Chapter 4

Welcome to the Space Jam

* = Prawn talk

Ana could not deny that her experience with the prawn had affected her. In the days that followed she had no choice but to concentrate on her studies and work, which kept her very busy. And yet her mind kept trailing off and going absent as she wondered whether she should call and ask about Kyler's condition, since the wait for news was becoming unbearably and unexpectedly long. How ironic.
Of course, it was not like she cared that much, but was it really so hard to at least show they still knew she existed? She had found a wounded alien in the street and taken it to her home. She had cared for it, fed it and all without asking for anything in return but a little recognition, jeez. It had been the weirdest thing that had ever happened to her. It was slightly too much to just end like that.
So was that it?
It was not a choice of hers to care. She didn't even think she would be waiting for a call, but there she was sitting at her desk, with her head leaned on her hands, just looking at the textbook and not taking in a single word. After a while she gave up and slammed the book shut to go sit with her roommate.
It was a Friday afternoon and Syrup was watching TV, sucking on a lollipop that was nearly as blue as her hair, unaware of the little droplets of prawn blood that decorated the tapestry despite Ana's precautions the other day.
Ana let herself fall on the couch with a loud thud and Syrup nodded in her direction as if she were saying "I understand." Ana didn't think she did. Come to think of it, Ana didn't think she had ever discussed the aliens with her. Suddenly she was curious about her opinion. The words swirled around in her head for a while before she finally had the courage to speak them out.
"Have you ever seen a prawn, Syrup?"
The lollipop stopped turning in Syrup's mouth.
"You mean a non-human, right? Not the literal shrimp thing."
"Yeah, those, the... non-humans."
"Of course I have."
The lollipop retook its course.
Ana hesitated.
"So what do you think about them?"
Syrup waggled her head.
"They're cool."
For some reason that lifted Ana's spirits.
"I didn't know you related to them."
"I don't, I mean, not really. I don't know any of them personally. But I can almost mimic some of their words, listen to this!" She took the lollipop out of her mouth and gave off a series of growls and pitiful impressions of the prawn's clicks and gargles. Ana had to restrain herself from giggling. "Cool, eh?" Syrup added, clearly proud of herself. "I got it off a website. I think they even had a real prawn record the sample."
"So you wouldn't mind actually meeting one…"
"Well, you know? Personally I don't trust the media" Syrup commented, frowning secretively. "I think they cover stuff up. I bet you they do awful stuff to those prawns, it says so on the site."
"What's the site's name?"

Ana almost choked on her own saliva, but that funny-sounding website turned out to be pretty entertaining as she had the chance to find out the next day at the local library. The site specialized in discrediting MNU in every way possible and also had some curious information on prawns, like the disconcerting fact that they were hermaphrodites and their society being similar to that of termites or bees. She didn't have much time to have a deeper look because then her phone rang and, after being scolded by the librarian for noisemaking, she ran outside.
It was Rineke.
For some reason that she couldn't figure out herself she automatically straightened out the front of her shirt before answering.
"Hey, Ana."
"Oh, hi!" she said, sounding like she hadn't seen his name on her phone's screen. "What's up?"
"Well, we were planning to meet tomorrow Sunday at a friend's place to watch a movie or something. We were wondering if you'd like to come…?"
Ana got a series of contradictory thoughts. She didn't know exactly who would be there, or what it would be like, or if all prawns were as peaceful as Kyler.
"Um, I don't know..."
"I can pick you up at your house if you want."
That didn't sound too bad.
"Um, ok, but I don't know if… I don't think I'll be…"
How could she tell Rineke that she probably won't even be comfortable among prawns and not sound racist? One prawn, fine, but more than one…
"How many prawns will be there?" she asked cautiously.
"I don't know, probably the usual few, but we only invite the ones who behave, so you needn't worry about that."
Ana sighed. There was no way she could say no to Rineke.
"Ok" she agreed. "So what time?"
She also wondered whether Kyler would be there, though she didn't ask, of course.
"How does four o'clock sound?"
"Sure, cool."
"Great. I'll see you then."
"So how is, uh, Kyler doing?" she quickly interjected before he had a chance to hang up, and she practically did it against her own will.
"Good, good! He had to miss work for a couple of days, almost got fired."
"Kyler has a job?" Ana asked in amazement. She never thought that prawns could get or maintain jobs. Was that thinking too low of them?
