Dinner with Old Friends

"What a truly delightful automaton!" exclaimed Luccia as Robo twirled through the dining room, setting the table with inhuman deftness. For the pleasure of his human companions Robo produced a mechanical sounding tune, which was wordless, but nonetheless seemed to brighten the mood of all. This transformed his movements into something like a dance. To dance…what a wonderful thing! Vassily Harkov had taught him how to dance, even in those dark days back in the Dome so long ago. But that was another lifetime, a lifetime better left behind.

In the thousands of years since the Time Crash, Robo had gained clarity on the multiverse. True, to change the future as they did was to erase the people therein, but it was also to spare the inhabitants of 1999 of much death and destruction and to give birth to a better future. Sacrifices had to be made, they always did, unwilling sacrifices. At one time this knowledge would have brought the robot to oil-fed tears, and how he pined for those days! But now it fed his resolve; these were his friends and he would save them no matter the cost.

Luccia brought out a large pink ham and some peasant's bread and mashed potatoes, and placed them at the table fit for eight. But even better than that, to Crono's mind, she brought out what potatoes were really for: Vodka and the Samovar had been going all day. Lucca had assured him that Luccia took her drinks seriously (in fact last Lucca checked, she was trying to produce a specialized potato that would make a smother, more potent liquor. Aside from making unholy abominations…) so there would be good tea and booze.

"Good God, Lucca, except for the Communion Wafers, I don't think we've eaten in over a day."

"We haven't.," Lucca replied, "Ayla would be mortified. 'We must eat. Eat and be strong or Lavos make us all go BOOM!'"

Crono chuckled then looked over to Lucca in horror, "Ah, Lucca, ex-nay on the Yla-Aay."

"Oh relax, Red, Luccia knows we got a robot from the future, its obvious where we've been," she looked at the purple-haired botanist "Right Luccia?"

Luccia, still in a slightly stained apron looked at her with surprise. She put the bowl down and said, "I know nothing. NOTHING! I don't wanna know anything."

Crono looked at Luccia and then at Lucca "Don't call my red, Luc."

"And don't you call me Luc, Spike…" and Lucca puckered her lips and then sneered "You win this round." And it came out threatening but in truth Lucca couldn't help suddenly latching onto Crono, "God it's great to have you back, Crono."

Crono, surprised, hugged Lucca tight. He breathed contentedly and it was, well, like stretching after a heavy exercise. The stress all over his body, stress he'd been numb to ever since the Revolution began felt like it was pouring out through his fingers and feet.

He looked down and admired Lucca's brown hair. It was very pretty Luccia was certainly right about that one, "So what do you think our cavewoman friend is doing these days."

Lucca took her head out of Crono's chest and answered "A couple of weeks ago I took the kids to the Natural History Museum; there's a primitive human recreation that looks a lot like her."

"Ouch," replied Crono

"She's too dark in skin tone, and her hair is black, but she looks ready to chow down on poi, I swear." They chuckled.

Then they heard a wooden spoon hit a glass bowl and turned to see Luccia adjusting her monocle. "If the lovers wouldn't mind, I'd like to eat before the damn Cheka get here."

At the mention of the Red's secret police, Crono and Lucca blanched a bit and took their seats, Crono said as he sate down, "You did get a group discount did you not?" Robo despinsed the tea from the Samovar and covertly inserted the concoction he'd prepared for Lucca and Crono.

"Of course! 17 children going to the Museum with no discount; we'd have to skip a meal."

"What happened to your share of the loot, Lucca?" asked Crono, who then carved some ham and put it on his plate.

"I spent it all. Renovating the house, buying furniture, buying food, it's not cheap Crono. I ended up getting support from the Church, but they've got their own problem these days."

Crono took a huge chuck of ham in his mouth and without even bother ing to chew he said, "Shoulda come to us Lucca. We had plenty of money."

