Difficult Messages...

Hey Everyone!! :-)

Here's a little bit more of the third installment in the Petri Dish Chronicles! As always, the disclaimer is that this is a draft and, as such, it's unedited and likely full of errors and is subject to revision, revamping, and being completely scrapped and rewritten. But, with that in mind, I'm reasonably satisfied with the basics of it, at least at the moment, or I wouldn't have bothered posting it. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from the third Petri Dish book:
Petri swallowed hard. “Now what do we tell her and how do we get the message across without scaring her?”

“We’ve got to tell her at least some of the truth. In case…” Chessie grimaced. “In case anything goes horribly wrong, she has to know we didn’t just abandon her.”

“But we have to be careful what we say. Who knows who may end up listen to this message. Especially if…”

Chessie nodded firmly. “Right. So, shall we?” She gestured at the com unit.

Petri swallowed again and took Chessie’s hand. They sat down in front of the screen together. Chessie looked at Petri, who nodded back to her. Chessie pressed the record button, and the confirmation light came to life. “Hey, hun,” she began.

“Hey there, monkey-girl,” echoed Petri with a strained smile. “We got your message…”

“…and we’re so, so proud of you, hun, that’s amazing news! You’ve put in a lot of hard work, and we’re glad it’s paying off for you.”

“We wanted to wait to speak to you live, but something came up and we’ll be away for a little while.”

“Daji came to visit,” elaborated Chessie. “And he needs us to go with him to visit our other friends. You remember the ones; we stayed with them for a few weeks right before we came here.”

“It’s nothing bad,” Petri assured her. “And we’ll be back as soon as we can be. We just wanted to let you know we’ll be out of touch for a little while. But we’re still thinking about you, and we’re proud of you, kiddo.”

“The school already knows and everything is arranged, so nothing will disrupt your classes or your internship. But we wanted to send our love and let you know you have our support.”

“Love ya, kid! Talk to you soon.”

“Hugs and kisses, hun, take care of yourself.”

“Bye,” they chorused, as Chessie hit the disconnect button.