by Alan Black
He was surprised to see a row of his braided belts on display. He felt a rush of pride seeing his work displayed so prominently.
“Sure,” Tasso replied. “I can make them in the same colors, if you want.”
“I wouldn’t ask, but our cheerleading uniforms have leather belts that aren’t as flexible as we’d like, and you know how cheerleaders move about a bit.”
Tasso shook his head. “I don’t really know what a cheerleader is.”
“Excuse me?”
Tasso shrugged, “It sounds important and exciting, but I don’t really know what a cheerleader is or what you do.”
“That’s just … wrong.” She turned towards the other cheerleaders and shouted. “Girls! Out to the promenade. This young man has never seen cheerleaders in action.”
She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the open area outside of the store.
She commanded, “Stand here and watch us.” She ran off to join her friends a few yards away.
He looked around. The shop had cleared out. Cherry had grabbed Gordo by an arm and was standing beside him. She hadn’t let go of his arm. The man looked as if he was going to faint. Tasso could see a flash of blonde hair and eyes as Ain stood in the doorway, half in and half out of the shop.
A few minutes later, Tasso knew how Gordo felt. He hadn’t expected to see a group of girls his age clear floor space in the busy promenade and do … he had no words for it. They shouted in unison, urging some team forward. They clapped. They jumped. They tumbled, climbed on each other, dove about, and encouraged everyone to join them in chanting for their team to win. Tasso didn’t know girls could bend the way they did. He stood stunned while everyone on the promenade cheered and applauded the girl’s efforts. He didn’t notice Cruz in the crowd, eyeing him. Nor did he see him wander off, looking for his friends.
Anisa bounced up to him. He swore she bounced. She didn’t walk, she didn’t step, she didn’t run, she bounced. She took his hand and led him back into the store. She didn’t let go of his hand even after they reached the extruder. He knew he didn’t want her to let go.
He noticed Gordo looked dejected when Cherry let go of his arm.
“Can you make us a type of braided belt that’s more flexible than normal leather belts?” Anisa asked. The other cheerleaders had followed them back to his machine. They all nodded in agreement with Anisa.
Tasso nodded in concert with them, but he said, “No.”
“No?”
Gordo said, “Sure you can, Tasso.” He pointed at a knob. “Turn this and it will loosen the weave a bit.”
Tasso nodded. “Yeah, but I still don’t think it will give us the result we want. Here, look at this. Maybe we can get a flexible belt if we do it this way.” He twisted a few knobs and reset a few dials. He consulted the manual and reset another switch. He activated the machine and extruded a heavy, yet flexible, web belt, making it white with the ship’s coat of arms imprinted in the webbing. He’d guessed at a length that should fit Anisa. The machine couldn’t extrude a metal buckle, but he knew Cherry had a few clamp style buckles that would work perfectly.
He held it up to Anisa. He stretched it, twisted it, and pulled on it. It always returned to its original shape. He handed it to her and watched it make the rounds as every cheerleader squealed and giggled.
Gordo said, “Sounds like you have a hit there, Tasso.”
Tasso shook his head, “It’s still not as flexible as I thought you wanted.”
Anisa laughed. “It’s better than anything I could’ve thought of. How many can you make?”
Tasso smiled, “No, Miss Anisa, the question is how many do you need?”
Anisa thought, “Is ten too many? Can you make them all exactly this length? No wait. Selena is thinner, she needs one a bit smaller. And Jo is a tad bit … well, bigger, maybe another three inches longer?”
“Sure,” Tasso smiled. “Why don’t you go pick out some clamp style belt buckles and I’ll extrude these for you.” He turned back to the machine, but Gordo had already set the controls for the belts. He was catching them as the machine spit them out.”
Gordo grinned at him. “I’m not trying to steal your job, amigo. I’m just playing with your new toy. Mira! We need to get one of these for the maintenance shop.”
“Gordo, this really is the ship’s extruder,” Tasso said. “I’d hate to get it set up here for Cherry to use and then lose it to your shop, but you should have precedence.”
“I’m not taking this away from her,” Gordo said. “But I’d like to come up here every now and again to extrude some stuff we might need.”
