by J. Naomi Ay
Eva consented to sharing the tray. She allowed him to guide her to a table, whereupon they sat across from one another studying things such as eyes, noses, lips, hair, necks, and the breadth and depth of each other's chests. Actually, Eva was focused on the breadth of Rent's shoulders, thinking them similarly scaled to those of his father. Not that she was making comparisons. That would be bad.
Rent, on the other hand, was focusing on the depth of Eva's chest, thinking it similarly scaled to a woman he had seen in a mail-order bride catalog. Not that Rent was making comparisons, and not that Rent was actively shopping for a mail-order bride. It was just a website he had clicked on out of boredom the other night. All women in it were guaranteed to be at least 90% Human. Rent didn't question what the other 10% might be. He figured that was good enough for a guy who was only 50% Human anyway.
On the website, the woman who had attracted his attention, was named Ivana Ivanovka. She was, at the time, the featured bride of the day. In her advert, she declared that she was only twenty years old, a virgin, a triple D cup, and anxious to engage in a lifelong, fulfilling, matrimonial relationship with an interesting, height-weight proportional, young man. She was also on sale.
Rent wondered, at the time, how Ivana Ivanovka would respond to an offer requesting her immediate delivery to the planet Rozari. Once there, she would reside in the Imperial Household with the younger, height-weight proportional, Imperial Prince in a state of holy matrimony, as well as under house arrest at the behest of the mad Emperor.
"What are you doing here?" Eva asked breathlessly, bringing Rent's attention back to the present.
"Eating breakfast," Rent replied. "Same as you."
"No. I mean, why aren't you in the Family’s private dining room?"
"Oh." Rent looked away. "I don't like it in there. The company is much better in here."
Eva nodded. She glanced around at the neighboring tables of staff members, all busily eating and chatting before work. It was nice. The room was elegant, and the food was great. There were all sorts of choices to suit every sort of palate, and most everyone was pleasant, and seemingly happy to be here.
"My dad was in there," Rent continued by way of explanation. He stabbed at a pancake with his fork, his eyes cast upon it as if this act required his full concentration. "He was having his usual breakfast of four dozen runny eggs. I couldn't watch. I hate eggs, especially now."
Eva nodded again, although at the mention of his father, her heart began to race, and her blood to pound.
"Steve and Joanne were there too, although neither one of them is talking to the other."
Eva wanted to ask about that, especially since she had witnessed Joanne's little tete a tete with Jim Mattson. However, her thoughts were too consumed with her own possible tete a tete with Rent's Imperial Father. She wondered what Rent knew about her and HIM, if anything. She wondered what would happen if she developed feelings for Rent, despite already having a multitude of feelings for his dad.
Rent was definitely closer to her age, and he was very handsome too, although in an entirely different, more normal way. She liked the shyness in his smile, which contrasted with the openness in his blue eyes. He wasn't clueless at all. She just hadn't known him.
The more Eva talked with Rent, the more she realized, he was just absorbing everything like a giant wet sponge. He was a listener who would lean intently in her direction whenever she spoke. He responded like everything she said was important and might be the most brilliant idea he had heard all day. Unlike his father, he didn't know everything, but he seemed okay with that deficit.
But, Rent wasn't Senya. No one could compare to Senya. On the other hand, what did her chances with Senya ever really amount to? Katie would probably come back. Everybody assumed she'd show up again at some point. Even if she didn't, it was highly unlikely that Senya would marry again.
Was Eva really content to short-change herself as a mistress, even to HIM, when the unmarried and available Imperial Prince was offering her half his bagel?
Chapter 9
Adrienne was in the city park listening to a folk concert with her son and two granddaughters. She was enjoying herself. Anytime spent outside the Home, where she was cloistered to await her death, was a good time.
There was nothing really wrong with Adrienne. She was of a certain age when it became difficult, although not impossible, for her to live by herself. Her son, Walter, thinking only of Adrienne's comfort and safety, had insisted she would enjoy her remaining years much more so if they were spent amongst similarly aged and infirm people.
