Archery Treachery
When I was at university, I took an archery class. One of the first things they tell you before you touch the bow & arrows is that you should NEVER shoot an arrow that has lost a fletching (the 3 little feathers at the base). Well, they never tell you why, but they just throw the warning out there, tempting us like fools. With arrows. Anyway, everyone in the class would occasionally get an arrow missing 1 fletching and would still shoot it and it would work just fine, although no one had dared fire away with a single-feathered arrow. Well, one day I happen to see among my batch that I have accidentally snagged one that has NO FLETCHINGS WHATSOEVER.

I think you know where this is going. You're right, but there's more to it.

Toward the end of class, it comes time to fire our final rounds and break down the equipment. Well, as everyone else is firing the last arrows, I pick up the sans-fletching arrow, aim with extreme precision, fire, and watch in horror as the arrow not only goes way off target, but begins steadily rising in the air. And it doesn't stop rising. It just keeps going. I look over to the instructor who I swear is eyeing me suspiciously, but he says nothing. I quickly make like I hadn't even shot anything and start disassembling the bow. Subtly, I glance up to my arrow, still in mid-flight and not slowing down one bit. It continues past the end of the football field (yes, it went the entire length of a uni field), past the fence at the end of the pitch, and it is at that point that I realize I can no longer see the arrow, but given height and velocity, it was heading DIRECTLY for the dorms.

My imagination races. I will have shot some poor fellow student. They will kick me out and revoke all grants and scholarships. Imagine my terror, then, when within minutes, I hear ambulance sirens in the distance. Imagination races. I break down the equipment as fast as humanly possible and walk like the wind toward the dorms. Once over there, I see no ambulance. I search like a madman for any sign of arrow or impact. There is none.

To this day, I have no idea what happened to that projectile, but I never heard about any incident of a student being randomly arrowed, so I can only assume the best. The most baffling thing about the whole ordeal, however, is that in the bushes outside the dorms, I found an arrow... with all 3 fletchings!

I have since kept that arrow in my closet as a reminder to myself to be a smart man with the risks I take.

Length? Like I said... more than a football field.
( intesvensk can't recall when I last checked the newsletter, Thu 6 Sep 2007, 9:13, Reply)