PSoML Part 9
Part 8 is here.
It was still fairly early, so after cleaning up the breakfast things Ronnie and Lucy went outside to sit on a hardwood seat in the early morning sun and wait for signs of activity from the other houses. Still before nine, the day was showing every sign of being a scorcher. Ronnie sighed his contentment.
Lucy plonked herself down next to him and gave a sideways look.
"I don't know why, but I feel an urge to confess something," she said with a smile.
"Confess what?"
"Just an embarrassing little thing. Nothing like... I mean, there have been occasions... What I'm trying to say, some of what I went through with this business of you cutting me off -- shhh, wait, let me finish -- some of that wasn't funny, you know. But in the years after I sort of got over it, I've had this recurring -- fantasy is what I guess you'd call it, a recurring thing."
"And it's embarrassing?"
"Yeah, because. I don't know, the kind of thing you think about when your head hits the pillow and you close your eyes at night, the kind of thing that sends you into a contented sleep, a made-up dream before your real dreams begin."
"I know what you mean," Ronnie said. "When you fantasise about the waitress in the coffee shop instead of your gorgeous and successful country singer spouse. Or is that just me?"
"That kind of thing, yeah," laughed Lucy.
"Go on then," said Ronnie. "Confess it all."
Lucy turned to face forwards and smiled to herself. "A funny thing, as I said, but I used to fantasise -- and this is a bit odd -- but I used to fantasise that aliens came to earth and kidnapped me. They wanted me and some others to set up camp, or colonise, this other planet. Doing it in a benign way, something I never really specified to myself, but it was along the lines of being concerned that earth was the only planet we had and that we should have others, in case of a disaster. That kind of thing."
She paused.
"Do you read a lot of science fiction?" asked Ronnie.
"Not proper science fiction, no, more kind of fantasy things, dragons and elves, that kind of thing." She laughed at herself.
"Yeah I read some of that stuff, too," said Ronnie, feeling he had to make her more comfortable with it. "No need to be embarrassed. I mean, millions of people do. I mainly read more space opera kind of things, but I like the odd fantasy for a change of pace."
"Well," said Lucy. "I suppose I was influenced by the beginning of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That kind of, out of the blue, oops, you must leave Earth immediately kind of thing. So. They pull me up into their ship, and they communicate with me without showing themselves, because they don't want me to be shocked by their appearance. They explain what they're doing, and I think, what the hell, I had nothing on that weekend anyway.
"Then they say to me, we're planning on taking about two hundred people. Sometimes it was more. I was never sure what a viable population would be. Sometimes it was more like two thousand. Anyway. Then they say, we don't want you to be lonely, so you can take someone with you. Sometimes it was more than one person. But mostly just one. And they said, just give us the name, or just think about whoever it is you want to take, and we'll go and get them. And it was always you.
"I never had this fantasy about anyone else. With other people I invented different ones, you know, so this one was special to you. I don't know what it says about what I think of you that it always had to be this preposterously unrealistic plot about aliens and being kidnapped, but there you go.
"So anyway, either I spoke your name, or I thought about you. Sometimes I thought about you accidentally, and it was all, oops, I didn't realise I still cared about you. Sometimes they just went and got you without even consulting me. They just read you in my mind; or they read each of us in each other's mind. Then we're on the ship. Usually they have to freeze us, like in Alien, so that we can travel the vast distance without going mad or getting old. And sometimes you'd wake up and be sitting there in the kind of rest room, on your own, with absolutely no idea why or how you got there.
"Sometimes I have to calm you down, to talk you through what's happening. Other times you're just relieved to see me. We get woken up as we enter the system of the planet they've picked out for us. There's some orientation. Sometimes, they've trained us in our sleep, with kind of hypnosis tapes, so we all have skills we didn't have before. Other times they're just throwing us in at the deep end, so they can see how we cope. Usually you come through when they do that. You turn out to be very practical and resourceful. You're a carpenter or something, you can help build cabins and furniture; I'm a healer, or a doctor. I'm like the one everyone comes to when they've picked up a rash from an alien plant or eaten something they shouldn't, or picked up a virus.
"You build us a cabin, and we move in together. Gravity is slightly less than Earth's, so we all feel lighter, and we're able to build flying machines that you can pedal to get off the ground and stuff like that. Anyway, I don't often get that far. I usually fall asleep about the time we meet up for the first time. I spend a long time getting there and then we're face to face, and about to tell each other how much we love each other, and then I'm asleep and having nightmares about not being able to stop my car."
