Chapter Fifteen
Getting Our Things, Then Back To Earth
Zem and Bev got up. Then Zem went toward the front of the ship. Panny and Lika scampered across the couch toward the ramp. Pim and Mim rose up from their places. Zem picked up the pad of paper with my love letter. It was sitting on the back right seat. Where Sas apparently left it. Pim levitated up what I took to be my mug from the top of the instrument panel. Mim levitated up what I took to be Sue’s mug. They followed Zem as he went back over to Bev. Zem and Bev gave each other a brief but loving kiss. Then they put an arm around each other’s lower backs and came nearer to Sue and I. Zem said, “Come on you two. Don’t make us do all the work.” Sue and I parted our embrace and gave them slight smiles because of Zem’s little joke. Because Zem’s carrying the pad of paper was no burden. And the possibility of Bev carrying Sue’s bouquet wouldn’t have been any burden either. Zem and Bev were both smiling kindly at Sue and I. Sue and I released each other enough for Sue to turn a little and take her bouquet. Then Sue and I stood up. We both put an arm around each other’s lower backs. Zem said, “Let’s go get the rest of your things.”
Sue and I looked at each other with slight smiles. But our faces changed again to having a little look of sadness. We all turned and started walking toward the ramp. I held the hand that Sue held her bouquet with. It was dark outside. The back of our ship was facing Sue and I’s shack. The lights inside were lit. Panny and Lika by this time were out on the beach. Sue and I again took on a downtrodden look as we walked. We walked in silence over to the door that led into the kitchen. Then we went inside. Sue and I walked to the left a little over to the end of the counter near the bedroom door. Zem and Bev went over toward the end of the counter on the right. Sue and I stopped when we got to the end of the counter. I released Sue’s hand and Sue sat her bouquet on the counter top. Pim and Mim sat our mugs down on it. Then Sue and I looked at the others with some sadness. Pim and Mim headed back toward the door. Sue said to Zem and Bev with a bit of sadness in her voice, “We’ll be right back.” Then Sue and I walked to the opening that led into the bedroom.
All of our things were sitting on the top of the dresser. Our wedding clothes were all neatly folded. Sue’s wedding veil was folded and sitting on her wedding dress with the flowery head wreath sitting on it. I said to Sue with a reminiscing, loving smile on my face, “Where’s your other, sexy outfit darling.” Sue and I held each other in a loose embrace as Sue smiled lovingly at me too. Then Sue said, “I disposed of it when Bev and I got flippers the other day. Bev said that when we went to live on planet Bev, I could just ask Sas to make me another outfit.” I said with a more solemn look of love on my face, “One for every day of the week I hope darling.” Sue was looking at me with a more solemn look of love too as Sue said, “Oh darling!” We then began to kiss each other passionately as we embraced each other more. After about thirty seconds, I broke off my kiss and we fully embraced. I said to Sue with a highly loving voice, “I love you so much darling!” Sue said with a highly loving voice, “I love you so much too darling!”
After about thirty seconds, we parted our embrace and looked at each other with some sadness on our loving faces. Then we let each other go. I turned to the dresser and picked up Sue’s wedding bouquet. I sat it on our wedding album. Sue picked up her wedding dress and sat it on my folded wedding suit. I picked up the wedding album and bouquet and held them in one arm. With my other hand, I grabbed the inside heels of Sue’s wedding slippers and my wedding shoes. Sue had picked up our wedding clothes by this point. We both again looked at each other with some sadness. Then we headed back into the kitchen. There was a box sitting on the counter top. Along with a stack of some folded, thin, white wrapping paper. Also setting on the counter top was the top inedible tier of Sue and I’s wedding cake. Which of course had the amusing statues on it. Also on the counter were Sue and I’s other mugs. Pim and Mim were up in the air nearby. But just levitating near each other. Zem and Bev of course saw Sue and I’s sad expressions.