"Yes, he has a job in the mining plant, like almost every other working non-human. He's pretty well set, though. He's the non-human supervisor."
"Really?" she was impressed.
"Thanks to an employee who's also from the group. He recommended him, made the boss realize how helpful it would be to have someone who can speak to the workers."
"Wow."
"He's the reason why they didn't fire him as well. Covered for him. Kyler adores him, no wonder. That's why he always wears the spike collar he gave him."
Ana remembered the spike collar on Kyler's arm and smiled.
"And now he's working again?"
"Yes, sadly. No vacations for them. They may take Sundays off, that's why we always meet on Sundays. Missing work is not tolerated. Kyler went back to work as soon as he could."
"But is he in any condition?"
"Well no, of course, but as a supervisor, he doesn't get to do so much physical work, luckily. We got him a crutch so he could walk. He's doing fine, he'll recover."
Ironically, Ana felt some relief.
"Glad to hear that" she said in all honesty.
"So we're counting on you then, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Great. See ya."
"Bye."

That night she barely slept at all, thinking about Rineke, and the prawns, and scolding herself for being so stupid as to go to a prawn reunion with a stranger. She knew it was crazy, she knew it was irresponsible, but yet she couldn't help thinking of something nice to wear the next day. If her parents ever found out about this…
Sunday afternoon arrived and Rineke knocked on her door at two minutes past four. Ana had been ready for half an hour already, and she was wearing one of her best tops and her new pair of boots. She loved boots. They made her feel more confident. She was going to need them today.
Rineke politely complimented her looks, making her cheeks burn –invisibly, she hoped- and they were off.
The entire ride Ana was doubtful of whether she should just jump out the window now before it was too late. But Rineke's company thrilled her, and his interest in her made Ana giggly. He asked about her home town, her parents, her studies… By the time the car was parked and they were walking down a sidewalk, Ana was already certain Rineke was very attracted to her.
They arrived at a wooden fence, and Ana's mind was nowhere near the aliens. There was a hand painted on the wood in black: a hand making the Vulcan sign. That sort of reminded her…
"This means it's a safe house for Poleepkwas in need of help. The Poleepkwas who know about the association know about this sign. It's effective and discreet" he smiled, then knocked on the fence, which Ana thought was a little strange, since there was no door.
But then a few boards swung open and a black woman in her mid forties appeared bearing a radiant smile and wearing bright patterned clothes.
"Hello, Rineke" she said, giving him one amorous hug.
"Good afternoon, Glenda! This is Ana" he said, grabbing Ana by the shoulders and placing her in front of him.
Glenda and Ana shook hands.
"Very nice to meet you at last, Ana. Rineke's told me about you. That was a noble thing you did for Kyler, dear."
"Nice to meet you too" Ana replied shyly.
"Well, come in, everybody's here and…"
There came a racket from inside the house; a screech and some voices. Ana vacillated. Glenda turned and approached the house's back door.
"Just a moment, one of our guests is a little anxious today." And she disappeared through the door, where more agitated noises could be heard.
Rineke led Ana to the backyard inside and she faltered, shifting nervously.
"Ana, I assure you" Rineke said as though reading her mind, and closed the fence behind him, "there is nothing to fear. Sometimes a new member gets…"
Boom! The back door blasted open and from it came a prawn swinging some metallic object and shrieking hysterically. Ana jumped closer to Rineke and froze. As the prawn stumbled disoriented around the backyard, throwing down a couple of chairs, a few more people came out of the house. Glenda was one of them. Ana was too distracted by the panic-stricken alien to notice the rest.
"Don't do that, dear" Glenda said to the prawn in the calmest voice one can manage when the person you're talking to is yelling wildly. "Nobody here's going to hurt you!"
But the prawn kept moving frantically, looking around for the exit, until he seemed to remember where the entrance was located and ran towards Ana and Rineke not taking his eyes off the small huddle of people.
He was so busy checking that he wasn't followed by any of the people after him, that he almost crashed into Ana if it hadn't been for Ana's cry of shock, which luckily made the alien turn his head and slide on his feet before coming to a halt just a couple of feet away. He jumped and backed away quickly, and Ana recognized the metallic object. It was a machete. It was swaying in the prawn's hands giving off dangerous metallic reflections apparently ready to strike, but the prawn never made up his mind as the group of people behind him spread out across the yard, trying to make him calm down.
