Kae
Kae wandered into her parent’s bedroom a few hours later as Dad, Mom, and Adelfried were almost ready to leave.
“I’m serious, Kae, no one comes over while we are gone.” Dad ran his fingers through his hair while looking in the mirror. He was wearing a slate jacket, black shirt, dark brown slacks, and black shoes. “Slate is close to black right?” He asked.
This was her chance. “Even Kyle? He already knows about Adelfried and everything, it’s not like—”
“Especially Kyle.” Ying said, grabbing her purse and thumbing through it.
It’s not like Kae had expected that to work, but she had to try. Now she had to keep her face straight. It had to sound casual. “So, what time will you be back?”
Mom paused her lipstick. “I don’t know, it’s a night out, don’t wait up for us.”
Kae had to take a different tack. “Fine, when should I start worrying?”
“If the sun comes up then you can start worrying.” Ying said, pinching Kae’s chin.
“Hopefully by midnight.” Jim added under his breath so only Kae could hear him. “Everyone ready? Let’s go.”
A few minutes later Adelfried, Jim, and Ying piled into Ying’s large SUV and pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down the street. Finally, they were gone.
Kae called Kyle. “The deal is, we have to play video games with Evan for an hour and then he’ll leave us alone.”
Adelfried
They pulled into a parking lot across the street from where they had been attacked. The scene held little evidence of their previous altercation. A few furrows in the asphalt of the parking lot where one of the cars had landed remained. Ying detailed what happened to Jim while pointing out the various spots of the attack. Memories of that night ran through Adelfried's head, yet for the first time in a while, he started to get excited. This was surely the right path to getting home. When Adelfried spotted Nathaniel laying on the sidewalk dressed as a homeless person with a cardboard sign propped up next to him asking for change, he suddenly remembered Kyle giving him money that same night of the attack. What a perfect cover. Just as that night, he appeared sound asleep next to his cardboard sign.
“Nathaniel?” Adelfried said, unsure if he was awake.
“The brown door.” he replied, without seeming to move his lips. After a quick search they found a brown door down the alleyway and went in. The inside looked like an abandoned storefront, not a place for dancing or merriment. After a few moments Nathaniel came bounding in.
“Yeah, sorry about that, I can’t be talking to no one out there, part of the job as the doorman, you see. Anyway, glad you could all make it. And uh, who is this pretty lady?” He said, nodding towards Ying.
“My wife. Ying.” Jim replied.
“Oh, yes, from that night, that’s right. Ma’am, it’s a pleasure. Now, well, she is so pretty it won’t matter what she wears. But uh, you,” he said, pointing at Adelfried. “You shouldn’t wear all black, you need have a splash of color in there or something.” Adelfried flipped the jacket to a bright green. “Yeah, there ya go. Now you, what are we going to do with you,” he said, turning to Jim.
“You said wear black. Besides, what’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“Oh, I don’t mean to insult, mind you, it’s just the bouncer can be a bit cranky. See, he has to make sure the place maintains a certain look, if you know what I mean. So yeah, maybe just change the pants or something to look a little livelier, if you catch my drift. I know, how about pink, like a pink jacket and pants with that black shirt?” Before Jim could protest Adelfried touched his jacket and pants. They changed to bright pink.
Jim looked down in horror at his perfectly pink duds. “No way.” He protested, shaking his head. “Adelfried, change it back.”
“That’ll do just fine.” Nathaniel smiled, with approval.
“Relax Jim, we’ll just have to trust Nathaniel on this one.” Adelfried added, with a snigger.
Nathaniel looked the three of them up and down once more. “Besides, what you really need to do is impress Chad, see, he is your key if you want more information about Sahir. So, you should, you know, make sure you look nice. And now, don’t take this the wrong way, because I am not one to support inappropriate or immoral behavior, lord knows I have been on this planet long enough to realize the consequences of improper choices and the impact they can have on the people around you and thus yourself and your soul, if you believe in that sort of thing, but anyways, as I was saying, a little friendliness and drinks will go a long way with Chad.” He gave Jim a nod and patted him on the shoulder. “But he’s gotta like the package too or that won’t get you too far, if you hear me.”
Ying laughed. “Oh, this should be fun, dancing and a show. I can’t wait.”
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“Wait, what?” Jim said, confused. “Are you saying I have to flirt with this guy?”
“Well, no, not necessarily, but you know, don’t take offense if he flirts with you. See he’ll probably favor you being big and tall and all and well, I don’t want to assume your views on that topic, but if you bite back, he may not feed you the information you are looking for. So just play nicely, is all I am saying.”
“Great,” Jim muttered, under his breath.
Adelfried started to feel anxious. “Well, what are we waiting on then? Let’s go.”
“Now just hold your hippogriffs. Ya’ll are gonna need money, and not that paper money.” Nathaniel reached into his pocket and handed Adelfried a handful of clear crystals. “Now, same drill as before, fill those up and you can use them as money, but make sure you do so before going into the club, you don’t want to let anyone know how easily you can just top one of them off because it’s kind of rude to show your abilities out in public like that and you’ll draw attention to yourself that you don’t want and people’ll treat you differently because the only people who show off are people who want to make everyone think they are a big deal. Most people just don’t like it, you know people showing off that is, because it means you are trying to make a statement that hey, I’m mister big over here, or misses big and I have all—”
“Yes, yes.” Adelfried said, stopping the waterfall of words.
