Happy Snak

by Nicole Kimberling

  “I know. It’s depressing.”

  Fitzpatrick regarded her evenly. “Do you know how painful it is for major ambassadorial personnel to be informed of critical events via snack bar managers?”

  “Sucks to be you.” Gaia rose and opened her door. “Now I really have a lot to do.”

  “Just one more thing.” Fitzpatrick’s demeanor softened, and he took a step closer to Gaia. “Do you regret having spent the night with me?”

  “What?”

  “Since you haven’t returned my calls I thought you might be bitter about it. I thought you might be angry with me.”

  “But I never returned your calls before I slept with you either,” Gaia said.

  “Yes, but it didn’t hurt my feelings then.”

  Gaia snorted with laughter. “Oh, please.”

  “I’m serious.” Fitzpatrick reached out and gently caught one of Gaia’s hands. “I really enjoyed our evening together and I was hoping to have another.”

  Gaia sobered. She did want to see him again, but felt ridiculous developing a crush on Fitzpatrick just because he never had food in his teeth. She hoped that they’d be able to be real lovers someday…but not today.

  Finding the strength to trust, hope and love again would have to go on the back burner. Since she was today’s entrepreneurial woman, Gaia had a legitimate excuse to avoid meaningful congress with another human being: She had to work. She pulled her hand away.

  Fitzpatrick stared dejectedly at her discarded box of PowerWoman!!

  “I would like to see you again,” she said. “You know, sexually.”

  Fitzpatrick’s eyes widened in vague amusement.

  “I suppose that’s a start. Maybe after we have sex for a couple of weeks, we can begin to have a romance?”

  “Maybe. Now beat it. I promise you that we’ll talk in a day or two. I’ll tell you everything.”

  “And we’ll have sex again?”

  “Probably sex first, then a power nap, then talking,” she said. “Does that sound okay to you?”

  “I’ll put aside three hours.” Fitzpatrick pressed a quick, warm kiss to her cheek then left her alone. Gaia watched him let himself out. He was awfully convenient.

  As she passed Wave’s door, she noticed a piece of paper adhered to the outside of her door. The note informed the Happy Snak management that Wave Walker would be sick tomorrow and thus unable to work.

  Who told Wave about calling in sick?

  Roy had some explaining to do.

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Cold Snap

  Wave remained secluded in its room the entire morning. Gaia pulled cold drinks and fielded constant questions about the alien’s absence. Wave’s regular customers were mostly maintenance guys. They wanted to know what exactly was wrong with the alien. A girl from the loading dock left Wave a get-well card.

  Roy and Cheryl inquired about the previous day. Gaia remained noncommittal. When pressed she said it was none of their business. Rebuffed, the couple drifted away into their own world of bickering and private jokes. Gaia had made herself extraneous. And the level of bitterness she felt about it surprised her.

  Before she’d met any of these people, she’d been safe. Now she acutely felt the vacancies in her life. What she’d considered comfortable insulation metamorphosed into emptiness. Most painfully she felt Wave’s sudden withdrawal. It even overshadowed the budding hope of intimacy with Fitzpatrick and the discovery of the new alien world. She wanted Wave to emerge from its self-imposed exile and be meaninglessly happy. In Wave’s absence, disappointment descended like a mass of arctic air, making every experience sharp and painful.

  She cursed Wave for ignoring her and cursed herself for ever allowing herself to emotionally rely on some alien she’d practically just met.

  After lunch, she prepped for dinner. At four o’clock, she ate a hot dog that tasted like cardboard. Dinner came and went. She told another dozen people that Wave was sick. Roy and Cheryl left at eight. Gaia closed the restaurant alone.

  She’d closed down hundreds of times before, but today the cleaning seemed to stretch on for hours. Each section of Happy Snak, from the reeking, curry-spattered counter to the greasy hot dog rack revolted Gaia. Wave made cleaning more fun. But no fun was to be had tonight. Gaia mopped alone. Wave always made an elaborate show of moving obstacles out of the way of her mop. Gaia had to move the trash can herself and felt lonely. Wave’s door remained closed. No new sick note had appeared. Gaia took heart that Wave would return tomorrow and rescue her from her solitude.

