Links to earlier chapters below this chapter!
Chapter 7: Shades
Jack woke up the following morning and looked at Bella sleeping next to him. She had kicked her covers off. The clothes she was wearing had crept up her legs and the bottom half of each leg was showing. They were still wearing the clothes that they came to Earth in. Jack sat up and looked closer intrigued. Bella had little black strands of fur coming out of her legs. ‘So humans can have fur’ thought Jack.
Jack was looking closely at Bella’s legs when he heard her voice. “What are you doing?” asked Bella. Jack jumped and moved back a bit.
“You’re awake” said Jack, “I was just admiring your legs. You have fur growing on them. That is so attractive. You can still look like a Banbazoidian.”
Bella sat up and looked at Jack. “Jack, sweetheart” she said, “I know that reminds you of home, but I’m going to get rid of them.”
“What? No? Why?” sputtered Jack.
“I saw a short docu-hologram on the primitive holo-screen that was at the hospital” said Bella, “It was for some things that cut the fur off. Female earthlings don’t want fur on them. It is not attractive for humans. And we have to fit in.” Jack looked at Bella. “We will have to find a place that exchanges money for products such as the fur cutting thing” said Bella, “And exchange money for that and some other things, like nutrition.”
“Okay” answered Jack, “I wonder where the heck we would find something like that?”
“I don’t know” said Bella, “I guess we will have to leave the house and find out.” Then they heard Liam’s voice ring from the other end of the house. “Hey! Can someone get me out of this wet thing?” he yelled. Bella sighed. “Guess I had better go do that” she said, standing up. “Here” she said, passing the crutches to Jack. He grabbed them with one hand and watched her as she walked off. He then pulled himself up onto his crutches.
Bella sat at the kitchen table with Liam in her arms. Jack struggled out of their room on his crutches and came to sit down opposite to her. Jack looked at her and smiled. Bella smiled back. Max came running into the room, with his arms full of clothes. “Guys” said Max quickly, “I found more clothes in my thing that is a door but only leads to a small enclosed room with bars that things hang on in it. You probably have some too. Go have a look. We can change them each day.” Bella stood up, still carrying Liam and went into her room. She opened a door that went to the enclosed room inside their room and gasped. There was a multitude of clothes in there. Bella touched a piece of material with holes for arms but just one big hole down the bottom. She would have thought it was like the thing she had on that did her top half and then she had something else for the bottom half but it was longer than the thing that she had on. She rubbed the material between her fingers. Jack followed her in, on his crutches and put his hand on her shoulder. “Parrot and his lot must have left some here for us” said Jack. Jack opened another one of the doors and frowned. “Mine is boring” complained Jack, “I want one of the long things like you have.”
“Open another door then” said Bella, “Nobody said that one out of our four door things in this room was yours”. “Good point” said Jack. He opened another cupboard and squealed delightedly when he found some of the long things in there. “I want to see my clothes, I want to see my clothes” chanted Liam excitedly.
“Okay sweetheart” said Bella carrying him out and into his room. Jack staggered up to the cupboard and grabbed out one of the long things. He stumbled back to the bed and started to pull his clothes off. He got his pants off. Then he heard Max’s voice. “Gee Jack, shut the door first next time, hey?” complained Max as he walked past. Jack took his shirt off too and then put the long thing on.
He limped up to Liam’s room to see Liam throwing his feet warming and covering devices up in the air and to see Bella leaking eye flushing solution in there, facing the door. “What’s wrong Bella?” asked Jack, coming in to comfort her. Bella turned around, holding one of feet warming and covering devices. “Look how small it is” she gasped. “Yes I guess it is small” said Jack, “But why are you leaking?”
“I don’t know really” said Bella, “Just look at it. It’s so I don’t know the word it is so attractive but not attractive like you attractive but attractive like I could just consume it like nutrition. I could just consume it up. It is so small and small. I mean, look at it. It’s beautiful.”
Jack stared at Bella. “Are you being affected by some weird allergic reaction to something on Earth?” asked Jack, “You are acting like a reena.”
“Hey” snapped Bella, “Take that back.” Then her tone softened. “It’s just so small and helpless” said Bella.
“It is a feet warming and covering device” said Jack, “It can’t be helpless.”
“Yes, well it’s related to something so small and helpless then” said Bella, looking at Liam, “It’s sweet and I could just consume it right up.”
“Who are you calling helpless?” interjected Liam, before falling flat on his face. “Okay maybe you have a point” sighed Liam, “Can you help me up Mummy?”
Both Bella and Jack stared at Liam. “Mummy?” they both asked.
“I don’t know” said Liam, “The name just came to me. It seems like the right word to describe someone as comforting and sweet as my mother figure. And Jack, I decided to call you Daddy but I’m not sure where that came from either.”
