Luna was inconsolable. “I want Dromie! Mama, you made ‘im leave!”
“I didn’t make ‘im leave, he left under his own power!” Gwen walked outside.
We followed. The house had a nice garden under a blue sky with a yellow sun. It’s light?
I felt okay, so I took Luna’s hand. “C’mon, Honey. Let’s take a walk. At least we have a nice place to live. I wonder if we got neighbors. Wanna see?” It felt funny, to look at my arms and not see fat. My upper arms didn’t have flab now! Felt light.
She waved up a pink dress and a bunch of fake jewelry. I replaced my brown dress with a pretty brown patterned one. Designs had red, yellow, orange and lots of shades of brown and black. Soft material, too. The porch and swings were still until Luna swung ‘em. Poor little thing sobbed like she lost her bestie. But, she walked with me. “I wish Dromie could walk with us, Granny. I really do!”
“I know you do, Luna.” Down the steps and walk, pretty flowers bloomed. On the right was our huge garden with blueberry bushes, strawberry plants, watermelon vines and a line of fruit trees with ripe fruit. An apricot tree, a peach tree, a pear tree, and an apple tree ended the front yard. Beyond that, gray rocks and sand that stretched on forever.
We didn’t have a fence. Nice grass, but no insects. It was warm, not too warm, maybe mid-70s. A gentle breeze blew as we reached the end of the walkway.
Gwen walked behind us, takin’ it all in. Sidewalk to the right ended where the rock began. On my left as we reached it, our yard ended pretty quickly, then the house that was Atlanta Alliance Embassy stood, front door still open. Luna ran up there and pulled it shut.
Gwen ran behind her. “Don’t close it! What if it locks?”
Luna opened it again. “See, Mama, I can open it.”
I kept walkin’ but the yard just went past a big magnolia tree in full bloom, and that bare rock was the rest of the street as far as I could see. Sidewalk ended, grass ended, and a line of rosebushes marked the yard. There was a pine tree, well, five of them in the back corner of the black iron fence and a low rock wall. Breeze carried their fresh scent, and the sweet smell of the magnolias and roses to me. Sidewalk went all the way back. We turned left and walked it, and the back yard ended in gray rock, too. Behind our house to that line of fruit trees, and there wasn’t a sidewalk on that side of our house, either. Our house and the Embassy was a little island on bare, gray rock, filled in with sand.
We walked a little way on that but my feet got sore in my sandals.
As the sun sank lower, it got cool. So quiet. Just the tapping of our feet. Gwen took Luna to the porch and they swung. The walk did calm her down. Tears still dripped off her chin. Gwen waved and got a white cloth to wipe her face with.
I got tired and came up on the porch to sit in the other swing. Soft cushions. “I guess we really are alone. But we have each other. Let’s carve up that turkey. You started it cookin’, didn’t you, Gwen?”
She sniffed the air. “Is that what I’m smellin’? I think I feel like eatin’ now.” Gwen had tears in her eyes, too.
We went in and that turkey was perfect. Gwen carved it and I boiled collards with bacon, and all my spices were in a pretty spice rack.
Supper was tasty but really quiet. “I don’ know why I’m bein’ quiet.” Gwen cut another bite of turkey. “Guess I’m expectin’ sorry Bubba to come outa one o’ the rooms t’ fuss.”
“You know that’s right! We can be loud an’ proud all we want, can’t we?” I laughed. “How long has it been we had food this good an’ no one to tell us to shut up?”
Luna yelled, “I’m bein’ loud! Gonna fuss, Daddy?” She kept on and we all laughed.
There was a fudge cake in the fridge like Mama used to make. Oh, and ice cream to put on it. Butter pecan for me, vanilla for Luna, and black walnut for Gwen, all our favorites!
The milk was whole milk and tasted very good.
I tried a computer on a desk in the living room. It worked as I expected, but it was more fun to just talk to that cube in my pocket. We watched several Disney movies together. Then went to bed.
Our second day in paradise didn’t go so well. Our turkey and collards didn’t taste as good. Kind of bland, even after I added more spice. When I tasted the pepper, even it wasn’t very peppery.
I didn’t have as much energy and watched Gwen and Luna circle the block three times. They picked some fruit. Apples were mushy, peaches looked great but they weren’t sweet, none of the fruits or vegetables tasted good. I went out in the garden, and every leaf had yellow and brown on it.
Something was wrong with every food we asked the computer to make. Even water had a metallic taste. Luna refused to drink any.
“Mama,” Gwen said, after we forced down some food, “maybe I shouldn’t have said anything to Dromie. He’s getting’ his revenge on us!”
“That’s not true! Dromie’s comin’ back, an’ he’ll make everything good again! Y’all see!”
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His hologram didn’t come up when I asked for it, to please Luna. She spent most of the day outside calling ‘im.
By sunset, it was cold. We hadn’t stayed outside last night. I walked out in the front yard. There was a featureless moon that lit up the yard just a bit. No stars. That’s plumb weird. What happened to those 3 stars I saw last night? I got worried about that garden. There was just enough light for me to pull a few leaves of collards and several from other plants. Usually I was pretty good at figuring out what plants needed.
