Fiction Fragment Friday
This week is a huge week for the space program. The Perseverance rover has landed on Mars after a year long journey. This is far from the first rover to land on Mars and each one brings with it new technology. What made this landing extra historical is the both the method of landing and the experiments that will be performed. Instead of the landing methods previously used this landing used rockets to slow the decent and dropped the rover itself to the ground by cables from the floating platform. It then flew off and crashes safely away from the rover. The experiment that has me most excited for this rover is the helicopter drone. We have never flown on Mars and it is not insignificant to make this work. The gravity and atmosphere are very different from Earth. If this flight is successful it opens up many options for future trips and exploration. Finally the rover itself has a microphone and will be recording sound on Mars for the first time.
What does all of this have to do with this weeks story? Nothing at all. I thought about going back to my Mars mission story for this week, but I think I have reached the point with that where I need to actually think out the whole crew and do some world building. I have a thread going through those stories and I want to seriously explore that. So this week instead a quick and possibly cute story that I have no idea where the inspiration came from.
“Ok it’s time to write.” I stared at the cursor blinking on my screen. “As soon as I let the dogs out. Well once I let them out then I’ll just have to stop to let them back in. No point in starting to just get distracted. I could watch a YouTube video instead. Ok, I’ll let the dogs out, watch YouTube, let the dogs in, and THEN I’ll write. Yeah, that makes sense.”
“Who do you think you’re kidding? You’ll just find another excuse after that.” I jumped and hit my laptop table sending my soda spilling all over the floor. My mind bounced between finding the source of the voice in my empty house or grabbing a towel to clean up the mess. The voice was far more concerning, but since I didn’t see anyone, I let me instincts kick in and rushed to the bathroom for the towel. The dogs were already fast at work eating the ice by the time I started soaking up my drink.
My pug Ellie looked up at me. “See I bet you already forgot that you were going to write.”
My terrier Wally looked over at her. “You’re too hard on him. He’s a busy guy.”
“Yeah, the TV won’t watch itself and that chair might float away if he didn’t hold it down.”
“HEY. See if I give you any treats anytime soon.” I was incensed that my dog would talk about me so harshly. Then I realized that my dogs were talking. I stumbled back falling on my butt scooting away from them. “It’s finally happened. I’ve lost my mind.”
Ellie trotted over to me and tilted her head to look at me. “Wait you can understand us?”
“Uhm yeah you’re speaking English.”
Wally ran over spinning in circles and jumping. “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. You can hear us, you can hear us.”
“Oh, calm down you hyperactive halfwit.”
“No this is super exciting. He can hear us. You’re just being a grumpy pants.”
“Grumpy pants? We’re dogs we don’t even wear pants.”
My head kept turning back and forth between my two pets. My jaw and eyes were both wide open. “What is going on here?”
“Don’t ask us. We’re just dogs. You’re the one that can suddenly hear us. I bet you use that as an excuse to not write too.”
“Don’t listen to her. You’re going to write a super good story. I just know it even though I don’t know how to read.” Wally jumped up on my lap and started licking my face. “Who’s a good human?”
I scratched behind his ear. “Thanks boy. At least someone has faith in me.”
“He also had faith that he could lick his butt hole a few minutes ago. Spoiler alert he was right about that one. Enjoy those butt licks.”
“Gotta pee, gotta lick, gotta pee, gotta lick.” I almost fell backwards from the onslaught.
“Ok, guys time for you to go outside.”
Ellie trotted to the back door. “Bout time.”
I opened the back door and let the dogs rush out into the yard. Their bickering was driving me crazy, so I shut the door trying to drown out the sound. It was a nice day out so I could leave them out for a bit trying to make sense out of what was happening. I slumped into my chair wondering if I had truly lost my mind. “Wait a minute. This could be amazing. I could finally know what they really want. If I can talk to other animals I could make a fortune. Be an animal psychiatrist or a famous trainer. This could be the best thing that ever happened to me.” I rushed to the back door and let them in. “Are you guys ready figure this out.” They barked in return and my heart sank. “You can’t talk anymore can you?” They barked.
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