by Dan Eaton
Mom had me get cleaned up early. She fussed over me like I was meeting the Queen of England or something. She’d been making me dance with her for the last month and had me try on my clothes like three different times to make sure everything still fit. I guess I must have grown a little since the Homecoming dance since the pants and jacket sleeves were a little short. Fortunately, there was a lady who Sandy knew over in the Manufacturing Module who moonlighted as a seamstress and she was able to adjust everything for us.
The plan for tonight was the six of us who were actually students were attending a dinner hosted by Chef Patel. Christine was playing our chaperon and was joining us for the dinner and then would escort us to the dance. Just like the Homecoming Dance, we three couples would be doing the first dance by ourselves, but after that everybody could join in. Adam had made it known far and wide that the only dances he was doing were very careful slow dances. He didn’t want to take a chance on repeating the accident at the Homecoming dance.
It was twenty minutes until we should be leaving for dinner when there was a knock at the door. This time I was prepared and when I opened the door, I knew who the beautiful girl was. I had also been thinking about what Willie had told me and decided to very carefully have a little bit of fun.
“Myra, you look wonderful. A guy couldn’t ask for a better date than to be escorting you to the Prom.”
Myra actually blushed and said, “Thanks Bryce, It makes me feel really good to hear you saying that. My mom wants some pictures so could you please come pose with me? I told her we weren’t really going as a date and we’re just friends, but you know how moms are.”
We walked over to her house where her mom had us pose like a dozen times. My mom was thinking ahead this time and joined Myra’s mom in getting some pictures.
While they were snapping away I said, “Myra, you are my friend and I haven’t always been as good as a friend as I could be. I was thinking about how you said you were stuck with me taking you to the prom and I feel bad about that. Adam owes me a favor and Ananyu wouldn’t mind going with me. How about I ask Adam to switch with me at dinner so you can go with him instead?”
With Myra’s mom distracting her with the pictures I don’t think she was totally paying attention to what I was saying and I managed to time it so I was finishing up right before Myra’s mom snapped a picture. Her head snapped around to look at me with a shocked expression right as her mom hit the button.
“WHAT?”
“It’s okay Myra, I really think you’d enjoy Adam taking you instead of being stuck with me and like I said, Ananyu won’t mind.”
“Myra,” her mom called, “quit goofing around. I want to get this picture.”
Myra recovered quickly and looking me straight in the eye said, “Bryce, I’m sorry I said I was stuck with you. The arrangements are all made and it will just upset things to change them now so please don’t ask Adam anything. It’ll be okay.”
I don’t know if I won that round or not, but Myra didn’t say much to me for the rest of the evening. It wasn’t like she was mad at me but then again, she wasn’t going out of her way to speak a lot to me either. I noticed her watching me several times that evening when she thought I wasn’t looking. Myra’s one of my best friends, but sometimes I have no clue as to what’s going on inside her head.
Christine had asked us to meet her on Grand Boulevard about fifteen minutes before we were due at Seline’s Bistro. I thought it was a little weird in that the entrance to the Grand from the new stairs leading down from the Viewing Chamber would have been a shorter walk. I escorted Myra out to Grand Boulevard, where we found Nina and Adam waiting for us with Christine. Adam and Nina both looked great but what really drew my attention was the vehicle Christine was standing next to.
Adam looked at me and said, “Christine brought out a new toy for Prom night.”
I looked at Christine and said, “Where’d this come from? I’ve never seen it before and why are we getting to ride around on Prom night?”
“Bryce, these passenger trolleys have been in the plans for a long time. We just haven’t made it a priority because everyone on the base needs as much exercise as possible. Sandy’s fabrication shop built this one a while ago to test out the plans and just in case a bunch of congressmen came up here on a fact finding junket. You know we couldn’t make them walk everywhere.”
Christine continued, “You also can’t expect young woman in heels, and I’m including myself in this statement, to walk all over the place. So, since we have a good walk between here and the restaurant and then back to the cafeteria for the Prom I decided it was a perfect time to give this trolley a shakedown cruise.”
The trolley was similar to the ones Myra and I had seen at the emergency station. This one had a little longer and narrower bed upon which four bench seats were bolted. A luggage rack on the back and a colorful canopy for the roof completed the trolley.
Willie and Ananyu had shown up by then so Christine suggested we take our seats and get on our way. Christine sat up front by herself while Myra and I grabbed the next seat back. Then came Nina and Willie and Adam and Ananyu took the last seat. Christine spoke in a clear voice and told the trolley to take us to Seline’s Bistro. It was an autonomous vehicle so it acknowledged Christine’s command and gave a couple of warning beeps before it started moving forward. When it approached the doors at the West end of Grand Boulevard they automatically opened and it navigated down the ramp, through the second set of doors, and out onto the main corridor of the Grand.
When Myra and I had walked the Grand it had been earlier in the day on a weekday and there hadn’t been that many people around. Today it was later in the day and a weekend and there were plenty of people about. The trolley wasn’t going that fast and every now and again, it would give a couple of chirps to let people know they needed to step out of the way. Of course, everyone knew who we were and what was going on so we spent most of the trip smiling and waving like silly at the people we passed who were waving at us and shouting well wishes to us.
