As long as I have an audience of at least one, I will flop around on the ground like a fish, trying desperately to entertain.  I’m an entertainer.

Content Warnings:  Classism, Organized Crime, Gambling, Alcohol and Chemical Abuse, Ableism, Menacing Vibes, Violent Threats, Unpleasant Depiction of an Unhoused Person and Drug Addicts.  The voice of the Universe does some body shaming, but it’s supposed to be a kind of close-third-person thing for the PoV of Nate, who is an asshole.

This is the beginning of Act Two.  Get yo popcorn and return to your seats.

–

CENTENNIAL HILLS CONTINUES

by Bébé Mélange

The adult left the room.  They were a caregiver to Bumbo, probably contributed to their birth in some way, as most species without group child care seemed to get by through parental investment.  Weird to an Ainavian, but not unusual in the galaxy at large.  One to one care was a bit enviable to see in action.  Bumbo was feeling bad and received direct attention from someone more emotionally developed than their peers.  Good deal if you could get it.

In their absence, Bumbo’s breathing had become louder and slower.  Tmai peered out from behind the bed, looking at the juvenile alien.  They seemed to be in a dormant state  – weary from the excitement of the early morning.  Tmai jostled them.

Their eyes fluttered open, then fixed wide in amazement.  They gasped.

She wasn’t a dream, Olivia thought.  She slapped Goose’s hand and signed, “You scared me, G-use.  Don’t ever scare me again.”

Tmai didn’t know how to express contrition exactly, while they did understand that is what was called for.  They shook their head while bowing it and folding up their hands.  “No, no, no.”

Olivia smiled and took her hand back, then let it go to sign, “I love you.”

Tmai wasn’t sure about signing that back without knowing what it meant, was more careful now than before.   They signed, “Yes,” then gestured to the outside.

Olivia shook her head, “No, no, no,” and made a serious face.  “It’s too dangerous,” she added, although guessing Goose wouldn’t understand.

Tmai nodded and put a reassuring hand on her side for a moment, looking away in thought.  They suddenly had a thought.  Illustration!  They stood and looked around for materials.  There was a locker with pictures of what looked like toys on the front, and they opened it to search.  There was paper there, but it was in bindings already covered with black lines that would make legibility difficult.  There were also dolls and other things.  Tmai worked it out and put it together.  They turned to face Bumbo and brought their illustration to the bed.

They rolled the toy vehicle against the bed to indicate going.  They pointed to theirself, then to the vehicle.

Olivia signed, “You want to steal my mom’s car?  That’s naughty, G-use.  No.”

Tmai remembered Bumbo was most upset when it seemed like they were leaving them behind, and quickly gestured to both of them and the car again.

“Both of us steal the car?  Maybe, if you know how to drive.”  She looked out the window, knowing there were desert hills outside, and somewhere in it, probably a UFO.  “If you drove a UFO, I guess you can drive a car…  but a bike would be more safe.  I can drive that.  But my mom’s home!  What can we do?”

Tmai didn’t understand everything they were saying, but had been around them long enough to recognize a questioning gesture.  What about the caregiver?, probably.  They took the larger of two dolls and sat it on the bed.  There were two smaller dolls, one in pants and one in a dress.  They hoped it read to Bumbo as the adult plus the two of them.

They walked the Bumbo doll in front of mom doll and made it bob up and down there.  Then they walked Tmai doll behind mom doll’s back, and then out around a fold in the blanket.  At last, they walked the Bumbo doll out to join the Tmai doll.

“A distraction?,” Olivia signed.  She nodded decisively and stood up.  It was time to get up to no good again.  When would she ever have another chance to meet a cool alien?  She wiped some salty dried tears from her eyes and hopped down from her bed.  She put some shoes on and went to the bedroom door, Goose close behind.

Olivia peeked out first, and then rushed on tiptoes to the end of the hall, looking around the corner to the stairs.  She looked back to see Goose coming up to position, waiting again.  Excellent.  This was something they could do despite the language barrier.

She looked down the stairs, and seeing nobody, advanced again.  She intentionally kept her head below the banister line, to tell Goose she still needed to hide here, in case somebody was in the living room.

