The exercise:
Write about: the meteor shower.
Happy to say everybody came to pick up their local orders this afternoon - even if two customers arrived late. But late will always be better than not at all in this case - I was especially relieved when the lady who had ordered forty pounds of fruit (twenty pounds of peaches and twenty pounds of nectarines) showed up, as I was not keen on putting them away and then having to get them back out again for whenever we would arrange for her to come by.
Had a bit of wind last night and some rain early this morning and... suddenly we can see clouds and blue sky again. It's honestly pretty amazing.
Hopefully the smoke stays away for good.
Mine:
Max wanted to stay up late tonight to watch the Perseid meteor shower - he was even willing to have a nap this afternoon in order to do so. He napped for almost two hours and was ready to go.
We had clear skies, which was nice. Lots of stars and satellites... but not a whole lot of meteors, unfortunately. But that was okay, because Max was just excited to be up late and watching the night sky.
Plus we had many entertaining exchanges. I can't remember all of them, but by far my favorite was this one:
Max: Where are all the meteors?
Me: I'm not sure. We just have to keep watching for them.
Max: Let's make music and sing for them so that the meteors will come down and dance on our table.
I'm not entirely convinced he fully understands what a meteor is.. but I'm good with that for now.
The fresh air sounds good, I hope the smoke stays away for you too :) And the meteor shower sounds rather nice as well, even if there weren't a lot of them. I rather like Max's idea of the meteors dancing on the table for you, but I think he might not be planning on being an astronomer in the future. A novelist, maybe :)
ReplyDeleteThe meteor shower
Lieutenant Rache's hand snapped out and grabbed my wrist. Before I could even react his face was up against mine, our noses just touching and his breath cold against my skin.
"Look, Harry," he said, his voice leaving no doubt at all that he didn't believe me, "I might believe you read books about accountants and that exciting for you is a particularly light shade of grey, or perhaps some beige, but I don't believe that you can beat an AI at tic-tac-toe, let alone nine times out of ten. But I am certain that you've somehow managed to get my ship to leave without me -- without us in fact -- and that is going to change."
He stepped away again and the doors in front of us slid open. He smiled; wolfish but self-satisfied. "See?" He tapped his sleeve, letting go of my wrist. "Ship, return to dock immediately. You have an imposter aboard. Code Excalibur Vincere Natus. Acknowledge and confirm."
My sleeves contracted slightly and I pulled them down over my wrists, straightening them out.
"Confirmed," said the voice of the officer who'd delivered the bad news earlier. "Countercode: Moratorium Perseid Inviscid. But captain, there's no imposter, there's just a ghost in the system that made us think it was you."
Lieutenant Rache checked his suit systems. "Countercode confirmed," he said. "Ok, well that needs to be checked: we're supposed to hardened to electronic intrusion. I want-"
"Hardened doesn't mean-"
"-you to return-"
"-impervious, Sir-"
"do not talk over me!"
"Sorry Sir,"
"Return here immediately and pick me up. I have Mar Coquan with me, no matter what he pretending to be."
"...four hours, Sir."
"WHAT?"
There was a momentary silence and my sleeves wriggled again. I adjusted my stance, putting my feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and lowering my centre of gravity a touch. Lieutenant Rache sneered at me.
"Sir, we're on the other side of a meteor shower. Well, stream since they're just passing. It will be four hours before we can re-engage with the habitat."
The lieutenant sighed. "Fine, I and Mar will have a chat about his claims to be the most boring man in the history of the world while we wait for you."
A panel in the ceiling above me popped out and clattered the floor next to me. Lieutenant Rache reached for me, but the habitat's artificial gravity inverted as he did so and I fell up -- well, down now -- into the newly opened hatch and Lieutenant Rache's hand grabbed but then lost a handful of my shirt.
And I plunged into darkness.
Greg - well, it's smokey again right now, so... yup.
ReplyDeleteYes, he's becoming quite the storyteller :)
Ah, a continuation of something I'd forgotten I wanted continued! What a pleasant surprise. And that ending interaction is just so good. Can't wait to find out what awaits us in the darkness!