by Ayman Ghalit
She was talking to Bob, who felt completely awkward as he didn’t know how to react. Kais saved the moment by replying, “Thank you, but we are waiting for a friend.”
“Oh! alright, I will bring something.”
“No need, truly—!”
“No, no, its fine. It will be on the house.” She said, and left to bring to them two small silver cups, that contain a steamy-hot yellow liquid with dangled tea-bag tag, and placed them on their small white bony table. “Here you go,” she said while looking at Bob. Then, she left.
“So, now you believe me?”
Bob kept staring at the cup, ignoring Kais’s question.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Pardon me, Kais, but that glances of her!”
“What about it?”
“It was… it was so sweet!”
“How so?”
While unblinkingly staring at the cup, he answered, “Yes, Kaiser… that look is new to me. Trust me, I suffered their judgment for a long time, and I know what they say. It is new to my scattered rotten soul. Her glances gather more than it separates, build more than it destroys. O, by her glimpse, I surly felt alive.”
With surprised face, Kais said, “Wow! that’s poetic stuff right there!”
Bob showed him his shaky hands, saying, “This is not fear, this is something else, something new.”
Kais beheld Alma leaving to the back room again, then he urged Bob to leave. They left, and moments later, Alma came back to see the steamy cups left untouched on an empty table. And with a broken hope, she lowered her head, exhaled, and said, “Stop trying, foolish stupid girl.”
Prince Charming
The pieces started to gather up as the image became clear for Kais who passed by an advertising poster on a phones store that shows an ugly overweight man who slightly looks like Bob. And there, on a perfume shop, a poster showing a fat woman whom is spraying a fragrant on her submerged neck. He told Bob to follow him to a poster on a clothing store showing an obese bald-headed man with side hair that reaches his shoulder, pimples all over his forehead, slightly piggish in nose, and with long cheeks that was immersing his eyes. And with thoughtful gaze at the horizon, he was confidently posing while wearing the advertised formal blue tuxedo. Bob wasn’t different from him, so he asked, “What do you see, Bob?”
“Umm? a person!”
“What do you see?” he repeated.
“Just head to the point!” he asked after feeling irritated.
“Do you think that this guy deserves to be on an advertising poster?”
“No… no he doesn’t.”
“In Planet Earth, he doesn’t.” he smilingly replied. “But here, he is the one. He is the good looking. The charming man in the Phugwek or whatever their name is. This is their beauty standers, Bob. This is what perfect look like for them.”
“You mocking me?”
“No, Bob. You are the most beautiful. Though, you are a hideous man with an unpleasing look, ‘based on our beauty standers, of course.’ … it’s the truth, am sorry, but. In here you are the good looking one, the most blessed one amongst us! You are Prince Charming.”
Bob tried so hard to believe this, but it didn’t make any sense to him. Kaiser then proposed, “Alright, let’s roam the streets, and I shall prove it to you.”
When they left, Kais swiftly turned to the coffee shop and said, “I will come back to you, Mawan.”
Under the shade of tall golden buildings, they walked the streets and encountered a group of young girls in their twenties. Bob was truly an eye magnet and a lights-thief with his charming look. The Phugwakian girls were scavenging on his beauty which they couldn’t resist due to its forcible attraction. But for Kaiser, he didn’t get any glimpse what so ever! And after passing by them, Bob turned back to see them turning and bashfully looking at him while smiling! Moments after, they encountered another group of gals, and Bob was the absolute for them. It wasn’t impoliteness, nor immodesty from the Phugwakian girls, but Bob was the man whom their eyes couldn’t resist. The stunningly good looking one whom will never eyesore them. Prince Charming, whom they only see in the movies or read about in fantasy books. He was the one whom will boost their confidant if he just smiled at them. The one whom they will talk about in their private time. Bob noticed that their glimpses are not hateful, nor loathing, rather it was something new that brought comfort and confidant to his crippled soul which have been sentenced to isolation long time ago.
“You are absolutely right!” he said with a big happy surprised in his face.