Bev said to Sue in a somewhat compassionate voice, “Somebody would think you two were going to a funeral.” Sue answered Bev as we sat our things on the counter top and said, “That’s what it feels like.” Bev said still in a compassionate voice as she went over to Sue, “You poor thing.” Bev and Sue then gave each other a hug. Zem looked at us all with a sentimental, compassionate look on his face as he said with a compassionate tone to his voice, “You two don’t need to worry. As we said, you two won’t be on earth for too long.” Bev let go of Sue as they both smiled at Zem. Though Bev’s smile was bigger than Sue’s. I too was looking at Zem. Still with a somewhat sad expression, I said, “I just wish I knew what “too long” meant for somebody hundreds of millions of years old.” Zem grinned. Which made Bev grin at me too. The best Sue and I could do is a slight smile. Bev said, “I suppose you’ll just have to wait to see.” Then Bev went back over to Zem. Sue and I gave each other forced, slight smiles. I picked up our wedding album and slid it over to Sue. Which caused us both to look at each other with sentimental, loving smiles. Sue opened it as I stood next to Sue and put an arm around her. Zem and Bev gave each other sentimental smiles.
Sue and I looked at the first picture, which nearly took up the whole page. It was of Sue and I standing together in our wedding clothes. We were grinning with the binary planets Erik and Sue in the sky behind us. Sue and I briefly looked at each other as tears started to well up in our eyes. Sue put an arm around me and we turned our attention back to the wedding album. Sue said, “Oh darling! It’s so beautiful!” I gave Sue a brief, firmer hug with my arm. Sue turned the page and there was a picture of Zem and Bev on one side and a picture of us all standing together on the other side. Both of these took up nearly a whole page on each side. Bev pealed off the sheet that had my love letter written on it. Then Bev stepped over to Sue and I and said, “You’ll be needing this.” Sue and I both smiled at Bev with somewhat sad, sentimental looks on our faces. Bev turned the page of the wedding album back to the first page. Then Bev placed the love letter over Sue and I’s picture and closed the wedding album. Bev then smiled sentimentally at Sue and I and said with a kind voice, “Ok. Pack up.”
Bev took a step back as Sue and I did as Bev said. I slid the box closer to Sue and I. It was gray in color. There were two flaps meant to be folded over the top. On the sides, there were two indents for handles. I folded back the top flaps as Bev stepped back over to Zem. They put an arm around each other’s lower backs. I picked up our wedding shoes and put them into one side of the box. Sue picked up one of the folded sheets of paper, unfolded it and placed it over our shoes. Then Sue picked up our wedding clothes and put them into the box. Zem and Bev slightly smiled at Sue and I with somewhat melancholy looks on their faces. Sue then unfolded another sheet of wrapping paper and placed it over the clothes. Then Sue picked up more wrapping paper and started wrapping up our mugs. After doing the first one, Sue handed it to me and said with a slightly sad voice, “Here ya go darling.” I took it and placed it into the box. Sue wrapped up the other mugs and handed them to me. I put them into the box too. When Sue picked up our cake decoration, it briefly brought a bit of a smile to our faces.
Sue then wrapped it up too and handed it to me. I put it in the box also. Then Sue unfolded more wrapping paper and wrapped her bouquet with it. I put our wedding album into the box. After wrapping the bouquet, Sue put that into the box. I picked up Sue’s smaller wedding bouquet and held it up as I said with a melancholy, loving, slight smile on my face, “One last sniff for now darling?” Both Sue and I held hands and put our noses to it. Sue and I lightly closed our eyes as we breathed in deeply. Zem and Bev leaned the sides of their heads together and smiled sentimentally at us. Sue and I backed away from the bouquet and opened our eyes. We looked at each other lovingly. I said with a gentle, loving voice, “Let’s wrap it together darling.” Sue said with a gentle, loving voice, “Ok darling.” I held the bouquet as Sue took another piece of paper and unfolded it. Sue and I then wrapped the bouquet. We mostly looked at each other lovingly as we did so. When we were through, I placed the fingers of one of Sue’s hands around the base. Then, with the fingers of one hand still around Sue’s, we both placed the bouquet into the box. Sue and I released the bouquet.