Tasso laughed. “Are you sure that’s all you want to come up here for? Are you sure you aren’t trying to get a peek at the other blonde that works here?”
Gordo shook his head in seriousness. “I’ve seen the last blonde I’ll ever look at. I’m going to marry that woman. She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to if I have to figure out some reason to come up here every time the place is open.”
Tasso wanted to laugh, but he didn’t want to hurt the big man’s feelings. “Gordo, are you sure coming to where she works is your best bet? I mean, I know less about women than any other man on this ship, but maybe you should see if she wants to meet you somewhere else, maybe somewhere you could sit and talk?”
“Yeah,” Gordo said. “Maybe I should ask her out before I ask her to get married.”
“Out?” Tasso laughed in spite of himself. “Going ‘out’ on a space ship doesn’t sound like a smart idea.”
Gordo snorted in laughter. “Not that kind of out.” He handed Tasso a stack of belts. “I made a dozen of these belts. It’ll give them a couple of spares. You go give these to your girlfriend.”
“She isn’t my girl—”
“Cállate,” Gordo said. “Shut up and go give her the belts.”
He carried the belts over to the counter and laid them in front of Cherry and the girls. The girls grabbed the belts and passed them back and forth, picking out their favorites. Tasso couldn’t see any difference in them, but the girls did.
“We made a few extra as spares. Please bring them back and we’ll remake them if any are wrong or don’t quite fit.” He looked at Cherry. “Is it okay if we put these on my tab like the ribbons?” He was sure it’d be fine, since it hadn’t cost Cherry or Ain any credits to get the product.
Anisa said, “That’s too generous. You have to let us pay for some of these.”
Cherry said, “I’ll tell you what, Señorita Rojo-Graham. You and your friends pay for the belt buckles and the scarves you picked out. We’ll let Señor Menzies pick up the tab for the ribbons and the belts.”
Anisa said, “That’s too much.”
Tasso laughed and said, “Please. It’d be my pleasure. You promise to come back and shop more often, plus tell all of your friends where you got them and we’ll call it even.”
“Tell someone else?” Anisa laughed. “Like I could get this bunch to shut up! Okay Tasso, we’ll call it an advertising discount.”
Tasso said, “Well, if you ladies will excuse me, I have to go wait on Gordo.”
Cherry said, “I can wait on Gordo for you, Tasso.”
Tasso smiled. “I’m sure Gordo would like that, but I don’t know how to take their credits on the buckles and other stuff.”
Cherry smiled, “Ah, yes. But I’ll come check on you two before he leaves the store, okay?”
Tasso laughed, “You better.”
Gordo was waiting patiently by the extruder. “Tasso, I originally came up here because of the shop. We need some new packing straps. We need something like those belts, but not stretchy or flexible. I thought I could find out how to do extrude them, but I can’t seem to get it right.” He pointed at a pile of web pieces on the floor. “I keep getting them either too thin, too brittle, or too flexible.”
Tasso picked up the discarded pieces and opened the extruder’s material bin. The recycling material was down a bit, but there was still
an amazing amount of scrap in the machine. He stuffed Gordo’s attempts back into the machine. He flipped through the manual, scanning through the index and into completely different chapters from where he had been reading previously. There were chapters on hoses, o-rings, and flexible machine belts. He wanted to scan the one on pulley belts as he was curious how the extruder would make a machine belt in a loop with no beginning and no end. Instead, he filed that thought away and continued looking until he found the chapter he needed.
“Here we go, Gordo. ‘Strapping and Tie Downs’.” He went to the section on industrial strength and durability.
They set the width and thickness. Gordo was about to hit the activate button when Tasso stopped him.
“What color do you want?”
“Color? Why would I care about color?” Gordo asked.
“Well, what happened to your other straps?”
Gordo shrugged. “Some got cut down for other projects, but most of them just disappeared. None of the other shops ever admit to taking them. I mean, packing straps all look alike. You know how it is.”