Kais smiled, and jokingly replied, “I am always right. So, how do you feel?”
“I don’t know, a little bit confused… And to be honest, I am really, really starving. Let’s pluck leaves and head back to the hotel, my back is busted and my feet are killing me.”
Mixture of Tidings
With widened despaired eyes, Carl opened the door for Bob and Kais, and told them, “A woe is upon us!” And when they calmed him down to know that matter, he told them that they are not in the Milky Way Galaxy! That muted the room for moments as they sat in fear. They doubted that, but he showed them its image in the astronomy book. Kaiser questioned his certainty when he saw only a straight colorful line, but Carl assured him saying that it is a side imagery of it. That didn’t nearly convince them, till he ascertained them with a doubt-cutting evidence, he showed them a clear image of the Magellan Clouds and the Andromeda which is the closest galaxies to the Milky Way!
Despair swiftly clanged their hearts when Carl told them it is 500 lightyears far! Kais, who was feeling almost done, said, “If so! Then, we are totally doomed!”
“No, not yet. I think the reason that teleported us this far is a wormhole. The book is mentioning a nearby wormhole called, The Great Cosmic Rift. Am pretty sure it is the one. It is 170 light hours from here.”
Carl showed them an image of the Thumbless Nebula that they had witnessed in the past. And comforted them by saying that the Phugwakian astrology scientists were mentioning that The Great Cosmic Rift is 500 lightyears long.
With concerned mind about his family, Kais doubtfully asked him, “How are we going to locate this rift
“It is a huge rift that is 3 light hours long. The rift can easily be seen via any average telescope if you only focused on the northern start patterns. The Milky-Way is exactly behind that rift.”
The burdening concern that was clouding their chests slightly faded when they rechecked the familiar Thumbless Nebula. Bob cracked a smile and said, “Your certainty is relieving, Carl. I will gladly throw my trust on you.”
“I am dead certain. This is our pathway to home.”
Concerning silence, disturbed only by the clock ticking, followed after. Doubt-storm was spinning inside Kaiser’s head, who was sitting on the living room couch while thinking about Alma; the coffee girl. It was strange for him to be thinking about her while in this adversity, but his mind repeatedly failed to get rid of her as a voice echoed inside of his head, saying, “She is the one, Kaiser.”
Bob, who was front of him, was featureless, with zipped lips. Carefully, he was reviewing what had happened earlier.
Carl, who went to balcony, sat on a golden chair while reading about the Phugwak current history. And at 2PM, Jack and Gael knocked. Kaiser, with a concerning look on his face, opened the door, and told them about it all. But they only showed despaired concern regardless of Kaiser’s restless explanation, and when Carl came, he broomed out all the doubt. Bob then asked Gael if they had found the keys. Negative, was his respond.
“Did you contact Mort?” asked Kais.
Gael exhaled as he scratched his head, saying, “Yea, about that! I did not find his number in the phone.”
“Who so!” Carl impeded. “I am certain it was there.”
“True, but that damn kid, whom I gave the phone, surly deleted the call history.”
“What kid?” Bob asked.
“The one who got into the car accident in th
e morning.”
“Why did he do that?”
“I don’t know… Maybe, he called his mom and didn’t want us to know her number! *angrily gritting on his teeth* I swear, if I ever find him, I will make him wish he died in that accident.”
“Calm down,” said Carl, “am pretty sure Mort will call us soon. Just let us enjoy this piece of hope while it last.”
Timed passed, and when it lunches time, Carl prepared the food. They ate flesh leaves and drank a little amount of water. Bob, who complained that on cup of water is not enough for him to survive, reminded Carl, who snapped his finger when he recalled the bird’s puppies he had caught, repeating, “No...No no no no.” He rushed to the bedroom, and left up the white drawer to find them dead. He sadly brought them back to his friends who felt disgusted from their unfeathed naked look. After that, he brought the water cup, and broke the bone that he skinned to prove to them it is wood.
