DRABBLE TRIO by PATTI KURTZ RATED FRC

These drabbles were written in response to the 2006 Tracy Island Writers Forum's Drabble Challenge. The challenge was as follows:

Choose three of the following six topics and write one drabble for each of the topics you chose. You will wind up with three 100-word drabbles on whichever three topics you chose. Here are your choices:

A) Scott during a rescue (could be his thoughts, someone observing him, something he's actually doing, etc.).
B) Virgil while playing the piano (again, could be his thoughts, someone observing/listening, etc.).
C) Gordon's and Alan's relationship as brothers (one or both of them thinking about it, one of them thinking about the other, someone else ruminating on their relationship, etc.).
D) Lady Penelope (either her thoughts or someone else's about her/what she does, etc.).
E) The Thunderbirds (perhaps the ship's actual POV or someone's thoughts about one or all of them, etc.).
F) Parody drabble (anything goes, parody style).

Drabble One

"His Hands"
(in response to prompt B)

I love watching his hands. Fingers long and slender step along the ivory rectangles. Every motion smooth, as if his muscles and joints become liquid. The music builds to a crashing crescendo, and his rigid fingers pound the keys, mirroring the hidden motion of hammers against strings. Earlier, those same hands guided his 'bird into a mid air dance to rescue those trapped divers. I've seen those tanned fingers squeeze the trigger of a gun, or curl into fists, or gently wrap a bandage around a bleeding wound. But when they dance along the keyboard, the result is pure magic.

Drabble Two

"Silence"
(prompt E)

Quiet swaths me like thick cotton. My pulse thuds a steady drumbeat. My boots thump the floor and my breathing rasps like a file against metal.

"Alpha Centauri." The sound of my voice reassures me that I can still speak, still hear.

In the control room, voices murmur in dozens of languages. Computers hum as they sift through the signals. Stillness envelopes me again on the observation deck where stars glide past, patterns of crushed diamonds tossed onto a blue-black carpet. I gaze at the blue sphere shimmering brighter than any constellation. Earth. The reason I can bear the silence.

Drabble Three

"Us"
(prompt C and a little of F)

"100 words?" Gordon frowned. "About our relationship?"

"Bet you can't do it," Alan dared.

"I can sum it up in three: pain in the butt." Gordon typed the words.

"That's four."

"Can you do better?"

Alan snatched the keyboard and typed "Twins."

"We're not twins."

"We're more like each other than like Scott, John or Virgil."

"Maybe."

"What about when I drove that race and you covered for me?"

"And got grounded."

"Or when you put goldfish in Scott's bathtub and I got blamed?"

Gordon chuckled.

"That was so not funny."

"Wait, I know." Gordon erased everything and typed: "Tracys."