When we pulled up in the plaza where Seline’s Bistro was located the place was really busy. From the noise we could tell Margarita Mamas was really hopping and there was even a short line of people waiting to get inside. It looked like the Public Pool was pretty busy too. We got off the trolley and Christine led us into the lobby for the Whipple Hotel. Chef Patel was waiting for us inside.
He greeted us with, “Welcome, welcome all of you. Congratulations on your Prom night. I’m so happy you have accepted my dinner invitation. Now please follow me.”
With that, he turned around and led us off deeper into the Hotel Whipple. I had expected him to lead us up the stairs to the restaurant and must have looked a little surprised because Ananyu looked at me and said, “Father has something special planned for us tonight. In addition to our restaurant upstairs Father has an agreement with the Whipple to run their banquet room. He wouldn’t let me help with any of the preparations, but I can say we are going to have a very good dinner tonight.”
When they built the Whipple they excavated a tube out from the central Grand tube towards the outer wall of Whipple crater. At the end of the tube they had closed it off with a glass wall similar to what was done in the viewing chamber. There was a barrier wall that could be quickly extended in front of the windows in case of a leak or if radiation levels got too high, but normally you could sit at the Hotel’s bar or be in the banquet room and enjoy the view of the moon’s Northern pole area. It wasn’t quite as good a view as the Viewing Chamber since we were lower and you were limited to the one direction but it was still a great view. Willie had told me he had heard that the hotel was flat broke and severely in debt after building this place, but when we had entered it looked like the bar was full and I had to imagine this room would be very popular.
Chef Patel led us into the banquet room where we found a long table draped with a fancy white table cloth and place settings for the seven of us. There were little cardboa
rd place holders at each seat written in a fancy script to let us know where to sit. Christine had the place of honor at the head of the table. Then on her right was Adam, Myra, and Willie. On her left was Ananyu, me, and Nina.
Chef Patel waited until we were seated and then said, “Thank you again for coming. Tonight you will be experiencing a seven course meal in the style of the French. Your first course will be coming out shortly, but in the mean time I believe Christine has a few words for you.”
Christine stood up and said, “Thank you Chef Patel for having us tonight. It was very generous of you to invite us and I’m sure all of the students are very appreciative also.” Chef Patel beamed with pride and said, “You are all very welcome here.” With that, he hurried out and Christine continued, “I’d also like to take this time to personally thank each and every one of you for the past year. You made my job not only easier, but fun and I do appreciate that.”
Adam interrupted her at that point and said, “Christine, does that mean we worked? This experiment with the families did okay?”
“Yes, Adam, the Habitat administration is very happy with the results. When you start the new school year in a month and a half you’ll have some company thanks to the good job you did this year.”
The table erupted in a fountain of questions like how many kids and were there going to be kids added to their class and when were they arriving. Christine just laughed and continued, “There will be a CLT30 coming in the week before school starts. It’s a safe bet that at least a couple of kids will be joining your class. The others will be in the new freshmen class. There may be a couple of surprises at the start of school, but that can wait until then”
“Surprises,” asked Adam, “you mean like multiple surprises? What else is going on?”
Christine just looked at Adam and smiled.
“Adam, you dummy,” said Ananyu, “let Christine have her fun. She’s had to put up with you pulling pranks for the last year, you can let her have her secrets.”
“Christine, you can have your surprises, but is when we’re moving into the new school one of them?” I asked.
Christine looked over our faces and said, “Well, changes can be disruptive, so I was thinking about having you guys stay in the conference room to finish out the school year, but I’ve had a request that we vacate the room so some construction can take place. If you guys don’t mind the disruption, we can move into the school Monday morning.
There was a unanimous “Yes!” from the table. School was finally going to be a place instead of just a re-purposed conference room.
“Well,” Christine said, “I guess that’s settled and just in time because here’s Chef Patel with the first course.”
When Chef Patel had served Myra and me the seven course meal, it was an informal thing meant as a fancy snack. Tonight he was serving us a real seven course meal and it was delicious and filling. To start, they brought out a loaf of fresh baked bread along with butter to the table. They kept fresh bread supplied for the whole meal. The first course was Romaine lettuce wedges dressed with a fancy cream mixed with all sorts of delicious flavors. You could just pick up the wedge and eat it which made it nice because none of us were sure which one of the silverware was the salad fork. The next course was a Tilapia fillet resting on a bed of thinly sliced red onion, peppers, and cherry tomatoes, which was then garnished with herbs. I thought the meal was almost over when the next thing to come out were small dishes of lemon sorbet.
Ananyu clued us in, “The sorbet is to cleanse our palate before they bring the main course out.”
The main course turned out to be a beef roast sitting in a bed of small roasted potatoes and braised carrots. I hadn’t seen a beef roast since we left Earth. I don’t know if Chef Patel had somehow imported one, or if this was a really fancy printed one. I couldn’t tell and everything tasted so good. I felt bad that my mom couldn’t be here to enjoy this meal with us. So much of the meal had come out of her gardens and I know she would appreciate how much everyone was enjoying the vegetables.