  Ten thirty approached, and Gaia prepared to fake her way through a night cooking at Mini-Snak. She didn’t want to stun snakes and wouldn’t be sucking any clams. Sucked clam would have to be 86’d. Maybe the Kishocha could stun their own snakes. Even armed with a jug of orange, Gaia balked at her duties. She didn’t want to enter the shrine without Wave.

  What sort of mood would Kenjan be in now?

  Gaia still had ten minutes. Why not feed Microbe? She coaxed her hamster out. Microbe sat in her hand, eating a pile of green pellets and dehydrated carrots. As Microbe chewed, he stared warily at Gaia. Microbe was a very fastidious hamster. He only smelled a little like dank wood shavings. He kept his hindquarters spotless and soft. His black eyes glinted like obsidian beads. His tiny toenails clutched onto her palm. When he was finished he cleaned his already pristine muzzle.

  “Good boy.” Gaia petted Microbe’s tiny, petal-like ear. Microbe’s small body stiffened and the shrine door dilated. Sharkey and Stinger stepped into her bedroom. Spooked, Microbe dived into Gaia’s smock. Sharkey and Stinger and their weapons took up most of the small room. The guards looked confused. Gaia felt a spark of anger igniting in the pit of her stomach. Just before the shrine door clenched shut, Gaia saw Oziru standing at the edge of the water.

  “What are you doing in here?” Gaia cuddled Microbe to her stomach.

  “Oziru has ordered us out of the shrine. This was the closest door,” Stinger said. “Sudden Red Crush is at the waterway.”

  Sharkey repeatedly jabbed the “open” icon on Gaia’s door, trying to get into Happy Snak. “This door won’t open. Even though I press the correct picture.”

  “That would be because I didn’t want anyone to come in here and bother me.” Gaia made no attempt to restrain the nastiness in her voice. They’d ruined her Microbe moment. Now her hamster shook violently against her. All sense of serenity had been shattered.

  “I apologize for this bad intrusion in your dry eel nest. Oziru is in a strange and complicated state,” Stinger said.

  “What do you mean?” Gaia momentarily lost Microbe within the folds of her Happy Snak smock.

  “Kenjan did not sing last night,” Stinger said. “I think the ghost may be finally tired of haunting. Oziru has come to check.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?” Gaia asked.

  “Who knows? But we must not be with them, and neither should you. Do not attempt to enter the shrine. Oziru is unattended.”

  “Where can we go to sit?” Sharkey stepped between them. “This room smells like death.”

  Gaia unlocked her bedroom door. “The dining area’s through the kitchen, where the chairs are.”

  Sharkey and Stinger jostled through the door. In the middle of the kitchen, Sharkey turned toward Wave’s room, sniffing.

  “Honorable Gaia Jones, is Wave Walker curling to rest here?” Sharkey poked the closed door with the tip of its spear.

  “Wave’s not in the mood for guests. Go to the dining room.” Gaia closed the door behind them, leaving the guards to amuse themselves in Happy Snak. Microbe burrowed toward her bra. She knew from experience that it would require several minutes to extract him from her clothing. This accomplished, Gaia regarded the forbidden shrine door. She activated her surveillance cameras. She felt guilty, but what was the purpose of having a surveillance camera if not to spy? A tingle of exhilaration and shame rushed through her. Oziru sat at the edge of the water and listened to Kenjan’s animated harangu
e. Kenjan splashed water everywhere. Oziru did not move, except to duck a cracked clamshell, which Kenjan had hurled at its head.

  After watching this pantomime for a few minutes, Gaia grew tired of trying to imagine what the two were saying. She decided to tackle the audio. Gaia met with little success.

  If Oziru and Kenjan were anything like she and her ex-husband had been, they would be arguing all night long. She’d have ample time to discover how to work the sound. She flipped through the manual and came to the conclusion that she needed someone who could really follow instructions.

  Gaia went in search of Wave.

  Gaia peeked out of her door. She didn’t want to attract the guards’ attention. Stinger stood in front of the Cherry Bomb console, intently watching the graphics. Sharkey paced the length of the dining room lost in its own thoughts. Gaia slipped across the back of the kitchen to Wave’s room and tapped gently.

  Wave cracked the door open.

  “Hi, Wave,” Gaia said.

  “I am very busy right now. Please call again at another time.” The Kishocha closed its door.

