Ying

When they crossed the threshold into Club Planetesimal it was like someone unmuted the music. The bass hit hard. Harder than Ying had ever felt. Down to her bones and very being. Layered on top of it were rhythmic techno riffs that sent shivers down her spine. It was like electricity coursing through her body, filling her with melodic euphoria.

The club was a massive open space larger than a football field. Running across the back wall was a bar trimmed in white neon light. On all sides the jet-black ground curved smoothly upwards forming the walls of the club like they were situated at the bottom of a giant empty swimming pool. The only people around were either standing at the bar getting drinks or around the edges near the wall. It didn’t make sense. The club was nothing but a bunch of empty space with a bar. There were no tables, booths, chairs or a dance floor. Where was the dance floor? Where was the dancing?

“Where are all the people?” Ying yelled to her side, but Jim wasn’t there. She turned and saw him and Adelfried standing a few paces from the entrance looking up. Why were they standing there gawping like stupid fish with their mouths open gasping for air?

“What are you doing?” She yelled, over the loud music.

Jim gestured upwards.

It took her a few seconds to fully register what she was seeing. Floating several hundred feet in the air was a massive glowing yellow ball, covered in people writhing to the music, that was presumably the sun. Several smaller spheres of differing sizes chaotically orbited around it, acting like planets. Each was swarmed with the bodies of hundreds of people dancing to the pulsing music. As the planets orbited the sun, people would hop from planet to planet. As they did, the gravity from each planet seemed to grab them and allow their feet to land on the ground each time. The walls and ceilings of the club were covered in booths and tables facing towards the sun where people gathered, drinking and watching the floating dance planets. Floating almost stationary around the solar system was a ring of booths that resembled a ring of asteroids.

“This is amazing.” Ying said, continuing to stare in amazement. “How do you think you get up there?”

Jim shrugged.

“Look.” Adelfried said, pointing at the edge of the club where the floor curved upwards. “It looks like people walk right up the curve of the floor and straight up the wall.”

“Come on!” Ying yelled running to the nearest edge. When she hit the curve of the wall gravity continued to operate under its normal rules for her. Two men wearing paisley tops and red leather pants walked past Ying and straight up the wall.

One of them turned back to Ying. “Oh sweetie, you have to get a drink first.” He smiled at her as he shook the large fruity concoction in his hand.

The other guy screamed, “Get a screaming frog, it’s the best!” Ying stood astonished as the pair strolled up the wall laughing and dancing as they went.

The trio headed to the bar at the back of the club. Standing behind it was an army of scantily clad astronaut bartenders. The men and women all wore the same silver space helmets with glass fronts. The men wore glowing white sleek spacesuit backpacks, banana hammocks, and nothing else. The women bartenders were dressed in shiny silver body suits, cut low to reveal ample cleavage.

Ying grabbed a menu and opened it, but it was nothing but a blank page. She turned it around to show Jim and Adelfried. “Any ideas?”

“It’s blank,” Jim hollered over the loud music.

“Yes, I know.”

“You can’t see that?” Adelfried said pointing at the blank page.

“Just get me a screaming frog.” Ying yelled, starting to move to the beat. The music was working her into a frenzy.

“Is that on the left side?” Jim motioned to Adelfried who was reading the menu.

“I don’t know. There are so many drinks listed here, “Bouncing Betty, Pink and Stinky, Lead Balloon, Grunting Penguin, Mule Cramp, Gut Punch…all this but, no beer. I wonder—”

“What can I get you?” A lady’s voice said clearly over all the music, as if it were telepathically put into their heads. A female bartender was standing on the other side of the bar looking at them through her helmet.

“Uh…” Adelfried muttered.

“Three screaming frogs!” Ying roared, now dancing feverishly.

“Coming right up,” the bartender said stepping away.

Jim’s face scrunched up with disapproval. “What if that wasn’t on the left side?” Jim protested.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Ying replied, dancing up close to him, hoping he might just start to dance a little. He didn’t.

