Daily writing prompts from June 9th, 2008 to December 31st, 2022
Monday January 4th, 2021
The exercise:
Work today wasn't too bad. A lot of stuff piled up over the break, as is to be expected, but by the end I was essentially caught up. More or less. Ish.
Ah, the trick to avoiding work piling up is to never go on holiday :) I know this one! Glad you're enjoying the trips down memory lane this week; I find myself quite surprised how many characters there seem to be to revive! And... it looks like today's characters want more than one post to themselves. Sorry :(
The rift Carmen, who had held just about every title that Waterloo University had for a geologist, stood just outside the tent camp and tried to look like she was in charge. She had been in charge until ten minutes ago when the new arrivals had started walking through and looking at things, and at that point she'd felt her authority dwindle away like water running down a drain. It wasn't that they were rude, or bossy, or even particularly loud, it was just that every time she looked at them, or they looked at her, she found herself doubting herself more and more. And she was sure that the other geologists, petrologists, and hydrologists could feel it too. Miriam, who was a hydrologist, pretty and barely thirty with auburn hair that cascaded in waves down her back and thick-rimmed glasses that made her look nerdy in a way that suggested she would look stunning when she took them off, sidled up to Carmen. "Who are they?" she whispered, and Carmen felt a moment of relief that at least someone still thought she might be in charge. "Experts," she whispered back. In her pocket was the Letter of Authority that they'd presented to her, although at the time it had felt rather like they'd handed it to a clerk to deal with since it was too insignificant for them themselves. "The Joint Governments of Canada and Quebec have appointed them to investigate the rift on account of their experience, yada-yada-yada." "Oh." Miriam wrinkled her nose. "Aren't we all experts though?" "Yes," said Carmen with feeling. Anger surged through her for a moment, then damped down again. This wasn't a hockey match, it was just a rift, a hole in the ground. It wasn't worth getting angry over. "But I get the feeling they're experts in the bits we're not."
"Oh," said Miriam again, and she fell silent. They'd all looked at the rift and they'd all started off with some variant of "I have no idea what caused this." For quite a while there had been a strong temptation to say, "It was like that when I got here," as whatever had caused the rift, and whatever the rift was doing, was certainly beyond their everyday experience. Depth soundings returned contradictory information, so they'd tentatively concluded that something in there was moving, or still moving. A quick glance at the minerals around the rift had caused problems as there were things there that definitely weren't found anywhere in a 500km radius, which meant that whatever had caused the rift must have brought them. Except that they were also fused and burned and mixed in with the surrounding area in ways that don't happen when a large rock strikes the ground. Water should have been fine, but all the hydrologists would say at the moment is that it was behaving oddly. When Carmen had pressed Miriam about it she'd said a little more: "It's like it's forming cells where some bits are supersaturated and others are almost pure. But water doesn't do that." In short, it was a mess so far. A hand raised into the air and waved imperiously, which Carmen interpreted as the new experts wanted her attention. "Better go," she said to Miriam, hoping to avoid it looking like she was scurrying around like a servant. She walked as slowly as she dared out towards the rift, where the two tall women were frowning at the ground as though it offended them. "Carmen," said the shorter of the two, but it by a mere centimetre or so. "I am Miss Hyde. I specialise in information storage and retrieval over geological timespans." Carmen tried to wonder what that meant, but the other woman was speaking, and her voice demanded attention. "I am Miss Sikh," she said. "I was a goddess 75,000 years ago but I am on... sabbatical. And this is a problem."
4 comments:
Ah, the trick to avoiding work piling up is to never go on holiday :) I know this one!
Glad you're enjoying the trips down memory lane this week; I find myself quite surprised how many characters there seem to be to revive! And... it looks like today's characters want more than one post to themselves. Sorry :(
The rift
Carmen, who had held just about every title that Waterloo University had for a geologist, stood just outside the tent camp and tried to look like she was in charge. She had been in charge until ten minutes ago when the new arrivals had started walking through and looking at things, and at that point she'd felt her authority dwindle away like water running down a drain. It wasn't that they were rude, or bossy, or even particularly loud, it was just that every time she looked at them, or they looked at her, she found herself doubting herself more and more. And she was sure that the other geologists, petrologists, and hydrologists could feel it too.
Miriam, who was a hydrologist, pretty and barely thirty with auburn hair that cascaded in waves down her back and thick-rimmed glasses that made her look nerdy in a way that suggested she would look stunning when she took them off, sidled up to Carmen.
"Who are they?" she whispered, and Carmen felt a moment of relief that at least someone still thought she might be in charge.
"Experts," she whispered back. In her pocket was the Letter of Authority that they'd presented to her, although at the time it had felt rather like they'd handed it to a clerk to deal with since it was too insignificant for them themselves. "The Joint Governments of Canada and Quebec have appointed them to investigate the rift on account of their experience, yada-yada-yada."
"Oh." Miriam wrinkled her nose. "Aren't we all experts though?"
"Yes," said Carmen with feeling. Anger surged through her for a moment, then damped down again. This wasn't a hockey match, it was just a rift, a hole in the ground. It wasn't worth getting angry over. "But I get the feeling they're experts in the bits we're not."
"Oh," said Miriam again, and she fell silent. They'd all looked at the rift and they'd all started off with some variant of "I have no idea what caused this." For quite a while there had been a strong temptation to say, "It was like that when I got here," as whatever had caused the rift, and whatever the rift was doing, was certainly beyond their everyday experience. Depth soundings returned contradictory information, so they'd tentatively concluded that something in there was moving, or still moving. A quick glance at the minerals around the rift had caused problems as there were things there that definitely weren't found anywhere in a 500km radius, which meant that whatever had caused the rift must have brought them. Except that they were also fused and burned and mixed in with the surrounding area in ways that don't happen when a large rock strikes the ground. Water should have been fine, but all the hydrologists would say at the moment is that it was behaving oddly. When Carmen had pressed Miriam about it she'd said a little more: "It's like it's forming cells where some bits are supersaturated and others are almost pure. But water doesn't do that." In short, it was a mess so far.
A hand raised into the air and waved imperiously, which Carmen interpreted as the new experts wanted her attention.
"Better go," she said to Miriam, hoping to avoid it looking like she was scurrying around like a servant. She walked as slowly as she dared out towards the rift, where the two tall women were frowning at the ground as though it offended them.
"Carmen," said the shorter of the two, but it by a mere centimetre or so. "I am Miss Hyde. I specialise in information storage and retrieval over geological timespans."
Carmen tried to wonder what that meant, but the other woman was speaking, and her voice demanded attention.
"I am Miss Sikh," she said. "I was a goddess 75,000 years ago but I am on... sabbatical. And this is a problem."
Greg - you have indeed amassed quite the collection over the years(!) you've written here.
Nice to see Misses Hyde and Sikh again. This rift sounds quite fascinating! And Carmen is an interesting addition to their dynamic as well.
Post a Comment