"When we got back home, I remember Amethyst looking inside. Bewildered. She opened it and stared at it some and she was about to touch it when Pearl stopped her. She was like, 'Don't! Don't! Don't touch it! Put the lid back on!'
"And Amethyst was like, 'This slop made me? Made us?'
"And Pearl said yeah, but... well, ya know, didn't forget to mention that Pearls are made a little differently, but she said yeah. That stuff made Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, nearly all Gems. At least, Gems were made from that stuff thousands of years ago. She didn't know if that'd changed since.
"But, Pearl was lookin' at it and said that slop was a good word to describe it, because it was so old. I looked at it, and it was... soupy. It was dark and looked kinda chunky. It was like a big can of Ravioli-o's, only made out of metal, and way past its expiration date."
Connie had been listening intently to Steven describe what had happened the other day over the phone. Here, she offered input: "So, kind of like liquid mercury?"
"I dunno what that looks like, so, maybe?"
"What did you think about it?"
"I dunno," said Steven. "I didn't know what to think about it. I didn't come from that stuff. But, I guess my mom did. That everyone did. It's weird to think about."
"About as weird as thinking about how humans are made, huh?" Connie chuckled nervously.
"Yeah... heheh."
"So... what happened next?"
"Nothin' much," said Steven. "They took the soup into the Temple. I didn't see them after that, I was really tired. I went to sleep. When I woke up, it was starting to get dark again." Connie giggled and it made Steven smile. "I saw Garnet a little after I woke up. Remember when I said I didn't get why Topaz was doing what she was doing-"
"Yeah."
"-and it didn't make sense that she was doing it without a goal-?"
"Yeah."
"Well, anyway, like I said, I asked Garnet about it, and she told me that sometimes people will do something-and it can be anything-to distract themselves from any bad feelings or thoughts that they may not be able to stop really feeling or thinking about without that distraction."
"Really?" said Connie.
"And it made sense to me, at least a little, cuz sometimes I want to take my mind off something, so I play a video game or, ya know, like that, or find someone to hang out with."
"Yeah."
"Does it make sense to you?"
Connie thought. "Kinda. I've felt that way before. So, I try to read a book. Or play the violin. I'm normally pretty busy anyway so there's plenty else to focus on. My mom and dad are always busy, too. I don't know about what Topaz was doing, though."
"Exactly," said Steven. "I can't imagine the kind of constant-ness-I know that's not a real word, but I'm gonna use it-"
"Persistence?"
"Thank you. Persistence from her bad feelings, how bad they are, to make her need such a big distraction."
"Well, I meant that I don't know whether it's that or that she was actually up to something," said Connie.
"After thinking about it," said Steven, "it seemed like it to me, that it was something to take her mind off things. Because a lot has been taken from her. And Garnet seems to think that way, too, so-"
"Ok. I believe you."
"Besides, we have the Gem soup, so it's not like she could do anything with it. It's not even enough to make one Gem, they say. And it's old, so who knows if it'd even work."
"That's true," said Connie. "It'd be cool, though, to make another Gem, don't you think?"
"Oh, definitely! I just wonder what it would be. Like, another Ruby, or an Amethyst, or-"
"Another Peridot!"
"YEESH!" They both giggled. It was the most Steven had laughed in the past few days. "Well, anyway, that's what's been goin' on and what's been on my mind."
"You lead an interesting life, Mr. Universe."
"Garnet told me not to worry so much, to not take on other peoples' problems."
"You do that a lot."
"Yeah," he laughed. "Yeah... You like when I used the word bewildered? Impressive, right?"
Connie gushed, "Oh, very! I must be rubbin' off on ya!"
"Makin' me smarter all the times," said Steven. "Alright, I'm almost to the barn. I'll see you soon."
"Ok. See you this Saturday. Call me, yeah?"
"Try n' stop meh!"
Strolling up to the barn as he ended the call, Steven saw Lapis lounging in a lawn chair out front. She was flipping through an Aristocrat magazine from March of 2003 (in big, bold lettering, "75 SEX SECRETS" was slapped onto its cover, overshadowing the sensually dressed woman with wind-blown hair and dripping cleavage on the cover).
Averting his eyes, Steven noticed Lapis looked like she was covered up in blanket, though the day was stifling. He catcalled her. Lapis put down her sex-mag and got up on bowed legs. She held her hands just out from her hips, twitching her fingers. She had an orange poncho draped from her shoulders.
When Steven approached her, she made a cowboy hat out of water that hid much of her face. Steven had a big, dumb grin on his face. "What's up, hombre?"
"Howdy," she spat. "Punk."
Feeling clever, Steven said, "Is that hat ten gallons?"
"What's a gallon?"
Steven laughed like a ninny and hugged Lapis. He shimmied when he hugged her because he missed her so much (even though it'd only been a few days)!
They didn't have anything they planned to do. Steven just wanted to visit. So, they roosted themselves up on the barn's hay loft and lounged around like a couple of miscreants, chatting.
"Whacha been up to?" Steven asked.
"Oh, you know. Same old thing."
"Takin' it easy?"
"Livin' breezy." Lapis looked away, to the other side of the barn, at all the stuff Steven's family had hoarded for so many years. "My plants are growing fine. But, this next harvest will have to be small. Most of what we harvested already takes a couple months to grow."
Steven looked over at the stuff, too. "That's ok," he said. "You take really good care of them. I'm always impressed." What always surprised Steven was how comfortable Lapis' lips were with never parting, how shallow and quiet her breaths were should she take them, and how reclusive her eyes seemed-in the sense that they weren't really looking at anything-hooded under her bangs, her brow, and her eyelids. To Steven, she looked expressionless when she was like this, yet he felt some invisible burden weigh down her face, her whole body, even. And thinking about how she sits, like she's sitting now, how she sinks, it just made Lapis' color scheme ironic.
All of that time, the months Lapis spent fused with Jasper must have taken a lot of life out of her. And, because of that, for some reason, Steven felt he was lucky to have her around.
"Where's Peridot?" said Steven.
From her reverie, Lapis turned her head to almost face Steven. She did not look at him; the floor had her hypnotized. "In the silo," she said.
"The silo? This one?" He jabbed his thumb at the silo that stuck out of the wall of the barn like a tumor (Lapis used it as a dispenser for water).
Lapis shook her head. "There's another one. She's claimed it as her personal space."
Steven hummed.
"Yeah, she's been acting like this recently. She's stopped organizing my stuff, talking to herself out loud, and leaves me alone for extended periods of time. Lately, it's been an all-day kind of thing." Lapis shrugged and curled her lips into a small smile. "You know: more agreeable."
Steven and Lapis talked about other things, such as movies, gardening, and human religious concepts of Heaven and Hell and divine punishment-the usual. All he could think to do was talk to Lapis when he saw her, and try to make her smile and laugh. (It made him feel inadequate though, because it didn't seem like it was enough.)
Steven wasn't so invested in the conversation because he kept thinking about Peridot. After spending a good 30 minutes with Lapis, he left the hay loft and moseyed on over toward the silo.
He told Lapis the truth, that he wanted to go see Peridot. Lapis said, "Okay."
With his hands in his pockets, halfway across the grassy fields between the barn and the second silo he never knew existed, Steven said to himself, "I'm comin' for ya, Lemon-lime."
...