The Sea of Stars
Part 4
“Cooooffffeeeee,” Deedee called out, opening the cupboards again. “Coooofffffeeeeee.”
Emmet is sitting at a table, swirling gin. The ice made nice clinking against the glass. Deedee stuck her body halfway into the cupboard. “Coffee?” She asked. Emmet took a drink.
“Did you really lose several pounds of coffee?”
“It’s gone! It’s all gone!” Deedee shouts. “My coffee!” She tried to slow her breathing, but failed to follow what her mother had taught her.
“I would try something to keep your mind distracted, I have some really good books I can recommend.” He narrowed his eyes. “Do you like romance?”
“Not interested, I just need coffee.”
“Romance books, I mean. If you want fantasy, I would read The Lord of the Rings. We have all four books on the shelf.” Emmet’s eyes sparkled. “I took the liberty of organizing them by the Dewey Decimal classification.”
“Cooooofffffeeeeee.” Deedee looked behind the small fridge. Emmet slowly moved his head away from her, looking at the door. Baby walked in, his hands gently placed in front of him. “Baby! Have you seen my beans?”
“Nope. But I think the capin’ might have some.”
Deedee clutched her hair. “Of course! OF COURSE! Of course, of course, of course!”
“Uh…. Have you seen my clothes? I’m missin’ a lot of my shirts.”
“I’m also missing a large chunk of my clothes.” Emmet takes another swig. “I can only assume that Maegan is doing laundry.”
Baby nods. Deedee tries to squeeze herself between the fridge and the counter.
“Deedee….” Emmet sighs.
April walked in. Her hair is curled again, causing all eyes to be on her.
“April, you look really pretty.” Baby smiles at her.
April struck Baby, her fist landing right on his jaw. Baby tackled her, pinning her to the floor.
Fists, feet, teeth, and heads flashed. Deedee and Emmet run over. She grabs a now bloody April. “April! What the hell?”
“He’s the weird one!” She points at Baby. “He called me pretty!”
“Isn’t that what I’m suppose’t to say?” Baby wiped his mouth, and some blood was smeared on his yellow gloves.
Deedee covers April’s mouth. “No, no! Let’s get you bandaged up.” She starts to drag April to the infirmary. April stood up and followed Deedee.
Deedee sat April down and grabbed the med kit. With shaking hands, Deedee pulled out some rubbing alcohol. She took a washcloth and started to clean up April. “Why did you punch him?”
“Why did he call me pretty?” April snapped back. “Why would a white guy….”
“He says that to everyone.” Deedee started to dab rubbing alcohol on the few cuts on April’s face.
“Was I pretty?” April asked.
“I would say so, but you didn’t have to punch him.”
“…. No one’s evea called me pretty before.” She muttered. Deedee bandaged April up and started chewing her gloves.
“Toaster. You have a toaster to fix. You should fix the toaster.”
“I already fixed the toaster.” April gets up. “The laundry machine is calling me.”
The two walked out. Deedee’s leg started to mock her again, the rubber on her tongue didn’t help with her tight chest. Maegan walked up to Deedee.
“Coffee?” Deedee twirled her hair around her finger.
“No, I don’t have Coffee, but I want to show you something.” Maegan walked Deedee toward the escape hatch. “The password is 4201, okay?”
“We’re all going to die. We’re all going to die!” Deedee ripped a hole through her white gloves.
“It’s just a precaution.”
“Die…. We’re all going to die.” Deedee stumbled her way to the bedroom. She found her bed and sat on it, her foot tapping out of her control. Another hole is ripped into her glove. She took them off and just started to pull on them.
Deep breaths. Her mind attempted. Deep breaths.
“Deedee?” She looked over to see Baby with a mug in his hands. He sits down next to her, handing her a blue cup of coffee. “I got some of the capin’s coffee. I also heard your favorite color is blue.”
Deedee took it with a shaky hand, her body struggling to stay steady. She took a sip and tried to keep her breathing level. Baby wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in a little.
They sat in silence, letting Deedee drink her coffee.
“I… grew up in Texas.” He says.
Deedee looks up at him. Baby is looking at her, smiling. She looked away, her face a little red. “I’m from North Dakota.”
“I’ve never been up there.”
“It gets really cold. It’s really lovely in the summer.” Deedee grabbed Baby’s hand on her shoulder, gently squeezing it. “I lived there my whole life, until I moved to space.”
She was there on earth again. The sun is shining through her window, kids are laughing outside, and the house smells like cleaning solution. Deedee was on her hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. Her hands are raw, threatening to bleed. The little girl looked outside, children her age were playing in the grass. She moved over to the kitchen and looked for dishes to clean.
“I… live in Texas my whole life, I think.” Baby says. “I like space, it’s pretty up here.”
“It definitely is. Thanks, Baby.”
He nods. Deedee finished off her coffee. “Is there more?”
“I think so.”
“I’ll see you later.” She sprinted off.
Deedee ran face-first into Emmet. “Sorry, sorry! I heard about-“
Emmet grabbed her shoulders. “There are Soviets in the Astrocitizen program. They know where we are.”
Deedee’s mug shattered on the ground.
