Sorry for the long delay. It was due to work and life problems. Now that my work problems are postponed thanks to the virus panic, I have managed to finish chapter 28 of Every Man's Fantasy: Treading water. I hope you enjoy it.
I won't predict when chapters 29 and 30 will come out, but I'm working on them, and on another short story, which I hope to finish in time for the Geek Pride event (but no promises).
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Chapter 28, Treading water
1 Winter on Celetaris
Winter in the northern hemisphere of Celetaris came in wet and cold. It lasted three months. The middle month was the bitterest, when snow fell almost daily and the wind blew, massing large drifts against the roadside hedges, while ice-crystal fingers glistened on every branch and windowsill.
The crisp snow delighted those visitors from Samothea who had never before left the hot tropical plain of their birth to hike in the White Mountains, as had Wildchild and Yael. It especially delighted Freya and Tahnee, who screamed for joy as they chased Edgar Fanshaw's mad dog, Charlie, around the park. Barking wildly, Charlie leaped into the snowdrifts and shook out his shaggy fur over the girls.
Sometimes a thick fog blew in from the Central Ocean and hung damply over the parks, suburbs and Science Institute. Then Arts City took on a mellow humour, as the yellow lights of the street-lamps cast soft purple shadows into doorways: an image of warmth that belied the freezing weather.
Sometimes the valiant sun broke through the gloom after a sharp mid-day wind brushed away the hanging threads of cloud. The fields and houses glistened with a happy portend of the nascent spring, when a thaw would wash the first green buds clean of their milky blanket.
Mostly, however, a mist clung to the city for days on end, its cold fingers penetrating every crevice, dampening the moods of those who trudged through the dark morning streets to their jobs.
There had been dank mist over the city for a week now, yet Yael Eloisesdaughter Woodlander, the vibrantly happy visitor from Samothea, a slender blonde girl made for sunshine and joy, had grown to love winter on Celetaris. No bad weather kept her from an early morning run in Fanshaw Park, even when her friends were away or too busy to join her. Every day she sprinted across the sports fields, through the half-light and icy fog.
One morning, when it was still dark and a frost sealed the windows shut, Yael leapt out of bed in her attic room of Student House on the eastern edge of the park. She quickly dressed in a short skirt and thin top (characteristically inappropriate attire for the climate), hopped down the stairs three at a time and stepped into the shoe jellies by the front door.
The shoes were a gift from Doctor Danielle Goldrick. Unlike the thin leather sandals that Yael brought from home, which she wore only when she could not go barefooted, the shoe jellies took on the shape and colour of a dozen different styles of footwear. With kicks to the heels, they moulded themselves to Yael's feet as comfortable white trainers with stylish pink flashes.
She checked the door was shut and jogged out of the yard along the cold dark misty street. Having taken to heart Danielle's lecture about the dangers of moving vehicles, Yael looked both ways before carefully crossing the silent road. She took off along the grass verge, making for the entrance gate to the park.
It was here that she, Hazel and Wildchild usually met Danielle and Cassie Leighton so they could run together. Annela also used to run, before she became too vastly pregnant to keep up.
Yael jogged on the spot for a minute in the hope that Danielle or Cassie might join her, but neither woman appeared. She turned toward the park and set off in earnest.
Blood pumping, feet crunching on the frosty ground, no time to feel cold, Yael leapt the gate and sprinted across the sports fields toward the dark wood, grey in misty shadow against a starless sky.
Fog clung to her thin legs and arms as she ran and became ice crystals in her hair. Her breath came out as steam. She leaned forward and ran faster, arms pumping, legs stretching.
It was warmer in the woods, shielded from the cold mist. Yael dodged between the trees, heading for the lake, did a half-circuit, and turned out of the woods for a downhill sprint to the Science Park, aiming for its two towers, bright silver streaks in the grey twilight. Skirting the children's play area, she took in the hill of the landscape garden, putting effort into its steeply twisting path. Not lingering for the view of the ocean (a sea of fog indistinguishable from the misty park) she turned her back on the towers and took the long straight valley past the medical centre toward Arts City.
Yael ran for an hour before it was time to jog home and start the day. She turned north, but seeing the lights of the residential area where Danielle and Roger lived, where Ezra and his bedmates shared an apartment, she had an idea.
