Slowly, I slip into consciousness and wipe the goop from the corners of my eyelids. I look around. Vi's gone. I hear Ben's noise downstairs. I go to my wardrobe and get a plain white t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts. Lazily, I slide them on, and make my way downstairs. I stop at the bathroom for a second, to brush my teeth and put on some de-o, and also to shave, which I seem to have to do more and more frequently now.
I shuffle out of the bathroom and make my way to the kitchen. I find Vi and Ben sitting at the little island in the middle, where we always meet in the morning. There's confetti spread all over the table, and there's a cake in the middle. "'Morning, guys," I say. "Happy Birthday, Todd!" they chime in stereo. I look down at the island and realize how much I kinda miss celebrating my birthday, like back in Prentisstown.
"Wow, guys, you didn't–" "Come on, Todd, it's your birthday," Vi says with a smile, "It's the one time of the year you get to eat cake for breakfast." I laugh at that a bit. So we sit down and all get a slice of cake. "Too bad we didn't have candles," Ben says. "umph," Vi grunts in agreement, her mouth full. "Why?" I say. "Old World tradition," Ben says. "You try to blow out the candles and make a wish." "Well, that doesn't matter," I say. "You can't have everything you want."
We all finish 'breakfast', and then it's time for presents, though I didn't really ask for anything. Ben gets me a card and a little colored cube-thing. Then Vi gets me a book. I stare at her for a minute. A book? I know I can read, but the only thing I've ever read is my ma's book. "Are you sure?" I ask hesitantly. "Ya. It was my favorite book back on the ships, and I brought it with me in the scout ship when we crashed. I've carried it around in my bag for a year now, and I think it's time it found a new home." "Wow, Vi I don't know what to say–" "Just read it for me, will you? It'll be your first proper novel." "Okay," I say, seeing how much it means to her. I'm exited; it'll be cool to read my first proper book.
Ben takes the cake, wraps it up and puts it in the fridge. I go and put everything in the room, but I pick up the book and go outside. I spend 20 or so minutes of my time reading, and it's not bad. I finish up the first few pages and I go inside to put it away.
When I get to my room, Vi's waiting for me on her bed. I still haven't re-made mine from last night. "Hey. Are you okay? Last night. When I woke up in the morning to go downstairs, you were sleeping there on the floor. What's gong on?" "Nothing. I just had a nightmare," I say, trying to keep it from playing through in my noise, "I woke up sweating, and the mattress was damp. That's all." "What was it about?" "I really feel like talking about it," I say calmly. "Okay. Sorry. Just checking." "Well, anyway. Thanks for the book. I like it so far." I try to continue the conversation as I put the blanket back and make my bed. "Good to hear you like it." I pick last night's grey shirt up of the floor. It's still a bit damp. "Be right back," I say to Vi as I leave.
I go down and put my t-shirt in the laundry room. I go back up, and I sit down with the cube that Ben gave me. "That's a Rubik's cube." I look up. Vi's looking at my hands, which are messing with the little rows of smaller blocks, trying to figure out what they are. She must see the confusion in my noise. "So what's it do?" I ask. She comes over. "Let me show you." She sits down next to me and puts her hands over mine.
Vi takes my left hand and guides it so that it's covering two of the three little rows of blocks, while she gets my right to turn the remaining row a quarter turn. "You basically do that a bunch of times," she explains, "and then you try to get all the sides of the cube so that they're all the same color." "Oh, so it's a puzzle." "Ya. I'm pretty good at it myself. Do you want me to try one?" "Sure. Here, take it."
I let go of the cube and watch as she randomly spins the blocks in every-which way, looking at me instead of it to make sure she doesn't memorize any of her actions. She finishes, and then I watch her pretty little hands quickly and nimbly reversing all her moves, pausing for a brief second to think every once in a while. She's done really quick, in a few minutes, and I stare in awe.
"Wow. You are good," I say. My noise is full of amazement. "Years of living in space with plenty of time on my hands," Vi laughs, "We used to have competitions to see who could do them the fastest." I still can barley believe how quickly she solved that. If it were me, I'd be fumbling around for hours.
She hands the cube back to me. I can't figure outa anything to say. "Heh, I'll need some luck to ever do one that fast." I know. Crappy.
"Hey, Todd, I've been thinking, recently, and–" The doorbell rings. It's probably Lee. Vi's disappointed. I can tell she was about something important. She sighs as we go downstairs. "Nevermind. I'll tell you later."