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Part 5 - Balanced (cont.)

After locking up, we got onto the main road. The nearby steakhouse had people waiting on the bench out front and Lina vetoed anything with a drive-thru. She searched on my phone until she declared, "The Chinese buffet just past the next right!"

No complaints from me. I parked near the street row of trees. The place was painted green, brown, and white like the rest of the strip with large, red letters proclaiming, "Great Super Buffet". 

Inside, a pinball gum machine and a sticker dispenser (with a mouse person in clown makeup) decorated a small waiting room as fragments of pop songs drifted around. I was glad we didn't play any music stations in the office because I rather liked my level of sanity.

The main hall was buzzing but not crowded. We followed a shoulder-high wall to a cut-out nook where the register was lined by small stalks of bamboo. 

An older woman with a bun of dark hair showed a restrained, creased smile. She wore a red, full-length Chinese dress with golden thread and a dragon. She spoke, "Greetings, gentlemen. Just two?"

I raised my eyes. Lina took a small step back. I cleared my throat and firmly told her, "Two for a booth, please."

Her eyes were narrow, nearly-shut between a field of wrinkles. Still, she seemed to see well enough to guide us to an open table beside a frosted-glass wall of undersea life. On the far wall, there was a park mural that resembled a museum painting but didn't appear especially Chinese.

A younger woman with a short ponytail, a gray apron, and a notepad came over and inquired, "Any drinks for you ladies?" She mentioned a few alcoholic choices, but Lina declined and I was driving. We both got iced tea.

Lina went for the salad area first but wandered over to the seafood as well. I needed meat. Sausages. Long frog legs. Chicken sticks. And vanilla pudding drizzled on the edge. 

We pretty much just ate. No lunchtime pondering and chatting. No Bob Evans getting-to-know-one-another. Just appeasing the beast. I did think about the old woman at the front, but for a second or two with a roll of my eyes. Lina didn't fret either, but she did set a few napkins across her lap.

At the end, we both felt pretty satisfied. Lina paid, left a decent tip on the bill, and yawned as she popped over to the bathroom. I made my way back over to the front. The old woman just stood there with the same gaze and her hands folded in front of her. No more thought to it.

Back in the car, I asked Lina if she wanted to make any other stops. Her answer was a little yawn followed by a hiccup and burp. She tried that again with words.

"Just back home...because I still have to mod your phone. Won't take long. Just gotta hook it up and run a program. Okay?" She drifted between an attempt to look alert, full belly grogginess, and outright flopping asleep against my window. 

I drove slow and carefully, in case of bumps. By the time I entered her neighborhood, she was back to sliding furniture. Pulling into the nearest open spot at her apartment, I didn't even have time to consider how best to rouse her before the stop tilted her awake. She moistened her lips and said, "Alright. Just a quick...thing."

Walking around and to her door, she appeared fine. Getting inside, she definitely perked up once she had her computer on. Despite her newfound confidence, she still didn't log onto her accounts. Instead, she plugged my phone into a wire connecting it to her computer. As she assured me, it was pretty easy. Just plug it in and wait. 

Stretching her arms up but half-bent, she detailed, "You'll have lots of ROMs. That's the data dumped out from a game. The program lets you pick from lots of games and programs that run them...all in one hub. Like, you have all the classic Marios, buncha Zeldas, Metroids, Chrono Trigger, X-Com, Final Fantasies, Earthbound, Mother 3, Phantasy Star, Fire Emblemssss, Castlemania..., Secret of Nana, Shin Megaama...some..." She slumped down in her chair and immediately cleared her throat with a cough.

"And many others. Hundreds. Only taking up as much as any regular app. My joy to share."

She was pretty gone by this point. Once the mod finished, I guided her to the bed and she just settled on top of the covers. I made sure to set her alarm for enough time before work if she happened to be out till morning. Still, I'd probably stop by to check on her early if she didn't respond to a phone call.

Before leaving, I took a huge, essential dump in her bathroom. Well, in Lina's bathroom. I cleaned up afterward so no foul phantoms would bother her. 

On the drive home, I felt the weight and hours of the day settle on my shoulders. Little aches and tender spots announced themselves. The spot by my eye had bloomed into a full throb. 

Shutting the front door behind me was a release. Heels off. Bag down. Nightgown in my sights. 

After a pleasant bath, I didn't even consider watching anything. I did look at my phone. Still nothing from family. Mom could go fuck herself at this point. I had a few ideas for a belated, white elephant gift. 

I tried Russell again, but the timing was still wrong. Definitely would have to try during the day between patients and paperwork. Edith had her phone off. I had no faith in my cellphone to get through to her. So, I made use of my afterthought of a landline, bundled with the internet. I called her to leave a message.

"Hii. It's Babs. Calling to apologize for any misunderstandings last night. I had to cancel on the wedding due to...events. I really wanted to get the chance to see you and Russell. Wanna be up there by year's end. Love you so much and hope you're doing alright. Bye!"

Of course, once I had the message, the damn robot voice guided me through a bunch of annoying crap. I had to fucking tell the dickless bot "Yes" I want to send the message now. God, I had to select a fucking time too. Skip. Skip. And then my message was "stored". Whatever the fuck that meant. When I tried to change that, I got its trite little "goodbye". Goodbye, and may viruses eat your goddamn ass!