Part 9: fantasy planet
It was still fairly early, so after cleaning up the breakfast things Ronnie and Lucy went outside to sit on a hardwood seat in the early morning sun and wait for signs of activity from the other houses. Still before nine, the day was showing every sign of being a scorcher. Ronnie sighed his contentment.
Lucy plonked herself down next to him and gave a sideways look.
"I don't know why, but I feel an urge to confess something," she said with a smile.
"Confess what?"
"Just an embarrassing little thing. Nothing like... I mean, there have been occasions... What I'm trying to say, some of what I went through with this business of you cutting me off -- shhh, wait, let me finish -- some of that wasn't funny, you know. But in the years after I sort of got over it, I've had this recurring -- fantasy is what I guess you'd call it, a recurring thing."
"And it's embarrassing?"
"Yeah, because. I don't know, the kind of thing you think about when your head hits the pillow and you close your eyes at night, the kind of thing that sends you into a contented sleep, a made-up dream before your real dreams begin."
"I know what you mean," Ronnie said. "When you fantasise about the waitress in the coffee shop instead of your gorgeous and successful country singer spouse. Or is that just me?"
"That kind of thing, yeah," laughed Lucy.
"Go on then," said Ronnie. "Confess it all."
Lucy turned to face forwards and smiled to herself. "A funny thing, as I said, but I used to fantasise -- and this is a bit odd -- but I used to fantasise that aliens came to earth and kidnapped me. They wanted me and some others to set up camp, or colonise, this other planet. Doing it in a benign way, something I never really specified to myself, but it was along the lines of being concerned that earth was the only planet we had and that we should have others, in case of a disaster. That kind of thing."
She paused.
"Do you read a lot of science fiction?" asked Ronnie.
"Not proper science fiction, no, more kind of fantasy things, dragons and elves, that kind of thing." She laughed at herself.
"Yeah I read some of that stuff, too," said Ronnie, feeling he had to make her more comfortable with it. "No need to be embarrassed. I mean, millions of people do. I mainly read more space opera kind of things, but I like the odd fantasy for a change of pace."
"Well," said Lucy. "I suppose I was influenced by the beginning of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That kind of, out of the blue, oops, you must leave Earth immediately kind of thing. So. They pull me up into their ship, and they communicate with me without showing themselves, because they don't want me to be shocked by their appearance. They explain what they're doing, and I think, what the hell, I had nothing on that weekend anyway.
"Then they say to me, we're planning on taking about two hundred people. Sometimes it was more. I was never sure what a viable population would be. Sometimes it was more like two thousand. Anyway. Then they say, we don't want you to be lonely, so you can take someone with you. Sometimes it was more than one person. But mostly just one. And they said, just give us the name, or just think about whoever it is you want to take, and we'll go and get them. And it was always you.
"I never had this fantasy about anyone else. With other people I invented different ones, you know, so this one was special to you. I don't know what it says about what I think of you that it always had to be this preposterously unrealistic plot about aliens and being kidnapped, but there you go.
"So anyway, either I spoke your name, or I thought about you. Sometimes I thought about you accidentally, and it was all, oops, I didn't realise I still cared about you. Sometimes they just went and got you without even consulting me. They just read you in my mind; or they read each of us in each other's mind. Then we're on the ship. Usually they have to freeze us, like in Alien, so that we can travel the vast distance without going mad or getting old. And sometimes you'd wake up and be sitting there in the kind of rest room, on your own, with absolutely no idea why or how you got there.
"Sometimes I have to calm you down, to talk you through what's happening. Other times you're just relieved to see me. We get woken up as we enter the system of the planet they've picked out for us. There's some orientation. Sometimes, they've trained us in our sleep, with kind of hypnosis tapes, so we all have skills we didn't have before. Other times they're just throwing us in at the deep end, so they can see how we cope. Usually you come through when they do that. You turn out to be very practical and resourceful. You're a carpenter or something, you can help build cabins and furniture; I'm a healer, or a doctor. I'm like the one everyone comes to when they've picked up a rash from an alien plant or eaten something they shouldn't, or picked up a virus.
"You build us a cabin, and we move in together. Gravity is slightly less than Earth's, so we all feel lighter, and we're able to build flying machines that you can pedal to get off the ground and stuff like that. Anyway, I don't often get that far. I usually fall asleep about the time we meet up for the first time. I spend a long time getting there and then we're face to face, and about to tell each other how much we love each other, and then I'm asleep and having nightmares about not being able to stop my car."
posted by Anonymous at
Friday, April 23, 2004
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