Page 166 of Every Almost

"May I sit next to you, Tav?" Maren asked.

"Always a pleasure, Maren. Be my guest," he said, pulling out the chair next to his for Maren to sit down.

Charlie smiled and then continued to look around the room. She saw more people she knew, most by sight instead of name. But even Selowen was there, settled in the back with a cup of tea and a Niblet in her lap. She saw that Borran had stationed himself near the food table, watching the crew eat. Charlie could see what looked like a smile on his face, but she still didn't really know how to tell through all his fur.

Kess was there, too, seated near the back by Selowen, her legs crossed and her datapad on her knee. To Charlie, it looked as though she may be attending a lecture or wanted to take notes. But, even still, she was there, and that counted.

Charlie looked around the room. She suddenly felt a familiar feeling wash over her, one she hadn't felt in a long time but remembered immediately. She'd always remember. When she was a little girl, sitting at a kitchen table four houses down, telling stories to people who listened to what she had to say. She would be telling stories again, to a new group of people, ones from different planets, different species. But Charlie remembered the warmth, and that was the same.

"I think they're ready for you," Orion whispered as he patted her shoulder, then walked to his seat. Charlie took a deep breath and moved to the front of the group. The room quieted as she approached, and by the time she turned around, all attention was on her.

Well that's not intimidating, Charlie thought. But she reminded herself that they were all there because they were interested in what she had to say. They were interested in Earth, and humans, and that was one thing Charlie could talk about with ease.

"So," she said, figuring now was as good a time as any. "If you don't know me, I'm Charlie and I'm from Earth. And, yeah, I got here because of a failed PERS device, and, yeah, Ididland in Borran's desserts," she paused here, looking up at Borran, "sorry again, Borran." The crew around her laughed at her admission but also at Borran's dissatisfied grunt. "Anyway, Orion here said that, perhaps, some of the crew would want to learn about Earth. So we are starting our first 'Earth Night,' where I'll share some information, experiences, and stories from my life on Earth while Orion scratches it all down on his datapad for record-keeping." At this, Charlie stopped and looked over at Orion, who had his datapad in his hand and his stylus at the ready. "Case in point," Charlie commented, indicating Orion, who shrugged his shoulders. This caused the crew to laugh once more.

"And with that introduction, what's going to happen tonight is I'm going to start by telling you about a place called Yellowstone, a location Orion seemed to find of interest once I gave him the rundown."

Orion nodded his head from his seat. "Wait until you hear this."

"Hear what?" Maren asked, literally sitting on the edge of her seat. As Charlie looked at her and the crew around the semicircle, she saw that many of the crew members were in the exact same position.Huh, she thought.This may turn out to be a pretty engaging event.

"Yellowstone is one of the United States's National Parks, a group of protected land areas containing some of the most beautiful sights you can ever see. And though Yellowstone isbeautiful, it's actually a giant hole in the ground in a place called Montana, a state in the United States. The funny thing is, this hole could destroy my entire planet, and humans went ahead and decided to make it a great place to go camping."

Tavi immediately raised his hand, waving it wildly to get Charlie's attention. "Yes, Tavi?"

Tavi leaned forward. "What's 'camping'?"

"Oh, buddy," Charlie said with a snicker. "Buckle up."

And then, she just... talked. She told them about Yellowstone, with the geysers and the bison and the fact that humans voluntarily slept in structures made of thin fabric literally beside Earth animals that could kill them. And how they went on to call it "vacation." She told them about Old Faithful, and the way it erupted on a schedule so reliable that humans planned their whole day around it. At one point, Charlie fired up her datapad and connected the music system to the library, playing "Take Me Home, Country Roads," a song to match the mood and the location of Yellowstone. As it played, Charlie looked around the room, seeing some of the crew enjoying the song while others merely listened to it politely. But then her eyes fell on Borran, as he had completely stopped rearranging the food table, and was listening.Intently. He didn't start up again until the song was over. Charlie made a mental note of it, knowing just what kind of playlist to make for Borran in his kitchen.

She went on to tell them about the Grand Canyon and how it was carved solely by water over millions of years. She told them about how humans stood at the edge, and how she and Katie had once made the stop on one of the road trips to and from Indiana and California. She spoke about how she had looked down that mighty natural formation and felt a sense of how small she really was in a world so big and vast, and how, in a way, that thought was somehow comforting rather than terrifying.

"If only I knew just how big my world was going to get out here," Charlie quipped, garnering laughs from the entire company present. It made her feel warm, accepted, and connected to these aliens surrounding her.

This gave Charlie the chance to continue and tell them about some of Earth's other wonders, like thunderstorms, and lightning. She talked about the way the sky turned green before a tornado, almost as an omen of impending danger, and the crew fell silent listening to her.

But the next subject she decided on, one very near and dear to her own heart from Frank's influence, was baseball. She had no idea it would require a twenty-minute explanation on the structure, format, and rules of the game.

"That is the most unnecessarily complicated thing I have ever heard of," Tavi declared.

"Yeah, well, it gets better," Charlie said, leaning forward. "So, there's this stadium in Chicago, that's a big city in the state of Illinois, called Comiskey Park. It is the home stadium of the Chicago White Sox baseball team. And in the summer of 1979, the people who ran the stadium had an idea for a promotion to get people to come to the game."

"A promotion," Tavi repeated.

"Yes, but it was a promotion AGAINST something." Charlie held up a finger. "There's this type of music on Earth, it's called disco. It's got a very specific sound, was used for lots of dance parties, and was very popular in the 1970s. But by 1979, a LOT of people had decided they just hated it. Like, passionately hated it to the point where it became an entire historical movement. 'Disco sucks' was basically a rallying cry."

"Humans organized a movementagainsta type of music?" Maren asked, her Shimmer catching every word.

"Exactly. And it was still going strong up until when I got here! But, it gets even worse. The radio station that decided torun the promotion decided that, if people were to bring a disco record to the stadium on game day, they could get in to the doubleheader for only ninety-eight cents. Which, in American money, is not a whole lot. You can get a sandwich for the same price."

"Wait, wait. What's a doubleheader?" A crew member asked from the back.

"It means the team played two games in one day, one right after the other. Same field, same teams, both opponent and home team, back to back."

"That seems excessive," Maren said.

"Well, that's baseball," Charlie quipped, a soft laugh escaping. "So, obviously, thousands and thousands of people showed up with disco records to get the deal. In fact, it waswaymore than anyone expected. The spectators took their seats in the stadium and started throwing their records like frisbees out onto the field during the first game. Actual vinyl records sailing through the air while people were trying to play baseball on the field below."