[stylist] Workshopping: Lucy and Lithe, Chapter 7 Explosion!

[Miss Thea]

Chapter 7

Explosion

Kim’s eyes shone, as did Lucy’s. Mom ran frantically around, packing last-minute odds and ends. Dad opened a beer can and held it up. “How ‘bout a break, Donna honey?”

Kim’s eyes dimmed.

“Don’t worry, sis. It’s not like that around here.” Lucy gave Kim a reassuring squeeze. Her eyes lit up again. “Our last day on Earth,” she said.

“Wrong,” Dad said. “Our last evening on Earth.”

Mom accepted the beer, opened it, and got a faceful of foam. Lucy and Kim nearly fell backwards out of the dining chairs laughing.

“Thanks, everybody,” Mom said, though she was laughing, too. 

They passed the after-hours playing charades, since everything else was packed. Suitcases and trunks littered the living room floor. Nails hung where pictures had been.

“Will we get our own house on the earl’s estate, Uncle Jim?”

“I should think so, Kim.”

At bedtime, Mom tucked them in, gave them both hugs and said, “Not too late, eh, girls? We’ll be up before dawn.”

“’kay, Mom,” Lucy said.

The air was charged with excitement. After paying the last computer bill, Dad had shut off the Smart’Flat’s features. That included the computer. There would be no sleeping compound tonight.

The sounds of cursing and fighting that made the night ugly no longer bothered Lucy. She and Kim were outta here by morning.

Safe by Lucy’s side, under Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna’s roof, Kim fell asleep. Lucy lay awake, listening to their heartbeats. She watched the minutes and hours crawl by, hands forever circling, forever joined together, circling, changing shape. At the top of the hour, the hands lay on top of each other, as if there wasn’t enough room on the clock’s face. At quarter after and quarter to, the hands lay across the clock as if they lay crosswise on a bed. At the thirty-minute spot, they were standing up.

Not as accurate as the digital clock, but Lucy liked the old clock her grandpa had said was given to him by his grandfather. The DigiClock didn’t change shapes like the old one.

The thought of changing shapes made her shudder. She was pretty sure Mrs. T. was no Andorphian. Would she ever see the alien who’d been her teacher? Was the alien evil or good? It was no question she’d done the world a favor by killing Mr. Carson. But couldn’t she have just made him vanish? There was nothing good about those razors that had sprung from her throat, or that steel voice. 

Lucy flashed back, and started awake with a gasp. The clock told her she’d been asleep for an hour.

Lucy tossed and turned. She looked for the first streak of gray in the sky, anything to tell her dawn was coming.

This was worse than Christmas Eve, she thought. It’s not as if she and Kim would be meeting Lithe tomorrow. They were leaving Earth in an hour, maybe. But it would take months to reach Andorpha.

She must have dozed again, for the next thing she was aware of was her mother’s voice.

“Up and at ‘em, girls.”

“Yay!” Kim squealed, and jumped out of bed, Lucy quick on her heels.

“No more sirens, praise be,” Dad said, rubbing his hands. 

Just then, one went off.

“Forget it!” Dad called over the noise. “It’s just a rehearsal, and we gotta get outta here.”

They grabbed suitcases, each as much as they could carry and ran out to the truck. They packed the space in the back to the ceiling, all of them wishing they’d had a trailer attached. 

Dad drove to the spaceport. Lucy yawned through the paperwork.

When the agent lady said they were free to go, the girls walked to a nearby cafe. They both ordered milk and a chocolate chip muffin.

"Leaving us, dearies?"

"We sure are,” Kim said.

The waitress peppered them with questions when she got back with their orders.

"Lithe. What a pretty name. I think I'll call my baby that, if it's a girl."

"And Woo for a boy." The girls giggled.

"Uh, I don't think so."

"Wait. You're having a baby? Are you crazy?"

"Lu!" Kim looked shocked.

"Oh, it's okay," said the waitress. "Aren't you being a little fresh, dear?"

"Sorry," Lucy said, and she was. "It's just that ... well, a lot of families are making the choice, and … What I mean is I wouldn't want you to have to make the same choice.”

“Don’t worry about me, dear. I’ve got a place to go. Where I’m going, they treasure Young children and pregnant women.  What's your full name?"

"Lucinda Sue Smith."

"There, that's done it. My baby's full name. Lithe Lucinda McWithers."

Kim grinned. "What about Kimberley Anne? I think that's prettier. I love babies. When's it coming?"

"In about five months. I’ll be on my ship long before then.”

“That’s good,” said the girls."

“Somebody's waving. Gotta go."

They thanked the waitress for the food. Lucy pulled out her purse. The waitress shook her head. "Keep it. Give that to little Lithe, with compliments from Earth, such as it is."

They finished their muffins and lobbed the trash neatly into the bin as they passed it. “Nice shot,” they said to each other.

They found Lucy’s parents. “Nice timing,” Dad said. “We’re just on our way to the ship. Everything’s aboard except us.”

“Dad, how come all those people are running?”

“Probably going to their ship, same as us. Let’s go.”

