Short Story: Jackie And 'the Boil'...

Short Story: Jackie And 'the Boil'...

This piece has not been edited by the ShortbreadStories team.

She had a boil on her nose; a big, fat, ugly... ah, well, you know the rest, - or do you?

Staring at her otherwise flawless complexion, Jackie couldn't believe how large the thing had grown since she got back from India yesterday afternoon:-

She'd caught herself on some Bougainvillaea just before they set off for the airport, and her boyfriend had laughed, "Ha! The perfect angel has fallen!" because it took her off balance and she grovelled in the dust, getting most of it stuck to her perspiration. He did eventually help her to her feet, tut at the half-inch lesion and suggest she put a plaster on it.

"What? Some boyfriend you are!" she'd snapped, and the journey home had been, well, less than companionable let's say...

So now she felt pretty alone as she touched the throbbing lump. What would her sister say when she saw it? To be sure any minute now the little cow would come bursting into her room without knocking, as usual, and right now she just wanted to snivel privately because she already missed the 'B' she'd just dumped, "...and after such a lovely holiday too!" she muttered angrily.

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"Strange place this." Iggy remarked to a nearby comrade, "Everything seems so enormous!"

"Nothing much to eat, either; this vegetation, if that's what it is, is far too thick to get your jaws around..."

"Oh! good God! What's that!?"

"O-o-o-h yuk!!" Pop exclaimed, "It can't be REAL!"

"Oh no! There's another one! They're coming this way!"

"Look at their funny appendages" Pop laughed, "and they're only walking on two of them!"

"I don't think it's funny; they look dangerous, lurching along like that, and why's that one got all those big things hanging off it, when the other one only has one little one?"

"I don't like this, they're coming our way, warn the others!"

"Hey people, scramble! Back to the spaceship! NOW!!!"

"A-a-a-hhh!!! Too late..." Pop began, and then there was complete pandemonium as one of the creatures came right up to them and they stuck to its sticky surface.

As they were removed en bloc, Iggy screamed to the few that were left, "Get back and warn the others! This is no place for us!"

"Quick!" Pop shouted, "There's some shelter just over there!" and he led the way to a long cliff, which seemed to have something oozing from it. "Oh my," he sounded much happier, "Food!"

"Don't touch it! We don't know what's edible yet!"

"Oh well, if I die, I'll die happy! It's deLICious!"

"Mmmmm, yummy, come on folks, tuck in!"

-----

Dabbing TCP on the thing didn't seem to help, the initial scratch just seemed to get more angry, and the plaster had come away at one end because of the swelling monstrosity. "Funny how some scratches don't bleed much," she mused and poked it just as her sister came bundling in carelessly, "PAULine! Why don't you ever knock!?"

Pauline began to laugh, then saw her sister's face and screamed, "My God! What's that!?"

"A boil, what d'you..." she stopped, realising her boil was very abruptly 'bleeding'.

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"Tell you what," Pop said contentedly, "I think I could take to this life. Even that strange liquid was more like our rain at home, and was a very welcome drink after the food."

"Wasn't keen on that thing coming along and cutting our light though. Not the normal sort of 'nightfall' would you say?"

"Me-e-eh You can't have everything can you?" and they both sighed contentedly, "I reckon we'll be putting on a bit of weight before long." The others within earshot laughed.

-----

Jackie grabbed a tissue and pressed it to her nose, but when she took it away to see how the 'bleed' was progressing she nearly died; her blood was moving all of its own accord, rushing about minutely all over the tissue and across her face, some ending up in her eyes. "PAULINE!!!" she screamed, but her sister had fainted.

Jackie grabbed a nearby fly-spray and shot it at herself. The things paused a moment, then seemed to rush around even more vigorously, filling her eyes and spreading like veins across her beautiful cheeks.

-----

"Woweeee!" the general shout went up, "This world is the greatest! We've already divided at least five times, and still the benefits are showering in on us!"

"Just think! If there are even more of these things, we'll have an endless supply of absolutely EVERYthing we'll ever need!"

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...Well, it's all in your point of view, isn't it...?