Then Ana saw the tattered skirt and suddenly recognized the alien. And judging from the look in the alien's eyes, he recognized her as well. It was the prawn that Keith had abused that night, it was the first live prawn she had ever seen. Now he stood before her, breathing agitatedly and holding the machete up with both hands, staring in her direction.
Rineke took one small step forward, leaving Ana behind, who pushed her back against the fence as though she hoped to be able to pass through it.
"Calm down now, put down the machete" he said in a smooth voice, and the prawn answered by rapidly shaking his head and backing up another step before remembering there were more people behind him.
Terrified though she was, Ana managed to notice the tearful look in the alien's eyes, and she wished they would just let him go.
"Look, we'll call off all these people, ok?" Rineke said. "Guys, get inside the house, nothing's going to happen."
"Yes, go inside, all of you" Glenda echoed and two other humans and another prawn hastily went through the door one at a time.
"Come on now, see? Everyone is gone, nothing to fear, please, put… down… the sword."
The prawn looked at each and every one of them; Glenda, then Rineke, and then more extendedly at Ana, who kept quiet, trying not to give him any more reasons to be scared. Ironic, because she was just as scared. The prawn slowly lowered the machete looking slightly embarrassed, but didn't let go as he began to click something at them.
"We can't let you out , not like this" Rineke told him. "You could call the attention, the whole neighborhood could see you, and see us with you."
More nervous clicking.
"Who would want to hurt you?"
More clicking, and as he spoke, he began to back away a little more, slowly getting closer to Ana.
"I promise, darling" Glenda added, keeping her distance "no one here's going to hurt you, we're all helpers, I promise you."
The prawn looked doubtful, but seemed a bit calmer.
He glanced sideways at Ana. He looked in the verge of tears, but bowed his head timidly, the machete dangling from one of his hands, and everything became gradually more relaxed.
Ana didn't dare to move. For some reason the prawn was giving his back to her and was closer each time, so that both the prawn and Ana were facing Glenda and Rineke, like two teams in a game of dodge-ball. Ana noticed he was shaking slightly.
"What happened, then? Tell us" Rineke encouraged him in a way a teacher would ask a pupil for his contribution to the lesson.
The prawn spoke again and Rineke listened politely.
"Did someone hurt you?"
Even in her incomprehension, Ana could tell the prawn was stuttering.
"If no one here hurt you, why are you so scared?"
The prawn hesitated, then shrugged. Glenda approached him, holding out her hand in a helpful manner.
"You don't look good, come, sit down."
But the offer wasn't acknowledged. The alien shook his head and backed away a little more, placing himself at Ana's side, as if looking to her for protection. Such was the memory it had of her from that night? In a surge of bravery, Ana decided, despite her survival instincts, not to let him down. She stayed close, thinking it was now her duty to somehow help the poor creature, providing some emotional support, even if it was just by being there.
He spoke once more.
"You don't have to come in yet if you don't want to. We won't make you."
The alien chirped.
"No, dear, don't go. We can't stop you, but don't go" Glenda pleaded.
"Look, I realize you probably have a lot of reasons to fear us, but we really want you to give us a chance" Rineke told the alien. "You have the machete, you have the upper hand. You can keep the machete if that will make you feel better, alright?"
The prawn nodded timidly, apparently giving in at last, but still somewhat restless.
"Ok, then, when you're ready we can…"
The prawn unexpectedly took Ana's hand and Ana jumped and yelped in surprise. The prawn jumped as well with a screech before stumbling away from Ana, knocking down an iron grill and falling to the ground. It would've been funny in other circumstances.
Ana was expecting another defensive move, but the prawn remained on the ground moving with difficulty, looking disoriented. He had dropped the machete, which lay a couple of feet away from him, and Ana felt guilty at once for having scared him so much.
"Are you ok, dear? Here, sit, there you go."
The poor creature was in such a state of shock he even tolerated Rineke's and Glenda's help to stand up and take him to a nearby chair where he sat gladly, taking short, forceful breaths.
"Calm down now, you'll give yourself a heart attack."
Ana stepped back and forth before making up her mind to go near the prawn now crying his eyeballs out. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" she said in a small voice, hoping he would hear. Her own heart was pounding fiercely.
"That's it, all good. All a misunderstanding" Glenda said softly with her hand on the prawn's back. The alien was looking embarrassed now, but agreed to come inside if he could carry the machete with him and be near the exit.