He then sat and told them about his despicable plan to catch the birds. And when he wanted them to take a sip from the bird’s water cup, Bob snatch, and drank it whole with one gulp, saying, “Well… that is freshening indeed. But you know what, two cups of water also not enough for my survival.”
Jack asked, “Does that mean that water is no longer a problem?”
“Not exactly. It is still a critical problem for us if we ever got stuck in here for good. We will be needing bigger animals to secure water for a short period of time. Am talking cow-sized animal or even bigger. It is hard to get such animal as it won’t be free, and certainly, won’t go unnoticed if the circumstance forced us to go unethical.”
Disquiet, Carl’s words brought them. Leaving them in a silent status thinking about how terrifying it will be if they ever got stuck in here. Jack worriedly said, “I hope we will never turn into vampire-like creatures that will suckle water out from the Phugwak.”
Kais slightly chuckled, saying, “Everything will be fine at the end. Just cheer up.”
With doubt resting heavily on their chests, time slowly passed as uncertain thoughts relentlessly discomforted Gael who was constantly checking his phone in hope for a reliving ring from Mort wo didn’t call. Carl noticed how concerned he is, and said, “He will call.”
“I really hope so,” He replied as he stood to go to sleep at 8PM. Carl followed him shortly after, leaving Kais, Bob, and Jack all alone in the living room.
Flourishing Dream
In a distressful silence, they remained thinking about this back-breaking matter. Jack, after overthinking their woeful matter, faintly said, “He left us.”
“Who! you mean Morton?” Kaiser asked.
“Yes, that sick twisted creep… he left us.”
“You stupid? where would he even go?” Bob replied.
“There is something you must do when around taxi drivers; Never Trust Them. They see us as work that they have to do. Nothing less, nothing more. And if that work became too much of a trouble for them, they will simply get rid of it. Think about for a sec, ‘lost his keys?’ He just wanted to flee all alone after filling his ship with gold.”
“Gael told you this, no?” Kais asked.
“Yes, he did, and it is convincing. We were nothing but fools to believe ‘the missing keys story.’ Shit, we were too easy to trick… And by the way, he didn’t even call us yet.”
“Calm down,” Kaiser chuckled, “and get rid of these poisoned thoughts. He will call us soon. Maybe his phone battery died out!? Or he is trying to figure out how it works. There is lots of reasonable prospects to be optimistic. Just think positively, and everything is going to be fine... Let’s change this gloomy subject. Delving deep in it won’t do us any good.”
“I really hope so... and you are right, discussing this shit won’t do us any good.”
After a brief silence, Kais cracked a smile, and said, “Something unusual happened today in the market, Jack. Something you might not believe!”
“You know that I do enjoy the ‘unusual.’ And am pretty sure it won’t be more bizarre than this planet. What is it?”
“Alright... In this planet, the beautiful one whom the eyes can’t resist, is Bob, and those who look like him!”
Jack chuckled, and replied, “Really? now! in this time you want us to make fun of him! Shame on you, Kais.”
“I swear, Jack. If you just had saw how the girls were completely dazzled by Bob’s beauty. Breathless they were.”
“Dazzled!” he laughed, “stop this nonsense.”
Kais told him about what happened in the market, and backed his claim by reminding him about the posters. Then, Jack disparagingly pointed his forefinger at Bob, saying, “This!” Bob proudly responded, “Yes, This. And indeed, they were drooling for my rare beauty.”
Jack couldn’t help but to laugh out loud till his eyes teared up. And hardly, as he tried to curb down his laughter, he said, “Thank you for the joke, I really did not laugh like this in a long time.”
Bob looked hard in Jack’s eyes, and said, “That is because your life is pathetically boring, you hideous ape.”
“Ouch! That was direct.” Kais reacted.
“What did you said!? such insult must not pass without a sincere apology. Take it back!”
“You will not have it, ugly Thing.”
Jack let out a faint confidant cackle, and said “Alright, listen to me, Bob. You are lying to your desperate self. If you want to know the truth! Just go to the honest thing *pointed at a mirror* and take a look at your face.”
