"Awakening" Chapter 3


"Blink"

Saturday


Tino felt a rush of relief once he was standing at the edge of Carver's driveway. He was terrified that at any moment, his secret would slip out, and that would be Lor's cue to tease him about it until he reached some middle ages of his own. Years of careful observance at school taught him that it usually wasn't a good idea to let two girls inspire together. Women had this way of merging into a kind of collective if left to their own devices. Fortunately, Tish would be keeping the secret well-guarded, she didn't want to be teased either. Besides, he already did enough stupid things to make it easy for Lor to poke fun at him. No reason to make things any easier!

The three of them walked up to the front door, and Tino knocked. The sound of muffled, running footsteps approached, and after a few moments, the door opened to reveal Carver. He looked at his friends in awe, as though he was about to drop to floor and proclaim himself unworthy. "Uh, Carv? You okay?" Tino inquired.

"Oh thank goodness you're here! I need a break from this paper!" exclaimed Carver.

"You still haven't finished it?" Lor chastised. "What's wrong with you?! You're gonna mess up the whole weekend!"

"Relax, it's cool, I can finish it tonight. I've got one page done already."

"It took you sixteen hours to get one page done?" Tish cocked an eyebrow. "Carver, I know you're not a brain, but you've never had this kind of problem before."

"Don't bother, Tish." Tino said accusingly. "I can smell it on him. He stayed up last night playing video games. And this morning, he slept in, and then watched cartoons. You've only been working on that paper for half an hour, haven't you Carver?"

"All right, all right! You got me, okay? It's not like a didn't try to work on it more. It's just so boring!"

"Well, I do wish the paper had been on the Renaissance and not the Middle Ages." Tish conceded. "The Elizabethan Era is much more exciting. Plus it would've given me a chance to try on a farthingale."

"A farting what?" Lor asked.

"Never mind."

"Look, I swear, when you guys pick me up tomorrow, it'll be ancient history, okay?" Carver pleaded.

"Eh, good enough for me." Lor said non-chalantly. "In the meantime, let's hit the exhibit. By now the line will be so long we'll be lucky to get in before they close."

"Yeah, why did you guys take so long to get here, anyway?"

Lor dug her eyes into Tino. "Tish said something about Tino having a fainting spell."

"A fainting spell?"

"Geez are you ever going to let it go, Lor?" Tino pleaded.

"Not until I hear the full story." Lor smiled devilishly.

"Out of the question." Tino replied.

"Fine, keep your secrets. Just remember, sooner or later, I'm going to find out, and I won't forget that you made me do things the hard way."

"Sure, Lor. Can we go now?"







"Way to go, Tino!" Lor shouted. It's 5 o'clock and we're just now getting into the exhibit! All we have is an hour! Your little fainting spell cost us a whole afternoon waiting in line!"

"Stop it Lor! It wasn't Tino's fault! He didn't choose to faint, he just did!" Tish insisted.

"Yeah, settle down girl!" Carver emphasized. "You know how much this exhibit meant to Tino. He wouldn't deliberately mess it up."

Lor growled something in response but backed off of Tino. "You know what waiting in long lines with no reward does to me."

"Let's just get some of that astronaut food before it's all gone." Tino suggested.

The walk (a jog when no security guards were in sight) was rather uneventful. Traffic around the Foods of the World booth was minimal, it was getting too close to dinner for many visitors. As their group approached, the familiar oratory of the booth's overseer began. "Look," Tino pleaded. "We're kind of in a hurry here. Do you think that, just this one time, you can skip the speech and give us some soup in a tube? Please?"

"We're all out of soup in a tube. All we've got left is this peanut butter in a tube."

"Peanut butter in a tube?" Tino hesitantly took the proffered container, stared at it, then passed it to Carver, who passed it to Lor.

"Fine, if you won't try it, I will." Lor declared. "She quickly unscrewed the cap, tossed it aside, and squeezed some of the substance onto her finger. "Hey, this is kind of good. I wonder if they have chunky style…"

"Wouldn't the nuts get stuck?" Tish wondered, taking the tube from Lor and coating her index finger. "Hey, you're right Lor. It is good."

"Give me that!" Tino said in frustration, seizing the tube and repeating the now-familiar process. Tino sighed. "It just isn't the same. I was too psyched up for the soup."

"I wonder how this stuff would go on French Fries?" Carver mused as he helped himself to the peanut butter."

"Dare we find out?" Lor asked.

"Hey, there's still plenty left."

"Um, weren't we going to go on the shuttle simulator?" Tish asked, taking the peanut butter tub from Carver before he used it all.

"We'd better move it if we're gonna get there on time." Lor called.







"Whew. Made it with just a minute to spare, guys. This is the last call." Carver wheezed a sigh of relief.

"We've got to move!" Tino cried. Each shuttle only has two seats, and they only have two shuttles.

"Relax, we're golden." Tish beamed. "Just trust me." She disappeared into the crowd ahead of them.

"What do you suppose she's up to?" Carver asked.

"I dunno." Replied Lor. "I could've muscled us up to the front anyway." Lor flexed her arm for emphasis, putting on her most ferocious look.

"Am I the only one who gets genuinely afraid of her when she does that?"

"I'm usually a little scared of Lor when she's normal." Tino laughed. "But I wouldn't have her any other way."

"I'm not aggressive!" Lor snapped, punching Tino in the shoulder. "Dad just says I'm assertive."

"Yeah, aggressively assertive." Tino mumbled, rubbing his sore shoulder.

"Man, you must have a death wish." Carver wondered.

