Exciti

Chapter 32 (Liam)

Dr. Little insisted on taking the boys out to dinner in the Bazaar Bubble. "Lucy and Lago are going to meet us there. Lago insisted on accompanying Lucy on her undesirable department duties, like a hovering parent."

Neither one of them objected, or talked for that matter. Liam was relieved to ride the TerraFerry out and away from that awful test. He shook his head. His mother's face haunted him. Seth's statue replayed his mother's sickness in a blur of flashing images, the long hospital stays, the desperate desire for her to get better, the nightly prayers that she would stay well every time she came home, the whispers, the pitying glances, the trip to the bridge...and his mother's body floating through the air, her yellow dress fluttering about her like a tumbling butterfly.

Liam rubbed his hands on the railings, seeking comfort in the coldness of the metal. He was thankful his Visus forced him to see through the illusion before the Seth Excitus showed him anymore.

He looked sideways at Adam, who seemed just as shaken. Did he see his dad? Tam? He quickly looked away. He wasn't going to ask Adam about the very subject he himself wanted to avoid.

A sigh made its way out of his chest. He doubted he will be able to enjoy anything tonight, despite Dr. Little's promises that they would love the Bazaar.

"Or maybe I will!" he mouthed to himself the moment they entered the Bazaar Bubble.

The bazaar was a maze of paved roads, lined with stones so old and trodden they shined like caramel candy in the golden pink light that permeated the air like a perfect, perpetual autumn sunset. The smells as they passed the little stalls, covered with brightly colored awnings, kept changing like an olfactory kaleidoscope, merging and emerging in a constant flow. Food, incense, fruits, spices, perfume, fresh flowers, and other smells he didn't recognize fought for control over his senses.

Each stall exhibited its colorful goods in elaborate arrangements that Liam suspected were Exciti dependent. He and Adam made themselves dizzy the way they tried to look at everything at once. The spice shops offered little colorful tornadoes of different spices, the carpets in the carpet shop twirled and danced in pairs, the fortune teller herself was a crystal ball, and the fabrics in a shop that sold silk kept forming and dismantling beautiful garments on their own on old, attention seeking mannequins.

The packed bazaar made him smile despite himself, the memory of the test fading into an old, half-forgotten nightmare. Each person they passed looked to be from a different country, and he lost count of the number of Exciti he saw. They stopped to let a terracotta statue of a woman pass as she tried to lead a copper bull through the crowd. They then laughed when she started yelling at a group of cutlery Exciti, no taller than a few inches each, for blocking the road. The silverware scattered and scurried away, carrying what looked like little piles of paper.

Dr. Little touched his shoulder, "Cutlery mail, very useful. But they are terrible at allowing others to use the road."

They turned right at a mirror store that had a sign claiming their mirror Exciti showed you how you would look wearing the most recent trends then left at a Juice stall that offered to plant, grow and harvest the fruits for your juice right before your eyes. They finally stopped at a small restaurant with a handful of wooden tables and chairs, each table covered with empty plates and bowls.

Liam and Adam studied a cluster of wanted posters on the wall while Dr. Little waved to a short man with a cubed head and an oven for an abdomen. They were sniggering at a poster that showed a pitchfork wanted for spreading hay fever when the oven man waddled their way with a big smile. His shiny black hair was occasionally lit by a lick of flame burning a new hole in his hair net and his hands formed and reformed into cooking utensils and oven mitts handling sizzling pans and bubbling pots over the stove that made the top of his belly. Liam's mouth watered at the aroma.