Mum insisted I started work on my budget for next year. With six months to go she fretted about me stuck on another planet with dwindling resources. She still refuses to accept how cheap travel and food is these days. All those cans at the back of the cupboard that we never touch. All those prototypes of robots that can freeze dry herbs.
The software can complete most of the work, but I still faffed about on clips of the Butter Mouse. The most frustrating aspect is I cannot tell if I do not want to go off word, or if post work even this admin is too strenuous. Especially when someone walks the streets, stalking my friend.
I decided to get my brain going with a trip to the Roman Mall. A hippo in a pirate’s hat runs the rooftop cafe, where they serve delicious rice mochi skewers alongside cherry ices. She used to make me hot chocolate soy when the weather frosted the windows. You stirred them with a tiny cutlass. With my drinks and snacks, and an actual pen and paper, I tried to order my upcoming life. This took longer than the drink took to melt.
The brochure on my phone sent regular live updates of the rainforest. Large shadows moved underneath the canopy. One snake was so long it wrapped around a branch forty times, and still the tail was off camera.
All that time thinking and dreaming of this place. All the books and magazines on my shelves. But the sense that time is running out makes me gasp like I have fallen into freezing water. What if they rip out the animatronics? What marvels will I miss at the Stitch?
The hippo lifted up her eyepiece, and asked if I wanted another cherry ice. I nodded.
Evening arrived, and the lights turned the plants of the city an even brighter shade of green. The buses flew past huge solar panels keeping us warm. Flowers send out their last way of pollen of the day, my eyes drooped after my late night shift with Deni. The pencil clattered to the floor.
I treated myself to a present on the way home. A hedgehog in sunglasses sold me a cool t-shirt with a temple on the front. Stars and swirls and a temple on the front. Videos of my robotic friends danced around on the shop’s walls, and the hedgehog bobbed his head along with the music. If I cannot plan my accounts, I can at least spend my wages.
Something else keeps me here too. An underlying buzz. The possible source is beyond my grasp.
Will finish the budget next week.
Clip: I cannot tell what is going on here. Is someone scared? Can they hear the call? I see the landscape of this alternate dimension, and I am a little afraid.