Initially, Adrienne thought this a good idea, voluntarily signing over the deed to her house, as well as leaving all of the furniture, appliances, and contents of the cupboards to Walter.
Her son, being a public servant, a Peace Officer in fact, was grossly underpaid, especially when considering the rigors of his occupation. Walter would never have been able to provide his daughters with such a large home in a quiet family neighborhood, had Adrienne not bequeathed it all to him, taking full advantage of the current tax laws which allowed it all to pass virtually tax free.
However, shortly after transitioning to the carefree, assisted-living life style, Adrienne discovered, not only was she bored out of her mind, but she hated old folks. She much preferred the incessant screaming of her former neighbors' children to the constant litany of complaints, the aches and pains, and the foul smelling exhaust of her new golden-aged companions.
Unfortunately for Adrienne, there was no going back. Walter, his wife Norma, their two girls, and the dog, occupied every available inch of Adrienne's former house.
Adrienne was on a limited income, a small pension from her years of service at the local large aerospace company, and what remained of her late husband's 401K.
All this simply wasn't enough to purchase a new place, along with the services of daily visiting nurse, which Walter insisted she could not live without. So, despite her unhappiness, Adrienne wiled away her time at the Home watching the vid, playing cards with the old bags, and reminiscing about how much better life was for all of them way back when.
Adrienne was somewhat famous in the Home, which helped to assuage some of her discontent. The reason for Adrienne's fame had nothing to do with her personally, but rather, was the result of an association. Adrienne had once known, and even been a friend of the Rehnorian Empress, Katie de Kudisha.
"That was a long time ago," Adrienne would scoff, whenever she was asked about the most famous celebrity ever to spring from this tiny section of Earth. "We were friends in school, grade school all the way through high. Then, she went off to space, and met the Evil Emperor. Naturally, we lost touch."
To a chorus of oohs and aahs from her rapt geriatric audience, Adrienne might describe an incident from their shared childhoods. A favorite was the time Katie punched a nine year old named Bobby in the nose, followed by that time when Katie fell out of a tree, subsequently breaking her leg.
Adrienne's son, Walter, found it fascinating how his mother could recall an exact conversation, or an event involving the then Katie Golden, seventy-odd decades prior. However, when it came to her granddaughters’ names, Adrienne drew a blank.
Walter suspected his mother's stories were actually all made up, elaborate fabricated nonsense about a celebrity emanating from his bored mother’s brain. At least it was entertaining, and kept the old folks at the Home enthralled.
There was no proof of this supposed relationship, which bothered Walter. As a Peace Officer who had tried three times and three times failed the detective exam, he needed evidence, concrete confirmation that such a friendship actually existed.
Unfortunately, his mother had nothing to show for it. There were no selfies of Katie and Adrienne smiling into a camera, no archived email of weekend plans, or Tumblr posts shared and reposted amongst their friend group. Katie de Kudisha neé Golden was a figment of Adrienne's imagination. She had to be a symptom of the demented disease from which poor Adrienne no
w suffered.
On the weekends during the spring and summer months, Walter would check his mother out of the Home, taking her on little excursions to the parks, or the shopping mall. Sometimes, he'd pack a picnic, and sometimes, they'd go out for ice cream with his girls. This particular Sunday, Walter had brought Adrienne to a free outdoor concert.
While the folk trio on stage was singing songs about jet planes, and postmen, things that neither Adrienne nor Walter had ever heard of, two blankets over, a woman stood up and started screaming, ultimately silencing everyone around including the musicians.
Walter immediately dismissed her as a drunk. Free concerts tended to bring out all sorts of riffraff, despite the early hour, the presence of small children, and the No Alcohol sign posted at the park’s entrance.
“You’re one of them!” The woman threw a bucket of fried chicken pieces at her companion, a handsome middle-aged man, who sat stunned, while a drumstick collided with his cheek.
