Chapter 6: The Party

What a marvellous idea! A special party to celebrate our freedom! I would use any old excuse to get all the people in the town together and celebrate in style; ever since that night with the music gig, I always liked hanging around other people. Even as a slave, I would leisurely spend the day with the other whores. This party was not going to be easily organised, however.

With not only the arrangements to worry about, I also had to keep an eye on writing my notes for my Life Guide; in addition to maintaining my 'closer' friendships. Every day since we came back to Megaton, I saw Jericho at Moriarty's Saloon, drinking and cavorting with Nova, the resident prostitute. I took my time to look at her once, to see what she had that drew Jericho so. She was quite tall, and had the extra height of those red high heel shoes she always wore. They stood out, as only one had a buckle to fasten it to her shoe. The other shoe had had makeshift repairs of clue and cardboard. This, alongside her red, silky corset, black leather jacket and red, leather mini-skirt, added much to the image of 'gypsy harlot'; there was certainly something exotic about her!

Once, on an evening where I had nothing to do but hand roll cigarettes over and over, I had pulled out a few dresses that I had "acquired" over the years, and took the time to dress myself in them. Glancing in the mirror with one dress, that was a black, silken nightgown-type thing, I couldn't help but feel a sexier me coming out! It excited me to think that just by looking differently I could tease Jericho and manipulate him innocently. Other times I would scold myself for losing focus on my shop and the experiments I once used to do.

The only experiment I had conducted this week was 'Learning to Look at Pain a Different Way', with the help of 'voluntary' subjects from the local orphanage, ran by that sweet old lady who is married to the old patriot guy! That was a very exciting experiment, as it could revolutionise the world! StimPaks would no longer be needed! The 'subjects' came through the tests brilliantly – after a few hours of 'voluntary visual-psycho exercises'.

As I sat inside my bedroom, my shop locked for the evening, I finished off the last of the invitations. Initially I had intended to invite the whole town, but realised what hard work it would be to organise so many people! I would never get the guide done!

The five people I had invited were Nova (keep your friends close, and your enemies closer); Jericho (it wouldn't be entirely unpleasant if he weren't to come to the party); Lucas Simms (just in case Nova started kicking off); Gob (I liked him) and Doc Church (how cool would it be to be in favour of the local doctor! Discounts! Organ donations for my experiments!).

The party was scheduled to start at 9p.m., tomorrow, in my shop. I spent a lot of hours decorating it with festive items from the pre-war, like Christmas Trees, flags of various countries, streamers, confetti, anything I could think of! Too bad there was nothing to play music with, but I could always sing for my guests! Man, I get such a reaction when I start doing that, I just can't help myself!

When it came to food, I decided to use up some of the caps I had saved to invest in a banquet, prepared by Megaton's very own food shop, ran by that strange woman Jenny Stahl. It was quite odd when I went to talk to her about it. Her shop was open, so I went inside, and saw her standing behind the bar, washing a dirty metal jug, that was used as a spittoon for the elderly folk. As soon as she saw me, her initial smile had faded into a dark frown. This woman obviously didn't like me!

"Um," I began, a bit hesitant with the cold reception I received. "Hi!" Now was not the time to be anxious, I had a party to run. "I need you to make some food for a party I'm throwing; paid for, of course."

She placed the spittoon down on the bar and nodded her head, grunting as she did so. Saying nothing, she went into the back and shouted up to her brother, who rushed on down. "Take her order." She spat, with the emphasis of disgust on 'her'. What had I done to upset this woman? Had I experimented on one of her relatives? Rendered her infertile with my 'radioactive food' experiments? Whatever it was, I doubt she would tell me.

After filling out my order with her brother, at a cost of about 400 caps, I staggered back to my house, exhausted after running about all day. All I wanted to do was have a cigarette and fall asleep. Lazily pulling a cigarette out from its packet, I put it in my mouth and crashed down onto my turpentine stained mattress. Sighing deeply, I didn't even get time to light it before I had fallen asleep, deep into exotic dreams!

0*0*0

The morning had come, and my sight was met with the sunrise through the netting of my bedroom window. Rolling over onto my side, I exhaled deeply and stretched out my limbs a little. A good stretch is always welcome! Taking out the broken cigarette from my mouth, I reached out for a button that was on top of my bedside table. The button turned on my own personal invention! A personal coffee maker! Upon pushing the button, it uses a system of levels and pulleys to put coffee grains into a cup and then boiling water, adding milk afterwards. It always put in just the right amount of sugar, too. This was my only luxury; I would always put purified water and milk into my coffee. The Brahmin didn't mind; they didn't need to have calves to make delicious Brahmin milk!

Sipping lightly at my hot coffee, my heart beat wildly as I thought about today's party. The invitation was explicit:

Hey! If you're reading this then you, lucky person, have been invited to the Craterside Supply Shop's Party of Freedom, sponsored by the Craterside Supply Centaur, our lovable mascot! So, get that tongue back in your mouth and find a fancy costume to wear to the party, where the liquor never stops pouring, the hookers are easy (I'm looking at you, Nova!) and cigarettes are free!

Friday, 9 o'clock, RSVP

I had tried to make the invitation as appealing as possible; with the abundance of alcoholics and chain smokers on my guest list, they were sure to take the bait.

0*0*0

I glanced into my bedroom mirror, smiling as I eyed up the costume I had chosen to wear. It was the most fabulous costume I had ever worn! Using the corpses of a few molerats, I had fashioned myself a complete Molerat suit, complete with its own tail! I was sure to be the envy of many a guest tonight! Earlier in the day, Jenny's brother, who wasn't that bad-looking actually, came to deliver and set up the food. He was such a nice man! He even winked at me as he left! He said his name was Leo, and informed that they were only half-brother and sister. I thought it was sweet seeing families so close! After he had left, I watched the door he had closed behind him. He certainly had left an impression on me; that wink was to die for!

The hour was approaching, and soon my guests would be arriving soon.

It promised to be an eventful evening.