A wall of hot air waited stealthily on the other side of the sliding doors. John knew the arrivals hall at Chhatrapati Shivaji was the last air conditioning he would enjoy until he reached his hotel, where cool air was not guaranteed in any event. Generators were temperamental in Kankavli. He stood, allowing the cool to seep around his neck one more time before grasping the case handle and braving the oven.
The cab driver was preoccupied – he drove erratically and spoke into his phone speaker quickly, his voice full of anxiety and irritation. The previous week’s earthquake had brought devastation to the area fifty miles south of the airport. John slid sideways across the back seat as the padmini criss-crossed the unmade roads, avoiding oncoming traffic but not potholes.
Usual hotel, usual room. A smile from the usual receptionist as she handed John his key. Four hours later he would attend his first meeting with Aditya, the CEO of a newly formed water company and John was prepared for resistance. His predecessor had warned him of the proclivity which had been shown at the suggestion of a new route for the existing pipework.
Mumbai was slowly improving their water systems but John was here to implement changes which would benefit huge parts of the city, and following Mother Nature’s recent reminder, he knew the work was needed. This was his fourth visit in as many months and this time he had a plan ….
(Daily word prompt flash fiction piece … today’s word Proclivity)
TO READ PART 2 of this story, click here
Reblogged this on Ideas.Become.Words and commented:
Seven months ago, I typed this in response to the Daily Word Prompt of the day, and it spawned an idea for a serial, which some of my early followers followed!
Apart from the need to include the word ‘proclivity’ in the piece, in a sentence I would definitely pull from the piece, I still believe this story has legs and wanted to share it again today to ask some of my more recent followers what their thoughts are about it … x
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A good start. We have similar rain-filled potholes in England’s New Forest. In fact we’ve just driven round some.
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😂😂🙈 more snow on the hills due this weekend I hear?!
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We’ll see
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That is a lovely post
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Thank you so much – I plan to continue John’s journey!
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Will love to read them
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I enjoyed how you described the world around john , Loved it!
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Thank you for reading it Joseph .. it’s a beautiful country, albeit poor in parts 🙂
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I enjoyed this piece and wish it hadn’t ended 🙂
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Aw thank you … I admit after I posted, I had a vision of John’s meeting not going to plan and how he might have had to deal with this. Maybe I shall see what today’s wordprompt is and continue the story… !!
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That will be lovely, I will look out for it.
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