Chapter 3: Fun

One drawback to positive thinking, it tends to make our preparations rather fun, and stifling laughter is a constant strain on our self discipline. We’re still kids you know, and kids are spontaneous.

Exploring the outer slopes of the extinct volcano that basically comprises the entirety of our island, we discover a ravine, a cleft, that runs from the sea almost to the rim. The cleft gets deeper and with a shallower slope as it also widens nears the rim. That’s where we found the other mom, the vined up mom, Billi.

“Hi Billi, how are you feeling.”

“Look at me Linda, my son Johnny did this to me. What do you expect I feel? When a mother wishes she’d never given birth to a child, it’s the most miserable feeling you can imagine. If I could kill myself, I would. If I could kill Johnny, I would, then kill myself.”

“Don’t despair, Billi. A cyborg body will replace that mess of vines and lacerated pierced flesh your body has become.”

“Can you give me a cyborg body, Linda?”

“Not yet, but hang in there. It may take a few years, but I promise we’ll save you, if you just hang on. Are you in pain?”

“Physical pain, no. Emotional pain? Agony!”

“Can you come with us?”

‘Don’t you have eyes? Can’t you see, I’m rooted to this spot?”

“How did that happen?”

“Johnny lashed me to a vine already rooted here, then crammed grapes down my throat faster than I could puke them up. When those seeds sprouted, they took root here. I’m immobilized, permanently.”

“Why would Johnny do this to you?”

“He is a rebellious twelve year old. We disagreed and Johnny doesn’t tolerate dissent in the ranks.”

“Doesn’t Johnny respect you as his parent?”

“Johnny has forgotten or is incapable of understanding I was once his mother. Johnny is no longer human.”

“Your mind seems to be unaffected? Why would the vines not affect your brain?”

“Maybe because I am an adult, was already adult when the vines sprouted inside me. Maybe that’s why the vines can’t affect me as much, but truthfully, I don’t know why.”

“We’ll see you later, Billi. We have to go now before the kids come down from sunning themselves.”

“Don’t forget me, Linda.”

“We won’t Billi. Have hope and faith we will rescue you eventually.”

“I want to hope.”

“You can and should hope, Billi. I promise. We will see you walking around in a youthful beautiful cyborg body.”

“If I survive.”

“Make certain you survive and retain as much of your humanity as you can Billi. Can you sing?”

“What would prompt me to sing? I have no joy in my pathetic life as an almost complete vegetable.”

“Singing is preferable to weeping Billi.”

“That’s true. Maybe if I try, I can remember a song.”

“How about Tammy? Didn’t you watch that movie with Gruncle Iron about a hundred times?”

“We only watched the beginning, then we were to preoccupied with each other to pay any more attention to it.”

“I really have to run to catch up with my kids. Bye Billi.”

“Hey, lady! Stop. I see you, I found you, you are supposed to stop.”

“Well, kiddo, I am not going to stop. Bye bye.”

“Wait! I’m supposed to hug you.”

“Why would you hug me?”

‘Johnny says if we find any of you to hug you.”

“What are you supposed to do after you hug me?”

“Just keep hugging you until Johnny comes.”

“Thanks but no thanks, kiddo. I don’t want your hug. Bye Billi!”

With that last goodbye, mom sprinted down the incline of the cleft and joined us, then the three of us entered a lavatube near the bottom. This lavatube is U shaped. It wasY shaped at one time when the volcano was active. The stem is plugged with lava so just leaving a U shape now, with two mouths opening near the sea.

We ran through the tube re-emerging farther along the coast of the volcanoes cone. From there we continued skirting the coast until we arrived at the first entrance to our labyrinthine base. We passed many tubes enroute. Anyone following us won’t know which tube is ours unless they watch us emerge or enter. We feel reasonably safe. No one was visible and watching us.

“What do you make of the Leafy kid wanting to hug you, Momma?”

“Well, don’t put much faith in this, but my impression is, the kiddo thought we were playing a game. Didn’t seem to have bad intentions towards me, although hugging me until Johnny showed up would have been bad for me.”

“If the kids think it’s a game, maybe we can use that.”

“Maybe, let’s think about it. Who’s hungry?”