Showing posts with label Describli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Describli. Show all posts

Jailbreak

jail-cells-429638_1280

"It's been six months." Frank pulled the sheets up to his chest; the girl was entirely hidden.

"What does that matter?" Alice was still in the bedroom doorway, still in her coat, still holding canvas grocery bags in either hand. "Who is that under there, Cassie? That girl from the Starbucks? Tell me it's not your secretary."

"Do you actually care?"

She didn't answer. She sighed, and went into the living room. She put the bags down. She lit a cigarette. Eventually Frank came out wearing only jeans, and she answered. "I suppose I don't."

He sat down, took a cigarette from her pack, but didn't light it. "Go to the bathroom, would you?"

"Why?"

"So she can leave."

"Seriously, who is it? I'm just curious."

"Not my secretary. Bill Warrick's secretary." He put the cigarette in his mouth, took it back out almost immediately, twirled it absent-mindedly between two fingers. "It's only… maybe three times over the past couple months. It's new."

"Okay."

"Seriously. It isn't one of those things where—"

"It doesn't matter."

He shrugged. "Okay. Bathroom?"

"I'm going to Ashley's overnight." Alice got up, stubbed her cigarette out in the ashtray. "It'll give you time to pack."

SF Drabble #445 "Natural Defense Mechanism"

"There's more over there."

In the suit, it was an effort to turn, to look at Hargrove to see which way she was pointing, and then to turn further to look that way. He saw a small clump of native black-leaf brush struggling to grow amid the ever-spreading green Earth-life. "Good eye. Shall I burn it?" They both had cans of the chemical spray, but only he wore the flamer backpack.

"There's not much there, and the grass is dry." She was already waddling towards the brush.

"Don't get too close to the leaves..."

"Hasn't gotten through a suit yet."