Area 42: Code Word, Cracker 10

Chapter One: An unintended harvest

Photo by Camila Cordeiro on Unsplash...

What follows is the first chapter of a science fiction romp coauthored by

Dan Lee

and Adelia Ritchie. When we started writing this, we had an image in mind and a crazy idea to alternate writing chapters. I wrote the first one, Dan the second, and so on. Without a plot, characters, story arc, or any other clue, we just started writing, back and forth, mainly amusing ourselves. We hope it tickles your funny bones too!

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It’s still too cold to plant, Amanda mused, turning over the wormy, damp plot that would soon support her tomato seedlings. For more than 30 years, she had grown those tomatoes from seeds saved from her father’s former garden on the outskirts of a tiny town somewhere in the breadbasket of the Loire Valley, France.

Her current garden was well-organized, sporting 50+ compact raised beds inside a 50-ft-square deer fence, with a chicken run along one side of the garden. She loved having those chickens nearby, with their oodle-doodle-oodles of encouragement all day long. Or were they begging for more dandelions and shotweed to snack on?

The farm wasn’t large by modern standards, just about 12.5 acres with a half-acre duck pond bordering the old farm road. No one knew exactly how old the place might be, or what kinds of things had been farmed here. An old rusty car bumper, some rusty mattress springs, a crumbling wooden cart once painted inch-worm green and hummingbird red — discarded artifacts seemed to rise from the soil, grasping for new life.

An artist at heart, amused by all the rusty bits that came up with every shovelful, she started attaching these found objects, whether man-made or Nature-made, to her garden fence. Nuts, bolts, an old screwdriver, bits of wire, a buried teapot, driftwood—everything went on the garden fence.

Well, not everything. Out back, behind the garden, she planned to build a platform for two beehives. The honey was a bonus. Having prolific pollinators in the garden more than doubled her harvest. But first, the vines and nettles and thistles had to be cleared. She set to work, her odd, beat-up straw hat and frayed denim overalls enjoying their jobs protecting her still-youthful body from sun and brambles.

Hearing the sweet buzz of her future bees (she called them “my girls”), she jabbed her spade into the clayey earth. Once… twice… again… and clunk! “Hmm, what’s this?” she thought, doubling down with her girl-sized spade, the one that her partner made fun of for being “cute.”

Fuck him, she spat, attacking the earth, determined.

Hours later, with meters and meters of coiled coaxial cable unearthed and spread in tangled heaps across the lawn, she kept digging, spurred on by the unfolding mystery of all that buried, but seemingly never-used, cable.

What’s this? From deep underground, where now-excavated layers of cable had protected it, appeared the corner of a vintage cracker tin, the lid still sporting hints of powder blue paint that signaled Saltines. Streams of sweat flying from her brow, she ran for her more delicate, even more girly garden tools to gently unearth the rust-streaked box without destroying it.

. . .

Area 42: Code Word “Cracker 10” is a science fiction novella co-authored by Dan Lee and Adelia Ritchie.

So, what’s in the cracker tin? How did all that co-ax cable get there, and why? Who buried a Saltine box? And why? Find out in the next episode, written by

Dan Lee

. Don’t miss a single chapter! Stay tuned for a new chapter each week by following

Dan Lee

and

Adelia’s Substack

as we alternate story-telling duties. Enjoy! :D