Chapter 18: The Story Closes
Meaning that I don't have any more ideas. I've gotten them to summer camp, given them a mission, gotten Cruller into Whispering Rock, and don't have anything else to put in. If anyone has a good idea for another chapter, please tell me, and I'll change this chapter (the end of it) and add that new idea on. Or I might relate it to my next story. I have big plans for Raz and Lili!
Last disclaimer (probably) of the story: I don't own Tupperware.
Whispering Rock was silent. There was no more construction, no children running around anywhere, and no image of Cruller in the boathouse. Milla was out catching fireflies, or something like that. He walked to the edge of the lake.
Sasha raised a shell-and-bone horn to his lips and blew on it. It rang out over the lake.
Suddenly, the calm waters began to bubble.
A light shone beneath the surface.
A lumpy, tan mass with eyes and long teeth rose from the once-peaceful lake.
It spoke in a voice that was deep for a woman, and kind of gravelly.
"Why did you summon me, tall, angular human?"
He hated it when Linda called him that.
"How to I impress a girl?"
"Make her a nice, comfortable mucous-lined bubble. May I go now?"
"No. I want to know how, besides references to fish."
"You don't think she'd like a bubble?"
"No. I respect that your people, and their perception of 'comfortable,' but I need to know how to impress a human girl."
"Chocolate."
The deformed lungfish walked back into the lake where, from the nice hat she was wearing, she was having a nice date with Sam Pokeylope.
He sat on the docks and thought about Milla. They'd gotten in another little fight. She was mad at him for experimenting on the children (not that it had done him any good) and had screeched at him. She had almost ripped through his shield, too, but 'ranger' Cruller had yelled at them, so… Baisically, he needed to make it up to her. Without giving up his experiments, of course.
Somehow, he didn't think it was the kind of thing that chocolate would solve.
He blew on the horn again. Linda was exasperated this time.
"What is it, angular human?"
"If Milla and I had a really big fight, how would I make it up to her? Chocolate won't solve this."
"Do something nice for her. Cook, or something. Is that all? Sam caught me a nice fish, and it's probably warm by now."
He winced at the idea of eating raw fish that a turtle had caught in his jaws. "Yes, Linda. I'll let you be."
"Thank you, Sasha."
Now to figure out what to do.
The next day, but time is way longer when you feel icky, so it had felt like two or three days, or maybe even a week.
"Milla, I want to tell you that I'm sorry, and… I made you a bracelet and earrings."
He held them up. The earrings levitated just above his hands, the bracelet a bit farther up.
"Oh, Sasha, they're beautiful! But… you didn't have o do that!"
He smiled. "Linda said I should do something to impress you, so I made these for you. They're psitanium, and I loaded them with levitation energy when I finished them. It should wear out in a month or two, so just ask me if they start dropping."
"Oh, Sasha, I don't know what to say!" She may not have know what to say, but she definitely knew what to do. She squeezed him like she wanted to force his arms off. The jewelry clattered to the floor.
When she was done, she started trying to put them on.
"No, see, there's a little bar in each of them, and if you poke it hard enough, it comes out. Then there's less energy concentration, and you should be able to put them on." As he said this, he put the jewelry on her.
She was a little surprised when she felt the earring clasp, but she'd adjust. She loved the jewelry so much, and there was no possible way to have an allergic reaction to any of the materials, since she wouldn't even be touching any of them. He'd even made them bright. He'd asked some of the refugee girls about the colors, of course, because a year ago, when he and Milla had first gone on a mission, he had gone through her mind. Her mental world had made him permanently colorblind.
So he'd asked some of the little girls which colors were brightest.
They had chosen neon yellow and bright green. Then he had just had to paint the psitanium. He had tested it all first, of course, on the girls. They all loved it, so he had given the jewelry to Milla.
He was happy that she was happy, and they went to the main lodge to get cookies.
Or rather, for Milla to get a cookie. Sasha wasn't really a fan of American desserts. They were nothing compared to the ones in Germany.