Tasso shook his head, “Actually, no I don’t know how it is. What if we make these straps in red with your shop designation imprinted in the web? You guys are E-17, right? This way no one can take them, because you can prove they’re yours. It doesn’t take the extruder any more effort to make them red with your section number than it would to make them plain. In fact, I don’t know how to make something without color.”
Tasso set the section number into the extruder. “Now, how much do you want?”
Gordo thought for a bit. “Can we do four of them at twenty-five feet?”
Tasso nodded, “Let’s go crazy and crank them out at forty feet. I mean, it never hurts to have a few extra feet, right?” He hit the activate button and watched the strap pile up on the floor.
Gordo grabbed an end. He pulled and tugged, but the web strap didn’t have any give. The man began rolling the strap. Cherry walked up and stood behind Gordo, holding out an empty box. Gordo realized someone was behind him, turned and almost dropped the coiled strap, but managed to take the box from her. “This is great. Thanks, Señorita.”
“Cherry, please,” she said. “Can I call you Steve?”
Gordo said, “How’d you …?” He looked at Tasso, who shrugged. “Yeah, please. I mean everyone calls me Gordo, but you can call me Steve if you want.”
Cherry laughed and said, “Steve, what I want is for you to ask me out for a drink. We close at six. You can pick me up here at 6:01, okay?”
Gordo smiled, “Okay? That is more than okay. It would take a stampede of angry, wild horses to keep me away.”
Cherry laughed, “Good. You keep that attitude and we’ll get along just fine.”
Tasso yawned. He tried to hide it, but it slipped out.
Cherry said, “The old folks boring you?”
“I’m sorry, Cherry. I guess I didn’t get any sleep last night, and it’s starting to catch up with me.” He put the last strap in the box Gordo was holding. “Cherry, these straps are for ship’s equipment, and since it’s their extruder, we really shouldn’t charge them for it, right?”
Cherry said, “Of course not.”
Gordo said, “Mira, no. We used your employee’s time. We should reimburse your for his time, if nothing else.”
Cherry shook her head, “We can balance that out by the ship not charging us for the use of the extruder.”
Gordo said, “But we weren’t using the—”
“Tasso Menzies. Report to Section A-0015.” Tasso’s dataport blared loud enough both Cherry and Gordo heard the call since Tasso didn’t use an ear bud. He didn’t see the need for one since he never got private calls.
He said, “You two can argue about who owes who what. I guess I have to go to Section A-0015. Where is that?”
Gordo said, “That’s Captain Rojo’s office. Can you find it? Do you want me to show you? Cherry and I can argue over price later.”
Cherry laughed, “It’ll give us something to argue about over drinks. That and who’s going to buy dinner tonight.”
Gordo said, “And maybe who fixes breakfast in the morning.”
Cherry poked Gordo in the ribs. “Not so fast, amante. Drinks and dinner first.”
Gordo smiled. “Si, si, si. Of course.”
Cherry turned to Tasso, “Did we work you so hard you won’t want to come back tomorrow? We open at noon.”
Tasso laughed. “Work hard? I didn’t break a sweat once. This wasn’t hard. This was like playing. I’ll be here unless the captain decides to lock me up somewhere. She probably will, unless I get a move on. I’ll see you two later.”
He took off out the door. He headed for the elevators, moving as quickly as he could through the crowd. Four o’clock had come around and the promenade was packed with people shopping, eating, talking, and laughing. He could hear a band warming up in the center gazebo. He’d never listened to any live music before. For that matter, he wasn’t much for canned music either and thought it might be something he’d like to try some day. Right now, he was trying to adhere to Cruz’s demand to avoid the promenade on Saturdays and Sundays. The time had flown by in the lingerie shop. He really had been having fun. He’d have to get to the shop early enough and leave late enough that he could avoid Cruz and his friends. They wouldn’t come looking for him if they didn’t know he was working at the shop.
People coming and going packed the main elevators. He turned down a side corridor to a secondary set of elevators. He turned the last corner and stopped cold. There waiting for him was Cruz, Ivan, Eber and Flacco. None of the four looked pleased with him, but they seemed to be pleased to see him.
