Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Adventures of Jennifer Starfield © Walt Barrett 2014 - Segment 1

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious.
About the past, the present and the future  
First installment
A continuing story soon to be a film

Segment 1

It all started May 8th 1910 in rural northern Rhode Island. It was an exciting summer for Molly Sterling because Molly was very interested in science and there had been several stories in the local newspaper about the appearance of Haley's Comet. Molly had been forced to leave school at age 14 and had already been working for over four years in a local textile mill. She was an avid reader and continued to educate herself as best that she could. Molly wanted to be a science teacher, but she was the oldest of eight children and her parents who ran a large dairy farm needed her to work in the mill to help support their growing family. School would have to wait.
It was Sunday and Molly had the day off from the textile mill. Her plan was that after she finished her Sunday farm chores she would walk to the very high hill which was actually the rear pasture of their farm where there were no trees and it was so high that she could see for miles in all directions.
Late Sunday afternoon Molly told her mother that she was going to climb the hill in the back pasture so she could try to see Halley's Comet because it only came by once every 76 years and she did not want to miss it. Her dad advised here that she would need to get a lantern and matches from the barn so that she could return safely in the dark. Her mom advised her to wear a warm Jacket as the evenings were still quite cool in May. Molly gathered up her jacket, a small kerosene lantern, and some cardboard paper matches and started off to climb the hill in the back pasture.
Her parents watched her in the distance as she climbed

 the hill in the last light of day as she had done so many times before on her adventures to gaze at the stars. Molly had climbed the to the top of the hill in the back pasture where she could get a clear view of the southern horizon. As the daylight totally faded into blackness the stars were literally popping out of the sky at her. Finally, she spotted the comet. It's tail streaming for millions of miles. Molly was thinking to herself how lucky that she was to have seen Halley's comet because it would be another 76 years before the comet would come back again and the chances of her still being alive and able to see it were slim to nothing.It had gotten quite dark and Molly was thinking that it was time to light the lantern and start down the hill to the farmhouse. Suddenly he noticed a very bright light on the horizon and it was coming right towards her. Molly had heard stories before about strange lights in the sky and rumors of people from other worlds. No one never talked about the subject very much and there seemed to be a conspiracy of silence regarding the entire subject. Molly stood frozen as the light drew closer until it stopped right over her head just hovering there.

Molly could not move. She was totally captivated by the strange glowing light that warmed her in the chill of the springtime evening.  Suddenly a beam of light shot out of the glowing object and surrounded Molly. Molly felt herself getting very sleepy.  She was frightened and then she blacked out.

When Molly woke up she found herself in an unfamiliar room that seemed to be lit by glowing walls and a glowing ceiling. She was sitting in strange kind of soft chair. There were several of them in the room. The glowing light and the soft chair made her feel very relaxed and strangely comfortable. Then Molly realized that there was a young woman sitting opposite her in one of the chairs. She told Molly that her name was Jennifer Starfield and that she was there to be her friend and to cure her from a serious health problem.
Next – Molly takes a trip to the future with Jennifer Starfield.


Jennifer's Ship