After removing our hands, Sue then looked at me with a sad look again. We took hold of each other’s hands again as I took on a sad but emotional look. Sue took on an emotional look too. We then let go of each other’s hands. Then we fully and firmly embraced each other and shut our eyes tightly. I said with an emotional voice, “Oh my wife!” Sue said, “Oh my husband!” Zem and Bev parted their heads and looked at each other with sentimental, compassionate looks on their faces. Then they fully embraced each other too. After about a minute, they parted their embrace and looked at each other lovingly. Then they released each other. Zem stepped over to the counter and slid the box over to him. Sue and I heard this and parted our embrace enough to look at each other with sad, slightly emotional looks. Zem then closed the top of the box. The joins on the box fused together. Then Zem said with a compassionate tone to his voice as he slid the box over toward us, “Come on you two. Time to go.” Sue and I let go of each other and briefly looked at Zem and Bev with slightly sad looks. I then slid the box nearer to me and picked it up. Zem went over to Bev. They took each other’s hand and started to head toward the other end of the counter. Sue took hold of my arm and we headed toward the other end of the counter. Briefly glancing toward the ocean, Panny and Lika were a few feet in front of the shack and digging around in the sand. Zem and Bev waited for us in the other side of the counter with slight smiles on their faces. Sue and I took on slight smiles too as we went over to them. Then Sue said to them as we did so, “It’s too bad that the flowers will eventually wilt.” This made Zem and Bev take on bigger smiles. They briefly turned these to each other. Sue and I stopped as Bev said, “They will eventually from examination. But once the box is closed, nothing inside will age.” Sue and I briefly took on surprised looks. Which made Zem and Bev grin. Sue and I then grinned too. Then Sue said, “You guys are constantly amazing!” I turned a loving look to Sue and said, “My love for you darling is in such a box too. Because it will never wilt either.” Sue at this point was looking at me lovingly. Then Sue said with a loving voice, “My love for you will never wilt either darling.”
We then kissed each other lovingly as I held the box. Zem and Bev smiled sentimentally at each other. Then they gave each other a brief but loving kiss. They parted and smiled lovingly at each other again. Then they looked at Sue and I. Zem and Bev again looked at us with sentimental smiles as Sue and I parted our kiss. Sue and I looked at each other lovingly for a few moments. Then we turned these looks to Zem and Bev as we took on slight smiles with slightly sad expressions on our faces. Zem gave us a slight nod. Then Zem and Bev started heading toward the door. They held each other’s hand with their fingers intertwined. Sue and I went with Zem and Bev. Pim and Mim went to the door first. It opened as they approached it. When Zem and Bev got outside, they stepped aside a little to let Sue and I catch up. For Sue and I, it again was a little like we were walking toward our execution. Zem and Bev started walking beside us as we exited. Panny and Lika scampered over by us. Pim and Mim were nearly inside the ship. Zem said to Sue and I, “When you two come to live here,” Sue and I turned slight smiles to Zem and Bev as Zem added, “I hope Bev’s idea of a crown rejection ceremony isn’t too difficult for you.”
Bev said, “As Zem pointed out before, adulation can be difficult to overcome.” This caused Sue and I’s smiles to widen further. (Which, looking back on our conversation, it probably the effect Zem and Bev were looking for. To lift Sue and I out of our gloomy mood) Zem said as we stepped up onto the ramp, “Despite the symbolic rejection of your crowns, I’m afraid that the people there will view you two as a king and queen anyway.” This made Sue and I grin. Zem and Bev grinned too. Sue said to Zem, “Like you said, being aware of it is half the battle.” We paused inside the ship as the ramp rose. Panny and Lika were by now up on the couch to the left. Pim and Mim were in their places in the control panel. Bev’s grin diminished to a smile. The rest of our grins did too. Bev said, “You two can go ahead and take a seat. We’ll be back at the Pol-Wim in no time.” Sue released me and said, “Ok.” I went over and sat the box on the couch on the right. Sue came with me as Zem and Bev went to the front of the ship. I sat down and took Sue’s hand. We smiled at each other lovingly as Sue sat across my lap.