I brought my handful of leaves in. Laid ‘em out on the table.
They oozed brown stuff. Tried to pick one up again and it fell apart! Like tryin’ to grab gelatin! Never saw that problem!
“Ew! Computer, run hygiene!” Luna said it.
No white light came. We asked for a towel. Nothing. Paper towels. Nothing!
Gwen came back from the bathroom. “I can’t run water for Luna to take a bath! It’s gray slime!”
I got scared and went in the kitchen. Took a can of green beans out of the cabinet. The can opener in the drawer worked, thank goodness. I got a fork and tasted. “Green beans taste all right.” I sipped the water in the can.
Couldn’t heat up anything, but we could open cans. There was barbecue and baked beans. And plenty of Yoo-Hoos and box drinks, including milk. Every cabinet had a variety.
What if Dromie gets himself killed and he can’t come back?
After we ate, we just left the dishes on the table. Can’t wash any with gray slime. Didn’t wanna touch dat!
Luna went to sleep in her pink princess bed with the canopy. Plenty of blankets. Our closets were full of clothes. Gwen and I went through the entire, huge house.
Our leftovers in the fridge melted into gray slime. That startled us. I’d put a half can of barbecue in it. That was now gray slime.
Things in the freezer, though, seemed okay. For now.
I felt nervous as I went to bed.
The third day, Luna dressed and went outside after breakfast of cake and ice cream. Gwen and I decided to go ahead and eat that stuff up, in case it went inedible. We just didn’t open the refrigerator.
We could watch movies and TV, but no YouTube, Facebook, or news.
“Computer, I want to know what’s goin’ on at home. Can’t you tell me something?” Gwen sobbed.
“I do not have contact with a Hub. Our server needs maintenance.”
Gwen blinked her green eyes at it. “Can you teach us how to do that?”
“No. Learning is required, from a Hub.”
“What’s a Hub?”
“Servers in the Alliance and Unified connect to Hubs. I cannot connect. Treaties are required. Contact with an Alliance world or a Unified world is required, but Dromie is forbidden.”
“But we didn’t do anything! Are we forbidden, too?”
“Yes. You are with Dromie.”
Gwen got mad. “I’m not wid’ him, he left! Can you get in touch wid’ ‘im, to get him to take us someplace with contact?”
“Dromie is in exile. I have no way to contact him without a Hub.”
Everything we asked just went in circles like that! Gwen didn’t ask if anything was wrong with the computer. I think both of us were just too scared to ask about it.
We had Luna’s calendar we made when Dromie decorated her room. I got one of her markers off the coffee table and marked the 19th off in orange. And, the 20th. “At least we know what day it is, until the end of 2022.” Then I marked the 21st. Today.
As I came back from her door, I looked at the dining room table. Dust from the leaves rose, just from my walk. Then it was gone. Dishes had dust. I waved my hand over it. Like a strong breeze came to blow every speck away. Dust rose and vanished. Clean dishes sat there!
Gwen ran in the hall bathroom. Came back quiet. “The tub was full of dust. I waved my arm, one wave, and it went away!” She sat down at the table. “My tummy don’t feel good.”
Days passed. On Monday the 24th, the sky wasn’t blue any more, but kind of brown. So was the rock and dust. All our plants died until it looked like the Atlanta we left, with stick trees and bare bushes. And, cold. We got out sweaters.
Luna didn’t run and play. “I think I’m sick, Mama. Gonna stay in my pj’s.”
“You can do dat, Honey. Lay on th’ sofa an’ watch something.”
I didn’t want to sit outside. All these changes scared me.
We ate a whole big bag of barbecue potato chips. All of us had upset tummies.
Days passed where we ate crackers or potato chips and lived off juice.
On the 31st I put a shaky mark through the day. Gwen slept on Luna’s bed because she got really thin. We couldn’t get her to eat anything much. She had the last of the crackers. The last box.
Gwen and I tried to make ourselves eat, but we got low on cans. In the bathroom mirror, I almost didn’t recognize m’self. I’d been overweight. In two weeks, I was skinny as the picture Mama had of herself the day she came from a refugee camp in Somalia to one in Kenya. That was 1991. One country to another, but a lady taught her computer skills and she got a job in London. They took pictures of them at that first camp to identify ‘em in case they died. Mama kept it as a reminder of how bad things can get.
“Computer, if someone comes, will they find our journal entries, to know what happened to us?”
“I keep all recordings of your family. Without maintenance, they may not be readable, but I marked them with the highest priority and recorded many backups.”
My voice broke. “Thank you. I’m gon’ out to the garden to pray, Gwen.”
“Okay, Mama. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to leave Luna, and I can’t lift her today.” Sounded like she’d been cryin’, too.”
On the last step, my foot went sideways and I fell in that dust. Scared me, but didn’t feel like anything broke. Slowly, I used the concrete slab on the side to pull up. Decided if I went in the garden, Gwen could hear me, so I walked a ways out of the yard. Wanted a little private time with my Lord.