CHAPTER 15
THE FOUR BOYS looked as healthy as they had before the shower room fight. They all wore cowboy hats, jeans, and boots with matching shirts and bola ties. Their belt buckles were the only individual item about them. Each wore a large distinctive silver buckle, although all were in a horse motif.
Tasso remembered hearing Cruz’s nose had been broken. If so, the doctors had fixed him up. The others didn’t look as if they’d been touched, or so it looked at first glance. He noticed Cruz’s eyes were a bit puffy and starting to look a bit bruised. It looked like Flacco wasn’t putting much weight on his left foot. Tasso couldn’t remember whether he’d heard if Eber or Ivan’s hand had been broken, but both boys were standing with one arm behind them as if protecting an injured hand.
Tasso smiled and said, “Gentlemen, how’re you? I heard about your earlier injuries. I’m sorry about that.”
Cruz said, “You aren’t sorry now, but I promise you’re going to be.”
Tasso’s smile tightened, but he kept it on his face. “Really, I am sorry. I’m sure you’re a man of your word and will keep your promise. If I promise to be sorrier later, can we call this even? I have somewhere I need to be.”
Ivan brought his hidden hand into the open. He held a three-foot length of what looked like a broken broom handle. He slapped it into his other hand.
Tasso had never seen the gesture, but he understood the message. “Are we going to do this one at a time or are you girls going to try four on one again?”
Ivan said, “You attack one of us you attack us all.”
Tasso let out a whoosh of air, as if in great relief, “That’s real good news, because I have no intention of attacking any of you, either singly or in a group.”
Cruz said loudly, “Yeah, well you jumped all four of us this morning in the showers.”
Tasso laughed when he realized Cruz was speaking to the La Dueña Dunstan’s overhead security camera. “Well, it seems we have a different recollection of that little event. However, if it’d make you feel better, I apologize for being naked in the shower when the four of you tried to beat me up. I’ll accept you won. It took four of you, but you won. Why do this again?”
Cruz’s voice dropped to a whisper so quiet Tasso figured it wouldn’t carry to the microphone pickups.
“I also told you to stay off the promenade and to keep away from my girlfriend.”
Tasso realized the forward pitch of Cruz’s cowboy hat would prevent security from seeing that the older boy said anything at all. Moreover, not everyone in security liked him. Tasso thought it would be long odds if Security was watching. After all, how much of the ship could they really watch at any one time? Still, he seemed to be videotaped for the net every time he screwed up or fell down. If they were watching his screw-ups in real time and not on a later playback, maybe he could talk long enough that Security would send someone down to give him a hand.
“I do recall you warned me to stay off the promenade. I’ve tried to follow those instructions and I’ll readily admit I failed. I’m sorry. I like it there and I don’t think I want to avoid it any more. However, I don’t recall you telling me to stay away from your girlfriend. I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”
Cruz said, “You know.”
Tasso smiled and shrugged, “Sorry, Mr. Cruz. I’m sure she’s a fortunate young girl, but I don’t know who your girlfriend is.”
Flacco snapped, “Everyone knows Anisa Rojo-Graham is his girlfriend.”
Tasso was surprised. “Really? Does she know?”
Cruz clenched both fists and stepped up close to Tasso. They were standing nose-to-nose.
Tasso was shocked to realize he was as tall as the other boy. He thought Cruz was taller by a few inches. He clearly remembered Cruz being taller the first time the boy confronted him.
Cruz whispered, “Come on, faggot. Let’s do this.”
Tasso smiled and spoke in a normal voice. “I’m sorry, Mister Cruz. I don’t know what you mean by ‘let’s do this.’ And I don’t know what a faggot is. If I am one and if being one upsets you perhaps you could explain it to me and I’ll try to change.”
Cruz cursed at Tasso, but Tasso was so unfamiliar with cursing he didn’t know how he was being insulted. He knew the insult by the tone, but not the meaning.
Tasso smiled, realizing Cruz was deliberately pushing him so he would throw the first punch so his story about Tasso attacking first would have some validity. Tasso shook his head, he had no plans of starting a public brawl. “Sorry, I don’t understand. Perhaps if you spoke in English it might help?” Tasso offered.
