“His First Question”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
– Voltaire

“Is it hailing yet?”

I turn around and stare at him. My mask moves slightly, shifting my view through the eyeholes to the thick, black plastic. I readjust it so that I can fully look at the blindfolded man tied to our backseat.

“What did you just say?” I ask, almost forgetting to deepen my voice.

His head jerks up, as if surprised that I noticed that he spoke. “I said, is it hailing yet?”

“Uh…”

I can honestly say that I’m speechless. Seriously, we just kidnapped the guy and his first question is ‘Is it hailing yet?’ No ‘Who are you guys?’ or ‘What do you want from me?’ Just ‘Is it hailing yet?’ Wow.

“So?” he asks, leaning forward as much as he can before the seatbelt jerks him back. “Is it hailing?”

“Why does it matter?”

He stays silent for a moment before saying, “You drugged me and I woke up here, in what I suppose is the back of a vehicle of some sort. There was supposed to be a hailstorm coming into New York last night, or rather the night that you kidnapped me, at exactly 11:08 PM. The storm was supposed to last for three days straight. You must’ve heard of it; it was the talk of the town because of all the safety precautions that were being put into place.

“So, if it is hailing right now, it means that I have woken up within three days of when I was taken and that we are still close to New York, somewhere along the path of the storm. But, if it isn’t hailing, it means that I have either woken up three days after the storm or we are no longer in the same area that the storm is located.”

He pauses, as if his long and–quite frankly–boring speech was supposed to make any sense.

He sighs and says flatly, “I’m trying to figure out when and where I am.”

“Oh,” I say. I turn back to the front. I guess it serves us right for kidnapping a meteorology professor.

Final Comments: I have no idea if the logic of this makes sense, but it was fun because I don’t think I’ve ever written a story with a meteorologist before!

Overall Rating: 😅