“Now, here is the thing, you have to buy at least one drink, have more if you like, but don’t go crazy. You really should get one from the left side of the menu. The right side is let’s just say, for the more advanced drinkers and you are most definitely not ready for that, no sir, you are not. I don’t think any of you have any tolerance for those concoctions. And plus, this is a nice place, and you don’t want to be, you know, woo!” Nathaniel said, waving his hands in the air.
“Yes, we get it, so where is this club?” Adelfried continued in a hurry.
“Yeah, yeah, right, so just through that black door over there, don’t go in until I go back outside and oh, yeah, this is really important, make sure you remember which door you came in from once you are in the club. That is really, really important. Okay? Or remember the number above the door you came through, but I just always try to remember the exact door and its position and all that because you know, I don’t always trust those numbers. Reminds me of the time that I went to use the bathroom not realizing where I was and—”
“Okay, we got it, remember the door.” Adelfried said, with frustration starting to spill out into his voice. Every extra word Nathaniel uttered was like one more thing keeping him from Minna and Leyna. He started for the door.
Jim grabbed Adelfried’s arm as he passed by. “Don’t we need to know how to find Chad?” Adelfried stopped, before slowly returning to his previous spot.
Nathaniel chortled. “Heh, yeah, that would be useful, wouldn’t it? So, he’s always got one of them fancy Kuiper tables around the edge on permanent reserve. Just look for the guy with the blonde hair and bright orange highlights. Trust me, you can’t miss him. Just introduce yourself and ask to sit and be all polite and I guess explain to him why you want to find Sahir. Then, you’re on your own, I’m not sure he’ll give you what you want, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Anything else?” Adelfried said with forced patience.
“Uh yeah, uh…perhaps a little something for my trouble, if you know what I mean.” Nathaniel put his hand out and dropped a couple empty crystals in Adelfried’s hand.
“Of course,” Adelfried said, scooping them up and dropping them back in his hand glowing an instant later.
“Many thanks, now I will just see myself out. Good luck,” he said, as he walked out the door, closing it behind him.
“Finally.” Adelfried said, heading over to the door in the back. “Here.” Adelfried reached out with all the money now glowing. “Take some.”
Jim grabbed Adelfried’s shoulder firmly. “Remember, we have to be careful, there are still people out there trying to find us.”
Adelfried had to internalize Jim’s warning because he was right, but he couldn’t help his excitement. “Yes, yes, you are correct. But I handled them last time, so you do not need to concern yourself.”
Ying patted him on the back. “As I recall, Evan had to bail us out last time. This time you just have us normal people.”
“Hey, I am a police officer, you know,” Jim added.
“Okay, sweetie.” Ying replied, mockingly. “But if people start throwing cars, I am standing behind Adelfried, no offense.”
“Okay, okay, can we go in now?” Adelfried said, losing his patience.
“Yes, let’s dance.” Ying hooted, as she threw the door open and walked through.
Ying
The first thing Ying saw on the other side of the door was an immense yellow marquee sign floating below a black sky that read “Club Planetesimal”. She guessed it was at least the size of a small building, but she wasn’t sure. She couldn’t see a ceiling, nor walls for that matter. On either side countless yellow doors randomly opened as people came out and filed into to a few lines into the club. The air was filled with the anxious excitement of people ready to get into the club. It was infectious. Her desire to get into the club continued to grow as she led her Jim and Adelfried to the nearest line. She was more excited than when she went to her first dance club in her twenties, which was saying something, considering that was after years of living under her parent’s oppressive thumb. Her trip down memory lane was cut short when it hit her. “The door number!” They all turned around to see a maze of identical looking yellow doors behind them.
“It was this one,” Ying said. She walked up close reading small black print that read “29N95W”. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of it for safekeeping. “Hmm, no cell service, I wonder where we are.”
After quickly getting back in line, one of her secret pleasures could commence, people watching. And this was some prime grade A people watching. Every color of the spectrum, and then some, were present in the outfits worn by the most uniquely dressed collection of humanity she had ever seen. In front of them were a pair of thirtysomething women built like bodybuilders. The first wore high heels, a short puce dress topped with a small sky-blue coat while the other wore a black tutu, white halter top, one green and one blue legging, pink ballet shoes, and a short-trimmed rainbow afro. The couple that got in line behind them consisted of a man wearing an aqua sequin clad shirt, black belt and shoes, and white glow in the dark pants. The woman had her body painted black, with white glow in the dark skeleton bones. Her face was painted sugar skeleton and topped with colorful roses pinned to her large black sombrero. Behind them were three gentlemen in their fifties, if she had to guess, all wearing plaid silk bathrobes and white glowing belts with oversized glowing belt buckles.
“So, the style is just whatever you feel like?” Jim said gawking at the people around.
Ying snorted, “it’s like the DMV and Walmart are having a rave.”
The lines of clubgoers stretched under the large marquee sign in front of them. As the line moved and they got closer to the entrance, she saw the immense club sign wasn’t floating in the air but was mounted to a towering black wall that was nearly imperceptible. After paying three hundred nummus of the ESH money to the bouncer, they walked in.