After Sue was seated, Sue lovingly caressed my cheek and said with a loving voice, “No matter what darling. You’ll always be my king.” My eyes glazed over with love. Sue’s did too as I said lovingly, “And you’ll always be my queen darling!” We then started to kiss each other passionately. Zem and Bev briefly smiled sentimentally at us. These sentimental smiles they then turned to each other as they turned forward in their seats. Our ship started to rise up into the sky as Zem went through their usual procedure. Such as showing various star formations in the holographic sphere in front of the instrument panel. Sue and I of course were caressing each other’s tongues together while we kissed. Along with all of the usual, wonderful, loving caresses. After about a minute, Sue parted her kiss from me and we firmly embraced. Then Sue said with loving emotion and some sadness in her voice, “I love you so much darling!” I said with the same loving, emotional voice tinged with sadness, “I love you so much too my darling love!” A couple moments later, I heard the ramp begin to open. Apparently we were back in the Pol-Wim. Zem and Bev turned in their seats and looked at us compassionately.
Sue and I embraced each other more firmly as tears began to run down our cheeks. Zem said with some compassion in his voice, “We’re here.” I didn’t know how I could handle being without Sue! Even if it was only going to be for a short time. The way I felt, it would have almost been kinder for Zem and Bev to have ended our lives. I said to Sue with a hint of desperation in my tearful voice, “Zem and Bev might be able to make me forget! But my love has to live on!” We held each other even more firmly as I added, “It has to!” Zem and Bev looked at us with sentimental compassion. Then Zem stood up and said with a compassionate voice, “Time to go.” Sue and I parted enough to look at each other with tearful sadness. Bev stood up and said to Zem in a kind of kidding around manner, “I don’t want them to go either!” Zem looked at Bev and grinned. Which caused Bev to grin too. Zem said, “Am I going to have trouble with you too?” Sue and I turned to Zem and Bev with slight smiles on our slightly saddened faces.
Then Zem turned Bev around and grabbed her from behind. Holding Bev under her arms, he started dragging her. This caused Sue and I to laugh. Bev started kicking and screaming in a joking manner, saying, “I don’t want to go!...” Bev was also waving her arms around a bit. This turned Sue and I’s laughter into hearty laughter. Panny and Lika excitedly scampered around them as they chattered excitedly. Bev said again, “I don’t want to go!... No!... No!... No!...” Zem had a kidding around expression on his face as if he was having great difficulty moving Bev. After dragging Bev past us, Zem began to stand Bev up as they started laughing heartily too. We all roared with laughter. Panny and Lika’s excited state began to taper off. Zem and Bev sure knew how to turn the mood around. After a good minute of laughing, the laughing started to taper off into chuckling. Sue said to them with a little chuckle still coming out of her, “You guys kill me!” Which caused a little more laughter. After it died down, I said with some mirth still in my voice, “You guys are only making it harder for us to leave!” We all grinned at each other.
Zem said, “What must be must be. Let’s get going.” Sue and I grinned at each other. Though our expressions again turned to slight smiles, tinged with a little sadness. Sue and I stood up. I picked up our box and held it with both hands. Turning toward the back, Sue took hold of my arm as we looked at each other with the same slight smiles and the same tinge of sadness on our faces. Then we went over near Zem and Bev. Zem and Bev turned around, put an arm around each other’s lower backs and made their way off our ship. Sue and I went with them. Pim levitated up Zem and Bev’s planet Til mugs. Mim levitated up Bev’s bouquet and brought it forward as Pim followed us.
