The ship was way more functional now: a kitchen, a bedroom, a proper bathroom, some kind of lounge with couches with patterns straight out of the roaring twenties. And then some odd alien furniture and decorations.
Raymundo kept lugging his tools back and forth, making tune ups to his ship. He studied the logs, dug through schematics and diagnostics, slowly fixing each and every part of his ship.
The hours always passed quickly there, and more than once he found himself sleeping on his ship and then rushing off to work or other obligations at the last minute.
But it was coming together.
Or at least it was until Raymundo made a really stupid mistake. He studied the schematic, then powered down the ship in order to replace some capacitors, wires, and a fried computer chip linked to flight programs. It wasn’t difficult, and he finished up quickly enough.
When he powered the ship back up, he realized he had done the work too quickly. There was a pop, and the power was out. It didn’t take him long, looking at the wires he just replaced.
“Idiot.” He grumbled, pushing him out from underneath the ship. The schematics were from above, but he worked from below. Everything was backwards.
He’d need a bunch of new supplies in order to fix things. And in the meantime his ship was off, smooth black walls completely visible if the barn doors were open.
To top off the mistake sundae with an extra bitter tang in the back of his mouth, he messed up his social life too.
“Hello?” Raymundo only answered DJ’s calls when he was at the ship.
“You’re late.” DJ’s voice had a bite to it. Made even worse when Raymundo fell silent trying to remember what he was late for. “You’re out there aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” Raymundo answered quietly.
“First you missed Sam’s birthday, then the reunion, and now,” DJ sighed. “Do you even remember-”
“Babysit!” Raymundo blurted. “I’m so sorry!” The promise flashed through his mind and he started jogging towards the barn door. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Don’t bother.” DJ snapped. “Penny and I will miss the movie anyway. We’ll reschedule.”
“DJ-”
“No Raymundo.” It was rare to hear his full name out of DJ’s mouth. “Your obsession-”
“You’re the one obsessed with alien mov-”
“Why are you cutting me off!” Raymundo held the phone away from his ear for a moment. “You are captain of a grounded ship and you are going down with it!” Before Raymundo could even try to respond, DJ hung up the phone.
“Idiot.” He sighed. Running his hands down his face, forgetting about the grease. Raymundo looked at his ship. His reflection stared back at him. One man, grease on his face, hands, and splattered on his blue coveralls. Eyes wide, he sighed once more. “Yeah. That’s me all right.”
Word count: 482
