Pink Goo

“Um…” Jimmy said, coughing slightly and attempting to flick away a bit of the goo that was sliding off the side of his head. “The plan didn’t go as expected. Um….”

Mary looked at Jimmy. Then at the ceiling. Then at the floor. The same pink goop was coating all three. She tried to suppress a smile, and failed miserably.

Jimmy was intensely frustrated and muttering something about calibration, half to Mary, half to himself. He attempted to scoop enough of the globulous muck off of his wrench to separate it from the work bench.

“I might go top side, get some air” Mary sing-songed.

“Hmm, what, yes, good idea. I’ll keep <grunt> working with … yes” Jimmy had begun to wrestle the gunk off the machine itself. He quickly became absorbed in the task but was becoming encased in more of the sticky pink gloop even faster.

Mary opened the hatch and stepped onto the deck of the boat and into the brilliant sunlight. She let the door fall shut behind her and then burst out laughing. A gull sitting on the rail cawed at her disapprovingly.

After a quick dip in the sea, Mary was feeling much refreshed and had shed most of the explosion’s remnants. She sat on the starboard bench, combing the last of the taffy-like goo out of her hair, gazing out across the calm water.

The stillness was broken by a muffled thud from below the deck.

Mary paused briefly, contemplating whether she would make the situation better or worse by opening the hatch. ‘What am I thinking?’ she laughed to herself and pulled open the door.

Jimmy squinted up towards the silhouette in the bright square of blue above his head from the somewhat twisted position he and the workbench now lay in.

“I can’t move,” he stated, somewhat perplexed as to how, exactly, this situation had come to be. 

“Hold on a moment,” he heard Mary reply before she disappeared from his sight.

Jimmy continued in vain to try to separate himself from the workbench, but the pink muck was beginning to set into a substance not unlike concrete. ‘Wonderful’ he chastised himself silently. ‘Why did I try to show-off before I’d properly tested it? What did I think it would accomplish? Was she meant to be impressed with me?!’ He sighed outwardly. ‘A notion someone as foolish as I could only dream.’

“Close your eyes and hold your breath!” Mary called down.

“What, why?” Jimmy strained to make out what Mary was doing, but his head was now stuck fast in place.

“Just do as I say” Mary called back.

The water was surprisingly cold as it hit Jimmy in the face.

“I’ll be right back with another bucketful!”

Jimmy groaned inwardly.

This had to be the worst first date on record.