English Legacy: Finest Worksong (Chapter 14)

The time to rise has been engaged
You're better best to rearrange
I'm talking here to me alone
I listen to the finest worksong
Your finest hour

All right, you stupid faucet.... I have you now! * gush * Ack!!! *splutter *

Is this a bad time, Alexander?

One second.... almost.... * wrench wrench BANG * got it!

There, all fixed. Now, what did you want?

Hey, whatever happened to showing a little respect for your Creator?

Oh, believe me, after what you almost did to my parents, you ARE getting little respect from me.

* rolls eyes * I wonder if Aero or Ruby have to put up with this crap...

Any particular reason you're talking to me?

Well, it's been a few more days, I thought I'd see how things are doing. Where's your dad?

Dad? He's sleeping. He just got back from Closing the Big Case - he came back with five large.

That must have been nice. I'm sure he didn't like having to leave in the middle of your birthday.

Naw, that was okay. He used it to redo my bedroom, and get me a new computer.
Hey, that looks pretty good. I see Chris transitioned to being a kid. What happened to the Mr. Sponge computer? You better not have sold it.

No chance of that - Dad has pretty much carved it in stone that that computer is going to be a family heirloom. It's in Chris' room now.
Ah, that's all right then. How goes the Galaxy Searching?
Could be better, could be worse. I thought I'd found a new blue star, but when I went to look it up, it was already named "English Prime." Turns out my dad found it last night.

D'ohh.

Naw, that's okay... I went back searching, and found a satellite no one else had yet. I named it "Truth"... because... the Truth is out there.

Oh, how clever. And on that note, I think it's time to check on your mother.

Wait, hold up. Don't wake her - she needs to sleep before she goes back to work tomorrow.

Your mother has a job now?

Yep.... she went and got it after Chris' birthday....
"Sweetheart, can we talk?"

"Of course, my love," Brian replied. "What's on your mind?

"Well, now that the boys are both in school, I'd like to get a job. I still really want to be a Creature-Robot Crossbreeder."

Brian looked curious for a moment. "That sounds like it would be a career at the Science lab. A job there involves a lot of time outside, fishing and gardening. Don't you Hate The Outdoors?"

"Well, yes," Laurel admitted. "But, I think I can handle it. You don't like Crowds, and you've gotten so far despite being surrounded by people in the course of your job."

Brian nodded and smiled. "Good point. I think you should do it, then. I think you'll do wonderfully."
And with that, Laurel drove down to the Science Lab and signed up to be a Test Subject. She'd thought the job title was a just a clever joke, until they started attaching electrodes to her skin, and brushing odd substances onto her skin to see "if anything cool would happen," as her boss put it.

She Worked Hard, and there were no odd effects from any of the experiments, except for the last one, on her first day. Her boss came up to her with a bubbling beaker, filled with a sparkling gold fluid. "This is one of our newest inventions," her boss had said. "We call it, 'Mid-Life Crisis', and we need you to drink it to see the effects."

Laurel looked at it doubtfully, but she was in no position to refuse, since "Drink anything the nice scientist tells you" was part of her job description. Trying to summon some of her oldest son's Bravery, she drank it down in one gulp.... and blacked out.