The next course was a salad featuring greens from mom’s gardens tossed in a simple vinaigrette. Following that, they brought out small wooden boards filled with more different cheeses than I had seen since leaving Earth. There aren’t cows on the Moon so there’s no milk to make cheese. Maybe the Chef had figured out how to print something that looked and tasted like different cheeses from the printer but I couldn’t tell and didn’t care. It just all tasted so good. The final course was dessert and Chef Patel really outdid himself. We were each served a piece of something called a Chocoflan cake. It was a chocolate cake with a cream cheese flan on top of it. Covering the whole thing was a layer of caramel decorated with whole pecans.
There was so much to the meal like the pecans on the cake or the beef roast itself that I had no idea how Chef Patel had pulled it off. It’s not like you could run down to the corner store and pick the stuff up. If it wasn’t available here on the Moon, then it had to come from Earth and there was a very high price tag associated with that. I think Chef Patel had just spent a small fortune on us and I hope all of my classmates appreciated how lucky we were to have Ananyu in our class. Without her I have a feeling we might have been lucky to be having cheeseburgers for dinner with sugar cookies for desert.
The dinner eventually came to an end. Chef Patel came by and each of us thanked him for the meal and told him how much we enjoyed it. I asked the Chef if he would join us for a picture. I had a feeling, a picture was coming anyway and after the delicious dinner, he had served us I wanted the idea for the picture to seem to come from us. He was clearly choked up that we had asked and bustled back into the kitchen before coming back out with a camera and the same staff member who had taken the shot of Myra and I. After the pictures the girls all gave Chef Patel a hug. I was the first boy and tried to shake his hand, but he wasn’t having any of that and insisted on hugging each of us boys too. Chef Patel escorted all of us back to the trolley where Christine told it to take us to the main cafeteria and we all sat there waving goodbye as the trolley pulled away and left the plaza.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Prom
Christine timed it so that we arrived right before the Prom was to start. She asked us to remain with the trolley while she went in and made the opening remarks. She would then introduce us as we entered by couples and once we were all on the dance floor the first dance would start. When we hit our queue, Adam and Ananyu entered to a round of cheers. Myra and I came next and then Willie and Nina followed. We all got cheers, but I know how this crowd is by now and they would have been cheering zucchinis if my mom had set up a party to celebrate the zucchini crop.
We took our place on the floor and then the music started and it was just me and Myra on the floor. I had forgotten how smoothly, we moved as a couple. We just danced and didn’t have to think about it. I caught a glimpse of Willie and Nina and it was clear Mrs. Stephenson had taken Willie to task because he was actually dancing with Nina and not standing there rocking back and forth. I gave a little laugh at that and Myra asked me what was up. I told her about Willie and she just laid her head on my shoulder and said, “You’re really something else.” I’m not sure if that was good or bad, but it felt good dancing with her like that so I wasn’t going to push it.
The song ended and before the second song started Ananyu made a beeline for me and grabbed me for the second dance. She looked at me with a smile on her face and said, “Adam did better and managed not to throw me into the wall this time, but you’re still a better dancer, so let’s do this thing.” The rest of the evening went pretty much like the Homecoming dance with none of us boys lacking a partner for any dance. Willie made up for lost time by logging more dances than either Adam or I. I noticed that the camera drones were present again and was grateful none of us kids goofed up. Just like the previous dance, some of the adults got into trouble with the fast songs and I was sure some funny videos would be leaking out onto the net soon.
The music started and Myra was in my arms again and the world was a pretty good place. Somehow, when the two of us were dancing it was always really clear between us. I couldn’t imagine Myra ever slugging me when the music was going. We were dancing close and I was looking into her eyes thinking about how good it was between us when the music ended. We kept dancing in our own little world and Myra’s face was getting closer to mine when Willie grabbed me and spun me around.
“Quit showing off,” Willie said, “Did you see me out there dancing? I don’t want to hear Waddling Willie from you guys ever again. Gimmie some up high!”
I hit Willie with a high five and then briefly thought about hitting him in the chin for breaking up the moment Myra and I were having. I looked around, but she was gone and I was left wondering what would have happened if Willie hadn’t intervened.
I woke up Sunday morning and we went down to breakfast as a family. I was feeling adventurous so I had the 3D printed Canadian bacon, reconstituted scrambled eggs, and home fries from freshly grown potatoes off my mom’s farms. They were out of Coke again so I made due with the powdered milk. Willie had found that they had chocolate powder you could add to the milk to make chocolate milk and that pretty much covered up the funny taste. It seemed a little weird to me to be drinking chocolate milk with the rest of my breakfast but it beat the taste of the straight powdered milk. It would be my go to breakfast drink unless they had Coke or if the chocolate powder ran out. My total fall back position was the Tang my dad liked to drink. They never seemed to run out of it and it was okay in a pinch.