“Guys! stop it. This became truly piteous.” Kais urged.
While Bob having a direct eye contact with Jack, he replied, “No, it is not piteous. I will tell you who is the honest in here, it’s the people”
“You mean, the Phugwak.” Kais corrected.
“Whatever. They are the honest judge between us. I am the victorious in this matter even if it piteous. I am the handsome, I am the one whom the girls can’t resist. And you! You are the ugly on who should hide in the shadows.”
“This Thing is sincere! You are lying to yourself. Wake the hell up, blobby Bob.
“The eyes of the fair maidens weren’t lying to me. Ask Kaiser if envious-doubt is devouring your rotten inside.”
“It is true.” Kais replied.
“Alright, am not bragging, but, c’mon! Look at this face *pointed at his* Just keep calm and take it easy, Bob. Truth indeed hurts, but inner-peace it brings.”
“I am the beautiful, and you are the hideous. And if you want the conclusive evidence...”
Feeling ashamed, Kais couldn’t help but to put his hand over his face, saying “Guys, this is pathetic. We—!”
Bob interrupted what Kais wanted to say, and went on, “...Me and you, tomorrow. We shall roam the shops, and will see who is the sight magnet.”
With a confidant smile, Jack agreed despite Kaiser’s advises that urged them to quite this nonsense. And when they showed only stubbornness, he got up and went to sleep after saying that he cannot take this stupidity anymore, but sleep didn’t was not easy for him as he was still thinking about Alma. He tried so hard to convince himself to forget about her, but her beauty that surpassed Emily’s by lightyears made his brain urge him to take his chances with her. He kept thinking about her for an hour or so, after that, he distressfully sighed, and said, “Lo! what have I saw!”
Anxious Supposition
Early in the morning, Kais, whom still feeling asleep, woke up after failing to get back due to the noisy barking. He went to the kitchen to find Gael and Carl submerged in concerning silence. He greeted them as he took a cup of water to wash up his face and teeth. After that, he joined them on breakfast, and began his conversation by asking, “Mort called?”
“No” said Gael, whom was worriedly staring at his empty plate.
“So?”
“What do you mean?”
“Now what? What should we do?”
“Nothing,” Carl replied, “I may triple-check the hotel, but even if we don’t find it, we should
wait for Mort’s call.”
“He will never do, he left us.”
“let us?” Kais wondered, “That is impossible. Where would he even go? This is nothing but false accusation.”
“What is the impossible in this matter? Remember, he doesn’t know you. And not because he took you by his ship you would become his ultimate concern. He only cares about what’s in your pockets. And I will tell you why am I saying these, it’s because he is greedy bastard who said to his self, ‘dividing what’s on this planet on one, is way better than dividing it on six!’ I know the guy. Trust me, he largely bared his foul evil greed to me.”
“This is nothing but dark-doubts.” said Carl after drinking his water. “Just remember, he doesn’t know the way back to the 500 lightyear a far Milky-Way.”
Kais’s eyes slowly widened in fear when he gave what Gael said to him a second thought. He paused a mute for a moment, then, he asked Carl, “W-What if it true?”
“Trust me, it is not.”
“Let us suppose it is true. Let’s suppose he knows the road back to The Milky Way. What will we do? What will our scenario would be?”
“This is disquieting thoughts, Kais. Let’s be optimistic.”
“Just answer me.”
Carl let out a surrendering sigh, and answered, “If it true Mort left us! Then, we have to relentlessly try adapting life in here, and accept our fate to stay sane, for we will likely live in here till we rot, and by rot, I mean, die. And if luck would fall in our favor, if you want to add a happy ending, the humans may find this planet and take us back home. But they have to distinguish us from them first. *sighed* Listen, this only will happen if that supposition happened. Just let us hope really hard it won’t.”
Silence sat heavily upon them when they all started to think about how will they live in here? how will they survive? how will they secure water? and what if the Phugwaks ever found out that they are aliens? Gael shook his head trying to get rid of these gloomy thoughts, and said “This is frightening, how much money do you still have?”
