SCIENCE FICTION
Ch.3-Area 42: Code Word, Cracker 10
Chapter 3: Crystal Blue Persuasion
Crystal blue persuasion
Mm-hmm
It’s a new vibration
Crystal blue persuasion (lyrics by Tommy James & The Shondells)
This is the third chapter of a science fiction romp coauthored by D.A. Lee and Adelia Ritchie, PhD. We hope it tickles all your funny bones. In case you missed the first two segments:
Damn, cursed Amanda, it’s starting to snow! Her attention pivoted to the farm animals — horses, chickens, and a goofy black and white border collie who thought her only job was to sit all day by the southern fence and keep an eye on the neighbor’s chihuahuas.
The cable excavation would have to wait. She dusted off the old cracker tin, grabbed her tools, and raced for the barn to prepare for the quickening storm.
Later that evening, dinner done, dishes washed, exhausted from the day’s unexpected expenditure of energy, she plopped down on her beat-up old denim sofa, the still-filthy cracker tin languishing on a shop towel on the coffee table in front of her. She knew by its heft that it wasn’t empty, but the lid was rusted shut and would require a vat of WD-40 and a bucket of elbow grease to unstick it, and she wanted to avoid damaging the tin, potential art for her garden fence. She clicked the TV on and got to work.
It took three episodes of Breaking Bad reruns to wrestle that stubborn lid off. With a final metallic shriek, off it came, releasing an unearthly stench, reminiscent of a pulp mill converted to a sewage treatment plant blended with the contents of her old man’s laundry basket.