I was tempted to deluge the system with messages to make sure something got through. Like certain, shall-remain-nameless doctor offices who forgot that they needed to send us their shit for about the fourth time. But I couldn't do that to Edith. It wasn't her fault. I'd keep calling and hope maybe she would try me.

Returning to my cellphone, I tabbed to make sure I hadn't missed any messages or calls (even though I knew that would be very remote). The open tabs were the soft mod application Lina gave me...and the video one. It had been left open to the archive. The empty one. I was fairly certain I hadn't left it open, but it was hard to tell with the throbbing still knocking on my forehead. 

I slipped into bed on my stomach with my phone. Despite the desire to crush it with my boobs till I'd finally made it my bitch, I just opened up the thing Lina had put on there. The long list of titles meant little to me, but I tested one at random. 

Credits followed by an older-looking art style. Music sounded very 90s too. I had to name some people and a dog. Then my favorite homemade food. The hell? I bent my head and considered my answer with a smirk. I went with "corn" instead. 

What's your favorite thing? Oh, hohoho...they were really tempting me. I didn't have enough letters though. Instead, I put "flying". Whatever. I mashed the button a few times. I wasn't really paying attention. It was wild west farming or something with a lot of talking. No, now there were dinosaurs and I was fighting.

Another time. I scrolled down the list and stopped on Street Fighter II Omega Alpha Hyper...whatever. It started quick. Big beefy men flashing energy and fists at one another. The Russian guy was huge. Damn. 

I had to tap parts of the screen and I was just not with it enough. But I beat up the other guy's bar about halfway. The girls were buff too. I tried someone named Cammy for a while before I set the phone aside.

Making sure I could get up early to check in on Lina, I planted my face on the pillow. And that was all I remembered. Till the purple, glowing dicks showed up. 

Maybe they were dildos. But they were alive in the gray auditorium, so dicks was definitely the better name. Still, they were long. Noodle long and flocking through the air. Swimming too. They dipped over the ground and curled back up with pulses of light. 

I'd definitely seen them in an aquarium once. No. Not these ones. That had been something like a sea cucumber or an anemone. 

I could breathe fine, so what were they swimming through? They had to be lighter than air.

I had to tell Greg about this. He was in another place climbing vines on a wall. The dicks curled together like rope and moved around me several times. They pulsed like a camera flash. A few broke off from the main strands and drifted. 

I tried to snatch one out of the air, but they were too quick. They didn't have any smell, let alone a dick smell. 

They appeared to be scouting me. I wanted to say, "Come at me". I'd never had alien dick or whatever these were. The double doors of the auditorium banged open and Greg stood there with two cones of ice cream.

"There's a dog that looks like Putin swimming in one of the tanks", Greg exclaimed. He was sweaty all over. Had he run the whole way to get here? 

I was thinking about an aquarium, but this was the gray auditorium. They had to be in the same building. I pointed at the dick cluster and asked Greg, "Ever seen anything like these?" 

He was upset because the ice creams were starting to melt. My silly man. There were alien dicks in a secret exhibit. If I could grab one, it would freak Deb out. But they were moving away from me, lurking in the unlit portions of the auditorium. Lurking in Greg's direction.

Before I could warn him, the dicks launched and surrounded him. I yelled but the sound was lost the moment it left my mouth. They curled and laced and knotted around him like excited worms.

When they released him, he wasn't standing there anymore. It was me. Me in a flirty skirt and knee-high boots. Me in a snug top with my hair down. In the doorway, another Greg peeked in and asked, "Babs? You coming?"

The other Babs gave a calm, wide grin at me and turned to answer, "Yes, coming."

She strode over to Greg, my Greg, and gave him a long, lingering kiss before the two of them walked off. The double doors slid closed. 

It was dark. Darker than it had been. But there was a purple glow. I was frozen in place but, with every ounce of my strength, I told those fucking dicks, "Bring it!"

When the swarm came around to face me, it had split into two, wriggling masses. Against the black, they shined like a set of pulsating, purple eyes. That was the last thing I saw before the soft landscape of my pillow in bed. 

I coughed and straightened up. It was still dark out the window. Damn. Two unsexy dreams in a row. The fragments I clung to were I'd been replaced by Greg and evil dildos were responsible.

Before I could consider that further, an unwelcome tickling traced my forearm. In the dim light, I could see eight tiny legs and a sparkle of eyes resting on me. 

WHAM!

Turning the light on, I only found a few fragments of the spider. Vigorous cleaning and vacuuming jumped high on my priorities list. The top was getting a drink for my dried-out throat.

I sucked down a full water bottle and warmed a cup of milk for sipping. Mmm, better. I hated when I split a sleep cycle, but I marched back to bed with a single thought in mind.

Staring at my bed with the same contempt I showed my phone, I made it clear that there would be no more bad dreams and nocturnal invaders would find only death. At a better hour, I would've found the whole exercise silly, but it allowed me to settle back under the sheets with ease and comfort. 

I looked forward to dreams of getting fucked sideways by Greg, to an island getaway roleplay, and maybe blowjobs in the rain. To something more creative and fun than I could conjure up while conscious. 

I received dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

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