“You know who that is?” Adrienne said while nibbling on the salami sandwich which Walter had coerced Norma into preparing. “That’s Katie Golden aka de Kudisha, the Empress of Rehnor.”
“Uh huh,” Walter responded, wondering if he should stand up, and intervene in the altercation.
He was off duty, his service firearm at home on the bureau top, along with his handcuffs and badge. However, he was a Peace Officer, and this event was clearly disturbing the peace. The woman was small, perhaps, one hundred twenty pounds at most, easily subdued, or so Walter thought.
Fortunately for Walter, his dithering precluded the need for action, and the subsequent pounding he would have suffered as a result of the woman’s well placed kicks. While he vacillated back and forth on what action to take, the woman emptied the contents of the chicken bucket into the gentleman’s lap. Then, she stormed off in the direction of the parking lot.
The gentleman gathered the picnic things, repacking them quickly in his wicker basket, an easy smile on his face as if barbeque sauce in his hair didn’t bother him at all.
“She always had a quick temper,” Adrienne remarked. “I never liked her, especially when she acted like that.”
“Who?” Walter asked, settling himself back on his blanket.
The music started up again, although the trio’s sound seemed off. The high notes weren’t quite high enough, the low ones far too flat.
“Katie,” Adrienne repeated, brushing crumbs off her dress. “I told you. That was Katie Golden. After all this time, you would think she might have said hello.”
Walter decided it was time to leave. He gathered up their things, summoned his girls from the playground swings, and escorted his mother to his speeder. All the way back to the Home, Adrienne regaled Walter with stories of Katie Golden from their youth. Walter had heard them all before. They were the same ones she repeated daily to her neighbors.
“The nerve of her not saying hello,” Adrienne said again.
“That couldn’t have been Katie Golden,” Walter insisted with a heavy sigh. He would have to speak to his mother’s doctor about her medication. Obviously, the disease was progressing at a faster than anticipated. “That woman was clearly half your age.”
“Yes, it was her,” Adrienne insisted. “She’s just had a lot of work. If your father was as wealthy as the alien Katie married, I would have had my face tucked too. Did you notice how tight her smile was? Any broader and her cheeks would have split. I could tell she had her butt done, and…”
“Mother,” Walter interrupted.
“I’m telling you, Walter, it pays to be rich. But, did you notice, she was stepping out with another man? That definitely wasn’t her husband. He’s dark and evil looking, not like that guy at all. I once saw the Evil Emperor when we were kids.”
Walter rolled his eyes as the speeder descended toward the Home.
“We were on the playground jumping rope when he made Mary Beth trip, and smash her nose.”
“Mother, you’re being ridiculous. The guy lived half way across the galaxy.”
Walter put the speeder into park, and pushed the button to open the door.
“I saw him,” Adrienne repeated, waiting for her son to help her out. “Of course, he was just a kid then too. But, he was bigger than all of us, like a boy in middle school. He had long curly black hair, and instead of eyes, he had the strangest silver stuff. He had lovely lashes though. He was handsome back then, but in a bad boy way.”
Walter nodded, taking his mother’s arm and walking her to her room.
“Someone ought to inform the law that Katie’s back.”
“I will, Mother.” Walter kissed her papery cheek. “I’ll tell my sergeant first thing in the morning.”
“That’s good, dear,” Adrienne replied. “You know the statute of limitations on treason never runs out.”
Walter didn’t speak with his sergeant the next morning. In fact, it took him two full weeks until he thought of that woman in the park again. It was Sunday, and Walter was shopping in the Big Box store with his mother. One of her favorite weekend outings was to go sample the little tastes.
Adrienne was somewhere near the frozen foods, while Walter waited at the front of the store, admiring the 188” vid currently on sale. Walter thought the resolution was fantastic, the images better than three dimensional, the sound system excellent, though slightly distorted with all the warehouse noise.
He was trying to imagine the screen perched over the fireplace in his basement man-cave. It was bigger than the wall, but he could push that out.