"I'd watch it if I were you." Warned Lor. There was something downright frightening about the way she was looking at him.

"Yes ma'am!"

"That's more like it." Her reverie was interrupted by a blur of purple and pink running towards them.

"Here! Tish called! We're all set!"

"Wha?" Tino asked.

"I got us a spot a the front of the line. Come on, we have to hurry!" The rest of the gang ran after her to the front, still in disbelief. "Thanks guys. Here's your payment, as promised. Tish thrust the peanut butter tube at one of the boys whom she was "buying" a spot from, and it quickly became a pileup of bodies as four fifth graders began wrestling each other for control of the almighty tube. Lor took the initiative and pushed the squabbling kids out of her way, securing their space.

"How did you do that?" asked Carver.

"Supply and demand." Tish replied. "I took our one asset and looked for someone who would want it bad enough to give us what we want."

"Tish, you're amazing!" Lor beamed.

"I don't know if I'd go that far." Smiled Tish. "Oh! I almost forgot. Here Tino, this is for you."

Tino looked on in wonder as Tish opened the palm of her left hand to reveal a still sealed tube of soup. "How did you ever-?"

"You seriously underestimated the value of that peanut butter, that's all. They gave this to me as a down payment, until I returned with their drug of choice."

"I don't believe it!" Tino exclaimed as he approached Shuttle B with his friends. He felt ecstatic. This day was really turning around.

"I'll drive!" Carver yelled.

"Shotgun!" Lor called milliseconds later, as they both squeezed into the front seat. Tino was so happy about getting his soup he wouldn't have minded being strapped to the roof. He slipped into the back seat and slid all the way in, leaving room for the fourth.

"Carver, are you sure you're qualified to operate an interplanetary shuttle?" Tish asked.

"Hey, on the Space Pilots 3 space-flight sim, I'm rated as a Top Ace pilot."

"Good enough for me." Lor supported. They all strapped themselves in.

"I still can't believe you were able to get me the soup." Tino whispered to Tish. "You didn't really get it as a down payment, did you?"

Tish sighed. "If you must know, I bought it off them for you." Tish whispered back.

"You didn't have to do that."

"No, but I knew how important it was to you." Tish threw him a sideways smile. "And I had the extra money. Pizza's on you tonight."

"Thanks Tish."

"You're welcome." She momentarily rested her head on his shoulder before remembering her place and quickly straightening up.

"So!" Tino covered before the others could notice. "How fast do you think this bad boy does zero to 60?"

Tino's answer came in the form of a brilliant flash of light emanating from the screen at the front of the cabin. He saw the sky rushing up to meet him, the clouds, and seconds later, the starry heavens.

"That was incredible!" Lor yelled as the shuttle straightened out and slipped into its programmed flight path. "I wonder what it's like when we land?"

"Ugh." Tish groaned. "I hope my stomach will still be there when we get back, because I know I left it behind."

"You want me to swing this thing around so we can go back and get it?" asked Carver.

"No thank you!" Tish said adamantly. "I don't think I can take two of those too close to each other."

"Wow. It's…incredible." Tino admired the view, pinpricks of light all around them, and Earth slowly growing smaller in the background as they accelerated away.

"Amazing" Lor added.

"Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?" Tish ventured.

"Guys, the next time I'm feeling really bummed out or upset, remind me of this, okay?" Carver said as he stared wide-eyed at the universe's beauty.

The next two minutes were absolute silence, each of the four taking in the depth that the stars offered them. Truly, there was nothing more beautiful. The peace dissipated instantly, though, when their shuttle took a sharp turn and began closing on the asteroid belt. Carver looked down at the control board and saw a serious of instructions for navigating their craft through an asteroid field. "Hey!" Lor yelled. "This console just lit up like a Christmas tree, but I don't know what much of it means.

Tish tried to lean forward and look at Lor's display. "Looks like a radar to me. We're at the center."

"So what do these red and white dots mean?"

"Hmmm. I think they both represent asteroids. The white ones seem to be farther away, so they shouldn't be a problem. So I think it's safe to assume the red ones are in our flight path."

"Oh man!" Carver felt frustrated as he finished reading the directions. "This crate doesn't have any weapons."

"But we can steer." Tino looked at the bright side.

"Haven't we seen this in a video game before?" observed Tish.

"Yeah, but I don't think you get a continue if you put two more tokens in."

"Here they come!" Lor pointed at the screen as an asteroid the size of a swimming pool appeared on the screen. Closer, closer, closer… "Carver! You have to DO something!" Lor yelled.

"I'm trying, I'm trying! Give me a minute!" the boy insisted.

"We don't have a minute! Bank!"

"If he does that without knowing where we're going, we're likely going to end up smashing into another asteroid." Tish explained as she leaned back and to the side, hoping to ease her stomach.

"Plus I have to compensate for the maneuver. Hang on…got it!" They all watched in fear and fascination as the screen swerved to the left, then began slowly rotating. The offending asteroid slipped harmlessly by, and the shuttle seemed to dip down, then up, before leveling of.

"Carver, you are the man!" Tino yelled.

"Yeah, I know." Carver smirked.

"We're not out of the woods yet!" Tish pointed at Lor's display and brought them back to virtual reality.

Carver rubbed his hands together and gripped the controls harder. "Everyone, hold on to your peanut butter!" Tish gulped.



To Be Continued. . .




I had a really great time writing this, so I sure hope my readers had a similar experience. I'll continue it soon…real soon!

Lord Malachite

5/8/03

4:52 PM, EST

E-mail: ranger_writer@yahoo.com

AIM: Asukaphile26