Chapter 14 : Our Homes… So Far Away: Bloom, Part 3
"So tell me, Bloom," asks Stella coyly. "Did you have any boyfriends on Terra?" and the others crowd closely around Bloom to catch every word.
"Well duuuh, Stella!" says Bloom. "What do you think?" and the others regard Stella and begin to giggle and Ishandra smirks. "I am a pretty young woman with flaming red hair, big blue eyes, a cute pixie-face and a curvaceous body that even by Terran standards just won't quit. I almost had to beat off would be boyfriends and suitors with a stick. The rumour circulating around Gardenia was that while Mitzi had the bling, Bloom had the boys. I never had to worry about having a date for any major event. For the most part, I had a good time."
"I can imagine that that inborn Faerie charm had a lot to do with it," grins Stella.
"It may be, Stella," replies Bloom, "but sometimes it seemed that I could not go down the street without hearing a chorus of wolf whistles and cries of 'Come to me, Pixie-Face!', '¡ Arriba la pelirosa !', '¡ Hola mamacita ! ' and '¡ Humana humana !'."
"Whoa-ho, Bloom! You go girl!" exclaims Musa. "You don't need a translation to understand that!"
"Well," replies Bloom, "it is flattering in one way but annoying in others. In many ways I don't want all this constant attention. It is also one of the reasons for the constant animosity between Mitzi and me. Mitzi is so jealous of me because I'm popular with the guys. The sad thing is that Mitzi could have all the boyfriends she wants. She is beautiful, well-to-do, intelligent and well educated but she is so paranoid in believing that the only reason why any boy wants to date her is to get close to her money and family fortune. There are some who are like that but also plenty who would love her even if she were dirt poor and out on the streets. It is her nasty 'tude that drives them away."
"Got that right!" says Layla angrily. "She is so snobbish and rude and I was boiling inside over the way she treated you, Bloom, and that nasty stunt she tried to pull on us during that Halloween party."
"I don't know how you can call her intelligent," says Musa. "It seems to me that most of the time her mind wanders and she just goes along for the ride."
"Yeah," says Stella, "and she has no clue on how to dress with style and how to use perfume in moderation. One could smell her four blocks away with a cold in her nose."
"While I can agree with you, Stella," replies Bloom, "I have to warn you, Musa, that it is very dangerous to underestimate Mitzi. Mitzi is not even half as dumb as she likes to let on. She is as sly and deceptive as a fox. Take that Halloween prank she tried to pull on us. Can you imagine the time and planning and organization it took to pull it off? And I think that even you, Tec, can appreciate all those clever gadgets she used to do such things as break all those mirrors on cue. She had us really going for quite a while before the smell of her perfume gave her away. So, as they say on Terra: She's as crazy as a fox and someone with method in her madness."
"That sounds like Darcy's stock and trade," says Ishandra.
"I'm glad that you're the one saying that first, Ishandra," says Bloom, "but those were my exact thoughts."
"I get the 'method in her madness' part," says Musa, "but what is a fox and the bit about being as crazy as one?"
Tecna makes a quick-draw for her palm computer and is soon chanting, "Fox: any of various small, wild Terran canines (especially genera Vulpes or Urocyon) with bushy tails and, commonly, reddish-brown or gray fur: the fox is conventionally thought of as sly and crafty." "Unfortunately," says Tecna with a note of disappointment, "there is no illustration for this entry, I'm afraid."
"Do any of you know Vulpa of Cloud Tower?" asks Ishandra.
"Sure, I know her," replies Flora. "She has a gift similar to mine that allows her to see aurae and thereby tell whether or not someone is both physically and mentally healthy."
"Oh, yes, I remember her," says Musa. "She's a sweetheart even if she is a Witch but she seems to be perpetually up-tight and nervous to boot."
"Vulpa is a Fox-morph Witch," explains Ishandra. "Try to imagine her on all fours with paws in front instead of hand-paws and only one third her size. Then you have a good idea of what a Terran fox looks like."
"That sounds really cute," says Flora. "But I can't imagine Vulpa being sly and deceptive."
"I agree," says Ishandra, "but the fox that Vulpa's people evolved from is an opportunistic hunter-scavenger with many tricks in its hunting repertoire. On Terra, it is often hunted for its fur or for sport and just as often trapped to be exterminated as vermin because it destroys livestock and is the chief vector of a fatal disease called rabies."