A baseball game had been showing, but was interrupted by a news break, whereupon two talking heads came on the screen. Walter was about to walk away. News never interested him very much. He had enough stress on the job as a Peace Officer. However, an image flashed before him, catching his attention, and giving him pause.
It was a pic of the Rehnorian Emperor and Empress posing somewhere in their palace. It was an old pic, Walter was certain, for he recalled seeing it when he was still a kid. He had to admit, the Empress did look exactly like that woman in the park.
While the talking heads were discussing the rebuilding of the Rehnorian SpaceNavy, something the Emperor was doing at a rapid clip, Walter’s mind was swirling, wondering if by chance, Adrienne had been correct. Could Katie de Kudisha really be hiding in his backyard?
Was it too ludicrous to believe, that while the Emperor was once again overrunning planets, the Empress was sitting in a city park on Earth? While he amassed more and more of his ill begotten wealth, she was listening to free folk music and eating barbecued chicken. While he was enslaving the wretched people of the galaxy, she was dating another man.
Would it be too crazy to imagine that Walter could find her and bring her in? He’d be famous. He’d be revered. He might get rich. He’d write books, and give interviews. Someone might want to make a movie about his life. He’d be able to afford that 188” vid, plus a whole new room.
Walter resolved to get to work. Using the detective skills, which so far had been unrecognized, he began to plan how he would find the mysterious woman. During the drive back to the Home with Adrienne contentedly snoozing at his side, Walter made a mental list of how to go about it.
First, he’d look at new license applications, cable hook-ups, telephone bills, home purchases, library cards, and voter registrations. If after exhausting all the normal channels, he’d google to see if someone else knew her, and if that didn’t work, he’d contact the NSA.
Chapter 10
Jim Mattson didn’t expect to get another call from Joanne, so he was quite surprised when his secretary put her through. Just like last time, it took Jim a few moments to realize who he was talking to, as his head was wrapped up in deep thoughts. He had been in a virtual meeting with Eva regarding the next round of budget revisions for the fiscal year.
Cut this and cut that were the gist of Eva's orders. Basically, Jim's previous budget was toast. Everything was to be scrapped and immediately redone.
"HIM wants operations scaled back except for the redeployment of the starships. All development work is to focus on weapons systems only."
"What about the medical centers?" Jim had asked. "And, the medical device division? What about the ferminum generators, the cell phones, commercial spaceplanes, and everything else?"
"There should be enough in your budget to sustain continuing operations, albeit with a lower headcount. Research and development work must be eliminated except for defense."
Jim made some kind of noise to register his displeasure. He knew it wasn't Eva's fault. She was just the messenger, the bearer of the bad news. Still, he was pissed off royally. How could he run a company with both hands tied?
"I'm sorry, Jim," Eva said tiredly, plagued by a migraine since the night before. "There's really nothing more I can do. These orders are straight from the top."
"Why though?" Jim asked, more to the air than to Eva. "Sustaining operations won't keep us continuing for very long. It's like someone walking into a hospital, and getting a blanket and some food, but not the medicine they need to cure their disease. Eventually, it'll kill the company. Unless we innovate, we won't grow. He knows this. I don't get why he's doing this to us."
"His priorities have shifted. There's not enough funding to take care of everything right now. He's the boss. It's his decision what stays and what goes."
"I think he wants to punish us," Jim realized.
Eva didn't respond to that right away, and neither did Jim continue. Instead, they sat in silence pondering that very thought.
"Why doesn’t he just shut us down?" Jim demanded. “Instead, he wants to belabor our death. I think he enjoys seeing us suffer.”
Eva felt that Jim was overreacting. She was also sick of explaining the same things to everyone. The whole Empire was dealing with the same kind of cuts. She had to field these type of calls all day long. Both ministers and governors rang up screaming until she calmed them down, most of them with larger budgets than Jim’s. The Emperor was holding back funds from everyone, which was his prerogative, Eva figured.