Weapon

Okay…so I’m going to New Mexico soon…flying out of LAX…so here’s a question…will airport security take my fountain pen away from me…sounds crazy…but consider the possibility of a fountain pen as a weapon…and let’s face it…obtuse things happen at airport security inspections.

My pen sports a very pointy nib…think about it…stab someone with the pen…deep into the flesh…not a big gash…but excruciatingly painful… surprising…into the neck…hit an artery…maybe the eye…ouch…find a fleshy vulnerable body part… plunge…deep…silver and black pen…point first…finds its mark…mutilates…stabs…causes havoc…the ink would flow…black…blue…mixing with red blood… poisoning even as the wound appears.

Should they take my pen…well they probably should even if they don’t…do I dare take it with me…I’d bellow if they seized it…be indignant…sad…my favorite writing implement stripped from me…leaving me to the mercy of ball points…roller balls…felt tips…sigh…what if they read this entry and arrest me along with my pen?

Perhaps my fountain pen had better stay behind…safer that way…but with what would I write…I’ve grown attached to its ink flow…its feel…its look in my hand…but I guess in the interest of pen preservation…my fountain pen remaining at home for its own good might be a good idea.

Maybe a fountain pen break would be good for me…I own other interesting pens…how about the two-color ball point that I’ve never used…does it write two colors at once…how would that look on a page…there is my calligraphy pen with its myriad of nibs and impossible colors…I could create a vivid three ring circus of journal entries.

I could simply take my computer…be done with it…but there is the joy of putting pen to paper…forming letters…watching the ink flow…creating words…watching a writing implement adhere to my hand…spawning my stream of consciousness…giving permanence to wispy thoughts.

I’ll chance my fountain pen...I’ve lived through the seizure of my tiny manicure scissors…watched my husband’s small pocket knife taken from him at security before we boarded a massive cruise ship…to their credit they gave him a claim check for it…perhaps government regulations just cover scissors, knives and box cutters, not fountain pens.