  Gaia knocked again. When Wave didn’t answer, she kicked the door. “Wave, I really need to talk to you.” The door slid open.

  “What do you want me to do?” Wave intoned dramatically. “Oh, please command me, Gaia Jones. You are so powerful that I must be obedient to you.”

  “I’m not going to command you,” she said. Wave’s sudden transmogrification into Sharkey-like sarcasm confounded her.

  “So you are tired of commanding me? I am so sorry. Can I help you regain your strength to command me more?” Wave’s cranial tendrils thrashed in agitation.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You are just playing a game like Kenjan. You still command me even though you say I have become manager of Mini-Snak. It is all the game to you and fun at the expenses of my pride.” Wave’s voice grew louder with each new thought. “And why? My hope is too cheap. Will you take all my money pieces away now? I am no employee, any longer. Such a charade.”

  Gaia expected Wave to be upset about Kenjan, but Wave was angry with her.

  She hadn’t thought Wave was capable of real anger, especially toward her. She and Wave shared a special relationship, didn’t they? She appreciated Wave in a way that no one else did. Wave gave her its immediate trust and she’d reciprocated with instant warmth. Of all the people on A-Ki Station, Wave was the only one she was always willing to tolerate.

  Something fragile snapped inside Gaia. Her composure deteriorated.

  “Are you trying to quit?” Gaia’s voice was breathy and high.

  “Why should a person as me need to quit? I am only a slave to be at your command and grovel like a low worm,” Wave hissed. “I hold two regrets in my chest. One is that I let Sharkey do muzzling with me and the other that I believed you.”

  Gaia eyes stung. Tears blurred her vision. She couldn’t believe it. Would she be crying every day now? She didn’t dare look to see if the guards were watching. How could they not be looking? She wiped her eyes with her forearm. “I don’t understand what I did.”

  “Who cares what you did?” Sharkey said from behind her. “Why are you regretful of our slippery closeness, Wave?”

  Both Gaia and Wave turned toward Sharkey. The guard stood between freezer locker seven and the prep table. Gaia might have been touched by the concern in Sharkey’s voice if she hadn’t been so humiliated.

  She said, “Will you please leave?”

  Wave kept its face turned slightly away. The ends of Wave’s cranial tendrils twitched. “Soldier Sharkey, I am fighting with Gaia Jones. I will fight with you when it’s your turn. Egotistical!”

  Sharkey nudged Gaia out of the way. “I will fight with you right now, Wave Walker!”

  Wave straightened. Wave was taller than Sharkey, though more slight. Wave’s cranial tendrils writhed; each tendril lashed the next into a more violent frenzy. Wave resembled Kenjan more than ever. They seemed to be connected on a quantum level. Did Wave have a projectile clamshell too?

  “You will not,” Wave said. “And do not shove Gaia Jones like you were more important.”

  Sharkey inclined its head to Wave. “I will await your orders, my noble Lord of Orange. Call me to your presence when you see fit.” Sharkey stormed away to join Stinger.

  “You muzzled with Sharkey?” Gaia asked Wave.

  “It is nothing of your concern. I need not ask you for permission!” Wave’s mismatched eyes frightened Gaia. She caught her breath in a sobby hiccup. “Do not express acid as though I have beaten you.”

  “I’m not expressing acid. I’m crying.”

  Wave seemed perplexed. Its cranial tendrils slowed to a sluggish churn. “Why?”

  “Because you’re mad at me and I don’t know why.”

  “I just told you why! You are commanding me. You kick my door and demand to enter even though I paid my rent money pieces, just as promised. No kicking then.”

  Gaia sniffed. “I’m sorry I kicked your door.”

  “Good. You should be. To be so rude.” Wave glanced sideways at her.

  “But you were mad at me before I even kicked the door. Actually, you seemed mad at me ever since we came back from Oziru’s garden.”

  “And well I should be.”

  “But why?” Gaia’s voice dropped.

  “Because you were only playing a game of democracy with me, but I believed us to be friends and equals. You hurt my heart.”

  “That’s not true at all,” Gaia said. “You are my friend. We are equals.”

  “Then why make me go back to grovel like a servant in the garden of Oziru? Do you think it pleases me to lie on my belly like a crawling worm?”