They began to run. Fear tingled at Lucy’s nerves. Those people running looked scared, and they ran every which way. There was only one way from the concourse of the spaceport to the ships.

“Let’s go!” she cried, and put as much speed into it as possible, dragging Kim along. “We’re gonna be late, come on!”

“Lucy, we’re not going to get to Andorpha any faster just by running to the ship,” her father called.

“Lucy, slow down!” Her mother called. “We’re not late, we’re early. Slow down.” 

Lucy felt  the ground move a second before the spaceport exploded!



Lucy woke screaming in pain and horror. Someone stood over her, shushing and murmuring "there, there".

"I need to know, are you Lucy Smith? Are you the Smith girl?"

Smith girl? What was that? "Ask. Daddy."

"Is your name Lucy?"

Lucy. She knew that much. "Yeah."

"I'm a policeman. Don't be afraid. Where does it hurt, Lucy?"

"Every. Where."

She felt something cold wipe across her arm. She looked up into a dark face. "I'm a doctor. I'm just giving you something for the pain. Here comes the needle. Deep breath."

Lucy took a deep breath. She screamed as more pain hit her hard. She got each word out slowly in a raspy voice she hardly recognized as hers. "What...  was. that?  ... A ... nother ...  bomb? I didn't hear. it go ... off.""

"No. That was just morphine."

Lucy floated into sleep.

When she was sure the child was asleep, the doctor stood up. She glared at the policeman before changing into a bat-like creature with no eyes in its face, and lethal teeth. The bat-like thing sat on the policeman’s shoulder.

“Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t kill you,” it said.

“m-my queen, I’ve sold Earth to you, remember?”

“In return for your complete obedience, you and yours would keep their lives.” The bat crawled into the man’s collar. His face whitened.

“I have obeyed your orders, my queen.I-I have.”

“What were those orders?” There was a hint of steel in the creature’s voice.

“T-to bomb this spaceport so no one could get out.”

He screamed at the bite of its steel fangs. “Please,” he whimpered at the excruciating pain throbbing through him.

“Those were not my orders,” said a completely steel voice. “The Smith child and all that pertained to her were under my protection. Why did that bomb go off before her spaceship left orbit?”

Another bite. More whimpering. The collaborator began to feel weak. “Please, my queen. This was my fault only. My wife and children …”

“Are no longer under my protection. When we come in force, you will watch your family go before you. And it won’t be pleasant, I promise you that.”

“You’re … evil.” The man slumped down to the floor, feeling dizzy, feeling the blood gush out of his neck, feeling the pain of the venom crashing through every cell of his body.

“Thank you, but I’m afraid your flattery will get you nowhere. The Smith child’s parents are both dead, as is the friend she loved with all her heart. And it’s your fault.”

The bat changed into a fur-covered princess, the one the dying man had first made his promises and obeisances to. “Give us your Earth,” she said in her movie-star voice, “and we will show you how to live. Oops, I meant die. Sorry about that. Oops again. You will not die. Not till after your wife and children. Have a little antidote to the venom, won’t you?”

The man tried to protest, but the furry princess had grabbed a needle and syringe out of her doctor’s bag and jabbed it into the man.

“You know,” she said, still in her Andorphian guise, “I have no respect for creatures who would sell their planet and their fellow creatures for a benevolent promise from a pretty face.”

The man recovered and watched the fur melt away to reveal yet another disguise: a blind woman holding the harness of a guide dog.

“Nipper, come,” she said, and walked away, calling for help for the bodies she would have stumbled upon but for her faithful guide dog.



When Lucy woke, she was in a hospital of some sort. "Mommy? Daddy? Kimmy?"

A stranger smiled at her as he walked into the room. "You're awake. I'm Dr. Kelley, ship's medical officer. You can call me Dr. Dave, all right? Can I call you Lucy?"

"Dr. Dave, where are my parents?"

He looked away.

"You're a mass of broken bones, Lucy. How's your pain?"

"It's bad."

He gave her a shot of morphine. This time, it didn't hurt.

"You know, sweetheart, we're going to have to get in a fresh supply of morphine soon. We've got a special bunch of Afghani poppy farmers aboard, just to grow opium poppies for you."

The chemical warmth had a hold of Lucy. A fur blanket in a needle, she thought, as it tried to pull her down into blissful sleep. 

No! She pushed up.

"Dr. Dave, where are my father and mother?" She waited. No answer. "... My folks! My ... progenitors! Where are they?"

He sighed. "They … they went to Heaven, to watch over you."

"They died?" Lucy sobbed while the doctor looked on helplessly.

"I'm sorry. The captain told me not to tell you. Not while we're still trying to patch you up."

"And Kimmy? She’s my new sister. Dad and Mom took her away from that jerk. Where is Kimmy?” She glared at the doctor.  

He spoke slowly. "She's with God."

Lucy swore. "I hope I die soon."

"Now, that's no attitude." He gave her a game smile.

She gave him every bad word she'd ever heard.

"I don't have to listen to that." He walked out.

She got out one last swear word before the morphine took her.



T
hea Ramsay
Wellness Coach
Herbalife Distributor
www.GoHerbalife.com/thea-ramsay/en-CA
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