After a minute, the bartender returned with three glowing green shots. “That’ll be thirty nummus, please.” The friendly voice said again in their heads.

Ying reached into her purse and handed her a Follis. “Keep the change.”

“Thanks, babe,” she said, heading off to help the next customer.

Ying grabbed the shots and handed them out to Adelfried and Jim. She examined the Kermit green glowing elixir she was about to consume. The red vapors it was venting smelled of mint.

“Kind of smells like a grasshopper,” Jim said, checking his drink out.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“People eat grasshoppers?” Adelfried replied.

Jim replied. “No, it’s a kind of mint drink, like—”

“To getting Adelfried home!” Ying screamed, trying to get on with the night, holding her glass high in the air.

“I’ll drink to that,” Jim yelled, clinking his glass to Ying’s and Adelfried’s. She slammed her shot while Jim and Adelfried hesitated. The taste of fizzy melon and mint followed quickly by a strong candied apple sweetness.

“Not bad…I guess I expected something…I don’t know, a little more exciting, with a name like ‘Screaming Frog’.” A warm tingling sensation started to build in her stomach. It grew warmer and started to flit around, twitching this way and that. Her tongue started to loll about uncontrollably. After a few very long seconds it felt like what could only be described as a frog in her stomach trying to find its way out. It started to wriggle up her esophagus. The pressure kept building until it forced its way out of her mouth. She let out an exhilarating scream of red vapor. While the feeling of a frog forcing its way out of her body and through her mouth was unnerving, the feeling it left behind didn’t involve anything relating to a frog. It was not unlike being intoxicated, but warmer and with more happiness and clarity all rolled into one. She was on her way to the top of the world.

“Woo! That was amazing!” Ying cried out, feeling the music even more than before. This was going to be an incredible night.

Adelfried and Jim continued their stares of apprehension still holding their drinks.

“Do it!” She howled excitedly.

With one last weary glance, Jim and Adelfried took their shots.

An overwhelming sense of delight started coming over her. All her doubts raced through her mind. Should one of them have stayed home? Was giving Evan homework for the summer too much like her parents? Was keeping Kae perpetually grounded too harsh? Nope!

After two frog induced screams from Adelfried and Jim, they also appeared on top of the world. Jim grabbed Ying closely. “I can’t wait to dance!” Her mouth fell open as Jim stepped back bopping awkwardly.

Adelfried screamed, “At this rate I’ll be with Minna and Leyna in no time!”

This was a magical dance club after all.

With their newfound outlook on the evening, the three newbies headed towards the edge of the club. Ying marched up the side of the wall like she had done it a million times. Adelfried and Jim followed behind her cautiously, perhaps a little less sure gravity wouldn’t decide to throw them to the ground. The disorientation of now being on a wall heightened the exhilaration she was already feeling. The rotating planets were still above them but would come close on occasion. When a planet’s orbit was within jumping distance, people would occasionally bound from the wall to a planet, and each time they jumped their feet would immediately flip and land on the intended target like a cat always landing upright.

Ying yelled with abandon, “Come on, next planet that comes close, let’s jump!”

“Yes, let’s do it!” Jim said, looking surprised by his own words.

Adelfried nodded excitedly with approval. “You two go ahead, I will search for Chad.” He started off towards the group of seats ahead of him.

“Now!” Ying yelled, as what looked like Neptune flew within a couple body lengths away. Ying grabbed Jim and pushed up as hard as she could. They both sailed towards the planet as everyone else had before them. For an instant it was like gravity had left them alone, midflight it shifted as their feet swung around and planted firmly on the planet.

“Oh my god, that was amazing!” Ying howled, at the top of her lungs. They both started to dance to the blaring of music along with the crush of people around them. Her body moved in an enlightened dancing experience like she had never felt before.

A voice boomed over the music. “Who’s ready to satellite?”

The crowd screamed and started to chant in unison. “Satellite! Satellite! Satellite!”