Rineke picked up the prawn's machete from the ground and brought it to him. The prawn took it from him with a look of disbelief.
"Now whenever you feel, we can go and watch a movie with the others" Glenda went on. "Have you ever watched a movie on TV?"
The prawn shook his head.
"Ooh, you'll like this movie, you'll see. All the other Poleepkwas are comfortable here, and they can't wait to meet you."
Ana watched until Rineke walked up to her.
"Let's go inside. I'll introduce you."
"Will he be alright?"
"Yes, don't worry, Glenda is a great woman, she knows how to handle things."
And with one last look at the tearful prawn, feeling utterly empathetic for him, Ana was led through the house's back door and into a modest yet cozy kitchen, where a few people stood waiting anxiously.
"How is she?" asked Amelia, whom Ana had just noticed there.
"A little shaken, but she'll do fine. Just try to be very gentle around her."
Ana frowned. Her?
"And on her first day. Poor thing…"
The big prawn that was with them made a comment Ana couldn't understand.
"Glenda knows what she's doing. Now, let's see!" Rineke clapped his hands, livening up the mood. "Who's come today?"
"Ooh, everyone's here already. Josh is downstairs preparing the movie."
"Great. People, let me introduce you to Ana. Amelia, you already know her."
Ana timidly shook Amelia's friendly hand and the chains and bracelets in the goth girl's arm jingled gleefully.
"Great to finally see you here!" she squeaked.
"And this is Neil…"
"Hi" said a mid-age man dressed in business clothes, shaking her hand tightly.
"He's our spy at MNU" Rineke whispered loud enough that everybody could hear and chuckle. "And Jasper!"
The tall, cinnamon colored, confident-looking prawn took one step forward and held out his hand. Ana made her best not to appear shaky and took Jasper's hand as firmly as she could, feeling the hard, pointed fingers on her palm.
"You'll recognized him from the night we first met."
She opened her mouth, surprised.
"Oh…!"
Jasper nodded in appreciation.
"We thought, him being there when we rescued the poor girl, that she would take to him better, so we commended him the task of accompanying her on her first day, but it turns out she's more scared of her own kind than of us."
"The poor thing must have been through so much…" added Amelia.
"And now that we all know each other, let's get downstairs."
Rineke opened a door and stood aside so that everybody could go down the staircase that was behind it, then invited Ana to follow them with a gentle movement of his hand.
But Ana halted and sniffed the air.
"I think I smell something burning…" she said.
Rineke jumped.
"Ooh!" He ran to the door and stuck his head outside. "Glenda! Your cookies are burning!"
There was some loud cussing, and then "don't worry, dear, it's just my cookies burning. Would you like to come and help me in the kitchen?"
A few moments later, Rineke was holding the door for the prawn with the ragged flowery skirt, who was still carrying his- her machete and looked at Ana with glassy eyes. Ana timidly raised her hand and waved it. The prawn seemed to feel better after that.
Glenda led the prawn across the kitchen and opened up the oven door to a cloud of smoke. "Whoops" she said. "No matter, see? We scrape off the black parts and…"
Rineke left the two of them there and came to lead Ana downstairs.
"So this is not a… political party or anything, right?" she asked casually as they descended, still worried about the illegality of what they were doing.
"No, no" he said plainly. "Nothing political, we just try to be of help."
The voices coming from downstairs grew louder and Ana and Rineke entered a big basement filled with a dozen people, some sitting in sofas and chairs. The entire room seemed to have been rearranged to imitate a movie theater, with a big screen TV up front. There was some pop music playing in the background. Everywhere she looked, humans and prawns were chatting friendly and even hugging. Hugging! Not a lot of people noticed Ana's arrival, but a young man who looked like he could be a relative of Glenda's did approach them with an air of joyfulness. He turned first to Rineke.
"Damn, professor, you gotten uglier since the last time I saw you?"
Ana sensed a healthy envy for Rineke's natural good looks.
"It's very nice to see you too, Josh."
They both shook hands affectionately, then gave each other a hug.
"Aw, I got my hopes up, you're still too pretty for this world."
"Oh, come on, Josh, stop it" Rineke protested and they laughed and punched each other some more. "Josh, this is Ana. Ana, Josh."
"Hi, Ana, welcome!"
"Thank you" she mumbled shyly.
"We got two newbies tonight, awesome! Rineke introduced you around yet? Oh, wait, no, don't touch that!" and he hurried off. Then Ana saw the most captivating thing she had seen all day.
