{"id":142,"date":"2013-06-21T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/host2021.temp.domains\/~nationo0\/index.php\/2013\/06\/21\/the-language-of-angels-by-jonathan-pinnock\/"},"modified":"2013-06-21T14:38:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T14:38:00","slug":"the-language-of-angels-by-jonathan-pinnock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/21\/the-language-of-angels-by-jonathan-pinnock\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Language of Angels’ by Jonathan Pinnock"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cBonjour M\u2019sieur,\u201d said the guy with the wings, \u201cJ\u2019\u00e9sp\u00e8re que v\u00f4tre mort n\u2019\u00e9tait pas trop douloureuse?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cYou what?\u201d said Jim. The air smelled vaguely of croissants.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cPardon? Je ne vous comprends pas, m\u2019sieur. Je suis St Pierre. Vous \u00eates \u2026?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
Jim racked his brains for a moment, trying to work out what was going on. Was the guy saying that he didn\u2019t understand him? Well that made two of them. Then he remembered something important from his school days.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cPouvez-vous rep\u00e9ter la question?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
The guy with the wings looked at him for a moment, then burst out laughing.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cR\u00e9p\u00e9ter, m\u2019sieur. R\u00e9p\u00e9ter!\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
Then Jim realised. Rep\u00e9ter meant to re-fart, didn\u2019t it? He vaguely recalled his old French teacher forever banging on about that. He had a feeling that he wasn\u2019t making a very good impression.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cPouvez-vous r\u00e9p\u00e9ter \u2026?\u201d he began. It probably wasn\u2019t going to help, but at least it would give him more time to think.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cComment vous appelez-vous?\u201d said the angel.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cAh! Je m\u2019appelle Jim,\u201d said Jim, with a note of triumph.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
             \u201cAh. Jim! C\u2019est un nom anglais, n\u2019est-ce pas?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cEr \u2026 oui?\u201d said Jim, struggling to keep up.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cAh. Dans le ciel, on parle Fran\u00e7ais. Vous ne parlez pas bien Fran\u00e7ais, je pense?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
Huh? Something about speaking French here? Was that why they\u2019d insisted on teaching it at school? He would have paid more attention if he\u2019d known.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cSORRY,\u201d he said, in a very slow, loud voice. \u201cI \u2026 DON\u2019T \u2026 REALLY \u2026 UNDERSTAND \u2026 YOU. CAN \u2026 I \u2026 HAVE \u2026 A \u2026 BIT \u2026 MORE \u2026 TIME \u2026 TO \u2026 THINK?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
The angel gave him a blank look. Then he shrugged and pulled a lever next to him. The floor under Jim opened up, and he fell down a long shaft, which twisted around several times before coming to a halt in a large warm room. A face peered down at him.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cYou all right, mate?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cI think so,\u201d said Jim. \u201cDo you speak English here?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThank God for that,\u201d said Jim.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly right,\u201d said the guy with the horns.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBonjour M\u2019sieur,\u201d said the guy with the wings, \u201cJ\u2019\u00e9sp\u00e8re que v\u00f4tre mort n\u2019\u00e9tait pas trop douloureuse?\u201d \u201cYou what?\u201d said Jim. The air smelled vaguely of croissants. \u201cPardon? Je ne vous comprends pas, m\u2019sieur. Je suis St Pierre. Vous \u00eates \u2026?\u201d Jim racked his brains for a moment, trying to work out what was going on. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}