The World in Flower

45. A Mysterious Appearance

"Well, shit!" Amberly took the box out of her side table drawer and shook it.

"Empty?" Austin surmised.

"Yeah." She flopped back down on the bed.

Austin scooted close to her. "It's not the end of the world. We've got mouths and hands..."

"I don't think we can get more. The dollar store is out."

"Well, fuck. What do we do?"

"We could do what the locals do for birth control."

"And what's that?"

"Basically a magical Plan B."

"If you're comfortable with that. But we don't have to decide this morning. We can just do other things."

She rolled them over till she was on top. "But I was looking forward to sex."

He gently gripped her hair and pulled her down and into a kiss. "You know I'm not going to complain."

"No?"

"Definitely not."

Do they not need one of those small cocoons? a small voice in his head asked.

This feels nicer, another answered.

"Don't tell me," Amberly said as Austin covered his face with his hand.

"Please, babies, go back to sleep!" he begged.

"Or at least shut up and just watch quietly," she added.

We can be quiet.

"Okay, they're quieting down."

"Good." The room was filled with the sounds of kissing, shifting bodies, quiet moans and gasps, then she let out a little frustrated sound. "Babe?"

"I'm sorry. I can't with them watching."

She sighed, bending down to touch forehead to forehead.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too." She rolled over to stare at the ceiling. "I don't care when it is or what we're doing, I'm dragging you into bed as soon as the babies are asleep."

Paloma started crying.

"I'll get her," Austin volunteered.

***

"I don't wanna get up!" Kendra protested, putting her pillow over her head.

"I know it was a late night," Tim sympathized, "but you've still got school."

"Why? Why have school?"

Tim stood in her doorway bemused for a moment. "Well, I suppose we could keep you home, put you to work, apprentice you to a tradesman, and then marry you off to a good family with a successful business."

"Dad!"

"Come on, up!"

"All right, but you have to leave so I can get dressed."

"Deal. Your Da is getting breakfast going, so we'll see you down there."

***

"Ew! What's that?" Ali pointed to the viscous material covering a large part of the school playground.

Jai shut down the truck and hopped out. "Go ahead and get inside."

"Hey, what's up?" Chance asked.

Jai nodded towards the playground. "We've got some sort of mysterious substance."