Janet's Story

Posted on Sat Dec 30th, 2023 @ 8:37pm by Brohs

606 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Secret Spies
Location: USS Samaurai, Behind Cargo Bay Bulkhead
Timeline: MD 1, 1830

Janet stalled into a flip, extending her feet to catch the place where two pieces of ventilation ducting joined, coming to a stop hanging head-down at the same moment her momentum fell to zero. Her bro,

Julie,had practiced less, and being younger, refused to accommodate change. She missed the landing and had to flap hard to come back, frowning hard at the other Broh.

"Dude," she said, shifting around several times to get close to Janet. "I don't like here. The vents are too small, and there's no big space like back home."

Janet put her wing around Julie, and groomed the scales behind her large ears. "Wendy says it's better here. That we gotta find a new place." Even with her ingrained confidence in Wendy's wisdom, the thought of a new place needed a little cementing in Janet's brain. She wasn't fond of change, either, but she trusted those who came before.

Julie blew a raspberry. "Wendy says! Wendy says! What's Wendy know, anyway? She's just a bottle!"

Janet sighed. "This is what the old people said when I was a li'l dude..."

"A story?!" Julie scooted out from under Janet's wing. "You're seriously gonna tell me a story?! Dude!"

Janet nodded. "The story of Bob and Fred," she explained.

"Bob and Fred!" Julie huffed. "Two dumb dudes got themselves catched by colors!"

"That's one way to hear," Janet agreed agreeably.

"But also, two clever dudes who got away from the colors without having their brains schcoooooped out." The p in schcooped was plosive; among the bros, it was always said that way, an onomatopoeia of the top of the head coming off and brains being removed.

"Bah," Julie said, but she moved back closer to Janet. It was cold in These Shafts, and the warmth of another Bro's body was helpful. It wasn't because stories, especially this one, gave her the creeps. It was because the area was cold and she didn't like cold

"Now, Bob and Fred were catched," Janet said. "Out of the Great Wide Open. They said they was flappin' along like anything, and then? They just fell asleep."

"Dumb-dumbs," Julie grumbled. "Who falls asleep flappin'?"

"The Colors made them fall asleep," Janet said, sounding mysterious.

"Nobody makes you fall asleep!" Julie scoffed. She knew the Colors were real. She'd seen them herself in Old Home ... but they didn't have any special powers. That was just silly.

"The Colors can!" Janet argued. "They point at you, and light comes out, and you fall asleep! And then..."

"They Schcooooooop your brains out," Julie mocked. "Stories dumb. Don't want a story. Want a shaft big enough to spread wings allaway out. Want warm blows, and cross-currents, and all!"

Julie was young, Janet realized. All she thought about was what she already knew and what she wanted. For her, change wasn't part of life. For Janet, either, truthfully, but Janet had heard the stories many times, and the experience of Bob and Fred was well known by the Brohs, one of the most repeated tales, significant especially for their escape ... a rare happening.

"Wendy says we'll come to a new Great Wide Open if we wait," Janet finally said, as if that was everything that needed to be said.

"Wendy says!" Julie made another raspberry, released the seam in the ventilation shaft, and fell away, spreading her wings, just barely clearing the sides of the shaft with their tips as she flew away.

"But..." Janet called after her. "If Wendy says, it's so!"

It was a truth she'd held onto all her life, and she was scared... if Wendy didn't know, who did?

 

RSS Feed