Sunday Scribblings: Mentor
After a three hour nap I am feeling a bit more human. Either allergies or the East Texas crud has moved in and knocked me down. Not my best but it has the scene elements that we were instructed to include: Goal, Conflict, Disaster, Emotion, Thought, Decision, and Action.
sorry I AM foggy – the scene elements were referring to a class I’m taking, not our Sunday Scribblings prompt 🙂
Sheila wanted a few days Earthside.  She needed a little retail therapy.  Jumping through wormholes was hell on split ends so a hair appointment was in order too.  Her boss and mentor Jonesy had other plans. He griped about too many contracts, not enough results so a few warps later and she was hiding her transport in a dank cave next to the dunes of planet 287. Dry and hot and no redeeming features except for the orange stones that littered the sands. She had nearly filled her cargo hold with stones and had gone back to the sand for one more load. That was the last thing she remembered.
Now it was barely dawn and she was hanging upside down on the wrong side of a hostile planet. If she had made it out the door three minutes sooner, Jonesy wouldn’t have had the chance to talk her into this crazy assignment and she would be sitting in a stylist chair right now getting highlights instead of hanging here waiting to become a snack. This was not going to help her split ends. Sheila twisted and swung and would have yelled if she thought it would have helped.
She had three options as far as she could tell. She could wait for the Sand Jammer to come back and try to fight her way out when he took her down for meal time. She could try to work a hand loose and get her communicator out and hope Jonesy was listening to the com unit, or she could get herself down from here and find her way out to the dunes where her transport was hidden.
She figured she had the best chance with option three so she started to squeeze first one hand and then the other loose from the ties. Lucky Sand Jammers weren’t very bright.  She got one hand loose and used it to hold on while she worked the other one out. The legs were easy once the hands were loose. The com unit was still in her pocket and she started easing around the corner as she pressed the button, hoping Jonesy wouldn’t shout.
“Jonesy, Sand Jammers! I could use some help!” She whispered into the com, hoping he could hear.
“Do you need transport?”
“I might. Can you get a fix on my com? I’m going to try to get back to my transport and cargo.”
“On it, Sheila. Be careful. Jammers are dumb as mud but mean. You probably smell like steak and eggs to em!”
Sheila stared at the com thinking about how she would like to split Jonesy’s ends if she made it back in one piece. She glanced around her looking for a possible weapon and saw her boots, hat, and collection bag over by the wall where the Jammers had left them. She grabbed them up and found her stunner in the pocket of the bag. Good timing too. She smelled him before she saw him, pressed herself up against the wall. He lumbered through the arch and the moment he saw her, she hit him with the stunner and down he went. She had to climb over him to get out and the stench made her want to gag. Once over she ran and kept going. It wasn’t completely dark and she followed the light that got brighter the closer she got to the entrance.
“Jonesy, I’m out. Send me coordinates on my transport.”
Her screen started blinking and she threw her bag over her shoulder and ran.
I love the way you combine describing the life-threatening situation with her thinking about split ends and getting her hair done! Scary and hilarious at the same time.
Kate
well it’s hard to take a big stinky sand jammer completely serious 🙂
You’re quite a tale spinner. My eyes were glued to your story all the way through! I laughed about the split ends.
Thanks Gel – even tough space explorer chics have to have their priorities.
so the story continues only to be split by what else?….hair
when you read stories you forget that heros heroins and villanoins have to accomplish the same boring things we do. The good news is tha Old Grizzly bears do not get split ends.
It’s a good thing Old Grizzly Bears don’t get split ends – it would be very hard to find a hair stylist to do the repairs! Thanks for the visit Griz!
What are those orange stones that litter the sand? Lucky Sheila is a feisty girl to cope with the situation. I am not sure Jonesy is the best of mentors but out there with the Sand Jammers even I wouldn’t argue.
Yet another amusing and gripping piece Dee.
Nicely done, with terrific pacing. I’m glad I checked back at Sunday Scribblings to see if there were any late posts!
Thanks Ann – I’m glad too 🙂
Shows how deft you are at creating a world, a story and setting them in play. We’re pulled right in, with nary a speed bump.
Trying to get back to stuff I need to finish and I was having my own speed bump. I watched an interview with an author recently who said guilt and responsibility trump muse every time – you can fix a bad page but not a blank one. After watching that I figured I better just write and worry about “what” later. It seemed to work 🙂
Hi Dee..Great work as usual. Sci-fi with wit and a female heroine is a winning combination (much better than ‘Serenity’ which I tried to watch at the weekend but just couldn’t get lost in!) Thanks as ever for your visit..Jae
I loved Serenity but it isn’t for everyone. Summer Glau is a bit scary in it. Thanks for visiting and for the use of your name 🙂
I love that you stories follow through from week to week.
Those split ends had me laughing all the way through. Keep these stories coming!!!! Even Jonesey epitomizes a fantasy of all the bosses we’d like to send to some other universe!
I’m glad I came back and checked out the late additions to last week’s prompt. I really enjoyed this–especially her preoocupation with her splint ends while trying to get out of a sticky (um, smelly) situation. I love strong heroines. I’m not patient with damsels in distress. It seems to me like she needs a new mentor!
I’m glad you came back too – I agree, I’m not much for helpless females either 🙂