BakaBreakers
Disk 1; Alibi Chapter
April 8, 2002;
9:45PM
It is snowing
in Sunport dispite the season, providing a silhouette of the town skyline
as well as a drape that parts to reveal the Sunport Cargo Building, and
it's new inhabitants of it's converted apartment. One of them, Adam,
is outside talking on a cel phone.
"Yeah,
Dad. I'm talking to you from my first apartment. You know
the place where they housed the investigators? Well, that's where
I'm living at now, along with Tara and Aline. And we're right on
top of the coffee shop I'll be working at ... Yep, you can say that I'm
all set ... well, Dad, after all the action I got back in Vegas, I can
really appreciate a quieter change of page ... I'd ask about that lawyer
but--hahahahaha you've got that right ... well, ah'll tell you more
about my life in Maine as I go along ... take care Dad."
As Adam switches the phone off, he accepts a cup of tea from a Tara who's
choking down a growl. "I just saw Aline take off. She's headed
to that two dollar place across the bay and I've *tried* to get her to
go there in something less concealing--"
Adam groans,
nursing his temple. "Did y' tell her that we both have jobs now
and she doesn't have t' *do* those--"
"I've tried," Tara replied, "But she only said something about needing
something to fall back on."
"And what about downstairs? We would welcome her in as one of the
waiters?"
"Adam, BakaBreakers is supposed to be a kids-friendly establishment.
Aline doesn't have much of an non-H level."
Adam moans, knowing this, and sips his tea. "Doesn't that Bunny
Girl know about the headaches she gives me? Here I am in a small
town where everybody should know your name living over a family oriented
establishment and one of the two people I'm bunking with is a--"
Tara puts her hand on Adam's shoulder, "Adam, dear, this is Sunport, remember?
You've seen it on the TV Show. No lesser person than Angel Jerabe
said that this town's got more skeletons than all of New York, or, in
my opinion, our home town of Las Vegas. I'm sure that someone who
moonlights as a stripper won't raise much of an eyebrow . . . unless of
course she comes home through the front door, in full view of our customers."
"Yeah,
that's what I'm afraid of."
"Can we worry about that later, and inside as much. The climate
doesn't post any hazards on my systems, but a human body might..."
"In a minute, Tara, in a minute." Adam paused. "I'd like to
watch this snow."
"Snow?" Tara looked up, letting a few flakes brush her cheeks.
Now that she's aware of it actually snowing, she seems a bit curious.
"I take it it's the first time you actually seen snow."
"The first time in person? Yes."
"Knowing you, you're probably scanned it's composition..."
"As recorded,
it's water droplets which have been crystallized in the Earth's atmosphere.
99.99% pure H-2-O, may I add."
"...and counting them as well..."
"I'm already in the eight figures, and that's only the flakes I'm actually
looking at."
Adam chuckles, "The things androids do to keep themselves amused."
Tara just does her usual smile and nod. She always was a bright
and cheerful one, as androids go. Not to mention an affectionate
one, as the foxgirl strokes up against him.
"It's more of a nostalgia kick for me."
"Nostalgia?" Tara says, making sure that's what he meant to say.
She needed to access an on-board dictionary for a second.
nos·tal·gi·a
[no stálj , n stálj ] noun
1. sentimental recollection: a mixed feeling of happiness,
sadness, and longing when recalling a person, place, or event from the
past, or the past in general
2.things that arouse nostalgia: something, or things, intended to
arouse a feeling of nostalgia or to evoke the past nostalgically
"Adam, It never
snowed in South Nevada."
"Ah referring to that one Christmas Night, long ago."
"Oh," Tara replied. She knew well enough about that night, where
a very young Adam was crying on top of a log ladder in a Christmas Eve
Blizzard. It was that night when Fate--or some divine being acting
as Fate--spirited him away from wherever he was (the details were thankfully
fuzzy by this time). It was nice to know that someone was listening
when Adam was crying in the night, Tara thought. If they didn't,
Adam probably would not have been a happier and well-adjusted young man,
nor would she have the pleasure of being by his side.
"The snow
was similar to this," Adam said, sweeping an free arm around to catch
some snowflakes. "And I can't help thinking that this snow connects
that day to tonight."
"Could it
be deja vu?" Tara asked.
"I wouldn't call it that. It's more like closure. It's like
I've come around full circle and I've finally returned to where I was
back then, only I've grown during the time I'm away. And ready to
have a decent life now that I'm well prepared to live it. I don't
know if this town's my actual hometown ... maybe not; Copper never told
me the actual place I came from. But I somehow feel that it is,
and I'm ready to start over in it."
"Reminds me of the saying, 'Today is the first day of the rest of your
life.'"
"Hm?"
Tara just shrugs. "I thought it was appropriate."
"Oh Tara," Adam chuckles as he walks her back inside the apartment . .
.
