The Three of Us

Part 18 - The Sparrow

"And stay out!" Deborah Haddon-Masterson yelled at Chip as he stood outside their shared quarters in only his briefs. The door to the cabin apparently wasn't shutting fast enough, so she threw him his uniform jumpsuit and boots. He caught one of them; the other glanced off his torso before thunking on the floor.

Hastily, he began to put his clothes on, as the Hamidis walked by hurriedly and Julie McKenzie Mayweather held her son, Paul, just a little bit closer and tried not to look. The remainder of D deck's residents kept out of sight.

It was just after lunch, so he started walking along, eventually getting to the cafeteria. He got himself a cola from the dispenser. The only other people in the room were Dan and Sandra, who was nursing their daughter. The baby was a little colicky and fussy.

He nodded at them, and they waved him over. "We've been hearing her scream at you for a few nights already," Dan referred to Deb.

"Yeah," Chip confirmed. He looked at his glass of soda. "What I wouldn't give for this to be a beer right about now."

"I hear that, Brother," Dan commiserated.

"Ow!" Sandra snapped a little, "I know Kimmy doesn't have any teeth yet, but she's acting like she does."

"It won't be much longer," Dan said, "you can wean her in perhaps a half a year from now."

"Easy for you to say; you don't have to nurse her."

"Hey, I've tried," Dan joked. He then turned to Chip, "So, uh, what's Haddon's problem?"

"It's, uh," Chip looked around furtively. Lili was wiping off a table nearby, so he kept his voice low, "you know I have pornos, right?"

"Well, yeah," Dan said, "everybody knows that."

"We've seen them all," Sandra yawned.

"She doesn't like me watching them in our cabin," Chip laid out the bait, "I mean, I'm just looking for a little variety – know what I'm saying?"

"Oh, I hear that," Dan said, "you, uh, try, you know, different stuff?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," Chip sighed, "I get shot down all the time."

"Huh," Sandra said, "see; this is why it's such a big deal and a pain in the tail that that stupid birth control show failed. I mean, if I weren't, uh, tied down, you'd have nothing to worry about." Dan shot her a look but kept quiet.

"You still do that?" Chip asked discreetly, as Craig began to move some of the chairs in order to clean under them.

"I haven't in a while," she complained.

"And you don't mind?" Chip asked Dan, unbelieving.

"He knows what's good for him," Sandra replied, a bit menacingly. "Supply and demand – I supply, so I get to demand." She laughed.

Dan looked sick. She got up to get herself some more juice from the dispenser. He said to Chip, "You see, I put up with things. I'd be, uh, interested in a swap."

"A swap?"

"Yeah, shh, she's coming back."

Sandra chugged her juice and handed the baby to Dan. "I got stuff to do," she left without looking back.

The two men looked at each other. Craig came over. "Uh, I gotta clean under there, where you're sitting."

They got up and departed, walking toward the gym. Chip said, "I just wanna tell ya, I don't really want her," he referred to Sandra, "but I got other things on my mind, yanno? I guess I just wanna know that I'm not the only one who thinks about that."