Flying a Desk

Posted on Sat 11th Aug, 2018 @ 5:03pm by

636 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Oblivion
Location: Pale Moon Books, Riverwalk Village
Timeline: MD 13, 1930

The bell above the door tinkled, and Aiko looked up from the latest issue of the Manga periodical Biscuit in time to see her friend Yucholl glide in. "Hey," the Human girl greeted.

"Hay is for horses," the Lamian girl retorted. "And apes like... no, that doesn't work, does it? What do apes eat?"

"Bamboo shoots?" Aiko hazarded. She shrugged. "What're you doing here? Not going to the big shindig?"

"No more than you," Yucholl confirmed. She glided to the front of the counter and raised her torso higher so she could see over. "I have come to see this creature you call 'dog.'" She studied Shaggy for a moment, taking in the mound of gray, featureless fur. Letting her torso sag onto the counter, she shook her head and sang, "Yesterday... all my tribbles seemed so far away!"

Shaggy looked up and his tail thumped once.

"Oh, look at that!" Yucholl teased, "you aren't a single mass of fur!"

Aiko smirked, and turned the page in her magazine. "I kind of wanted to go," she admitted.

Yucholl pulled herself off the counter and considered her friend. "You'd look good in a cheongsam. Tight across the chest, with a slit cut up to here..." she indicated a spot on her own hip, indecently high.

"Dream on," Aiko said dryly. "Besides, I'm Japanese, not Chinese."

"What's the difference?" Yucholl's tone was flippant, and Aiko knew she meant no offense. From dozens of lightyears away, the East China Sea looked mighty slender to alien eyes. "Anyway, you should show off your legs!"

"You only say that because you don't have any," Aiko responded, sticking her tongue out in a manner which proved her maturity and sophistication. "What's sexy among your people?"

Yucholl shrugged. "Filigree and crystals, the shinier the better."

Aiko nodded, remembering the glittering red corundum necklace her friend had received as a present on her last molting day. "Conspicuous display of wealth does seem to be a constant," she observed dryly.

"Of course it is. Wealth demonstrates ability to provide for young, which in turn engenders a desire to create young." Yucholl slumped back a little on her serpentine tail and shook her torso side to side while holding out her arms. "Mix genes with me, ooh-la-la!"

The two girls laughed, and Shaggy thumped his tail again. The dog yawned and stood, his head high enough now to look over the counter. He regarded Yucholl for a moment, then Aiko, then Yucholl again, and finally walked around the counter, passing by the Lamian on his way to the front door. He stood on his hind legs, and nosed the bell over the door, making it ring.

Aiko looked at the clock on the end of one of the bookcases. "It's a little early, but no one's been in for a while, and with the shindig going on over at the casino...." She reached under the counter and grabbed a leash. "Alright, Shaggy! Walkies!"

The enormous hound dropped his feet to the floor again, and his tail wagged. He made a happy sound that wasn't quite a bark.

"Are you sure he's the same species as the thing the Andorian dude had?" Yucholl asked.

"Same species," Aiko confirmed, turning off the open sign and coming around the counter. "Not the same breed. Near as we can figure out, Shaggy's got some English sheep dog, some Tibetan mastiff, some Chesapeake retriever, some Irish wolfhound... he's a pure-bred Interstellar Mutt, and we love him." she leaned over, hugging the dog around the shoulders, then attached the leash to his harness. "Madam," she bowed to Yucholl. "Would you care to take a stroll under the cherry trees with the gentleman and myself?"

"Why, Ms MacBeth," Yucholl answered, batting her eyelashes, "I thought you'd never ask!"

 

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