"No, not at all, officer, it's just that...."
"Tina, Danny, can we go please? Sorry to put it like that but I'll have
to do it in this stupid costume if we don't go home now!"
The officer realized that Stefi had a point. Even if I do remove that costume, she'll have to pee behind a bush... bah, of all the ways I've seen to dodge a ticket, this sure wins the originality prize.
"Okay... will you stop waving now?"
Stefi leaned back on the car seat and closed the doorglass. Tina sighed. What
a day... and it wasn't even eleven o' clock.
"So, how did you know the guy's name?"
"Uh... why?"
"You called him Danny and he didn't say a thing, do you know his counterpart
or something?"
"Well, yeah, I knew him from the other reality... except that he's a clerk
at a book store there. Hey, how long will it take to get to your place?"
"We're almost there, don't worry."
"Clean! You know, this coat's really nasty." Stefi was rubbing her wings between her back and the car seat, probably trying to scratch her back. This remembered Tina of the main problem -- documents could be faked, a plausible story made up, but how could they possibly conceal her wings? Cutting them off was not an option. Perhaps it was possible to find Stefi an isolated place, maybe at a farm, where she would be out of the media's attention?
"This is your place? Clean."
"We say 'cool' or 'neat' here, Stefi" Tina replied after having let her in.
Before she could say another word, the winged girl got rid of the heavy coat
and locked herself in the bathroom. "You know, I really had to go after all!"
"Sure thing, take your time. I'll fix some lunch."
Stefi ran the flush three or four times, expecting the lever to be part of a manual pump, and laughed. All automatic... What a place! Is everybody rich here? The landscape out of the window resembled that which she was used to, except that two of the five houses she could see had fixed radar dishes in the backyard. Was it a consequence of what Mr. Garrison called the "cold war paranoia"?
Sat Apr 1 03:50:33 2000