Kirsten was in there, the TV on, relaxing with her eyes closed, feet up on the coffee table.

Sneaking is very difficult when you’re hearing impaired.  Olivia figured it out through trial and error over the years.  The hardest part was not breathing expressively.  Not hearing her own noises, she had been making emotional exhalations for years without knowing it – some more audible than others.  She adjusted by breathing as shallowly as possible while footpadding.

She went into line of sight, still quiet, testing the limit of her mother’s diminished senses – the closed eyes, the sound of the TV.  Kirsten didn’t open her eyes.  She gestured for Goose to come very slowly.

Tmai peered around the corner, aware Bumbo was looking at something intensely.  As they feared, it was the adult.  They looked to the back area of the large room – the kitchen.  They could really use that carnivore bone.

They crept around the corner, then moved as softly and quickly as possible to the kitchen, to hide behind the island there.  They bumped the trash can.

Olivia saw her mother’s eyes flick open and she stood up, walking into view and making a noise.  Distraction!  She signed, “Hi mom.”

Tmai was paralyzed behind the island, waiting for trouble.  They heard the adult begin to speak aloud as she signed, going quiet whenever Bumbo was signing.  They stood up, but still in a crouch, and took the pot off the stove – so delicately, so carefully.  It was heavy to do with one hand, but they didn’t dare let go of the counter edge, risk slipping up or making more noise.

Kirsten said and signed, “Hey baby.  Are you OK?  You didn’t sleep long.”

Olivia signed, “I’m OK.  I couldn’t sleep.  It’s still daytime.  I’m not a baby anymore.”

Kirsten smiled feebly.  “I guess ten is a bit too old for naps.  I wish I could take naps.”

“Maybe you should take a nap, mom.  Your eyes were closed when I came down.”

“Should I?  I’m too worried about you.  Come over here.”  She patted the couch.

Olivia came over, but instead of the couch she sat on an ottoman on the far side of the table.  She needed to see what Goose was up to.  The pot lifting off the stove was surprising.  What was that about?

In the kitchen, slouched out of sight again, Tmai checked the pot.  The softened bone wasn’t in there anymore, and the water was room temperature.  But it smelled like vaguely meaty gelatin – the water would have collagen in it.  They lifted the pot with both hands on the bottom like a giant cup and drank.

Olivia signed, “I’m OK, really.  Why are you so worked up?”

“Ha.  You really don’t know?  I let you bike with Emily this morning while I went to the store, and when I come back you’re crying, food’s everywhere, and you’re boiling one of Barky’s old dog bones.  How long had the burner been on?  The bottom of the pot was charred.”

“Umm…  Well…  That was nothing.  I mean, I was playing a game.”

“By yourself?”

“Emily was here.”

“What game could that have possibly been?”

“It was Emily’s idea.  I won’t do it again.  Don’t worry about it.”

Kirsten shook her head and rolled her eyes.  “I guess that explains why the front door was unlocked too.  I only noticed that ten minutes ago.  I came in from the garage.”

“Uh huh.”

“You’re not paying attention, are you?”

In the kitchen Tmai was quietly poking around for the carnivore bone.  Where did the adult put it?  They opened the little receptacle they’d bumped into on the way into the kitchen.  At a whiff, it was a refuse bin.  But the bone was in there.  They picked it out carefully and wiped off some blackish grains.  Would it be edible to a toothless alien now?  They slipped out of sight again and tried.  It was horrible, but some nourishment could be sucked off of it.

“I am.  I am.  I’m… worried about you, mom.”

“Oh really?”

“You’re too upset.  I think you should take a nap.”

“Ho ho, you think I should take a nap?  And what would you do with your time?”

“I was gonna swim before, but Emily made me play a weird game.  Maybe I’ll go swim.”

“Yeah.  Maybe you’ll swim…  I’m not taking a nap, Olivia.  I’m keeping an eye on you.”

Olivia groaned and rolled her eyes.

“Come here, sit by me,” her mom said.  “Watch TV.  You can pick.”

“Do I have to?”

“Don’t make me say that, kiddo.”

She looked startled for a moment.  At something in the kitchen?  Kirsten started to look over her shoulder.

