In-Flight Repairs

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the line: "You broke it."

In-Flight Repairs

After seven long months, all Larry could think about was, “Don’t shove her out the door.”

It hadn’t always been that way.

At first it was great; getting to know each other.

Later it had been spectacular. Sex in zero-gravity was better than bacon; there wasn’t much Larry liked more than bacon.

Then “it” began.

At first it was little stuff … “Larry, could you reseal the waste disposal slot when you’re done?”

Then it had gotten worse.

“Larry, what makes you think that this duct tape will hold when I go on a spacewalk? Larry, duct tape is not the best way to secure that loose antenna. Larry, duct tape….”

It never stopped. The nagging had become as ingrained as breathing.

Even as they were making their final approach, she couldn’t turn herself off.

“Larry, the positronic plasma coil for my ray gun is leaking,” she whined staring at him accusingly.

Yes, he may have been playing with it a bit earlier. However, it was pretty much intact when he’d put it back.

He grabbed a roll of duct tape and pushed it towards her end of the capsule. Yes, they had divide the capsule into two territories about three months ago.

She watched the gray roll float towards her and said, “What do you expect me to do with that?”

Without looking up from his controls; which demanded complete concentration with the planet looming large, Larry said, “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

She yelled, “You broke it. You fix it.”

Larry flipped on the auto-pilot.

An hour later, Huston control asked “How does it feel to be the first people on Mars?”

Larry said, “I feel great! As for Thelma….” He looked at her as she glared back, “She’s speechless.”

There wasn’t anything that duct tape couldn’t fix.

Word Count 300