I Want Real

Posted on Sun 25th Aug, 2019 @ 11:48pm by Purulence Addams & Ignatius Collins

656 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Park, Deck 1554
Timeline: MD-4, 1400 hours

Ignatius Collins had begun to wonder if he was a stalker. He had never been one before meeting Purulence Addams, but now--?

Now, he wanted to be wherever she was.

It was driving him batty.

I barely know the woman, he thought as he lay stretched out on the lovely, real grass near a pond in a small park. Nearby, he could smell flowers, hear children playing, hear ducks quacking to each other in the pond. He couldn't get enough of feeling grass and leaves and dirt. Anything but antiseptic metal deck plating and a cramped starship interior.

I barely know the woman, so why can't I stop thinking about her? Why do I want to kiss her, for godsakes? This isn't right. I don't trust it. I've never been this crazy over a woman before. Well, okay, there was Lyssa Black, but that was high school. I'm an adult now, and this is too weird.

Someone lightly kicked his feet, and Ignatius' eyes snapped open. His eyes widened as he saw the object of his baffled thoughts standing over him, SketchPADD and stylus in one ebon hand.

"Do you not have quarters to go to?" Purulence Addams inquired. "This is the third day I've seen you sleeping in the park, Ignatius. What's going on?"

Even her voice made him want to smile. It was a rich, lovely contralto. So she'd been stalking him, too--for three days. There was a God.

No, Ignatius thought, No, there isn't.

"Hello, Purulence, I've just been soaking up what passes for sunlight here and squashing the grass." Ignatius sat up. "Care to join me?"

He saw her pause, for just a split second, and then she sank to the grass beside him. "Sure, why not?"

"Have you been eating?" she asked.

Would you worry if I said I hadn't been? he wondered. Aloud, he said, "I took a room at this little place called The Hangman's Noose. The lady who runs it serves the best English pub food I've ever tasted. I should take you there, sometime."

"Are you trying to flirt with me, Ignatius?"

"What if I am?"

A look of fear came into her eyes, and she scooted away from him slightly. "I'm not interested in a relationship--with anyone."

The fear was wrong--it gave him the crawls--and yet it was also right. "Not even friendship?" he asked before he could stop the words.

"You do not want friendship," she said. "Don't try to deny it; I know."

"If you know so much, then do you know why the hell I can't stop thinking about you?"

Purulence blinked. "My charm and good looks?"

"If only that were all it was," Ignatius told her. "I could ignore that. Charm is superficial, and good looks fade."

She sighed. "If it's any consolation to you, I keep thinking about you, too. And no, I don't know why. I don't want to think about you. I want you to just go away, so I can go back to living my life." She looked back at him. "Why does the thought of you going away make me feel gut-punched any time I think about it?"

You do--? Ignstius squelched the burst of inexplicable, wild joy that blossomed in him. "I have no idea, but I feel the same way when I think of leaving you."

Purulence scowled. "It's like we have these ready-made romantic feelings for no apparent reason. Which is another reason why I don't want anything to do with it."

"That makes two of us," Ignatius agreed. "This isn't real. I want real--with you."

Purulence stared at him, her eyes huge. She swallowed hard. "I want real, too. But I don't believe it's possible."

And then she lurched to her feet and took off running as fast as she could go.

 

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