Four — Uranus
The loud, cacophonous wheeze recalling that of musical pipes being played badly, accompanied by piano strings being scraped and faulty plumbing burbling that emanated from the wall, told me that that Beau was having some difficulty transferring the Dildo to another site. His unintelligible ranting also suggested that things might have been going a little better for us.
"Mainenan wark, damn ye!" he cursed, fighting with the controls and pacing around the table looking like a constipated owl. "Ye glaikit baaay jobby!" he raved while his thin combover waved pathetically.
His head was a purple berry of rage. Where had my charming Beau, the girlish boy, the elfin sex doll gone? This avatar was repulsive! I wanted whoever had done this to him to pay dearly for this disgusting affront to my friend's beauty. His apparent enchantment had even proved impervious to an intense hour of incessant Ave Marias by Mary over his polished head, though why she had thought it necessary to pray to herself for intercession I could hardly guess. There were no chairs on board, so Mary and I sat on the floor with our backs to the heaving, fleshy wall. I had felt sea sick for hours, but my avatar had been reluctant to let me vomit. I hoped that Mary's constant prayers for our deliverance would soon be answered. We had all tried tapping ourselves out again. No dice. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever wake up from this seemingly endless dream.
The television had been displaying nothing but shifting, abstract blocks of color. There was a remote control with which Beau had failed to persuade the screen to show anything that made some kind of sense. The zapper skidded across the floor and hit my foot. Suddenly I voided my stomach after all, and saw, amongst the bile in my lap, a ball of the used condoms from the church.
I don't recall eating those, I mused.
I looked at the screen and saw that, occasionally the blocks would reconfigure themselves into vaguely discernable shapes: a greenish blue sphere in blackness, pale green clouds, a bubble with lights inside. Not much to make sense of, but each time such an image appeared the terrible noise around us and the sickening movement would cease momentarily. Those would then recommence as the images fractured once more.
Mary's eternally pristine complexion and calm demeanour gave me the only reason to keep my eyes open. With her legs curled under her and her hands folded in her lap I was amazed at her acceptance of this dire situation. She was so beautiful that, despite my grumbling guts, I had an erection just from looking at her. She smiled over at me, reached out and patted my leg. When I looked down, my pants were clean again.
Beau had lifted the phone in the centre of the table and was now yelling bursts of angry gibberish into it, such as, "Whitisgonnae oan?" and, "Gabtaeme, sameain!"
He slammed down the receiver and fought with the controls even more ferociously. I felt sure he would give his avatar a hernia if he maintained this level of rage for much longer.
Suddenly the noise stopped, there was a thump and the force of gravity decided to stop playing yo yo with my tummy. The television now bore a legend: Parking in Uranus costs $90 per user. I summoned my virtual keyboard and entered my account details into the site.
Beau lifted the receiver once more and bellowed, "Ahgart thes softwaur, ye divit!"
Mary stood and very kindly helped me up.
"Ego admiratio qua nos es?" she said brightly, skipping across the floor, her bare feet flashing under the long robes. "Permissum nos adepto sicco quod animadverto!" she exclaimed and opened the door.
We were confronted by a breathtaking panorama, totally unlike anything I had ever seen. The sky was filled with huge clouds of blue and green, sculpted into beautiful shapes of baroque complexity, sweeping across the sky, racing and tearing at each other, streaming shadows over further layers of ice and gas below. A distant sun, far smaller than the one I was used to, would occasionally flash through a gap in the aerial icebergs. In contrast the landscape at ground level was illuminated in pink and red.
Not more pink, I thought, but at least it wasn't throbbing.
Gossamery aerial contraptions buzzed through the clouds, some descending to settle on floating landing pads and on the tops of tall, slender buildings, others shooting off into the green with fiery tails streaming behind them. There were towers tall and thin, like tendrils or fine filaments, crystalline growths lacing the air high above and linking one building to another. They shone like emerald chandeliers in the light from the distant sun. The ground level was crawling with life of all imaginable kinds, and some unimaginable. Amongst the myriad variations of the humanoid form I saw feathery winged angels, bat winged devils, multi mouthed faces and multi breasted chests. I saw centipedes of the same size and garish hue as Chinese dragons, dragonflies bearing passengers aloft to the highest reaches of the skyscrapers, swarms of huge butterflies that flew over our heads, some mating in flight and displaying their pleasure in the luminescent glow of their rainbow striped wings.
Weaving a treacherous flight path between the insects I was a astonished to see naked trapeze artists, tumbling from swing to swing. They sang as they flew, duetting in baritone and soprano tones, narrowly missing the insects, linking legs or arms to spin together, then flying apart and catching their swings again with remarkable precision. With other acrobats providing a musical accompaniment on electronic drum pads built into their chests and genitals, the couple swung at each other, smacked together, linked their legs tightly and began screwing with frantic abandon. As their tender love duet reached its climax the juices from their lovemaking rained down upon the throng, though many seemed not to notice. Everyone streamed in and out of buildings, all apparently with an assignation of greater importance than the extraordinary sight just a few feet above their heads.
I saw a black, furry, eight legged creature I took to be a giant spider until I noticed its whiskers, pointed ears and oval pupils. She purred as she ambled past, enjoying the many strokes she received from passers by. I decided it wouldn't do to visit this site whilst in an illegal state of mind, but then remembered I was.
"Jesus," I said, before immediately apologising to Mary. "Did you make all of this, Beau?"
"Ochaye," he replied as we all stepped out onto the glowing pink sidewalk.
Still throbbing pinkly the Dildo had now found a place ideally suited to its environment. Phallic objects abounded, lining the street like bare trees. The doors of all the buildings were wide open to display the merry antics within. Smells with aphrodisiac qualities wafted in clouds from open windows, recalling the stimulating odour I had encountered in The Pink Cushion. I felt strongly aroused and wondered where I should start.
Something shrieked as it passed overhead and my mind flashed back briefly to a moment during our troubled journey here. Images of some growling machine sliding across of the floor of the Dildo and a long silver and black snake rearing before me made me jump with the suddenness of their intensity. I remembered the machine sliding over me, leaving my skin cut to shreds and the snake squirting me with its venom that had turned out to be nothing but water. To save my sanity I had dismissed these as mere hallucinations, but now they returned to fill me with unease. Mary squeezed my hand and I smiled back weakly. She kissed me and the restorative effect was enough to make me forget these visions for the moment.
There was a market opposite from where we stood and Mary seemed eager to investigate. She soon found one run by a make up artist who was offering makeovers at a fairly reasonable price. Beau very kindly offered to pay and so Mary spent a few minutes on a couch while the giant crayfish applied her art to Mary's face and nails. Beau and I spent a while wondering around while I tried and failed to get some sense out of him. When we looked over at Mary again her face was bathed in an angelic golden glow, her eyes appeared wider, her lips fuller, her nose more slender. It had been more than a mere makeover. She looked like she had undergone plastic surgery. With no bruising or plasters her face had been transformed instantly from beautiful to stunning. Her nails were long and each displayed animated picturesque views of beaches, mountains and tropical landscapes. She hugged Beau in thanks, painting his smooth head with several violet kisses. His avatar was incapable of concealing his embarrassment and his face shone a bright red. He was clearly pleased to have made her happy, even if he considered her to be nothing more than software.
He bashfully tried to disengage himself from her and said, "Ah haetaegang somewhaur."
It seemed he wanted to leave us for a while. At least, that was my assumption from such incoherent noises. Mary pulled him back, tugging his arm, imploring him to stay with us.