Inside the Rocket Surgery
skating together and holding hands- then dissolved in acid
- “You obstinate fellow!”
- strings of a balalaika being plucked
- kept the last of my clothes on
Tune in next time part 191 Click Here for Earlier Installments
Inside the rocket surgery I heard two thumps and a rattle, followed by precise, clicking footsteps. I was pretty sure I knew whose footsteps those were, and it made my heart feel like it was skating together and holding hands with its sweetheart. The doorknob turned and those sweethearts in my chest fell through the ice and then dissolved in acid because the lake upon which they had been skating was not composed of water.
The door swung inward and there she was, Dr Belladonna, the former headmistress of the Academy.
“It’s you!” she cried, happier to see me than I had dared hope. “Unless it’s Jason.”
“It’s me either way.”
“You obstinate fellow!” She stood aside and ushered me into her operating theater. I had no choice but to enter.
The room was well-lit and swelteringly hot, and it smelled of hydrocarbons. Whatever music she was listening to sounded like the strings of a balalaika being plucked with an eggbeater.
“What are you doing in Harmonia, Dr Belladonna?”
“Oh please, we’re not at the Academy anymore. Call me Absinthia.”
“What are you doing in Harmonia, Absinthia?”
“It’s not rocket surgery!” She laughed. “Well, actually it is. I’ve developed a marvelous new technique that turns the whole field on its head. Instead of performing surgery on rockets, I have devised a way to use rockets to perform surgery!” She laughed again, with a triumphant gleam in her eye. “Perhaps I should say ‘developing.’ I’m always looking for new test subjects, and you suddenly appear at my door! I’d say that’s a sign!”
I edged back toward the door, but not quickly enough. Absinthia sprang at me and injected me with some sort of paralytic. I was helpless as she laid me out on the operating table and stripped off my crocs and snowpants. I suppose I should feel grateful that she kept the last of my clothes on, but the calico pinafore was easy for her to pull up to my neck, exposing my entire torso to this madwoman and her collection of surgical rockets.
bonus points for using them in order