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Chapter 8: Caressing
Nathan and Ace stood outside the shops, in the mall. Nathan looked at Ace.
“Why are we just standing here?” asked Nathan.
“We’re waiting for our target” said Ace, “We have got to wait for the ladies to come out of the shops. Then we make our move”.
“Okay” said Nathan, “Does that actually ever work?”
“Are you kidding me?” asked Ace, “You meet girls all the time at the mall. They are always here.” Ace and Nathan heard footsteps ahead of them and looked up. They saw two women with a few children walk out of a shop and walk off in the distance. “It’s go time” said Ace, “Looks like I can get us both one.”
Ace and Nathan followed these women and soon realised one of the women had a broken leg. The other woman was carrying a baby and a nappy bag on her shoulder. “Let me have the injured one” said Ace, “I’ll make all her worries about it disappear”. Nathan nodded. Nathan and Ace caught up to the women. Ace tapped on the shoulder of the woman with the crutches. The woman spun around and Ace screamed. It wasn’t a woman.
“Oh, dear God a transvestite” said Ace. Nathan chuckled.
“Can I help you?” asked Jack.
“Sorry I umm, gotta go” said Ace and he ran off.
Nathan watched Ace run off, looked at Jack and then turned to Bella, who was holding Liam.
“Hi I’m Nathan” he said, offering his hand for her to shake. Bella stared at his hand. Nathan shyly put his hand back down again.
“So, what are you two pretty ladies, and I use the word ladies loosely, doing out here at the shops?” asked Nathan.
“You really think I’m pretty?” asked Jack.
“Oh yeah sure” said Nathan, a bit put off. He looked at Bella. “May I ask what your name is?” asked Nathan.
“I’m Bella” said Bella, smiling at Nathan.
“Well Bella, I am pleased to meet you” said Nathan, “And are these your kids?”
“Yes” said Bella proudly.
“They’re adorable” said Nathan. Liam smiled at Nathan.
“Don’t say anything” whispered Bella to Liam.
“What?” asked Nathan.
“I wasn’t saying anything” said Bella, “I mean, I was saying yes they are adorable”. Bella blushed.
“Well, would you all like to come for a coffee with me?” asked Nathan.
“We would triple much like to” said Jack excitedly.
“Yes! You were the one I was really hoping would come” joked Nathan.
“Really? It’s so nice to have some normal human friends” squealed Jack.
“Human friends” said Nathan, “Good choice. As opposed to say what? Aliens?” Nathan laughed.
“No, we just had perfectly normal human friends” said Bella quickly, “It’s just always nice to have more.”
Bella looked Nathan up and down.
“Okay then guys” Nathan said, “Come with me. There’s a lovely café down this way.”
Nathan led them to a nearby café. They sat down on the bottom holding devices around a nutrition holding device like the one that is in their house in the room that nutrition is consumed in. Their drinks soon came, a coffee each for Jack, Bella and Nathan and milkshakes for Max and Maree. Liam frowned. Maree slurped her drink through her straw, loudly. Jack tried a sip of his coffee and screwed his face up as it was in his mouth. He looked at Bella and Nathan. ‘They are watching me’ he thought, ‘This is double unpleasant but I had better not project it out of my mouth’. Jack forced the mouthful of coffee down.
“Sorry Jack” said Nathan, “Should I have ordered it with sugar?”
"What’s sugar?” thought Jack.
“Yeah, maybe that would make it better” answered Jack.
“Well there’s some on the table” said Nathan, passing Jack some sachets. Jack ripped five sachets open and put them in his drink. He took a sip. “That’s better” he said.
Nathan looked at Maree. “And what’s your name?” he asked.
“Maree” said Maree, “And this is Max and Liam”.
“Hi Max” said Nathan.
“Hey” said Max.
“Hi Liam” said Nathan, giving him a slight tickle. Liam giggled and then looked back longingly at Maree’s milkshake. Jack put his cup down on the table with a thud.
