fitton, having somehow acquired the most truly spectacular head cold Carolyn had ever seen. The change in altitude could quite possibly have actually killed him. (“Woul’ by hea’ explo’e?” “Yes. Now get back in bed.”)

Carolyn settled down for a doze in the galley, thoroughly exhausted after spending the last two days looking after Arthur. She was confident she would hear the service bell if it rang.

When it did, some time later, she woke with a start and frowned in puzzlement for a brief moment at the blanket that she didn’t remember lying down with.

-

Douglas Richardson, Sky-God, moved in mysterious ways in order to do lovely things for the people he secretly cared about.

(Source: psilent-as-in-cjelli, via griff-kendu)