Crossed Words

Good ole Rufus sat in his armchair nearly fully reclined, shook out his newspaper. and opened to his favorite section, "Hmmm .. 12 down. A pain in the wall? Starts with “w.” I don't know Whack? ahh..doesn't fit." He tossed possibilities through his head. He closed his eyes as his mind drifted off into a dream.

Not long after dozing he was awoken by some chatter by a group of men standing outside an opening of his first floor flat. He locked down the footrest of his recliner and made his way to the opening. He could hear them talking and leaned into the screen with his left ear until he was able to decipher the ramblings. Mostly just small talk about Manchester Football and other general pub talk. Rufus tired of hearing the chatter reached for the upper sash and pulled it down quieting them from his room. As he did, an elderly man was heard calling to the small group of men. Did you hear the news? The North Koreans have launched a series of missiles and London is one of the targets. Bombs are on their way ri...

With that the sash locked down onto the sill Rufus could now hear only quiet rumblings, but he'd heard enough. In a panic he scrambled for all of his essentials and headed for the basement to wait out the attack. Hunched in fear for hours on end, afraid to move. He was old enough to remember the crashing thunderous clashes of the Battle of Brittan. But the rumble never came. He shut his sash too early to hear the rest of the story. The further rumblings revealed that the North Korean Attack was just a hoax. An ugly rumor started by some political malcontent. WINDOW!