This tale was written based on the following prompts
Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #172
Simply 6 Minutes – Welcome to the Challenge: 06/07/2022
Later, Jake would claim that there was something about that song which always made him think of tall ships sailing the seven seas … perhaps he found solace in that claim, if so, he was the only one.
I personally felt that we had to take the strange turn of events in our stride, but as Jack stated rather sarcastically, our stride had only led to this … the GAP.
Sorry, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, so let me explain, Jake and I worked at the local radio station. It was a dive, but we had ambition, we had endless mugs of coffee, we even had the station cat, Ferdinand, so we were sure we sure we could drive ratings up and head on to bigger and better things.
Unfortunately, our audience had other ideas, and that was how we ended up on the midnight shift, stoned callers, insomniacs and him, the captain, who always called at 3 minutes past three.
I don’t know if we were the first to experience him, but though he was obviously a lunatic, we began to wait for his calls with anticipation. There was a sing song cadence to his words that was the salty breeze off the sea, the caw of the seagulls and the smell of fish guts spilt at the pier.
Anyway, American Pie was playing that day when the captain called, we’d stopped putting the calls live on air, the captain could be rather unpredictable and we didn’t need another demotion, and he sounded rather tense. He said he’d found the way, that they were coming to collect him, but we should flee for they had no tolerance for land lovers.
There was a sound, like a gale slapping the sails of the tall slips, then nothing … just a bleached silence.
The ships pulled into the harbour the next morning so I’ve heard, but by then we were long gone. Davy Jones was recruiting his crew you see … I hope the captain’s way agreed with him, you see we just have white noise now … and Ferdinand of course.
© NopeNotPam
nope, not pam 
Clever bit of stitching all those together!
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Thanks, it’s funny how it falls into place
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Very skillful use of all these prompts Deb. Thanks for including WDYS in your story.
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I’m not sure I could have squeezed much more in 😂
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Haha! That’s a great talent you have
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Thanks for the inclusion Deb
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I don’t write many posts on the day, but I always look at your words and think, they would work so well
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There’s no time limit so you can join in anytime. I appreciate your support for the challenge.
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Well then, expect more words to feature 😊
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Will look forward to them!
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I like how put everything together so seamlessly
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Thanks, much appreciated
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This tale reminds me of the ABBA song Fernando in the best way possible ❤️
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That’s where I got the name from, it was on the radio when I was writing it 😂
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Ahh soo cool! Brilliant too ❤️
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Deb, thank you for using my prompt too! The story fit everything so well!
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Thanks, it was fun
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Haha, this is a good one. So the captain wasn’t entirely crazy, someone really was coming for him.
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Yep, perhaps not the ideal pick up though ☺️
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I love this haunting tale, Deb, especially those last few lines.
Long ago we used to listen to a late-night phone-in show on the local radio. Some of the regular ranters were priceless!
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I had a friend who was one of them ranters, he could object to anything
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😂
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