The Grass Is Always Yellow on Promaglyon 3

Dessert

Chapter Five

Max spent the following day burning a cake. He tossed together random food-like substances he found in Alpha's kitchen, and baked it. He had decided to continue to call her Alpha, as it was easier to say, and besides, he found it cute. He had no idea that most of the ingredients he was using were in fact vitamin and seasoning packets. Modern humanoids kept most of their food in refrigerators that folded into the wall. Max didn't trust it, or Alpha's coffee pot. The wall was made of an insulated plasticine gel, that partially hid the electric circuitry laced through it. After Alpha left for work, and his cake was in the hydrostoven, Max decided to explore. He pressed his hand to the wall, and was surprised to feel it gently form to the shape of his fingers. It pulsed with microvibrations, and Max put his ear to it to hear better. He could hear a faint rhythm within, not unlike drums. He examined it, and found that he could see small shimmering fish swimming deep inside. He took a step back and plunged his hand in. The wall gave a rubbery crunch and Max felt the eerie sensation of having his fist in flesh. Beneath the gelatinous blue exterior, there was a sea of oily liquid, in which the fish were swimming. He reached toward one of the little red fish, and when he touched it, blue electricity arced out above his hand. The fish seemed unaffected, and continued on its path. Alpha scanned her iris in the intellilock outside her door and walked in to find Max elbow-deep in her livingroom wall.

"Why is your arm in my wall?"

"Oh, um, there was a broken circuit thingy......"

"The robofish fix all broken circuitry."

"Well, this time they didn't."

Alpha rolled her eyes and stomped off to the kitchen, where she promptly started shrieking. Max winced and pulled his arm out. The liquid inside the wall gushed out, splashing onto his shoes and congealing in a grey mass. The wound in the wall also began to heal itself, and soon the moist gash marring the blue expanse was a mere slit. Alpha stormed into the livingroom, face flushed and red hair untidied.

"Who the HELL is in my oven?

"What?"

"You BURNED somebody to death in my oven?"

"Oh Lord no, it's a cake."

"What?"

"It's a cake. I baked a cake while you were gone."

"Then why does it look, and SMELL like charred meat?"

"Ah......"

Alpha went back into the kitchen, and Max followed. The... "cake" did bear an amazing resemblance to a corpse, and Max saw he had one way to convince Alpha that it wasn't. He grabbed a nanofork, reached into the hydrostoven, and took a bite. Alpha gasped, a look of horror spread across her still-flushed face.

"It's quite good. Try some."

"You monster..." Alpha began backing away.

"No, no, no, here, look." Max grabbed a polyglass plate out of Alpha's cabinet, next to where he had decided to store the salad bowl, radio, and their quickly growing family. They hibernated for the most part when in the dark, so Max always made sure to keep the doors closed. Max cut a thick wedge of his creation onto the plate, and offered it to Alpha. She stared in morbid curiosity, until she noticed the whole Promaglyon mushrooms poking out the side.

"Mother of Jantekh.... You actually cooked this..."

"I know. I have a bit of a talent in the kitchen you could say."

Alpha giggled and sidled up closer. She opened her mouth and closed her eyes, resting her small, soft hand on Max's shoulder. He put a generous nanoforkful in her mouth.

"Oh, sikkdetth, this is bad", she swore and spit it all into her sink. The sink, sensing weight, immediately evacuated its contents. They were flushed to a region of Promaglyon inhabited only by wild herds of sand-cows. It landed in front of a sand-cow by the name of Ted. Or, at least it would be Ted translated into English. Ted stared dumbly for a second, and then ate the used cake.

"Oh, sikkdetth, this is bad", he said in cow-speak, and spit it out.

Alpha had to go back to the office since her lunch break was over. Max was left on his own to clean the kitchen.