Cold Mud
by Helen W.
Standing up was too much work, even with Simon on his left and H on his right. Jim Ellsion shook his friends off and knelt to the ground, his knees digging into the cold, wet mud. No grass here, where students had beaten a path past the fountain to shorten their between-class treks. Idiot kids, too lazy to walk 30 more feet and keep to the sidewalks. Idiot groundskeepers, for planting a grass that couldn’t handle a little foot traffic. Idiot university, for thinking that a school in Cascade, the land of perpetual rain, needed a fountain. Horribly, terribly dangerous. Sandburg was going to have to transfer to some other school; this place was unacceptable. Blair!!! Please be okay.
"Come on, Jim, we can probably beat the ambulance."
Yeah, Simon, that probably wouldn’t be a bad idea — gotta get up, get moving, make sure they treat Sandburg well, make damn sure they do everything they can to keep whatever swill is in that fountain from making him sick. Sicker.
Instead, Jim leaned forward, his hands and forearms now on the ground, supporting his spinning head.
"Jim? Jim, you heard the EMTs. He’s going to be fine."
Thank you, Dr. Banks. Yeah, everything’s just peachy now. Better get away from me because it’s not safe to be my friend; I think we got Sandburg back because Incacha decided there was no more room left in the "friends of Jim" section of Hades. Not that Sandburg’s got any reason to think that I’m his friend. What the hell’s been wrong with me?
"Jim?"
Joel! What are you doing here? Get your arm off me, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’ll be fine in a minute.
You’re crying too, aren’t you?
Look at us, two old guys getting mud on our pants. Okay, Simon, ready to go.
*** The End ***
Author's Notes: I wrote this in about 45 minutes for my dues to the Sentinel Angst list, but the image of Jim in the mud has been with me since I first saw S2P2. In my imagination, I have Taggert be more actively empathetic, but when I tried to put the image into words I couldn't manage it.
One thing that bothers me about this snippet is the change in POV. In the beginning, I'm describing Jim's thoughts, and at the end I'm telling them. I think it sort of works, because I'm trying to suck the reader into Jim's head, but it feels like bad craftswomanship iykwim.
All feedback welcomed, negative particularly! helenw@murphnet.org.