Game of Two Halves, Chapter Three

Once Mini-Flash Juniper had explained the situation as best she could to Flashsatsumas, the empty space alongside “TEASER” made sense, insofar as anything did.

“So what are we going to do?” seemed to him the question.

Mini-Flash Juniper thought hard.

“It’s not as if we can take my ten pence back out of the machine,” she declared at length. “It just doesn’t work that way, Flashsatsumas. We’ll have to try and stop her by other means.”

In the afternoon, Juniper and Flashsatsumas chose one of the outdoor tables by the roller-skating rink and sat down facing each other.

“This part of the camp seems much safer to me from here!” Flashsatsumas exclaimed.

Mini-Flash Juniper smiled kindly back. “I thought I’d make it even more fun for you, after the hard time you had this morning,” said she.

In Special Program fashion she produced from nowhere in particular two objects, each the size and shape of a large egg. One of these she handed to Flashsatsumas. Both were wrapped in shiny white and orange foil, which crinkled excitingly under the fingertips.

“They’re safe,” she promised in addition. “They don’t come from the creatures.”

Juniper began to unravel hers. Flashsatsumas, following her lead, presently saw and smelled a delicious smooth brown surface underneath the foil.

“More like Mini-Flash Pseudangelos,” he agreed.

“Good for the memory,” Juniper sang, and popped a piece of hers in her mouth.

The chocolate was soft from the hot day and pulled apart easily into two equal halves. When Flashsatsumas accomplished this operation, a second smaller egg dropped out from inside and bounced smartly atop the table before rolling to a stop. This one was bright yellow in colour and didn’t look edible.

“Wow!” Flashsatsumas breathed. “Do you have one too?”

Juniper did. “If you can believe it, the chocolate isn’t even the point of these things,” she told him, and her voice was likewise hushed.

“I might start to get along with this planet after all,” declared Flashsatsumas.

They finished off the sweet preliminaries then made a start in earnest. Mini-Flash Juniper had to help Flashsatsumas a little, as she was familiar with how it was done, but before long both pairs of hands were very busy indeed. The harder they worked, the more their gratification grew, and at length Mini-Flash Juniper affirmed she couldn’t think of any more enjoyable way for a girl and boy to spend time together.

It didn’t even matter that neither was completely sure what the little plastic bits from out of Flashsatsumas’s inner egg had clicked together to become. Juniper asserted it must be an Earth-vehicle of some sort, so they pushed it around the table with their index fingers while making such engine-noises as would have been expected in their galaxy.

“Are you going to open yours now, Juniper?” Flashsatsumas asked.

For the other yellow capsule had lain untouched all the while he and she were puzzling over the contents of his. Now Mini-Flash Juniper picked it up.

“Maybe later,” came back her reply. “I always like to have a little time first to imagine what it’s going to be. In fact, I’ll probably leave it overnight.”

Flashsatsumas nodded, as though this were the first rational thing he’d heard all day.

“That’s some willpower though,” he added. “I’m not sure I’d be up to it!”

“Don’t you know what the Earthlings sometimes say, Flashsatsumas?” inquired Mini-Flash Juniper with a twinkle in her eye. “The longer you wait, the nicer it is.”

And holding the pod between thumb and forefinger she shook it lightly in front of him, so that it gave out a secretive little castanet rattle.

Had the love-tester machine been there, it might have had something say about that.

Or rather, it might have said again what it had already said about Mini-Flash Juniper. She however would have been justified in repeating her prior retort.

For she was teasing someone, certainly.

Only it wasn’t the boy before her.

Everything since they took their seats had been for the benefit of the greedy eyes and ears which Juniper and Flashsatsumas knew were trained on them from some or other hiding-place.

END OF CHAPTER THREE