“I can’t hear you!” The DJ’s voice boomed back.

The crowd’s voice grew louder and louder until a perfectly timed thump of bass hit within the song sending Ying and everyone else shooting up into the air and away from their planet. The throngs of dancers hovered over their respective planets in perfect orbit, still boogying suspended in air and free of gravity. Each thump of the base would send them up or down or spinning around. Jim and Ying screamed with joy like little kids riding a roller coaster for the first time. After a little while everyone glided back down to their planet. They danced together with abandon, swooping through the sky in pure ecstasy.

Adelfried

While excited at the prospect of trying to figure out how all of this was possible with magic, he was doing his best to stay focused on the mission at hand. He had to find Chad, find Sahir, and get home. He had combed every last booth and table on all the walls and ceiling, but still no luck finding anyone meeting Chad’s description or any indication of where the Kuiper seats were.

A hand softly caressed his upper arm. “Oh my god! Your jacket perfectly matches my green. What’s your name, cutie?” He turned to see a lovely lady with green hair, glasses, dress, and shoes rubbing his arm. Her smile grew as they made eye contact.

“Uh hi, do you know where the Kuiper seats are?” Adelfried said, unsure of what was happening. “I…I’ve been looking everywhere but I can’t find them.”

Her smile shrunk a little. “Oh, are you here to meet someone?”

“Yes, his name is Chad, do you know him?”

“Figures, the first cute guy in green is on the wrong team.”

“What?”

“Nothing, cutie. So, do you see those small rocks floating around the outside of the dance floor? Those are the Kuipers, you know like the Kuiper Belt. Get it?”

“Sorry, no.”

“Yeah, I didn’t either, I had to look it up. Anyway, if we just wait here, the Kuipers will eventually complete a full circle and he should pass right by,” she said with her warm smile returning. As if she recognized Adelfried’s confusion she added. “Okay, don’t worry honey, I’ll stay here with you until it swings around.” She locked her arm around his and pushed her ample chest against his arm causing him to blush.

After a few awkward but exciting moments of this the young woman squeezing herself tight to Adelfried, she yelled, “there he is. Tell him Debbie said hi.” She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and yelled, “Jump now.”

He jumped and his body immediately started its rotation before landing squarely on a corner of the rock the booth was attached to.

“Oh, hello,” said a man sitting at the booth with bright yellow hair.

Adelfried wasn’t sure what to make of the orange triangular highlights and large matching handlebar mustache. His first thought was a magical accident, but then decided it was best not to ask. He wore a black button-down shirt with glowing red flame prints that seemed to flicker when you weren’t staring directly at them. Sitting next to him was a large man mumbling to himself while looking down at the table wearing a plain brown t-shirt, relatively boring clothes compared to everyone else in the club. He had dark slicked back hair and a thick, unkempt beard that Adelfried felt a little jealous of, considering he had been told to shave his or he would stand out. The man held his head up with two large hairy arms which rested on the table.

“Hi, are you Chad?” Adelfried asked, in a normal tone of voice which seemed to make it to the man’s ears with ease considering the loud music around them.

“That depends, do you owe me money, or do I owe you?” He replied, with a little laugh. “I am Chad, and you are?” Right at that same moment Ying and Jim came crashing down almost on top of Adelfried.

Jim still stumbling and trying to right himself said “Sorry Ad…”

“Andrew.” Adelfried lied. Ying and Jim gave him a quick glance but said nothing.

“Well, hi, Ad-Andrew.” Chad laughed. “And who is this tall glass of cognac?” he said, gesturing at Jim.

“Jim, and this is my wife, Ying.” Jim gestured to Ying who was now upright.

“That’s okay, I won’t hold that against you,” Chad replied, smiling at Jim. “Well Jim, Ying, and Andrew, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I would like to find Sahir,” Adelfried blurted out.

“Oh God, okay, another wizard cult wannabe.” Chad shook his head. “Look, I’m not going to help you because you do not want to find Sahir.”