Word count

[essayel]

“Sit down,” Saunders said nodding to a stool against the hull. He was seated on a similar one and leaned so Kit could edge past. “What did you want? – Or are you the one I was told to look at?”
“You asked me to come down here,” Kit said, a little wary. He had had a chance to look around and even by that dim light neither the surgeon nor his implements looked very clean.
“That’s right,” Saunders said. “First things first. Drink?”
He offered Kit the bottle and when he declined, upended it and drank, Adam’s apple bobbing. He only took the bottle away because he needed to breathe. With a gusty sigh he set it down and said, “Sack. An unexpected treat. So …” He reached out and gripped Kit’s collar to hold him still and peered into his eyes. “Look up – now down. Left – right. Follow my finger. Have you eaten? How are your bowels? Good and open?”
Kit answered the questions as concisely as he could. In fact Saunders didn’t leave him time for more than a yes or a no. He did show some interest in Kit’s fever after the wreck but said that in his opinion it had been brought on by the cold and damp. He sounded Kit’s chest and nodded. “That should be all right. Hmm, teeth look all right as well. That’s a hell of a bruise. I thought some might have been jolted loose. Have you got the pox?”
“No!” Kit said. “I have not!”
“You soon will have if you stay on the Aphrodite,” Saunders said with a grin and reached for the bottle again.
“I thought I was on the sloop Africa,” Kit said.
Saunders rolled his eyes at him over the bulge of the bottle. “Aphrodite. La Griffe took her a year ago. Denny couldn’t say it and started calling her the Africa Ditty and the name stuck. Speaking of Denny, don’t let him sleep in your hammock.”
“Too late,” Kit said with a sigh. “Why, what has he got?”
“If there’s a flea on board it finds its way to Denny. Or a louse. I take it you’re clean?”
“As far as anyone can be,” Kit said, taking his fingers out of his hair where he was scratching automatically. “How often do you clean ship?”
“This isn’t the Navy, Mr Penrose,” Saunders said. “Not often enough."



I'm messing about, as you can see. The thing is I need to bring in my other protagonist, which means addressing some kind of relationship - always edgy. It's much easier to write something exploding.

Rather than think about it I'm doing a meme nicked from alex_beecroft:

Comments

[metallumai.livejournal.com]

Cool, I love the way your snippets are coming along! BTW, I took your quiz and got Jean-Luc Picard. Whoever he is.

[essayel.livejournal.com]

Jean-Luc Picard. Whoever he is.

The thinking woman's William Shatner. He was a very nice captain of the Enterprise with green tea, an interest in archaeology and oodles of class.

[mcgonagalls-cat.livejournal.com]

It's because of my ears. I know it is!

(http://www.tk421.net/character/)

Its not easy being green....