The ship beyond was basically the same as it was before. Though I noticed that a few of the hexagonal crates had been moved. Mim brought Bev’s bouquet to her. We all smiled as Bev took it and said, “Thank you Mim.” As Sue and I walked toward the elevator, our smiles faded to slight smiles as a tinge of sadness again came over our faces. Sue held onto my arm with both her arms wrapped around it as she leaned her head against my shoulder. Zem and Bev walked up to the elevator doors and they opened. They walked inside along with Mim, Panny and Lika. Sue lifted her head from my shoulder and we followed. Pim and Mim levitated above and between us couples with the mugs. Zem and Bev turned around and smiled as we entered the elevator. Sue and I both tried to put on a brave face and smiled back at them as the door closed behind us. I said to Zem and Bev, “According to what Pim said, I take it that the virtual reality scenario with the Gitak wasn’t very plausible.” Bev said, “No. It wasn’t. They gave up even trying to secretly spy on our kind long before Zem and I were born.”
Zem said, “Our kind even told those who had contact with them to have no contact with us. This was to keep the Gitak from pumping them for information about our kind. (The door to the elevator opened behind Zem and Bev. Panny and Lika scampered out into the hallway as Zem added) The ancient Reall had the same saying that they have on earth. Which is that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Though we also had a saying that the friend of my enemy is my enemy.” Sue and I gave them understand nods with slight smiles on our faces. Zem and Bev let go of each other, turned and walked out into the hallway. Pim and Mim, with the mugs below Pim, followed them. Sue and I followed too. Zem and Bev turned back toward us when they were in the hallway. They took each other’s hand and waited for us. We were all smiling at each other as Bev said, “You really know so little about us, you were remarkably easy to fool.” Zem and Bev didn’t continue down the hallway. Apparently they were content to just chat a bit. Sue and I were certainly in no hurry.
Then Zem said, “In reality, even in the state we were in, we could have repaired ourselves. You know that we can regenerate ourselves upon death. But if we wanted to, (Zem then released Bev) we could have repaired our bodies (Zem then brought his hands up a little and wiggled his fingers in a spooky manner as he added in a spooky voice) from beyond the grave.” We all busted up laughing. Sharing in each other’s laughter only added to the humor. We must have laughed for about a minute. After the laughter, Zem then said, “As much fun as it is to see you make this face,” Then Zem briefly showed an open mouthed look of astonishment. This caused Bev, Sue and I to laugh a little. Zem then added with a grin, “I would prefer to not tell you how unlikely it was.” Sue and I, half kidding around, made such a facial gesture to Zem and Bev. Bev said, “That’s the look!” We all started laughing again. Pim and Mim also emitted telepathic humor. We all briefly turned to them to share our laughter with them.
After the laughter, Zem said, “If the Gitak ever tried to do anything like that, I could indeed destroy them all. Even if it took some time to do so. But there would be too many Reall that would want to take vengeance too. Not only that, we have many highly advanced friends who would be forever grateful to us for letting them join in on the sport. Some of them are even older and a little more advanced than we are. After all that, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have all that many Gitak to eliminate.” Zem and Bev then turned to their right and held each other’s hand. We started walking slowly down the hallway. Pim and Mim came with us a little above our heads. Panny and Lika playfully walked in front of us. All of this interesting talk was taking my and no doubt Sue’s minds off our coming separation. Responding to what Zem said, Sue said to Zem and Bev, “I’m glad you’re on our side!” This made us all laugh a little. Afterwards, as we all grinned at each other, Sue said, “I have to say, your acting in the virtual battle was impeccable.” This made Zem and Bev’s grins widen a bit. I said, “I’m surprised that you were willing to put yourselves through such pain.”
All our grins reverted to big smiles as Bev said, “We had to do what we had to do.” Zem said, “As I said after our virtual reality game, there are some weirdo masochists on earth who might enjoy such things. (This was one of the things that came up as we talked after our virtual reality game on the Pol-Wim) But we aren’t that way. We’ve just become use to it.” Then adding something neither he or Bev said during that discussion, Zem added, “Just as a young child on earth is likely to put up more of a fuss from stubbing their toe or something than an adult would, we have simply learned to take our lumps.” I said to Bev, “Sue’s virtual death was fairly quick, but you must have been suffering terribly.” Bev said with a slight smile, “It wasn’t very pleasant, to say the least. At least I didn’t have to act when it came to the pain. But knowing that the whole thing wasn’t really real helped.” We started to approach the door that led to the bedroom. Sue said, “Real or not, I don’t think I could ever get used to such a thing.” We walked up to the door and it opened. Panny and Lika went inside.
