Ok, I know, I’ve been neglecting my Friday duties for far too long, and it might have continued but for the fact that I happened to spot Jan’s photo and it immediately brought back lots of great New York memories.
I may be as English as well . . . Johnny English, but many years ago I worked in New York for a year, down near Wall Street. I watched baseball games in the evening sun, saw more concerts in one year than the rest of my life, chilled out in Central Park, and discovered a whole host of fast food franchises that I never new existed.
Mayor Ed Koch used to say that being a New Yorker was not about where you were born, but rather “to be a New Yorker you have to live here for six months, and if at the end of the six months you find you walk faster, talk faster, think faster, you’re a New Yorker”.
🙂
If you’ve happened across this post by chance, it’s part of Friday Fictioneers; 100 words of fiction on a Friday based on a photo prompt. Visit Rochelle to learn more.
Copyright Jan Wayne Fields
Time to Change
Boats thump across the choppy harbour waters, spray sparkling in the spring sunshine. Behind them waves sweep across Battery Park.
Ahead looms the recently elevated Statue of Liberty, still welcoming the huddled masses now flooding in from the low lying countries around the globe.
History repeats itself, and once again they come seeking a better life. But this time they are the engineers and the scientists; not the labourers and the stevedores. This time they are the teachers, come to show us a better way, a way to ensure that Lady Liberty will never need to be raised again.
Write On Dude! 
Mayor Koch certainly knew what’s what, when it comes to NYC. Nice piece.
A cautionary tale, well told.
Stark future … and almost real soon… I hope it’s not needed… Nice to read your stories again,
Nice take, It caught me off-guard – that’s a good thing.
Scott
Mine: http://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/friday-fictioneers-sailing-away-horror-pg13/
Interesting piece. Not sure if the people coming will metaphorically raise the meaning of the statue or actually have to raise it because of changing climate. Either way the story works.
Dear Pete,
Did you mean that the statue had literally fallen in this bleak tale? At lease end on a hopeful note.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Apologies. The idea was that the seas are rising so the statue had literally been raised up higher to keep her toes out of the water. The influx of knowledge from around the world will hopefully help solve the long term problem. The seas are rising. Winter is coming.
Amazing. There are so many stories about the destruction of our planet this week – and all from such an innocent looking prompt. But your tale totally rings true, sad to say. Well done.
So many ways to read this story. I like it. My initial response was a feeling of optimistic hope in reaching whatever goal is present. Nice work.
Well done; just the right amount of mystery to keep me digging around till I realized what happened. The situation looks a little less dire than it used to, but with a system so complicated, who knows what future research will bring.