(Hard, 2 pts): Use the title of a Murakami novel
(Easy, 1 pt): Include an encounter with airport security
https://www.facebook.com/notes/marvin-martian/blogophilia-week-216-a-simple-misunderstanding/591064064248148
It was a strange day, hanging out in one bookstore after another. The usual group wasn't there. In one bookstore, a bunch of texting teens, as if it were a textathon rather than a bookstore. Why are we on i-phones and Kindle Fires, rather than browsing books, and scanning the synopses in the books? In another, old men play chess. Another yet, has mothers with long faces. The silence is deafening. I'm thinking there is an Elephant in the room. I smile a weak smile, and hope that I didn't intrude on those who've lost their children.
I go to the library, and there are transients seeking solace from the outdoor heat. And realize, no, it's not an elephant in the room, it's more like the story that Doris clued me in on about how The Elephant Vanishes sometimes from some foreign zoo in Japan. But maybe it's the fact that the unwanted elephant, orphaned at an old age, is the heavy feeling we get like having an elephant in the room? We all know it's there... Yet we're all afraid to talk about it.
But my mind wanders... I suddenly think about how it would be crazy, that maybe like that picture, it's NOT Alice in Wonderland with the Mad hatter, it's Mad Alice on Elm Street, with the Cocky Hatter. Or if the Hatter isn't cocky, could he be the Mooning Alice and the Teasing Hatter, as the painting by Christopher would imply...
So I go to the travel agent, who books me a flight to Japan, to see if I can help solve the mystery of the disappearing elephant and his Keeper. My flight over is uneventful. But then, as I cross customs, I realize that I'm flagged in their system, because of my status as an inactive citizen. The TSA interrogates me in a language I don't understand any more... But thankfully, rather than being a legal alien in a country I was born in, I'm a legal American visitor, due to the help of Jessica, the American airport security to help Western visitors make their way through the system. A simple misunderstanding made right. Thank you!
With my ordeal behind me, I can focus my energy for the mission in front of me...
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