Olivia spoke aloud – something she became self-conscious of and rarely did these days.  “OK mom!”  Some people would find the uneven volume and weird enunciation off-putting, but Kirsten missed it.

She turned back to Olivia.  “What is going on with you?”

“Nothing.  I’ll watch TV.  I can pick, right?”  She’d seen Goose head into the hall to the garage.  She would have preferred if she’d gone out the back door, but it was hard to make a plan with no common language.

She got up from the ottoman and went to her mother, but then stopped and signed, “Oh, I have to use the bathroom.  I’ll be back!”

“OK.”  Kirsten leaned back again and resumed watching early afternoon fluff news with the volume too low.

Olivia went to the back hall and found Goose there.  She grabbed her arms and looked into her big eyes, then pointed to the back yard.  Goose nodded and followed.

The back door was in line of sight to the living room, so Olivia opened the latch and turned the knob with painstaking stealth.  She opened it and gestured for Goose to hustle out.  She followed and closed the door behind her.

Tmai heard Bumbo’s caretaker start to yell, something like Olibiaaa.  The true sounds of Bumbo’s name?  They pointed at the house fast to convey their alarm and Bumbo understood.

They picked up the two wheeled machine off the grass and unlatched the fence to the front of the house – to the street.  The two naughty characters hustled out the gate.

On the street there was no time to teach Goose how to ride the handlebars, so Olivia just had to ride slow and hope she could keep up, hope for the best.  She knew the neighborhood well enough to pick the best street to avoid her mom in the moment, and headed that way, looking back to Goose in worry.

Tmai was still far from healed and this was close to a worst case scenario for that prospect, but they established a good rhythm for running without putting too much stress on the bad leg.  Speed was another question.  Could they escape the authorities?  How had Bumbo expected both of them to get away on that weird pedal-powered gadget?

After running hard for two streets, Bumbo relented to stop, and gestured for Tmai to come around the front of the gadget.  They gestured to their hands, then to the handlebars.  Tmai didn’t like having to stand backward and bend up their arms like that, but they gave it a try, beginning to get an idea of what the youth had in mind.

A few wobbling moments later, they were moving at bicycle speed.  Tmai had to hitch up their dress a lot.  Hopefully nobody took note of the bare grey legs and feet.

 

Smar didn’t have the Force.  That was quickly apparent.  But when you get into doing the slots, they have a way of taking over your agenda.  At first the three criminals were just running repeated experiments to test out Smar’s powers.  What if Lita pulled the lever and Smar focused on Bar?  What if she pulled it and Smar focused on Cherry?  What if it was Nate on the lever?  They kept going in this way, bypassers gawking at the alien, or weird human in a mask, whatever was going on there.

Having wasted about seven bucks in quarters, they dragged themselves away.  The smells of weed and food court fare in the arcade made their hunger worse, but they couldn’t afford anything to eat in the place – at least not if they persisted in their mission.

Everyone except Nate had small, weary, resigned postures.  Rennie sagged like his spine was made of rubber, Lita folded her arms, Snar kept their hands in their pockets.  Nate punched the air, making passersby give them a wide berth.

“Fuck!  I don’t wanna spend my last twenty on chips to test the roulette and blackjack!”

Rennie said, “Chill, bruh.  Maybe we can find somebody wants ta pay to take a picture with an alien.”

“They think we’re trying to busk in here and we’ll be on our asses.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what it’d look like.”

Lita held Snar around the shoulders.  They pantomimed drinking from a bottle again.  Lita said, “Oh no.  She needs more beer!”

“FUCK!”

An acrobat went tumbling past, and whispered to a security guard.  In the swirl of colored lights and dark shadows, they didn’t notice until he was on them.

The big Hawaiian said, “Eyy, it’s you jokers.  Who let you in here?”

Nate was ready to throw a punch, but Rennie slipped in for an elaborate high five.

“Broooo, Kai, wassup?”

“It’s all good, Rennie.  All good.”  He pointed at Nate.  “You gotta chill, bro.”

“God damn it.”

Lita said, “He’ll be good.”

“Who’s this?,” Kai asked.

