A Weapon
It is hard for Acxa to focus on just one thing. Everywhere she turns there is something new. Twisting metal structures jut from the ground. Towers stacked with blinking and flashing lights lifted frighteningly high. To the right is a spinning structure full of colorfully painted animals--most of them are occupied by children. People carry boxes of something Veronica calls popcorn. Others carry what looks like spun like pink webs that are stuck on a paper cones. The place smells or the food they carry. “Here try some.” Veronica offers her a spoonful of little pastel dots. “It’s banana split.”
Hesitantly, Acxa brings the spoon to her mouth. The little dots are cold and they melt on her tongue.
“Good, right?” Veronica shouts over gleeful screams that carry from one of the twisting structures.
Acxa nods.
She has never been to an Earth festival before. Though Veronica says that it is not a festival, that it is just an amusement park and that it is open all spring and summer. She has never been to one of those either. Not until today.
“Come on, let’s play a game.” Veronica grabs Acxa’s hand and pulls her towards one of the stalls. “I think that you’d be good at this one.” She fishes around in her pocket and slide the man behind the counter some change.
“Shoot the target, hit the bullseye, and win a prize!” The man declares enthusiastically.
Acxa trains her eye on the target and pulls the trigger, only to find herself deeply confused once more. “It is not a real gun?”
Veronica laughs as she hits the mark. “Of course not! It’s a game, remember.”
Acxa nods again, hitting the rest of the targets.
“You space folk are pretty good at this.” The man comments.
“We have had practice.”
The man chuckles. “Which one would you like?” He motions to a wide array of soft things. So this is where the Earth children have found those large stuffed Earth animals.
Acxa points at one. “The horned water creature.” She has no idea what it is or if it even lives in the water, but she likes it.
“That’s a narwhal.” Veronica says.
“Narwhal.” She tries the word as the man hands her, her prize and thanks her for playing.
“Do you want to try one of the roller coasters next or do you want to get a balloon?”
“What is a roller coaster?”
Veronica points at one of the jutting, curly structures.
“Oh.” She says simply. She has been avoiding those. They look much less secure than her sincline ship had been. Even so, the word balloon sounds like a fun word and she wants to say it. “I want to get a balloon.” She mutters the word again softly to herself a few times more. “Balloon.” She likes this word very much. “We should get some balloons.”
Veronica laughs. “Alright, balloons it is.”
“Balloons.” Acxa repeats.
Veronica walks her over to another stand, wherein she hears a powerful hissing. She watches a woman inflating what appears to be neon green latex. “What is that?”
“That’s the balloon, Acxa.”
She watches the woman tie a string to it and hand it to a small child.
“I would like a balloon too.” Acxa decides once and for all. She watches the child’s balloon bob in the breeze. “I would like a blue one.”
“Alright.” Veronica replies. She approaches the woman, hands her a few cents, and makes her requsest.
Acxa watches the latex swell until she thinks that it may burst, she braces herself for a loud pop. It doesn’t come, instead Veronica hands her the balloon. She lets it go, fully intending on picking it back up, but it floats away. “It’s gone.” She comments plainly.
Veronica laughs. “You don’t say.”
“You didn’t tell me that they are filled with helium.”
“My bad.” She pulls out another few cents but the woman tells her its okay and gives her a second balloon free of charge.
This time Veronica ties it around Acxa’s wrist. The Galra tugs it down by the string and strokes it, trying to get a feel for the texture. It is rubbery and light. With it securely fastened to her wrist, she gives it a soft hit. It bounces back and hits Veronica in the face.
“Hey!”
“A weapon.” Acxa notes.
“Please don’t pop it in my face.”
“An effective weapon.”
Veronica rolls her eyes. “I knew I should have taken you on the roller coaster.”