Dance

And it’s done. Sometimes the longshot pays off, though it didn’t happen the way I expected. Smoky Shul’s claiming since it wasn’t Barley’s plan did it, then he’s not out anything. See how long he holds onto that line of reasoning when the bar dries up. This is Ontaria Chang with the last entry from Barlenon  and Tuck, for the time being. But like I said back when we started this report with the Cozy, it won’t be the end. We’ll start up again after the trans-lunar and when the two of them pick their next destination. Tune in then.

So my plan didn’t work. Still a good one. I just didn’t figure on their reaction. Turns out their fear embraces us.

After listening, they were set on taking me and The Tuckster away. Simple answer I suppose.

I’m sort of happy that I was wrong though, because it meant Tuck got to improvise her fix and I got to see her dance. Want a definition of beauty? Just replay that scene.

Barley’s plan didn’t work. But as he laid it out, I saw the sense of it. Tourists are scared of damn near everything. Hell, they ran from us even after we ran through the forest. So Barley in all of his photos has been making a case that people still live on earth. Claims that they’re hiding from everyone but using graffiti to send messages. Maybe he even believes it.

But let me walk you through the scene. Me and Barley, we’re sitting at the Cafe. No point in running. Tourists are on their way and so me and the trouble are just taking about whatever we’re talking about. Lots of what was once upon a time, but not the maudlin once wases, more a just-the-facts  thing.

With some feelings sneaking in.

And then The Tourist comes in. Slow. Careful. Watching us but watching all around in case we let in any of The Affecteds I suppose. Not a real Tourist, of course. Two of their robot men. You’d think they wouldn’t worry so much about them, but probably in their DNA. They worry. Everything they build should worry too.

Barley’s plan. Telling them about humans hidden on earth? Kind of came out of the deep mines, you ask me. I don’t know. I didn’t see much proof of it but he said just go back and look at the pictures. You’ll see lights where there shouldn’t be lights and you’ll see signs in the graffiti and sidewalk etchings. I don’t buy. Sure I could see the lights he showed, but could just as easy be sun on broken window. Or glints moving in the distance or something else that we haven’t seen yet, but that don’t make it honest-to people.

Didn’t quite hit the right mark anyway, because all it did was say to The Tourists that there is one more thing to be scared of about life on earth. Besides all of The Affecteds we know, maybe there are people here and maybe they’re plotting and that’s when it struck me. They’re scared, but they’re meeting us. The Tourists don’t want fear. They want knowledge. They know us. We’re safe for them. Safe enough anyway to send a couple robot policemen. The way is not to give them more fear. The way to them is not through showing them scary, but through showing them that some of those things, well, maybe they aren’t so scary after all. Just have to learn about them

That’s when I stood up. That’s when I danced.

I went out into the street, brushing past their robot. I took a spot near the edge of a building, where broken glass caught the light just so. I pictured them at the lake and I pictured them among the mournful trees and then I stepped. One step. Confident. Another. Forward, turn, twist. Run, darting right, leap, bounce back. Step.

Dance.

Dancing the dance of the glints. I lost myself in it, motion and light. I didn’t even notice when the first one came out, or when the second joined. But I knew they would. Not knew knew, just knew . . . do you understand that?

Barley says it was beautiful.

I can’t say about the look of it, but the feel, that was beauty. And when I noticed them I smiled and their smiles back moved through me and moved into me and I gave way and pushed just so and when it ended all I did was turn to Mister Robot Policeman Number 1 and say: We can learn about this planet, our old home. We can show you what is here in ways you never could for yourself. There is beauty here and much to learn. Some that you thought was dangerous is no longer so. Some that we feared, has changed. This ecology of monsters, it’s not the same as it was. We can’t run in fear from the once was. We must learn. We can learn for you. Let us stay.

End of story? They left us here but insisted that they’d watch us still. End of story. We get to stay and travel and all they want is that we explain to them what we see, we take the horror and make it welcoming, if we can. Or we let them know the true fears where they are. Not a small task but it means we get to stay and drink and travel the roads of the old home. Road trip through the lost, continuing.

And that’s that. They won. Go on back to look at Barley’s pretties or finish this journey here, until I can gather the next stop on Barlenon and Tuck’s post-apocalypse road trip.