Aara continued stomping until she got to her VW, and then unlocked the door and slammed it then opened it again, got in and slammed it again. She hit her head repeatedly against the steering wheel until she felt that she was ready to be human again then turned the key in the ignition, it wouldn't start. She continued banging her head against the wheel for a few minutes then extended her leg and kicked whatever car companies put under dashboards to be kicked and tried the ignition again. This time it worked and she drove off, swaying slightly but really feeling much better. She lived in the attic of a cute old house that was owned by a fat, greying tabby cat and her pet Mary, an old deaf woman who seemed to think the order of the house was reversed. Aara was inclined to agree with the cat. Upon opening the door and stomping across the beaten up hardwood floor, she slipped and crashed into a heap. Looking to see what was to blame so she could yell at it, Mike’s retaken pictures slid onto the floor. This was Too Much, stomping so loud that the deaf woman banged on the wall and turned the TV up, Aara fired up the cappiccino machine.
One hour later Mike was still sitting on the floor in a kind of stunned stupor wishing he could get off this boring planet. He groaned and slowly got to his feet, steadying himself on the couch, which he could have sworn bit him, and experiencing momentary vertigo from the exertion went to get more Advil. He suffered a nasty shock in realizing he was out, then frantically searched his wallet for money and sadly found it devoid of a single cent. Next he explored the depths of the fridge and found nothing that hadn't grown fuzzy and started trying to escape. In the cupboard were definite signs of intelligent life in old coffee cups, other than that, nothing . This was no good, he realized he would have to get paid whether Aara liked it or not. He reached into his jean pocket and found the crumpled slip of paper that had her phone number on it. Slowly he dialed.
Aara jumped as the phone rang, spilling part of her 4th cappuccino on her lap. After frantically looking around to see if someone was out to get her, decided the machine could deal with it and went to change. The machine kicked in and said pleasantly: Hi there, you haven't reached Aara I'm not home or just lurking around the corner cuz I don't want to talk to you But if there's something on your mind Anything at all Feel free to enlighten my machine And depress it instead of me B_L_E_E_P And the voice was Mike's, he said: Hi there Aara, Um I kinda need to be paid for those photos because I have no food and no coffee and no Advil. Could you give me a call back and meet me somewhere. I'll show up. Trust me. I believe you know my number.
Immediately Aara felt sheepish. She hadn't even thought about paying him. She took the pictures out of the envelope and looked at them, decided they were as much as the museum, that had payed her a scant sum to get them taken, deserved and called Mike.
When the phone rang Mike was lying on the floor fantasizing about what he would buy as soon a he got paid. It was a big event that didn't happen all that often. Anyway on the first ring he sat up blearily and on the second he leaped up and grabbed the phone and said a breathless "Hello?"
"Um Hi, it's Aara, you called?"
"Yea I did" he said cheerfully, "I was wondering if you'd pay me cause I have no fo_"
"Right," she cut him off, "no problem where do you want to meet me?"
It was decided that they would meet at 7:00 pm in the Blur , a popular bar close to Mike's house, that night. Mike sank on to his sofa, yelped as he sat on a pile of forks, grumbled something that was luckily inaudible and went to bed.
Mike woke up at 7:02 pm and immediately started swearing and didn't stop until he had pulled the weather worn black fleece over his head (hoping that it would smooth down his hair) and ran out the door and all the way to the Blur. By the time he got there it was 7:10 pm and Aara was just heading out the door with a very agitated, make smoldering holes in metal look in her eyes. Mike ran up to her stopped and felt the world do an acute double axle that almost made him fall over. He started making apologies and she smacked him in the face. Just as that was happening they became aware of a bright light descending from the sky.
"Shit" Mike said helpfully.
"What's that?" asked Aara.
"Oh shitshitshitshitshit" Mike said even more helpfully.
"What the hell?" exploded Aara as the light became a rather unpleasant blob against the evening sky.
"Damnshitcrapshitshitshit" Mike exploded and grabbed Aara by the shoulders and began to run. Before they had run more than three meters they ran into an invisible barrier that knocked them down and they blacked out.
