Chapter 22 Children of the Moon

Chapter 22

Children of the Moon

  7:00 A. M. Saturday, March 10, 6255, Earth time, Kian awoke and remembered he was not alone. “Happy birthday Kress and Penny, looks like I’m your new Daddy,” he said reading the  flashing white letters on the clock radio staring at him from his nightstand, another unexpected gift from the company, replete with the correct time and date.

   His mind still spinning from the previous night’s event, he rubbed his face slung his legs from his covers and started to get up. The room spun. Images flashed across his mind. Kia’s breath filled his nostrils. It smelled wonderful.

  Jerking his head around he tried to find her. She was not there. Closing his eyes, he saw her floating in a rainbow sea, then that too faded to nothing. Confusion set in. He tried to understand but it was like trying to catch bubbles with a leaf blower. Her presence suddenly vanished along with her scent. He was alone.

    It had to have been the fading remnants of a lucid dream of longing, he hoped not, but knew better. In any case, it was gone, and he had two girls to feed and care for, another little twist in the Company’s tourniquet. They were so generous.

  He had cost them everything the least he could do was cook them breakfast.  After a quickshower  and shave he headed down the hall. He noticed Penny’s door was cracked open, assuming she was still asleep he quietly padded by, no need. When he turned into the kitchen, he saw her standing in front of the stove.

  “Hey Penny how are you?” He asked.

  “Hungry, how many eggs do you want, I thought I might make us all breakfast.”

 “What, you do know what an egg is don’t you.”

  Penny turned toward him, egg in hand. “Yes I do a chance to bring my parents here. Maria says so.”

  “Oh, is that right.” Kian wanted to spit. They had already gotten inside her head, and he could do nothing to fight it. “So you eat meat now, just like me?”

   “We both do Kian,” said Kress rising from couch. “Animals are animals, that’s all.”

  “And your parents,” Kian asked.

 “They’re not animals but they are not here either,” Penny, replied, “Because they are not yet real. We’re going to change that. If we don’t we will never see them again.”

  “And eating eggs will do that?” Kian asked unconsciously stepping back as he talked.

  “Practicing humanity will do that.” Kress said.

  “Maria says we must embrace reality.” Penny chimed in, “You wanted fried or scrambled?”

  Kian put his hand over mouth, knowing the Technocrats were monitoring his thoughts, but he did it anyway. “Scrambled, I like scrambled. I’ll put on some coffee.”

   “Will you take us for ride in your truck after breakfast?” Kress asked as she sat back down on the couch, snatched up the remote and turned on the T.V.”

  “Huh, oh yeah, yeah sure,” Kian said, trying to embrace his new reality, “That’d be a good idea. I’ll be going to work week after next. We have a lot of catching up to do between now and then.”

  “Do you know where Camelot High is,” Penny said cracking eggs as she talked.

 “Whoa, hadn’t even thought about that,” Kian said as he took a can of coffee from the cabinet, “Yeah, I think I saw it a couple days ago, didn’t really notice it at the time, didn’t need to, do now though.”

  “Maria says you need to enroll us by Monday,” Kress yelled from the couch just as an ad for an upcoming Mind Movie started to play.

  “Chimera, The Alien Threat,” the announcer declared as an image of Earth suddenly filled the T.V. screen and grew larger as if the viewer was falling from space toward its’ beautiful blue face.

  “That’s me,” Kress squealed with delight as she watched her Sprite self zip across the sky toward a gleaming silver bowl hovering over Captain Marks’ ship.

  Kian spun around just in time to see the Sprite sucked up into the ship.

  “Can Tinka save the Captain and his crew, will the Aliens take Chimera and enslave her people. See Chimera, The Alien threat or you’ll never know!”

  “Tinka,” Kian asked.

 “Can we go to see it Kian,” Kress pleaded, jumping up from the couch and looking straight at him?

 “Your names not Tinka,” he said, “You wanna see that, are you sure. It’s a mockery Kress. It’s cruel.”

  “It’s not cruel Kian” Penny said, “its fantasy, its yesterday, we need to see it. We need to fit in. We must.”

 He looked at her, knowing she was right.  “You’re right, they have us,” Kian said, his face slack from resignation. “We toe the line like good little Lunans, for your sake I have to , we have to.”

 “They will take us Kian,” Kress said, “separate us.”

 “I know, or worse,” Kian replied.

  The girls nodded, letting their old selves peek through but only for a moment. “So we can go.” Kress asked.

 “Yeah, we’re going.”