It was a prawn, but it was small. It was prawn pup, and it was strangely cute, barely the height of a five-year-old human and three times as thin. It was playfully nibbling on a Playstation remote control. Josh bent over the child and gently took the remote's handle from the little one's mouth.
"You don't eat this, no" he said tenderly.
An adult prawn then came and picked the child up from the ground, clicking something at Josh, who cordially waved his hand at him.
"That's alright, man, no problem" he said. "Kids will be kids, eh?"
Then he patted the prawn's arm and began to roll the remote's cable, by which time Ana had set her eyes on a certain dark-colored prawn that was standing leaning on the wall in the opposite corner of the room, looking around curiously with his arms crossed. She stared hopefully because she thought she recognized Kyler.
But as soon as the prawn caught sight of her through slitted eyes, she knew she was mistaken. Ana quickly turned her gaze somewhere else, but she knew the prawn's keen eyes were still on her.
"I'm going over here for a sec, ok, Ana?" Rineke said.
"What?" she replied distractedly, but Rineke was already off to talk to Neil, the MNU employee she had met before, leaving her alone in the middle of a room filled with strangers. She would've been annoyed with Rineke for this, but the sight of the dark prawn coming towards her occupied her entire mind immediately.
The dark prawn made his way through the forest of people and prawns and stepped up to Ana, who took one step back at the vision of the towering alien looking down on her small figure. He wasn't just dark-colored, he was black with bright red markings across his torso, and very sturdy.
"*You must be the new girl."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare! I thought you were someone else…!"
"Black Jack! I see you've met Ana."
Josh had just showed up from behind the black prawn and friendly patted his back, so that the prawn gave him what Ana saw as an annoyed look.
"*We haven't met" Black Jack clicked. "I was just curious for the scared human female."
Josh laughed, making Ana confused.
"You sly dog" he chuckled, then turned to Ana. "Ana, this is Jack, some of us call him Black Jack."
"*I have a much better name than that, I only use that for your sake" Jack said, holding out his hand. Ana needed a moment to realize he wanted to shake. She took it uncertainly.
"We know you have a better name, Jack" Josh said so that Ana could get a glimpse of the conversation. "But many of us don't understand your language, like Ana here."
"*I know" Jack said with a hint of annoyance, "I apologize if I've led you to misinterpret my actions."
"Jack says he apologizes if he's made you misinterpret his actions."
Ana nodded, blinking rapidly. She showed him a shy smile for lack of words
"You know what? Jack is our crowning achievement."
"*Don't push it."
"No, really, he used to get in a lot of trouble."
The black prawn rolled his disturbingly bright eyes and she noticed the prawn was missing a tendril. Lost in battle, perhaps? Wouldn't surprise her.
"*I'm only here for Jasper."
"Right. He's a friend of Jasper's. Jasper finally convinced him to come along once in a while."
"Ana, come, I got us a couple of chairs" said Rineke's voice from her side, and she hurriedly excused herself to go with him, making a quick scan of the room for the real Kyler.
But Kyler wasn't in the room. She wondered secretly when he would be coming.
"So how are you getting along so far?" Rineke asked as they were sitting down.
"Oh, well, good" she replied.
"Come on, Ana, you feel awkward, you can say it" he laughed. "Everybody does at first. You should know you're doing incredibly good, actually."
"Huh" she said hopefully. She liked hearing good things from Rineke."Really?"
"Yes, give yourself a while. It's the first time you've been among non-humans. Who've you met up to now?"
Ana looked around the room.
"Uh, well, there's Josh, and Amelia, and that's Thomas over there, right?"
"Right."
"And I just met… Black Jack. And the one upstairs with, err… Glenda. Are Josh and Glenda related?"
"Yes, Glenda is Josh's aunt. She's been so generous with the association, you have no idea. Josh's parents don't know about any of this, and he's afraid to tell them. But Glenda has provided this house for most of our meetings and always insists on cooking something."
"That's so nice of her" Ana said, impressed with the woman's charity.
"And speaking of which…" Rineke pointed towards the staircase, where Glenda had just showed up followed by the she-prawn. They were both holding trays of cookies, and the prawn cowering behind Glenda was still carrying the machete in one hand, looking around in distrust, yet moderately calm.