“This is Smar.  She’s an alien, I saved from the cops this morning.”

He chuckled.  “Bust off Area Fifty-One, huh girl?”

“Ogay,” they said.  They blinked wearily.

That was always the tell.  Nobody had the special effects budget to do that convincingly with a mask they’d just wear around town.  Kai’s attention was arrested.

“Um, hold up, Lita.  Is she for real dude?”  He unconsciously started to reach out.

Nate put a shoulder between them.  “You wanna touch her head, give us twenty.”

Kai shook his head.  It was weird, but had to be fake.  “You know I can’t have nobody see me do that…  Dude?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s really real lookin’.  You wanna see if you can make some bread off that, there’s a … party in the hotel.”

“Which fuckin’ hotel, Kai?”

“Which one do you think?  The fucking shitty one, man.  Bottom floor, west hall, you can’t miss it.”

“Thanks Kai,” Nate said.  “I mean it.”

Snar smacked their lips weakly.

Lita said, “She really needs beer!  Where’s the cheapest?”

Kai said, “Two for five at the bar.”  He looked around.  “Alright, take this five and get out of here, alright?”

Lita tried to kiss him but he easily avoided it, being a foot taller.  “Come on…”

 

They hiked again, out and around the building, back to a different little casino and bar in the same complex.  Along the way, a cop car drove past and Snar flinched badly.  It slowed, but didn’t stop.  The air was pregnant with heat, and not much better in the bar.  Snar’s skin was getting leathery.

Nate fought his way through to the bar and came back with one bottle of beer.

“I thought it was two for five,” Lita said, but he gave her a look that made her shut up.  He was a beautiful boy, she thought, but had a frightening temper.  It must be the curse of genius.

She held the bottle to Snar’s mouth like a baby bottle and they hastily swallowed the whole thing.

“Now,” Nate said, “Can you at least stand up ’til we get to the fuckin’ party?

Snar let their eyelids hang low and nodded once.  That’s all you get.

By now the criminals were all fully sweaty, putting their best hygiene from earlier to waste.  They dragged Snar through scorching parking lots again to another building – a monolithic one, taller and with less adornment than the freaky arcades.  Habitations?  Snar didn’t care.  If they were going anywhere different, there was at least a slight chance of water to be found.

The lobby was a grandiose pillared runway full of recessed lights, paved with garish swirling nauseating carpet.  There were broken payphones and functional pull-tab machines in the alcoves.  The line for check-in was ungodly, but getting in without getting a room was as easy as pestering the right bellhop.

The AC was better in the hotel and the saltwater on their skins started to dry.  Nate led them downstairs, literally underground.  The west hall opened up before them.

The lights were dim, the carpet still nauseating but blatantly the cheap version of the pattern from the lobby.  Prints of clowns hung askew on the walls, jostled by revelers.  There were doors for rooms on both sides of the hall, and halfway down in an especially dark expanse of the hall lurked some vending machines.  There were several people in the hall and about three rooms in a row with the doors jammed open, a chaotic mix of music filling the air.  The smell of cheap weed and liquor reasonably masked the mildew.

Nate spun a 360 on his heels, smiling at his friends as he passed.  “Now THIS is the place to BE.  Wooo!”

They walked in a short distance before a quiet drunk leaning against the wall suddenly perked up.  He’d been faking, and he made visible the gun tucked in his pants.  “What’s the password, kid?”

“Uh, we got someone special with us.  Check it out.”

“Haha, that’s very…  Very convincing.”

Nate started to walk past but caught a concrete palm in the chest.

“Give me a moment.”  The grizzled thug kept looking Snar over.  “Yeah, that’s interesting.  I’ll let you in, but if you make me look bad I will murder every last one of you for fun.”

“Thanks, man.  We coo.”

Rennie, Lita, and Snar were silent as they passed, unable to take their eyes off the man until he resumed his drunk act.

Nate walked up on a couple necking in the hallway.  “Hey, wanna take a picture with a real life-”

“Fuck off.”

He peeped in one of the open doorways, then gestured for the rest to follow him in.

–

Stopped this one in the middle of a scene but trying to keep these posts similar length, and it’s a long one.

–