board. There were also bookshelves bearing Mr. Monroe's bonspiel tro -phies and the toys belonging to the three daughters: an array of Snoopy plush toys, Jem dolls, Easy Bake ovens, and Nancy Drew mystery novels.
A n d t h e b e d B u c k w a s g i v e n t o s l e e p i n w a s s m a l l i s h —a c h i l d ' s b e d
—covered with ruffled pink Fortrel sheets that smelled like they'd been sitting in a Goodwill shop for years. On the headboard there were scuffed up Holly Hobby, Veronica Lodge, and Betty Cooper stickers that had
been stuck and halfheartedly peeled away. The room was obviously never used and pretty well forgotten, but Buck didn't mind. All he wanted to d o w a s f a l l i n t o a d e e p d e e p s l e e p . A n d s o h e d i d .
"Now, as you can imagine, the Monroe daughters were most excited indeed at having an astronaut/monster hibernating in their guest room.
O n e b y o n e t h e t h r e e d a u g h t e rs, Arleen, Darleen, and Serena came down to the room to stare at Buck, now sleeping in their old bed amid the clutter of their childhood. Mrs. Monroe wouldn't let her daughters peek long, still being fractionally convinced of her implication in Buck's illn e s s , a n d s h o o e d t h e m a w a y , w a n t i n g h i m t o g e t b e t t e r .
"Anyhow, life returned more or less to normal. Darleen and Serena went to work at the perfume counter of the local dime store, Mrs. Monroe's aloe product business picked up a bit, taking her out of the house, Mr.
Monroe was out on his thresher, leaving only Arleen, the eldest daughter, who had recently been fired from the 7 -Eleven, to take care of Buck.
" 'Make sure he gets lots to eat!' shouted Mrs. Monroe from her salt-rusted blue Bonneville sedan as she screeched out of the driveway, to which Arleen waved and then rushed inside to the bathroom where
she brushed her blond feathered hair, applied alluring cosmetics, and t h en dashed down to the kitchen to whip up a special lunchtime treat for Buck, who, owing to his space poisoning, would only awaken once a d a y a t n o o n , a n d t h e n o n l y f o r a h a l f h o u r . S h e m a d e a p l a t t e r o f Vienna franks appended to toothpicks and accessorized by little blocks of orange cheese. These she prettily arranged on a platter in a shape reminiscent of the local shopping mall logo, the Crestwood Mall letter C, angled heavily to the right. 'Facing the future' as the local newspaper had phrased it upon the mall's opening several hundred years previously when it was still 1974, even back then, since, as I have said, it has a/ways been 1974 in Texlahoma. As far back as records go. Shopping
malls, for instance, a recent innovation on Earth, have been supplying Texlahomans with running shoes, brass knickknacks, and whimsical
greeting cards for untold millennia.
"Anyway, Arleen raced down to the basement with the food platter a n d p u l l e d a c h a i r u p t o t h e b e d a n d p r e t e n d e d t o r e a d a b o o k . W h e n Buck woke up at one second past noon, the first thing he glimpsed was her reading, and he thought she looked ideal. As for Arleen, well, her heart had a romantic little arrhythmia right on the spot, even in spite of Buck's looking like a Frankenstein monster.
' 'I'm h u n g r y ,' Buck said to Arleen, to which she replied, 'Won't you please please have some of these Vienna frank-and-cheese kebabs.
I made them myself. They were most popular indeed at Uncle Clem's
wake last year.'
" 'Wake?' asked Buck. ' 'Oh, yes. His combine overturned during the harvest, and he was
trapped inside for two hours while he waited for the jaws of life to arrive.
He wrote his will out in blood on the cab ceiling.'
"From that moment on, a conversational rapport developed between t h e t w o , a n d b e f o r e l o n g , love bloomed, but there was a problem with their love, for Buck would always fall back asleep almost as soon as he would awaken, owing to his space poisoning. This grieved
A n d t h e b e d B u c k w a s g i v e n t o s l e e p i n w a s s m a l l i s h —a c h i l d ' s b e d
—covered with ruffled pink Fortrel sheets that smelled like they'd been sitting in a Goodwill shop for years. On the headboard there were scuffed up Holly Hobby, Veronica Lodge, and Betty Cooper stickers that had
been stuck and halfheartedly peeled away. The room was obviously never used and pretty well forgotten, but Buck didn't mind. All he wanted to d o w a s f a l l i n t o a d e e p d e e p s l e e p . A n d s o h e d i d .
"Now, as you can imagine, the Monroe daughters were most excited indeed at having an astronaut/monster hibernating in their guest room.
O n e b y o n e t h e t h r e e d a u g h t e rs, Arleen, Darleen, and Serena came down to the room to stare at Buck, now sleeping in their old bed amid the clutter of their childhood. Mrs. Monroe wouldn't let her daughters peek long, still being fractionally convinced of her implication in Buck's illn e s s , a n d s h o o e d t h e m a w a y , w a n t i n g h i m t o g e t b e t t e r .
"Anyhow, life returned more or less to normal. Darleen and Serena went to work at the perfume counter of the local dime store, Mrs. Monroe's aloe product business picked up a bit, taking her out of the house, Mr.
Monroe was out on his thresher, leaving only Arleen, the eldest daughter, who had recently been fired from the 7 -Eleven, to take care of Buck.
" 'Make sure he gets lots to eat!' shouted Mrs. Monroe from her salt-rusted blue Bonneville sedan as she screeched out of the driveway, to which Arleen waved and then rushed inside to the bathroom where
she brushed her blond feathered hair, applied alluring cosmetics, and t h en dashed down to the kitchen to whip up a special lunchtime treat for Buck, who, owing to his space poisoning, would only awaken once a d a y a t n o o n , a n d t h e n o n l y f o r a h a l f h o u r . S h e m a d e a p l a t t e r o f Vienna franks appended to toothpicks and accessorized by little blocks of orange cheese. These she prettily arranged on a platter in a shape reminiscent of the local shopping mall logo, the Crestwood Mall letter C, angled heavily to the right. 'Facing the future' as the local newspaper had phrased it upon the mall's opening several hundred years previously when it was still 1974, even back then, since, as I have said, it has a/ways been 1974 in Texlahoma. As far back as records go. Shopping
malls, for instance, a recent innovation on Earth, have been supplying Texlahomans with running shoes, brass knickknacks, and whimsical
greeting cards for untold millennia.
"Anyway, Arleen raced down to the basement with the food platter a n d p u l l e d a c h a i r u p t o t h e b e d a n d p r e t e n d e d t o r e a d a b o o k . W h e n Buck woke up at one second past noon, the first thing he glimpsed was her reading, and he thought she looked ideal. As for Arleen, well, her heart had a romantic little arrhythmia right on the spot, even in spite of Buck's looking like a Frankenstein monster.
' 'I'm h u n g r y ,' Buck said to Arleen, to which she replied, 'Won't you please please have some of these Vienna frank-and-cheese kebabs.
I made them myself. They were most popular indeed at Uncle Clem's
wake last year.'
" 'Wake?' asked Buck. ' 'Oh, yes. His combine overturned during the harvest, and he was
trapped inside for two hours while he waited for the jaws of life to arrive.
He wrote his will out in blood on the cab ceiling.'
"From that moment on, a conversational rapport developed between t h e t w o , a n d b e f o r e l o n g , love bloomed, but there was a problem with their love, for Buck would always fall back asleep almost as soon as he would awaken, owing to his space poisoning. This grieved
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