Zem and Bev started going inside as Bev turned a little and said, “Eventually, you would learn to take your lumps too.” Pim and Mim went into the bedroom after Sue and I. Zem and Bev went a little way into the bedroom and off to the left a bit. Then they stopped and turned a little more toward us. As Sue and I came up near them, Bev held up her bouquet to Mim and said, “Would you put this on the coffee table for me?” Pim continued on to the livingroom with the mugs. As Mim levitated the bouquet out of Bev’s hand, Zem said to me, “You can set that down anywhere.” The door open for Pim. Panny scampered toward the livingroom with Lika close behind. Mim continued on toward the other room. Sue released my arm and I sat our box next to the small table with the two chairs. Zem and Bev then moved on toward the other room. Sue and I looked at each other with sad expressions back on our faces. We put an arm around each other’s lower backs and held each other’s forearms in the front as we went toward the other room. In the room beyond, I saw Panny and Lika climbing around on Panny’s tree and enjoying themselves.
We all went into the next room. It was pretty much as we left it. Pim and Mim had deposited the two mugs and bouquet on the coffee table. They were hovering up in the air nearby. Zem and Bev went to the other door. They stopped near it and turned toward Sue and I. Zem and Bev both had slightly saddened, compassionate looks on their faces as Bev said, “You may as well say goodby to Panny and Lika.” Sue and I’s expression turned even sadder as we stepped up to the tree and held out our hands for Panny and Lika. Sue called for Lika and I called for Panny. They jumped out of their tree and into our hands. We both brought then up next to our necks and petted them. Then Sue said with a higher pitched, sad voice, “I’m going to miss you Lika, you little dear!” I said to Panny with a higher pitched sad voice, “And I’m going to miss you, you little hero!” Sensing our sadness, both Panny and Lika started to whimper a little. Sue and I stepped to face each other and we petted the loveable little critters the other held. I said to Lika, “Don’t you cause any problems for Zem and Bev.” Sue said to Panny, “You make sure you love Lika with all your little heart.”
I gave Panny one last hug and Sue gave Lika one last hug. We both turned and placed them on their tree. They took hold of it, but looked at us and continued to make slight whimpering sounds. Bev seemed to think something to them. Sue and I turned sad expressions to Zem and Bev as we put an arm around each other’s lower backs. Zem and Bev looked at us with slightly sad, compassionate looks. Then Zem said with some sadness in his voice, “Let’s go you two.” Zem and Bev briefly looked at each other. Then they turned and walked to the door. It opened as Sue and I briefly looked at each other with sadness still on our faces. Then we followed Zem and Bev. Zem and Bev turned to the right. Sue and I followed behind them. Again, it seemed to me like we were heading toward our doom. And judging from Sue’s countenance, Sue felt the same way. Pim and Mim were following a little way behind Sue and I. We walked a few steps as we saw another Reall couple come into view around the curvature of the hallway. They were walking with an arm around each other’s lower backs. A little above and behind them, they had a couple Nal following them.
They grinned as they saw us. Then they turned to each other and started to talk to each other. Sue and I saw them too. Sue said with a slight smile, “Isn’t that Wes and Tea?” Bev turned briefly with a smile and said, “Yes it is.” Wes was wearing a maroon colored long sleeve shirt that was fairly tight fitting. It had a bit of an extended collar that gave it a bit of an appearance of a turtle neck. It was tucked into his pants. Which were a very dark blue color. They appeared to be neatly pressed. His shoes were black. Tea was wearing a short sleeve cream colored shirt that had a weave pattern in it. The pattern had diagonal lines crossing with diamond shaped patches; The collar was V necked and the tail of the shirt hung down to her hips. Her pants were white, slightly shiny and neatly pressed too. She was wearing rather normal looking but decorative white slippers. As with Bev, Til and the other Reall women I had seen, along with being fit looking and pretty, she certainly wasn’t lacking in the breast department.