He and Milla went back to his lab, where they talked about stuff for an hour or so. Eventually Milla drifted to sleep. She seems to drift everywhere, he thought. Milla smiled in her sleep. She was so beautiful.
About two hours later, he had finally fallen asleep. He had read for about an hour, he had gone jogging, he had just lain down with the light off, everything. When he got bored of that, he went out to jog again and found out that it was morning. He went to check on Milla.
She wasn't there.
He looked at his clock.
Then he laughed at himself. Milla being the early-rising morning person that she was, she wouldn't have the patience to just sit around until 10:36.
He got dressed and walked up the stairs. It might be nice to have breakfast today.
After breakfast, he went to find Milla.
He went to the docks, and saw that the trapdoor of her lab was open. Her lab had once belonged to a scientist. That scientist was enthralled by fish and freshwater life. Milla had, of course, taken the underwater tank as her lab/bedroom. Today, he went down there.
"What do you think, darling?"
She was staring at one of the huge lava lamps in her room.
"I think it looks like one of your lava lamps."
She turned around, and he noticed that she was wearing the earrings. And the bracelet.
"No, darling, what do you think is wrong with it? See, there are a bunch of little bubbles in it. I never understood why that happened."
"Maybe it's at a different temperature from the others."
He felt the lamp in question with his right hand, then felt one of the other lamps with his left. If he hadn't been wearing gloves, he wouldn't have been able to stand the intense heat that was needed to heat lava lamps of that size.
"It's a lot hotter than the others. Maybe you should turn it off for now."
"Okay, Sasha, darling. Oh, um, do you want a chair?"
She floated a large pillow, about the size of a small beanbag chair, towards him. He sat down.
"So, you got up when?"
"10:35. I went to the main lodge and had breakfast and coffee, then I went looking for you."
"Oh. Most of the time, when it's morning, I like to be out on the docks, darling. Then I have lunch, and in the afternoon, that's when you can't tell where I am. It's easy to know where I'm not, though, darling."
"Huh?"
"In the psitanium cave. My mind echoes in there, Sasha. It is not a pleasant experience."
"Oh. I, uh, didn't know that."
She smiled at him. "That's because I didn't tell you, darling."
"Oh."
"Anyway, do you want to go on a picnic for lunch?"
"Uh, sure."
The conversation went on like that, Sasha went back to his lab, and at about 1:00, Milla came down to the bottom of his lab, startling him, which wasn't good because he was pouring a solution of psitanium powder and water into a mixture of chemicals that was contained in a little metal contraption that, to anyone else, would have looked like a saucepan.
When he was done, he was mad.
"Milla, I was pouring hazardous chemicals into other chemicals, which could have had any reaction!"
"So you poured them into a saucepan?"
"It isn't a saucepan!"
"Oh, no, you're right, darling. It's a saucepan with a little lock on it, and you installed a thermometer and a timer onto it."
She was frustrating.
"So, are we going on a picnic or not?"
"In a minute."
He opened the lock and found that the chemicals were just about to bubble over, which would be really, really bad, so he transferred half the solution to an equally strange container.
"That looks like Tupperware."
"Well, it isn't, Milla."
"Okay! No need to be so touchy, darling. It's your own fault, you know, because –"
"Shh! It's about to react. I need complete silence."
Milla was silent. He had finished the experiment and contained the resulting crystals, and had thought Milla had left, when he heard a whispered "Can I talk now, darling?" from behind him.
"Yes, Milla, you can talk now."
"Then let's go on a picnic."
"Okay. Let me wash my hands."
The picnic was fun, and they spent several years together, on and off. Eventually, one day, a boy called Raz infiltrated the heavily guarded walls of Whispering Rock. This is where the story ends and you go to Can and Can't Change, because no story ends at the end. There is always more than "Happily Ever After."
Good ending? I write fantasy stories, if you can't tell, and I'm gonna start a blog where I put them up.
Please review! Remember, if you have a really good idea for another chapter, I'll either add to this story, or put it in another one.