FFM 2024 30: Solar Panel Upgrade

Challenge: Write a 369er (3 interconnected 69-word stories) in a genre that is a cyberpunk derivative. Optionally, involve the final piece of something in the story.

My genre of choice is solarpunk. This is also partially inspired by the pot of dill I cleaned of dead dill when I took a break from writing this story.

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“We should upgrade our solar panels,” I announced as I came back inside.
“Who’s trying to upsell you new solar panels this time around?” Flamey asked in exasperation, just as I had expected.
“The government.” I handed the notice I had picked up from the mailbox.
“What the… They sent a paper notice?” Flamey took the paper into aers hands and started speedreading. “Wow. Can’t argue with this offer.”

~~~

“West side, check,” Flamey called out. I crossed that out of the list. “East side… East side is missing a panel.”
I paused crossing out that. “What do you mean missing?”
“We’re one panel short here!”
I walked up to aer and looked. We were missing one panel indeed. “Huh. I could’ve sworn I counted them.”
Flamey started looking around. “Let’s see if the last one’s lying around somewhere.”

~~~

“So, shall we blame it on the garden gnomes?” Flamey asked with hands on aers hips.
“Yeah, let’s blame it on the garden gnomes,” I confirmed. “So, east side, check.” I finally crossed that task out.
“Cleaning the missing solar panel of the dill we found it in, check.” Flamey grinned while I laughed. “Let’s proceed to run the system test.”
I started to head inside. “Commencing system test.”