ONE
LUCY
“Ijust can’t get over it—it’s so great tofinallyhave you on board the Monstrum Mother Ship, Lucy!” Iyanna said, giving Lucyanotherbig hug—the fifth or sixth since she’d arrived. “I’ve missed you so much! Aren’t you glad you came?”
“I missed you too—I’m glad I finally got a break in my classes so I could come,” Lucy said, hugging her back affectionately and blowing a strand of long blonde hair out of her eyes as she did so. “My course load has beencrazylately and Aunt Delilah has been after me to help her set up the shop for Halloween. But a promise is a promise, so here I am!”
“Oh, I’m so sorry I won’t be down there this year to see the shop,” Iyanna exclaimed. “Is she doing a theme this year?”
Lucy’s Aunt Delilah, who had raised her after her parents died in a house fire, was a practicing Wiccan. She owned a shop that specialized in rocks, gems, and “power crystals.” In fact, it was from her that Lucy had gotten her interest in Geology, which she now held a PhD in. Aunt Delilah had a good sense of humor and loved to play up her “witchy” side on Halloween. Lucy had promised that as soon as she got home from her visit with Iyanna, she would help her set things up.
“She’s got a big fake cauldron and she’s going to put some dry ice and some green lights in the bottom of it and brew up a ‘potion,’” she told Iyanna. “The kids who come Trick-or-treating are going toloveit. And of course we have to hang spider webs and put up a few skeletons and that kind of thing.”
“It sounds amazing.” Iyanna sighed. “I wish I could see it—please be sure to send me some pictures.”
“Well I can promise you it won’t behalfas amazing as the Monstrum Mother Ship. I mean, everything you’ve shown me so far just blows my mind!” Lucy told her.
Iyanna had been giving her the grand tour and she was delighted to finally be seeing her friend’s new home. The giant golden spaceship which orbited Mars was enormous and filled with fascinating alien life, from the vines and creepers and flowers that grew everywhere to the Monstrum warriors themselves.
Iyanna had been begging her to come for a visit formonthsnow. The two women had worked together as professors at USF for some time—Iyanna had a PhD in Botany and Lucy had one in Geology. Lucy had thought they were both pretty happy with their work. But that was before Iyanna had decided to go up to the Monstrum Mother Ship for a “research trip.” There she had found the Monstrum warrior of her dreams and had gotten married almost at once. And now she wasextremelypregnant.
Lucy couldn’t help being a little envious of her friend. Iyanna was younger than her but she had already found her ideal life. She looked perfectly content—which was something Lucy couldn’t claim for herself. In fact, Iyanna looked so happy she was practicallyglowing,like one of the bioluminescent plants here on the Dark Side of the Monstrum ship.
“I have to show you the Dark Side while it’s all in bloom,” Iyanna had said, after taking Lucy all around the first half of the ship. “It’s so gorgeous right now—reminds me of the electric light parade in Downtown Disney when I was a little girl. All those glowing neon colors in the dark—you’re going to love it!”
Now that they were here on the Dark Side of the Monstrum Ship, Lucy had to admit itwasgorgeous. She loved the way this side of the ship looked less like a spaceship and more like a jungle complete with enormous trees, vines and broad-leafed ferns—there was even a river running through the center of it! Iyanna had explained that the river ran through the entire ship, though it was “underground” so to speak, on the Light Side of the Monstrum Ship.
“This is so beautiful,” Lucy said, looking around the vast dark jungle filled with glowing blooms. “How in the world did the Monstrum build all this?”
“Oh, the Monstrum Mother Ship is a living organism,” Iyanna explained seriously. “It’s not like the other Kindred Mother Ship—the one that orbits the Moon.Thatone was built, butthisship wasn’t manufactured so much asgrown. The Monstrum consider it—her—to be their mother in a way, and they take excellent care of her. Oh be careful! Don’t slip!”
She reached out to steady Lucy, who had been leaning out a little too far to look at some rock formations on the banks of the dark, swiftly rushing river.
“Oops!” Lucy laughed as she grabbed her friend’s hand to steady herself. “Clumsy me! You know how I am.”
“Oh, I know,” Iyanna grinned at her. “Remember that time we did the ‘Yoga with Goats’ class?”
“Don’t remind me!” Lucy groaned, but she couldn’t help grinning along with her friend. She had never been the most graceful creature—she got preoccupied thinking of something else and walked into walls or stubbed her toes on furniture, but sometimes her clumsiness got her into more trouble than others.
The idea of the “Yoga with Goats” class, which was conducted on an exclusive goat farm on the outskirts of South Tampa, was for the participants to do yoga poses while a bunch of baby goats frolicked around them at the same time. It was supposed to be both relaxing and amusing because sometimes the goats would hop on your back while you were on your hands and knees doing tabletop or butt at you, asking to be petted, while you were doing some other, more complicated pose.
Unfortunately, this premise had gone terribly wrong when Lucy and Iyanna had attended the class. They had spread their yoga mats on the lovely green grass along with about twenty other students—most of them thin, rich, South Tampa women who had nothing to do but take exercise classes and attend charity events all day. Iyanna and Lucy hadn’t really fit in with this group since they were both curvy girls, but they didn’t care. They started following the teacher along with the rest of the class, but halfway through, disaster struck.
“I was justtryingto do a side-plank,” Lucy said now, as Iyanna started giggling at the memory. “How didIknow one of those goats was right behind me?”
“Well the wholeclassknew once you fell over on the poor little guy!” Iyanna pointed out. “And he started bleating soloud!”
“I didn’tmeanto squish him!” Lucy said, trying not to laugh.
“I know but youdid!And when I looked over, there he was with his little hooves waving in the air, trying to get out from under you and bleating likecrazy!”Iyanna was laughing so hard she was nearly crying now.
“I know but he wasfine!You know once I finally rolled off him he hopped right up and trotted away,” Lucy exclaimed, but she was laughing just as hard as her friend. “And all those snooty South Tampa women were looking at me like I tried tomurderhim!”
“Well, I mean, he was…was screaming and bleating so loud you’d think you were!” Iyanna snorted and swiped at her eyes. “Oh my God—I haven’t thought of that inages.See—that’s why I miss you, Lucy. Things are never dull when you’re around.”
Lucy grinned and squeezed her friend’s hand.
“Wedidhave a lot of fun together. I miss you too.”