Yael was an affectionate girl, like all the women of Samothea, only more so. If she did not hug and kiss her friends many times a day, she would mope and become a nuisance. She needed the company of someone who understood that the only thing missing from her life at the moment was someone to talk to about the things missing from her life. She knew where to seek that someone.
She jogged east along one of the main thoroughfares into suburban Arts City, where tall houses and shops lined the silent bitter streets.
Two blocks into the sleeping suburb was a terrace of four-storey grey-brick town houses, with basements, white sash windows and steps up to their front doors. The handsome double-fronted houses surrounded a small wooded garden with green iron railings. Built in imitation of a posh London square, most of the houses were given over to student accommodation.
Yael leapt up the steps to a blue front door and rapped at the knocker. She jogged on the spot to stay warm while she waited for an answer.
No one came to the door.
She jogged down the steps to look up to see if any lights were on. The house was silent and dark.
Yael leapt up the stairs again and rapped on the knocker. This time she put her mouth to the letter box, pushed open the flap and shouted:
"Hey! Open up! It's cold out here!"
She peered through the letter box in the hope of seeing some movement, but there was none.
Yael rapped once more. There was a noise from upstairs. It was a thump, as if someone had been rudely awakened from blissful sleep, reached for his watch and fallen out of bed.
She pushed her ear to the door and heard footsteps down the stairs and along the hallway. The door opened and there was Wildchild's boyfriend, Rod, half-awake, bleary-eyed and naked except for his boxers.
Yael rushed into the house like a whirlwind and leapt on him, hugging him as tightly as she could.
"Yael! You're freezing."
"You're warm."
"I was. ... 'Homebot'," Rod said, addressing the house computer, "give us some heat."
Ceramic heating tracks in the floor and walls began to radiate, almost instantly bringing the house to a comfortable temperature.
"It's kind of you to rescue me from a comfortable bed and a beautiful dream ..."
"Were you dreaming of Wildchild?"
"I always do."
"I thought so."
"... but it's barely seven o'clock, so tell me how I can help and let me go back to bed."
"Back to bed? The morning's half-gone. You should be up and doing."
"Did you come all this way to complain about my indolence?"
"No, I'm lonely."
"You can't possibly be lonely. You're the friendliest girl in the galaxy. You've been on Celetaris only a few months ..."
"Nearly ten months. It was spring when I arrived."
".. and you've made a hundred friends."
"But all my closest friends are away. Ryan has gone to a camp to study with his classmates. Wildchild and Hazel are with Tatiana on a prospecting mission for Viktor Bogdanov. Ezra's exhausted from trying to get Kalyndra and Ash pregnant. He's also looking after Ciashara, his new daughter with Solanj. He's keeping Annela happy in her last few weeks of pregnancy, and he's pursuing secret business schemes he won't tell me about, even when I sit on his lap and ask nicely.
"Annela's also spending time at the school, doing a hand-over to a new part-time teacher.
"Danielle, Rosa and Herman are preparing for the spring semester at the Institute, when there'll be a big new intake of students. Kelly's studying with her friends for her mock exams. Joan and Peter (they're Ryan and Kelly's mum and dad) are busy with work. So are Cassie and Paul. I guess that's why Cassie hasn't been running in the park for days."
"What about Roger?"
"He's gone to New Exeter for a meeting with Mayor Esther Grandley. They're hatching a plan to get Samothea admitted to the Anglosphere as a member of the Outworld League, like Celetaris, but there are problems because we have polygamy on Samothea, but also because Earth wants to send all its wastrels and ne'er-do-wells to the Outworld planets. The Outworld planets want only the best immigrants, so there's going to be a big argument. That's what I heard anyway."
"What about Freya and Tahnee?"
"Roger calls them the little pests, but they're not really pests. It's Danielle's fault. The girls always nag her to give them chores, but most things are self-cleaning, so she teases Roger by saying: 'Ask your uncle Roger, he'll find something for you to do.' So they go and pester him instead.
"Poor old Roger got his own back. When he went away, he left Freya and Tahnee a present. It's a robot snake that slithers along, flicking out its tongue and rattling its tail. They chase it around the apartment and when they catch its tail, it rears up and hisses at them. They scream and let go, so it slithers away and they repeat the whole adventure. It's driving Danielle potty, so another reason she's staying in her office is to upgrade her computer.
"I offered to help her but I don't know enough about programming yet and Danielle needs to concentrate, so I'd just be in the way."
Rod smiled to himself, thinking how convenient Danielle's 'upgrade' was.