"Ok, people, round up for some!" Glenda announced, and everywhere around the room, people were standing up and heading for the trays chattering their approval. The she-prawn left her tray next on a table to Glenda's, and backed away quickly from the flow of people, but didn't run. Glenda grasped her arm protectively and invited her to sit down near the exit.
Ana and Rineke arrived at the table and Rineke grabbed a few cookies for both him and Ana, who had politely stayed away from the crowd. He handed her a couple of cookies and looking at them she realized they were shaped as both men and prawns.
"That's cute" she giggled.
Rineke seemed pleased.
Ana noticed there was not a single alcoholic beverage on the table but juice and milkshakes, which just didn't seem normal to her.
"Absolutely no drinking" Rineke answered when she made the comment. "They're not allowed to drink and we don't want to get them, or the group, into trouble. Come, you haven't met everyone yet."
And he took her by the arm towards a group of people and prawns. One by one he introduced her to everybody in the room that she hadn't met yet. Thomas was there and looked positively overjoyed among all the prawns. He greeted Ana with enthusiasm and Ana was actually glad to see a mildly recognizable face.
"Finally I get to put all my Poleepkwan into practice."
"He means the language" Rineke clarified in her ear.
"All these months of preparation have been worth it" he continued. "All thanks to the brilliant Fanny's website and her "Learn to speak Poleepkwan" course."
"You sound like a salesman, Thomas" the young woman in multicolored tights, called Fanny apparently, laughed at Thomas's comment.
Thomas gave a demonstration of his Poleepkwan by speaking to Jasper, who stared at him looking amused. Then everybody gave a few chortles of laughter, including the prawns that were present.
"That was hilariously pathetic" Black Jack said and Thomas looked positively pleased with himself.
Something brushed Ana's leg and she gave a start before realizing that a white ferret had just made its way across her feet looking for scraps. Jasper, the cinnamon-colored prawn, picked it up gingerly and held it like a bag of sugar. Black Jack stood beside him looking solemn. The ferret didn't seem to mind, as it was being fed the heads of the prawn-shaped cookies by another prawn. This one had reddish-brown spots over a beige base and was wearing a light shirt with the sleeves torn out. It was the prawn that had picked up the little one a while ago.
"These" Rineke went on "are Jennifer…" a hippy-looking woman with dreads in her hair shook Ana's hand "…and Samuel."
Ana immediately liked Samuel's calm appearance and had little trouble shaking his alien hand, especially after the little one had come up to him with his arms outstretched and he had picked him up again so he could pet the ferret.
"And this little guy is his son, Saskia."
Saskia had the colors of his daddy. He turned his big, fascinated eyes to Ana and she wondered, with eyes so big, how there could be enough space left in that little head for a brain.
She couldn't stop herself. Leaving aside her fears and uncertainties, Ana reached out and softly patted the top of the little one's head.
After that everything was so much easier. Ana started to feel better about the idea of sitting down with a bunch of aliens to watch a movie. A short while later, Josh's voice thundered over the constant chattering, making the she-prawn jump on her seat.
"Alright, people, settle down, movie time!"
Jasper clicked something at him.
"Today" Josh replied "we are watching E.T."
There was a general murmur of approval and someone said "I love that little squashy bugger!"
They all sat down in their own seats and sofas, the she-prawn and Glenda keeping close to the exit, and Josh stood facing the public. Ana thought he had the showman's ease of manner.
"Welcome to another session of the Theater of Glenda! We have two newbies in the audience today, so let's make them feel at home. I think you've all met Ana" he pointed his hand at Ana, and she looked around embarrassed as the faces of all humans and prawns smiled in her direction. "Our other new member is Eleanor, who is sitting waaay over there. Eleanor, care to stand up?"
Ana saw the she-prawn's antennae dance as Eleanor shook her head vigorously.
"That's alright, you don't have to. Anyway, Eleanor, welcome. We're glad to have you here and we hope you'll be comfortable" Josh said gallantly and Eleanor just blinked thoughtfully.
"I thought the website said prawns were… hermaphrodites?" Ana asked Rineke.
"Poleepkwas, Ana. And yes, they are hermaphrodites, but some Poleepkwas can feel more feminine than others."
Josh went on.
"Now if everybody will be so kind as to cram a sock in it and shut up, we may begin. Please keep your antennae low so the people in the back can see and enjoy the movie."
There was a short round of applause and some clicking and chattering as Josh sat down and the Universal Studios logo appeared on the screen.