#28 – Lonnie’s Last Day
The following morning I awoke in the luxurious suite of rooms aboard the Festina. I threw on my clothing and dashed to the lobby. I found Lonnie sprawled on the sofa. “Oh, no!” I said, “I overslept!”
(The committee did not sit as planned because Smith sent a flag of truce to Ding.)
“Oh…any news?” I didn’t trust Smith.
Lonnie silently concurred. “No. Captain Smith was too spooked to have a telepath observer, so Tavari is staying out of the way.” He suggested we try the back door of the kitchen. We were tucked in an alcove where the restaurant staff ate. Stacks of fragrant waffles were set before us and we fell to like farmhands. After the first pangs of hunger were satisfied, Lonnie asked, “Did you enjoy the concert?”
“Oh, yes! The prince has an extraordinary voice. How is he today?”
Lonnie had a piece of waffle halfway to his mouth. He stopped, its cargo of berry compote fell off, but he shoveled it in. He chewed. If any should be reading these pages, and laughing at me for being too dumb to see what was plain under my nose, I can only say that my friend Lonnie filled my vision so that I could see nothing else.
“Sulky as a bear. He quarreled with Theta. Forgive me, do you see okay?”
“My distance vision was never good. When my glasses got smashed, I could no longer aim a rifle and Ding closed my farm and moved me to headquarters to be his clerk. I see well enough for close work, although sometimes I get a headache if the light isn’t strong enough.”
Lonnie looked stricken. “If I had known, we could have gotten you glasses.”
“You couldn’t tell?”
“As a healer, I can detect injury or disease. If it’s due to the structure of your eye, I’m not that good. My grandfather would know, and furthermore could correct the problem by adjusting the eye muscles.”
“Thank you, I’ll settle for new glasses.” After my eye exam, I was told it would be an hour before the glasses would be ready. Lonnie offered to show me the school. There, I wound up answering questions about life in New Harmony, like some kind of visiting dignitary. In each classroom, Lonnie pulled the teacher aside and took a little cage that contained a pair of gerbils.
“What are you doing?” I took a cage from his stack to lighten his load.
“Confiscating contraband!”
King Tildar came hastening towards us and Lonnie deposited the cages in his arms. “Dear God in Heaven, the school is infested with these!”
“Children’s pets, Lonnie!”
“Admiral Takittara will fry our genitals!” snapped Lonnie. Hefting the cages, the king trudged away. Looking at his sagging shoulders, Lonnie added, “Poor kid. He realizes what a disaster those beasts could be, but he feels for the human children and their cute little pets.”
“You know, I like him better. He seemed like a golden boy, everything handed to him on a platter. Then it turns out he loves a girl who doesn’t love him back. Isn’t it silly it makes him, well, not more acceptable, but more sympathetic?”
“No, we’ve all been in the situation of unrequited love.”
“Would he marry the young lady or just keep her on the side?”
“In our society, the male does not “keep” the female. In English, a man “possessing” a woman is having sex with her. We turn that around. She has him. The sexual imagery makes more sense to us.”
