Short Wave, Long Distance
Image by okrema from Unsplash
Jerry Jackson is ecstatic that his parents listened, really listened, to his pleas for a birthday present of a Hallicrafters S-120 Tube Radio 4 Band SW Communications Receiver. It’s his dream to make an antenna that will pick up all the broadcasting countries anywhere in the world. Jerry wants to have a QS card for each country.
On the big day, he eagerly rips off the decorative paper, opens the box and there it is: the exact gift!
Over the next few days, he erects a pole in the backyard with two crossing wood sticks, allowing the east-west antenna he builds to bring in countries from both north and south. The other stick provides a north-south antenna that brings in countries from east and west of the Jackson residence.
He purchases copper wiring and strings it out of his bedroom window to the pole, splitting it so that one half is on the north-south stick and the other half on the east-west stick.
Shortly after darkness falls, Jerry knows he will get the best reception and brings in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. He duly logs them in a notebook.
The next night he gets Romania, Greece, Albania, Turkey, Indonesia, and Russia. Listening intently, he learns a few words in some of the languages. But then he hears something he cannot comprehend.
He jiggles the dial hoping that will provide a clue to this strange language. He records it on his tape recorder, takes it to a translation school but no one seems able to translate.
He tries two more translation schools before one linguistics expert at Harvard says, “That’s no known language on Earth.”
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Zvi A. Sesling
Zvi A. Sesling, an MA Poet Laureate (2017-2020), has published numerous poems and flash fiction. He edits the online magazine 10 By 10 Flash Fiction Stories. Sesling has won international and national poetry prizes. He is a five-time poetry Pushcart Prize nominee, and had a flash fiction story nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His flash fiction book is Secret Behind The Gate and his flash fiction chapbook is Wheels. Sesling and Paul Beckman co-authored the flash fiction book 40 Stories. Sesling’s Selected & New Poems will be published soon. Sesling lives in Brookline, MA with his wife Susan J. Dechter.