“Anyone want another?” he asked. Jack looked at Bella and Nathan’s cups . They were still almost full. “I guess only me then” said Jack and he went and ordered a coffee with four sugars.
Nathan turned to Bella. “So what do you do Bella?” he asked.
“I sit and stand and walk and talk” said Bella.
“No Bella” said Nathan quickly, cutting over her, “I mean what do you do for work?”
“Oh,” said Bella, “I don’t. I’m a stay at home mother figure.”
“Well your kids are just beautiful” said Nathan, “I bet you do a great job.”
“Well I try” said Bella, “Sometimes it can be hard to work stuff out.”
“I know” said Nathan, “Life tends to be that way. It’s part of the fun though I guess. If we knew everything, life would be boring.”
“So you don’t know everything about life?” asked Bella.
“Far from it” said Nathan, “No one does and some people think they do but they are wrong. You can have a great life but you’ll never know everything.”
“I don’t feel so small and naïve now” said Bella. Bella gave a slight almost inaudible gasp. She felt Nathan’s foot caressing her own. A soft, gentle touch she could feel through her feet covering devices. She looked at Nathan and smiled. Jack grabbed his drink off of the bench and had one crutch under his arm. He then realised he couldn’t grab the other crutch. He put the drink down and grabbed both crutches. He put them under his arms and tried to grab the drink. His arm was up too high with the crutch under it. He reached and reached downwards and then the crutch under one arm fell away and clanged onto the floor. Bella and Nathan looked up. Bella got up and grabbed the crutch off the floor for Jack and passed it to him. Bella then grabbed Jack’s drink to take back to the table. Jack stumbled back to the table and Bella walked back and sat down again. Then everyone got a sight to remember. Jack sculled his coffee and asked Bella to get him another one. And another one. And another one. By the time their coffee meeting was finished Jack had had thirteen coffees. He sat there, eyes wide, staring at them.
“You know this stuff tastes really good with this sugar stuff in it” rushed Jack. He wiped his brow and fixed up the sides of his long thing he was wearing. “It is really good, really good, It’s been good fun” said Jack.
“Well I had probably better get going” said Nathan. He grabbed a piece of paper out of his pocket. A waitress walked past carrying some coffee. Nathan stopped her and asked if she had a pen. She passed him one. Nathan wrote something on the paper and handed it to Bella.
“Here’s my mobile number” said Nathan, “Please call me. It would be great to catch up again.” Nathan got up and walked out.
“Wait” yelled Jack, “I didn’t get a goodbye hug with my new friend.” Jack stood up without his crutches and fell flat on his face. He laid on the floor while Bella got up. “So that’s what that feels like for Liam” said Jack.
Bella helped Jack up and onto his crutches.
“Okay privates” said Jack, “What do we do now?”
“We have to work out what a mobile is” said Bella, “Our first human friend just gave us the number to his. We have to get one right now.”
Bella, Max, Maree and Liam hurried out of the shop and Jack hobbled along on his crutches behind. Liam was in Bella’s arms. Bella, Max, Maree, Liam and Jack went through the shops looking for the mysterious mobile. They stopped at a baby shop.
“It sounds like the mobile is a communication device” said Bella, “Given that it was to meet up with him again. Our baby monitor is a communication device. Maybe something in the baby shop will be a mobile.”
“It’s possible” said Jack, “Let’s have a look inside. It will be cool if I can see my friend again. Hey, is it just me or is everything more colourful than normal?”
“It’s just you Jack” said Max. They all looked through the baby shop. Bella and Liam stopped to look at something odd. It was such an unusual looking piece of technology. It had a big round concave end and another end that had a handle that it would appear you would squeeze to make something happen on it and on the bottom of it a container. Bella picked it up and studied it. Liam put his finger in the concave end. He then pulled the handle on the other side. He gasped. “It sucked” he whispered to Bella. Bella stuck her finger in and pulled the handle and nodded. “I wonder what that’s meant for sucking on” said Bella. She looked down at the label with the cost on it on the thing that was holding all of the products up off the floor.
