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“How about we harvest some khimpha for supper as a treat?” she suggests. She knows how much I love the juicy vegetable.
“Oh, yes,” I say. “That would be lovely. Do we have enough?”
“We should. They’re coming to the end of their season, but I reckon we can collect enough. We could roast them with the last of the spring shallots.”
The rest of the afternoon passes pleasantly, working in the garden. I always love the time I spend with Isa out here. The garden isn’t big, but she has created a small paradise that has sustained us through the severe food shortages brought on by the war.
We both avoid the subject of Drex. But inside, I’m in turmoil. I don’t have a shift tonight, and I’m deep in the agony of indecision as to whether I should go to the bar to see if he’s there.
I wish that I could be honest with Isa and that she would understand. I really need her wisdom as to whether I should go. But she has made her view abundantly clear, so I don’t dare tell her I’m thinking of going to the bar voluntarily just to see him again.
This decision is up to me, and me alone.
“Come on,” she says. “We’ve done enough out here for the day. Let’s go and cook these khimpha.”
“That sounds good to me,” I say with relief. “My back aches from all this digging.”
We gather our gardening implements and go into the house.
As we prep the food, the time for me to make my decision draws closer and closer.
“Watch what you’re doing there!” snaps Isa sharply. “You’re going to let the pan boil dry.”
“Shit, sorry,” I reply, adding a little more water and stirring like crazy. “I was miles away.” Wasting food is not an option these days, and if I’d let it burn, we would have had to eat it anyway.
“I hope you’re not mooning over your Kaleidian again,” she says, shaking her head.
“Oh, maybe a little,” I admit. “He has such a cute ass.”
To my relief, she laughs rather than scolds. “He’s definitely going to be in my bad books if dinner is ruined because of him.”
“Yeah, okay, I’ll keep my mind on the job.”
But as soon as she turns away, my internal battle rages once more. If I don’t go to the bar, he may go after another girl. I need to be there to hold his attention.
And then I hear myself. Damn. If he goes after another woman, then he’s not worth having. Better I know now rather than later.
I make a final decision. I’m not going to the bar. Playing hard to get is definitely the right way to go.
We carry the trays of food through to my mom's bedroom. We eat together there whenever we can. It’s awkward balancing trays on our laps, but it’s so much nicer for Mama if we sit with her.
There’s an old classic Holo-Movie playing about a girl who falls in love with a space captain. We’ve all seen it a hundred times before. It’s one of our favorites.
The space pilot has to go away on a long-haul mission, but on the way, his spacecraft breaks down. Meanwhile, the heroine is being harassed by a Garthadian gang. They want her to pay protection money, but she doesn’t have any money because she has to look after her kid brother.
Finally, she believes her space captain is never coming back and agrees to marry the leader of the Garthadian gang. In classic Holo-Movie style, the space captain returns, just in time, and whisks her and her kid brother away to another planet.
When she falls into his arms at the end of the movie, it makes me think of Drex. Would he cross the galaxy to come back for me? If I don’t go to the bar tonight, I may never find out.
And then I kick myself for being a romantic fool. Comparing myself to the heroine in a Holo-Movie. That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen in real life.
No, I definitely shouldn’t go. I should take heed of Isa’s warning. Sweet Isa, who has never steered me wrong in the past. Isa, my rock. My best friend.
6
DREX
“Where to tonight, boys?” Freck, Linus, and I waltz from the base into town in search of tonight’s festivities.