  “If you didn’t want to come you should have told me.”

  “And leave you to wander the bowels of the island until your breathing machine ceases to function? You did not know what you were doing.” Wave looked down. “You are a slow cripple swimmer. You were swimming down stupidly, like you knew everything.”

  “I’m sorry I made you go with me. But I didn’t want to take Stinger or Sharkey. I don’t trust them enough.”

  “And then you kept asking me questions as though I would know or was allowed to speak in the presence of Oziru.” Wave’s tone grew whiny.

  “I’m sorry for making you do what you didn’t want to do. I was asking you questions because I was scared. I wanted to know things were all right.” Saying this out loud, knowing that Stinger and Sharkey were probably listening, nearly killed her, but she knew she had to make it right with Wave.

  “Things were not right.”

  Gaia closed her eyes. “I know that now.”

  “Are you going to begin to cry more?”

  “No, I’m not going to cry more,” Gaia said.

  “Are you certain? Your eyes are red, and nose is running. These are crying symptoms.”

  “They’ll clear up.”

  “Oh.” Wave straightened back up, awkwardly glancing around the room. Its cranial tendrils hung limp. “I am sorry to yell at you and make you do crying.”

  “That’s okay. I just had a hard day.” Gaia wiped her nose on the bottom of her Happy Snak smock. “Thank you for not abandoning me when I didn’t know what I was doing. I could have died in there.”

  Wave accepted Gaia’s thanks. For a moment they stood, relaxing into their reconciliation.

  “So,” Gaia said. “Why are you mad at Sharkey?”

  “I cannot say.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “No,” said Wave. “I cannot tell.”

  “Oh. It’s a secret.”

  “It is the biggest secret.” Wave slumped against the doorframe. “I want to love Sharkey. For many reasons, I want to shout, ‘Love!’ But Sharkey is bad. So bad. You do not know.”

  Sharkey paced through the dining room shooting angry glances in their direction.

  “Could we talk somewhere else?” she asked.

  “Not in the shrine
. Kenjan would overhear.”

  “That’s not really a problem right now.” Gaia crossed her arms. “Oziru’s in there talking to Kenjan. Oziru sealed the whole shrine off. Why do you think the guards are hanging around in the dining room?”

  “Oziru is speaking to Kenjan?” Wave’s eyes widened. Gaia nodded. Wave cocked its head. “But the door is closed. How do you know this?”

  “I have a surveillance camera, remember?”

  “And you have it on?”

  “Yeah,” Gaia said.

  “So you are spying on the Divine Oziru as it breaks the sanctity of the shrine and talks to the ghost?”

  “I was trying to see if Oziru was going to be done soon, because I have to get in there.” She didn’t want Wave getting mad at her again. “I couldn’t understand what they were saying.”

  “Do they know you can see?” Wave’s voice was hushed.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Can you hear their words?” Wave was so close to her that its cranial tendrils brushed against her face.

  “I couldn’t figure out the sound,” Gaia admitted.

  Wave snorted. Its cranial tendrils quivered and she saw the familiar sparkle return to its eyes. “So you came for me to connect the sound?”

  “Well,” she said. Wave’s tendrils fell. “Yes.”

  Wave’s tendrils perked up again. “Gaia Jones, this idea of spying on our betters that you hold is sick and wrong.”

  “I’m worried. Seigata told me to make Kenjan stop singing, and I did, but now Oziru is there. I have to know what they’re saying. I don’t want Kenjan to be exorcised.”

  “You are so inappropriate…I may love you,” Wave said. “Not like Sharkey. Different love. No muzzle love.”

  “I understand.”

  “I will help you fix your spy camera.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Perverts

  Wave scanned the Plexiglas corridors of the hamster maze until it located Microbe. The alien did not tap on the tunnel or attempt to attract the hamster’s attention. Wave seemed pleased just to watch Microbe cleaning its ear. Finally, Wave turned its attention to Gaia.

  “Your room smells bad.”

  “I haven’t had a chance to clean. Have a seat.” Gaia indicated the end of her unmade bed. Wave eyed Gaia’s bunk dubiously. Her duvet hunched on one corner. Her discarded jeans lay splayed across the bed’s midsection. Her pillow sagged against the wall. Gaia yanked the bedclothes into a more palatable formation.