jack.h...@gmail.com
My idea, input to Gemini AI to be tidied, and then edited by me.
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The Contrails of Fatima
Jack, a retired pilot, sat outside, coffee in hand. His eyes, as always, drifted to the sky. It was Sunday, and the heavens were active. Delicate cirrus clouds stretched across the blue. But it was the contrails that truly grabbed him. They formed stark white lines, then spread like ethereal brushstrokes. "Perfect conditions," he muttered, "for optical phenomena."
An avid amateur meteorologist, Jack knew what to look for: solar haloes and, more excitingly, sundogs. The ice crystals in the cirrus, combined with the low morning sun, were ideal. He scanned the sky with a practiced eye.
He held a hand to block the sun. Two contrails intersected almost perfectly. And precisely at their intersection, a sundog blazed, more vibrant than any he'd seen. For a fleeting moment, as the trails spread, it formed an arresting image: a glowing crucifix in the sky.
Even for Jack, a staunch atheist, the sight was profoundly impressive. It was pure semi-natural beauty, a testament to light and ice crystals. He grabbed his tablet, pulling up an online radar tracker. A few taps confirmed his suspicion: an Air France flight from Paris to Vancouver and a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Copenhagen were the architects of this aerial artwork. A simple, rational explanation for an extraordinary visual.
Just then, his neighbour, Mrs. Henderson, a woman of deep faith, emerged from her house. "Jack, Jack! Did you see it?" she exclaimed, vibrating with excitement. "A sign! A true sign from God!"
Jack, with a patient smile, began to explain. He spoke of atmospheric optics, ice crystal geometry, the sun's angle, and the role of contrails. He even showed her the radar tracker. But his words seemed to bounce off her conviction.
"Nonsense, Jack," she declared. "That was no coincidence. That was divine intervention. A message!"
He sighed. It was the age-old conflict: rational versus mystical. He thought of the 1917 Apparitions over Fatima, Portugal, events millions believed to be miraculous. Contrails were impossible then, but the human desire to seek meaning, to interpret the extraordinary as supernatural, was a powerful force.
Later that day, Jack read a local news report. A church spokesperson spoke of "divine blessings and heavenly affirmations," attributing the sightings of the "crucifix in the sky" to a profound spiritual message. Jack merely shook his head, a faint smile on his lips. The sky, for him, held its own profound truths—a grand system of physics and meteorology, offering wonders that needed no divine explanation to be awe-inspiring.
However, Jack feared that his small hamlet in northern Scotland might become overwhelmed with pilgrims, praying for a repeat of Fatima.
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Jack