A Fire on the Beach

in #writing • 2 years ago

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A story about an Earthling in alien world. If you're just tuning in, consider starting with part 1

Part 37

In keeping with Motherling tradition, Archie vacationed whenever he felt like it without notifying anyone. Today, instead of carrying out a scheduled emissary mission, he had taken a train to the shores of the Love River to play hacky sack and eat dewnuts with Benko and Jili. Sitting there on a blanket, the trio saw a fleet of airplanes fly overhead. This was unexpected, but it should not have been. The Brockton device had made energy costs trivial, overcoming an entrenched cultural reluctance to waste energy on powered flight.

The river was warm and luminous green. A pod of finned aquatic mammals frolicked out in the deep water, playing with any swimmer that ventured too close. Playfins, they were called. Archie played with the playfins for an hour, then returned to the beach exhausted.

Drinking coffee from a thermos, Archie reflected on his circumstances. A car soon pulled off the nearby road and parked. The figure that got out and approached looked familiar.

"Kippy?" said Archie. "The information broker?"

"Good, you recognize me," said Kippy. "I was observing you and saw you come here, close to where I was."

"Okay," said Archie.

"I had to drive over and say something," said Kippy. "I think you should include more bis in the Earthlings you bring over."

"You must know it doesn't work like that," said Benko. "The candidate selection process is fully democratized. You can submit your favored candidates based on any criteria you choose."

"But bis candidates are failing to attract sufficient support," said Kippy. "They typically receive fewer than half as many votes as their non-bis counterparts."

"Kippy is right that it looks bad," said Jili. "The program worldwide has brought hundreds of Earthlings over, and only one that I know of is bis. The Ben Bradley. Ben affirmed bis status after arriving and being made aware of the existence of our third gender."

"Seriously?" said Archie. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"You can present an argument for selecting more bis candidates to the entire network," said Kippy. "I suggest you stick to the fact that four percent of Motherlings are bis so four percent of Earthling immigrants should also be bis."

"Okay," said Archie. "But you might be more persuasive than me. What if you make the argument and I send it to the network."

"Acceptable," said Kippy. "I'll present my argument and send you the coordinates."

As Kippy drove away, Archie grinned. "Think about being a Chicago cop who stumbles through a door to this world and decides to stay," he said. "As emissaries, that's what we're selling. That profound enticement."

"Was that a suggestion of some sort?" asked Benko.

"I don't know," said Archie. "But maybe we need to do less selling and more getting out of the way."

"We're out of the way here," said Jili. "Should we play more hacky sack?"

They played more hacky sack and mated and swam until dark. Then they lit a fire on the beach, which attracted a stringed instrument player named Dongo. The music attracted a pair of passing hikers. Kippy returned with a drum and stayed for two hours. As the night wore on and the party grew tired, they fell asleep on the beach, next to the fire.

Archie woke to find the fire unsuitable for making coffee, so he made some in his rinsed-out thermos, using a boiling rod to head the water and adding grounds directly to the insulated bottle at the appropriate time. The result was gritty but passable, though both Benko and Jili complained about the grounds.

They were just beginning to discuss where to go next on their adventure when Archie got a call from Arnen.

"Archie," said Arnen. "We have a problem. A big one."

"Oh?" said Archie.

"An Earthling immigrant named Jack Tendermint is trying to ruin me," said Arnen. "Ruin me!"

"How?" asked Archie. "What exactly did he do?"

"He's teamed up with Nanana to sell coffee drinks along with her bam shakes," said Arnen. "They're mixing coffee and bam together! Bam lattes, they're calling them!"

"I can see how you might find that upsetting," said Archie. "But aren't they free to do whatever they want?"

"Not if it infringes on prior agreements," said Arnen. "You're affiliated with both me and Nanana. It's your responsibility to ensure that neither of us harms the other. These bam lattes harm my business. I'm the coffee seller in Now Oro!"

Archie looked at Benko, who was sitting right there, and made a gesture of confusion.

"Perhaps a visit is in order," said Benko, loud enough for Arnen to hear.

"Yes, a visit, right away," said Arnen. "They didn't even talk to me before offering a competing product!"

"Fine," said Archie. "I'll come back to New Oro. But I think you're making this a bigger deal than it needs to be."

The three of them took a train back to the city and proceeded directly to the Moss Couches. The place was more crowded than usual, and they had to wait twenty minutes for their usual moss couch to become available. "Entertainer Archie, the usual?" asked Nanana when she caught sight of their party. "Or would you like to try one of our new bam lattes? Jack can make you one with only basic ingredients, as you prefer."

"We'll all try one!" said Jili, who was happy to have found herself in such a popular spot.

"Also, I'd like to talk with both you and Jack when you have a minute," said Archie.

The drinks they were served tasted like regular bam shakes to which burned coffee had been added. They weren't bad, but neither were they very good. Eventually, Nanana and Jack joined them. "You're the emissaries," said Jack. "I can't thank you enough for bringing me to this world. This utopia."

"For sure," said Archie. "Glad to see it's working out. But this isn't just a social call. Shopkeeper Arnen is offended that you're now competing with him be offering coffee drinks."

"I knew it," said Nanana. "Well, we're not competing. He has coffee without bam. We have coffee with bam. They're totally different products. He's just upset that his Earth oddities are becoming less valuable now that Earthlings are immigrating."

(Feature image from Pixabay)

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