"Yeah and that was the problem." Lucca's attitude became snide

"What the Hell is that supposed to mean?!" Crono asked, not happy, his chuck of ham half chewed.

"Lucca," Luccia said, "Watch your tongue. I don't want any fighting in my house."

Lucca's head instantly went to her. "Luccia," Lucca said politely as she could "there will be no fighting here. But Crono needs to hear something." She turned to Crono, "Crono, before the Revolution I had 28 kids in my care. Most of them had parents, they just had no means to support their children. The Crown was so busy trying to get money for railroads and industry or whatever else, including frivolous luxuries it was taking the poor to death, and to make things worse the rich got off light. Tolls, taxes, bribes, Crono we had it good in Truce, but a lot of people didn't. When most of the taxes where rescinded, half of the kids in my orphanage where taken back by their parents before someone else adopted them. And let's not even talk about the lack of freedom, the secret police, I can go on. Don't act like the Reds are totally at fault for the Revolution. The King had plenty of fault to spread around. Why, why didn't you do ANYTHING to change all that?"

Crono, took his third piece of ham, along with a helping of potatoes, and deliberately chewed and swallowed before answered. He then belched loudly. "Nothing needed to be changed, Lucca! Look at what happened. The February Revolution was democratic, they did away with the secret police. And what happened? The Reds took over in October, naturally. Does Linen still talk about 'Peace land and bread?'" Luccia nodded slowly, "Well alright then. This is a nation with Refrigerators and radios in the cities with no paved roads, little track, little industry. Guardia needs to modernize or it'll be carved up" he pointed to the ham with his fork "Like this ham, this most delicious ham, Luccia, thank you." Luccia blushed a bit and bowed her head a bit, "And I swear to you God as my witness, Linen will take away every farm he's given the peasants. Communists are control freaks, they are liars; they are thieves. Ain't I right Robo, tell me I'm right."

Robo, who had taken to the sidelines until then swerved his head to Crono and said "Affirmative. Linen himself will likely not nationalize the farms, but his successors assuredly will…But I hasten to add that Lucca is correct. The corruption, and heavy taxes made the Revolution inevitable. But before this argument gets anymore heated, I must say Crono had very little influence on the Court. Besides, at that late a juncture there's little Crono could have done anyway. So let's drop it. Now."

Lucca grabbed her temples "Could someone just pass me the ham?"

And so the dinner continued, the all drank their Vodka and sipped their teas, and made light conversation, except for Crono, who wanted to know what had happened in the last two years. As the dinner closed, Lucca and Crono had finished off the ham almost between themselves and the potatoes too. They were also a little tipsy from the drink. Robo agreed to help Luccia clean up the mess and bag the leftovers.

Without a word, except to bid Luccia thanks and good night, Crono and Lucca rose from the table. As they got up, and met from opposite sides of the table, Lucca rubbed Crono's hair as if to adjust it "Heh, you do look like a school teacher…now that's a little better. Ha!" They reached the top of the stairs; Lucca leaning on the banister and rubbing her finger on the wood. Se said to Crono, "I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I shouldn't have said it…"

Crono put his finger over her mouth "Don't worry…Lucca I have to talk to you remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Lucca said a little too loud, "Something important, you said, well, lead on," so they went inside Crono's room and closed the door. Whatever Crono's dark secret was, Lucca was sure it was nothing to worry about. Crono sometimes got over dramatic about things. His "Heroic Silence" phase during the Lavos incident stood out. Still, he was her friend, her admittedly handsome friend, and she'd stick by him no matter what.

1/3/07: Yes I'm back. I figure I've got five, six chapters to go, but I know what I'm doing now. At this point I'm trying to do a variation of the write a novel a month thing, but I'm giving myself just to complete this story, and do it by the end of February. That means if I haven't completed this story in 56 days, flame me all you want. It's not fair to you that updates come every six months and I know that. I'm going to the National Championship game in Arizona, otherwise I would update over the weekend. Wish me luck and have a happy new year.