I turned to Sue and said with a smile, “That’s one of the couples you and Bev stopped by to talk to in the pool and lounge area. Isn’t it.” Sue was already smiling at me as she said, “Yes. That’s one of em. The other nice couple were named Vin and Mar.” (Mar was pronounced Mare) Wes and Tea were grinning at each other and talking as the distance between us closed a little. Then they both turned their grins to us all and waved. We waved back. Though seeing how we didn’t know them as well, Sue and I’s wave was a little less pronounced. Their Nal came forward fairly quickly and Pim and Mim flew over to meet them. They seemed to greet each other in the same way as Pim, Mim, San and Pam had greeted each other on planet Til. First they all touched. Then who I assumed was Pim and the opposite corner Nal backed off a little as Mim and the Nal on the opposite corner touched. Then they backed off a little as Pim and the other Nal touched. After doing so, they backed away from each other a little. Pim and Mim started to circle around each other’s surface at differing angles. The other Nal couple did the same. Sue said, “Who are those Nal.”
Zem and Bev turned to smile at us. Then Zem said, Wes and Tea will enjoy introducing them themselves. We all turned back to them. Zem, Bev, Wes and Tea grinned at each other as we approached the spot where the Nal had met. It seemed evident that they wanted to talk to Zem and Bev. Sue and I just smiled widely. Tea said to Bev and Sue as they got closer, “I just love your shirts.” Her English was very good. Tea’s statement made Sue and I grin. Though Bev and Sue’s grins were a little bigger. Bev said, “Thank you. There’s an interesting story behind them.” Sue and I briefly turned grins toward each other. Wes and Tea stopped near us. Wes said, “What’s that.” Bev said, “Maybe someday Til, Tea and I could let you in on it.” Zem said to Wes, “You would find it unbelievable.” Wes said, “Now I have to know!” We all laughed a little. Bev then said, “It wouldn’t be as much fun if we just told you.” This caused a little more laughter. Afterwards, Zem said, “Sue was wondering who your Nal were.” Just as Zem had said, Wes and Tea seemed to appreciate the inquiry. They both grinned at Sue and I. Sue and I were grinning too as the Nal separated.
Tea gestured to one and said, “This is Fen.” Then Tea gestured to the other and said, “And this is Lil.” Fen said with a male Nal voice similar to the others, “Pleased to meat you Sue. Pleased to meet you Erik.” Lil said in a female Nal voice, “We’re very pleased to meet you both.” Sue said, “Pleased to meet you.” I said, “We’re always glad to meet new Nal.” Fen and Lil split themselves and formed four smaller spheres. These separated a more and backed away from us as they spread out a little. Wes said, “We have a little secret for you guys too.” Zem, Bev, Sue and I all briefly exchanged surprised, happy looks. Then we turned these to Wes and Tea as our grins became a bit wider. Tea said, “Mav mentioned to you all something about a little surprise he and Til planed.” Bev said rather excitedly, “Yes he did! What is it!” Sue and I’s grins were just beaming with happy expressions. Wes and Tea briefly grinned at each other before turning their grins back to us. Tea then said to Sue and I, “Sue, Erik. You’re both famous!”
Sue and I’s mouths dropped open in astonishment. Zem and Bev took on surprised looks as their mouths dropped open too. Then Zem and Bev turned these expressions to each other as Tea added, “And your fame is spreading.” The sight of Zem, Bev, Sue and I’s surprise caused Wes and Tea to laugh. At the same time, Pim, Mim, Fen and Lil also emitted telepathic humor. Though Pim and Mim’s humor was more pronounced. They also circled each other’s surfaces at a little faster speed. Apparently, Mav and Til had indeed somehow kept the surprise they cooked up secret from them too. Then Zem and Bev started laughing too. Zem and Bev took hold of each other and leaned up against the