Bella and Jack looked at each other. “Liam” said Jack, “You came up with a name for me?”
“Yeah” said Liam, “It means you’re the one who cares for me and plays with me.”
“Where did you get this from?” asked Jack.
“My head” answered Liam.
Then Jack started to leak eye flushing solution. “That’s so sweet” said Jack, “I like you, son.”
“Now do you see my feet covering and warming device thing?” asked Bella.
“No” said Jack, “That’s still a device, but being given a friendly name from someone has never happened to me before. I don’t know how he made it up but it makes me so full of enjoyment.”
“Now can someone please help me up” yelled Liam.
“Sure” said Bella and she picked Liam up. She held him in her arms. She looked down at him and smiled. ‘It is such a beautiful thing’ she thought, ‘Just what a pity he is a businessman rather than my real infantile being’. Bella sighed and looked around the room. Then she looked back at Liam and blurted on his tummy with her lips. He giggled. Bella looked at Jack and at Liam and then choked, “Let’s go back to the place where nutrition is consumed.”
They went back out and Bella looked through The Joy of Earth. Jack sat across from her at the table and Max and Maree were playing with Liam on the floor. Bella found a page on showers and ordered Jack to go have one at once so they could go and exchange their money for things they needed. Jack was a bit taken aback at him, the commanding officer, being ordered around but he went and Bella continued to ponder over the book. Bella turned the pages of the book but was not really reading it. She delved deeper and deeper into her mind as she thought about her experience with Earth so far. She had experienced feelings she could not explain. She looked at Liam. She liked him very much but she felt something was missing there. Some missing link. She glanced back at the book. Could it be that he needed to come from her doing that horrible thing she saw in the book before? Is it that she knows it is only temporary and soon he will a businessman again with his own life? Should she be using her things Jack called tumours with Liam the same way she saw someone else using them at the place where Jack choked on an infantile plaything? She was not sure. Her thinking was interrupted by a scream from the place where the shower was.
“Jack are you okay?” she yelled.
“Yes” said Jack feebly from the bathroom, “I got burnt. The waters hot.”
“Keep trying honey” said Bella, “You need to get it right before we put the children in there.”
“Okay” came a muffled reply, then there was the sound of Jack spitting out a heap of water. Bella continued her thinking. Jack. He seemed kind of attractive but also kind of immature somehow. She liked him lying next to her when she woke up in the middle of the night last night. It felt comfortable. It was a weird sensation for Bella. She had never really felt comfortable before. It was settling. Bella smiled as she thought of it. Then she remembered the reason she woke up was a loud snore that he did. And she remembered that noisy thing that he did during the night when she thought maybe he had disposed of waste by accident but then guessed not because the stench went away again. She had no idea what that was. Oh well. No Banbazoidian is perfect. Then there is the weirdness that is Earth itself. Big furry things, primitive spaceships, spaceships with only two wheels and no flying devices and the difference between their new and old bodies. It was kind of exciting, yet kind of scary. It was obvious Earth life was going to be better than the old life but much much more complicated. Where there is one shade to an issue in Banbazoia there are going to be many shades to the same issue on Earth. Under one shadow of meaning, lies yet another shade of meaning again. Bella figures it will never stop. Life will be complex but much much greater. Bella smiled at that thought. Then Jack appeared, drenched and with his long thing clinging to him all wet. Bella looked up at him and sighed. “Jack, you were supposed to take that off first” said Bella, “And there are things called towels in the bathroom to dry yourself with. Go back, take that off and dry yourself”.
“And Jack” said Max from the floor, “Keep the towel on thanks. I don’t need to see that sight again.”
“Fine” Jack rolled his eyes and went back in the bathroom. Finally, everyone was showered and dressed, except for Liam because nobody was sure how to do him. So they headed out to go and exchange money for things they needed, Liam in new infantile clothes, Max and Maree sporting shirts and jeans and both Jack and Bella in a nice long thing each.
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PREVIOUS CHAPTERS:
Chapter 6: Wonder: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-6-wonder
Chapter 5: Stepping: @birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-5-stepping
Chapter 4: Stench: @birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-4-stench
Chapter 3: Value: @birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-3-value
Chapter 2: Launch: @birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-2-launch
Chapter 1: Splash : @birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-1-splash
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Thank you for reading. The word for this chapter was shades. This story was started in a writer's group and every chapter already written has a word or phrase that had to be used in the chapter, and this story is not finished so eventually you the reader will get to suggest the word or phrase for future chapters. If you enjoyed this chapter, please consider upvoting, resteeming or sharing on social media.If you also like gaming or animation (or both!), you may also like to check out my videos which can be found in my other posts on Steemit, on my YouTube channel and my Dailymotion channel.
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Thank you for reading!