“There’s a word here” said Bella, quietly “Breast pump. So it sucks or pumps breasts. What the heck are breasts?”
“Dunno” whispered Liam.
“Remember it’s important neither of us talk too loud” said Bella, “Especially you. We don’t want to be found out.” Liam nodded.
Maree’s voice rang out in the shops.
“Hey guys” said Maree, “I found a mobile.” Bella and Liam came over to find Maree holding a round cloth thing with cloth animals hanging down from it. Jack appeared a second later. Maree pointed at the label on the bench she got it from. “Mobile” she said. Liam laughed and pointed at the colourful animals on the mobile.
“This is a communication device” said Jack, sceptically, “How can you use this to communicate? Bella, pass me the piece of paper he wrote his mobile thing on.” Bella passed the piece of paper to Jack. Jack glanced at it and then looked at the mobile, dumbfounded.
“This makes no sense” gushed Jack, “It’s nonsense. There is code on this paper that doesn’t match this mobile. There are numerical figures on this paper and nothing of the like on this mobile.”
“It is pretty though” added Liam.
“Be quiet Liam, we don’t want to get found out” gushed Jack. Liam frowned. “The technology here is all backward” ranted Jack, “This mobile is incompatible with his mobile obviously. How do we enter his data? It makes no sense. IT’s nonsense.” “Okay we get the general idea Jack” said Bella, “Calm down a bit hey?”
“I am calm” said Jack, “Who is not calm? I’m calm. Maybe you’ve just got a guilty conscience because you’re not calm but don’t pass that onto me by saying I’m not calm.” Bella slapped Jack. He stared at her. “Okay maybe I needed that” said Jack. He kept shaking and jiggling about.
“You have been acting like a Reena ever since we were out to coffee” said Bella, “Maybe there’s something in it that means you shouldn’t have thirteen of them.”
“I don’t know maybe. Maybe we should test it” said Jack, “Yeah, I’m going to go drink some more.”
“No you’re not” said Bella, “Now Jack please just calm down and remember to move air in and out of your in built bodily gas chamber.”
“I would” said Jack, “But I think it’s broken. I think it backfired the other night while we were in bed.”
“So that’s what that smell was” thought Bella out loud.
Finally Maree spoke again. “Hey guys” she said, “Where’s Max?”
“Dammit” said Jack, “That little brat keeps disappearing on us. I mean honestly, first the subordinate thinks it is a good idea to run away and get me hit by a primitive spaceship and then” As Jack was talking everyone else went tense. Max had come out of one of the aisles and was walking up behind him. “Then he insults the organisation. I mean, the organisation helps us. People like him are just filth. Living off nutrition remains. Committing crimes against the organisation. Keeps talking back to me as if he forgets I am the commanding officer” complained Jack. Max coughed. Jack’s eyes went wide. He turned around slowly on his crutches.
“Max” said Jack. Max stared at Jack.
“I was just coming to tell you guys you are looking at the wrong thing” said Max, “I found out there is another thing called a mobile from some teenagers I was talking to. But obviously I wouldn’t know because I’m just a subordinate piece of filth.”
“Max, I’m sorry you heard that” said Bella.
“Well I bet Jack is too” said Max, “Sorry I heard it. Not sorry he said it.”
“Max, can you please tell us what a mobile is?” said Bella.
“Sure” said Max, “There’s a shop across the road called the phone place. We can go there. A mobile is also called a phone because it is a mobile phone which is a communication device that is mobile, rather than rooted in one place.”
“Okay let’s go there” said Bella.
“Can we get that mobile too?” asked Liam, pointing at the mobile with animals on it.
“What are you kidding?” said Jack, “You kids don’t need any more stuff yet.” Jack hobbled out of the building, awkwardly avoiding looking at Max. Everyone else left to go to The Phone Place too.
____________________________________________________________PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
Chapter 7: Shades: https://steemit.com/fiction/@birchmark/confusing-earth-chapter-7-shades
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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