So A Priest Walks On A Plane…
People always ask writers where they get their ideas. Always.
So I’m flying to L.A., leaving from Chicago, and a priest gets on the plane. He’s a big guy, older,with sparse white hair, wearing his priestly trappings including a priest’s collar. As do most of the passengers, he has a cell phone married to his ear. And in a loud voice, he’s letting everyone know that he’s a priest.
“Well if the Cardinal hadn’t been so pushy about everything…” And “Our parish isn’t going to put up with that nonsense” and blah blah blah blah, complaining loudly the entire time.
I pittied the person he would sit next to. It was me. But, as soon as the flight attendant asked that cell phones be put away, the priest closed his phone, closed his eyes, and I didn’t hear a word from him for the rest of the flight.
During the trip I pulled out my laptop and worked for a couple of hours, writing a chapter for a future book where two men are murdered. I put the computer away, read for awhile, and when we landed, my seat companion’s eyes snapped open and he looked at me.
“So what do you do?”
“I write mysteries.”
“What kind?”
“Murder mysteries. In fact, I killed a couple of people while you were asleep.”
He stared at me, squinting his eyes. Then he stood up and grabbed his carryon. “Murder mysteries, uh?”
“Yep.”
As he walked off the plane, he turned and in a quiet, stern voice said “I’ve got a Bishop I’d like to talk to you about.”
And I thought to myself, what if tomorrow’s newspaper headline is “Chicago Bishop gunned down.”
I don’t know about other writers, but that’s where I get my ideas.
DB
