PHOTO PROMPT- © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
IN THE THICK OF THINGS
No wonder her husband’s company had been so generous to get him to move, and become the branch manager in China, the financial world’s new engine.
The company had arranged and paid for the move. The pay and perks were fabulous. They had everything they needed – except clean air. Hubby’s limo and office were both filtered, while she and the children didn’t dare to go outside.
This was the way the world would end, with neither a bang nor a whimper, but with a hack and gasp for breath.
***
Got to Rochelle’s Addicted to Purple site and use her Wednesday photo as a prompt to write a complete 100 word story.
Archon's Den 
Scary possibility. But look at China now. Well…it is pretty hard to see, 🙂
DJ
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I remember years ago, seeing photos of L.A. when smog first became a problem, thinking “That’s really bad.” Nowadays that’s a health spa compared to Beijing or New Delhi. 😦
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Well done – such a scary reality, I mean possibility!
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“Possibility!” Yeah, that’s what you meant – possibility. 😉
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Sounds like Los Angeles.
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And aren’t you glad you’re on the right side of the country now? The air coming off The Hill may be hot, but at least it’s clear. 😉
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Chapter 2
“Honey, come look at this. The stream in back of the house just caught fire!”
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And, as Benny Hill said, Firemen improvised. 😆
That’s supposed to be a true story. About the Ottawa River near Toledo.
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Actually it was the Cuyahoga River at Cleveland. It wasn’t actually the whole river.
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I
standsit corrected. 😯LikeLike
I can totally see this happening. The smog over some cities has reached dangerous levels. Nice piece.
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Have you heard about the Chinese ‘performance artist’, who walked about Beijing with a battery-powered vacuum cleaner- you ‘Hoover’ in Britain, but what’s the equivalent noun? – for 100 hours, and formed a brick from what he removed from the air? 😯
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Wow, that’s scary.
(“Hoover” is both noun and verb – Hoover was one of the first and is still the best-known brand of vacuum cleaner, so it fell into popular usage as any sort of vacuum cleaner.)
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Thanx for a new Briticism. I knew about Hoover, like Kleenex, or Aspirin, they were first. I’ve heard and read Hoover as a verb many times, but as I was composing that comment, I suddenly realised I couldn’t remember encountering the noun form. 🙂
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Great take and a reality for some in China.
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And in India, and many other developing countries. It will get worse before it gets better, despite what the recent treaty promises. 😯
Thanx for stopping by. 🙂
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Great piece for what’s currently happening in China. I wouldn’t want to be there…for all the money in the world.
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Thanx, and I thought you were going to say….for all the tea in China. 😯
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I spent a month in China a few years ago and your story brought back memories. I was so glad to get back to my Australian blue skies. A sober ending to your story – I hope we clean up our act before we whimper to our ending.
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Thanx for stopping by.
I published a post about my city and the surrounding area called ‘Location, Location, Location’, and mentioned many of the good things we have here. Until now, I hadn’t thought about clear air and lack of pollution. Sadly it comes with loss of manufacturing jobs, but you can breath deep while standing in the Unemployment line. 😉
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I’ve just visited that post. Your home city sounds like paradise. I think one knows when one has found home. It’s sad indeed if clean air comes at the price of jobs, but well functioning lungs are not to be sneezed at. (Is that a mixed metaphor?)
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Cough, cough .. Good imagery.
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At least it’s outside. 😯 We had a neighbor who used her smoke detector as a stove timer. 😆
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