| To Saralinda: Part 6 |
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To Saralinda: Part 8 |
“Oh, this is simply exquisite. A Delgado original!” The woman adjusts her glasses and turns Saralinda over in her hands. “Where did you get her?”
“We found her in some passageways beneath the castle, Ma’am,” Keith replies.
She raises her head to study our dirty, tired faces and rock-dusted clothing.
“And recently too, by the looks of you both.”
“Yes. That doll used to belong to Princess Allura. I was hoping to have her repaired in time for a birthday gift.”
A dreamy sort of smile crosses her face. “Well, isn’t that just the sweetest thing!
I’ll start to work on her right away.”
“How long do you suppose it will take?”
She switches to business mode and begins to examine the doll in earnest. “Well, I’ll have to give her hair a soaking and her body a surface cleaning. That’s going to remove all of her facial features, I’m afraid. But I’ll take images of the details first so I can reproduce them accurately. The dress has a great deal of dry rot. I’ll have to replace it altogether. I have patterns of all the standard Delgado fashions that he dressed his dolls with, so that won’t be any trouble...” She adjusts her glasses again. “I’d say about four to four and a half hours. I’ll do the cleaning and painting first and work on the dress while the paint dries. That will have to do. I can try a heat-treatment for the paint, but I risk damaging the doll if I do.”
Keith shakes his head. “No no, don’t risk it. That’ll be just fine.”
“All right then, I’ll see you gentlemen later this evening. The doll will be good as new. Her Highness will be absolutely delighted, I’m sure.”
“Thank you very much, Ma’am, for putting yourself out of the way.”
“It’s no trouble whatsoever. I’m honored to be trusted with the task.” She gives us a friendly wave as we leave the store.
“Four and a half hours...that’s right around eleven,” Keith says as we get into his car. “Ten minutes each way plus time for any traffic, I’d say eleven-thirty. I hope Allura can stay up that late.”
“I think she could, Cap’n. It usually takes that long for her to go through her gifts anyway.”
“You’re right, Lance. Nothing to worry about.” He starts up the car and we head back to the castle.
“Well, the results are all in.” Doc Leslie slides the x-rays into place on the light box. “The skull is intact - I don’t even see a greenstick fracture. Your helmet must have taken the brunt of the impact. No fractures to the rib cage, but you will have a nice, big bruise for awhile. The ankle, again nothing broken, but definitely a Grade 1 sprain here, mostly with the posterior talofibular ligament.”
She turns to Keith, who is sitting on the exam bed with his right foot resting on an ice bag. “My father was right. Seems like you all try to compete with each other to see who can collect the most battle wounds in one pass. You never cease to amaze me, Keith. What sort of tangle did you get into with Lotor this time?”
Keith fidgets and frowns a little. “Umm, it wasn’t a confrontation with Lotor...”
“He did all that during a search below the castle, Doc,” I tell her. “We were looking for something down in the old shelters, and the expedition got a little hazardous in spots.”
She looks over at me. “An expedition, you say. Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Yep.”
She looks back at Keith. “Was it worth the risk?”
He gets a faraway look in his eyes for a moment. “Yes.”
“All right, at least you didn’t sustain all these injuries for nothing. Let me wrap that ankle and you’re free to go.” She takes an ace bandage out of a nearby drawer and breaks the package open. “You know the drill for the sprain - rest it as much as possible, use elevation and ice on and off for at least the next three days, keep it wrapped but not too tight because I don’t want to have to amputate. I’ll prescribe some painkillers for you to keep on hand, and I want you back in here in a week so I can look at it again.”
Keith gets an expression of concern. “I’m not going to need crutches, will I?”
She begins to wrap his ankle. “Well, I think you can get away without them if you take it nice and easy. But I know how you are. Don’t think I won’t have you scheduled for a fitting if you happen to aggravate the injury.”
“Doctor Gorma, I can’t be put on crutches,” he protests. “I hate crutches. They’ll get in the way. I can’t take them with me when I fly Black Lion.”
“That’s why you have a backup pilot on call nowadays, Captain. And I have no problem with submitting the paperwork to Coran for your temporary layoff if I have to. You take care of that ankle, or else.”
He gives a little boy sulk. “Yes, doctor.”
She smirks at him. “That’s a good little Keithie. I’ll give you a lollipop.”
He jerks a thumb in my direction. “Give it to him, he’ll take it.”
“Orange one, orange one,” I say to her.
She shakes her head at us. “You two are a real pair.”
“What, you mean I’m not getting the lollipop?”
She sighs and retrieves one from her supply cabinet. “Here Lancey, here’s your lolly.”
“Cool!” I take the candy and look over at Keith. “C’mon, Keithie, or we’re gonna miss Ally’s birthday! I want cake and ice cream!”
Keith laughs as he pulls his sock back on. “Can’t get good hired help these days,” he mutters to himself.
We’re greeted with expressions of curiosity as we enter the dining hall. Keith has never been this late for anything, especially Allura’s birthday. I guess he figures it’s better for him to be late than to come in limping and clutching his ribs.
He’s wearing a black turtleneck shirt with gray dress slacks and black shoes. The pants were a good choice; they’re all the better to conceal the taped ankle with. I’m sure the painkillers have kicked in by now because his limp is barely there. Allura doesn’t seem to have noticed it. Sven spots it right off the bat, though, and glances at me. I don’t react to his scrutiny.
“You guys are late,” Pidge announces unnecessarily. “We sang the song and cut the cake already. She just started opening the presents.”
“Better to save the best for last,” I say to him and hold up the large package for all to see. “Happy birthday, Princess.” I bring it over to set it on the table. Allura looks the box over thoughtfully.
“This looks a bit large for what my gift was supposed to be,” she says. Then she unwraps the package and blinks at it in surprise. “Oooh, what’s this thing?”
“It’s a gumball machine.” I pull a roll of nickels out of my pocket and proceed to demonstrate how it works. A big blue gumball rolls out, and she picks it up to examine it.
“So what do you do with this now?”
“It’s bubblegum, Princess,” Pidge pipes up. “You chew it up and blow bubbles with it.”
“You do what?”
“Here, let me show you.” Pidge drops in a nickel and gets a white gumball. He pops it into his mouth, chews vigorously and blows a small bubble which breaks quickly. He makes a face. “You need at least two to do it right.”
Allura hands him another coin. “Here, try again.”
Pidge gets a second gumball, stuffs it into his mouth and prepares to give it a second try. This time he starts to create a good-sized bubble. Allura watches in amazement and gives a start when it finally bursts and splatters all over Pidge’s cheeks.
“See? Pretty neat, huh?” Pidge takes the wad out of his mouth and dabs at his face to clean off the sticky residue. Allura makes a face.
“It doesn’t look very neat at all. It seems awfully messy, as a matter of fact.”
“Nahh, it’s fun, Princess. Why don’t you try it once?”
“All right…” Allura looks down at the gumball she’s holding, puts it into her mouth, and the look she gets on her face as she tries to chew it makes us all burst into laughter. But she will not be discouraged. She gets another nickel to use for a second gumball, pops it into her mouth and renews her chewing in earnest, a look of deep concentration on her face. All of a sudden she springs to her feet and makes a show of walking over to the other side of the room. She turns with a flourish and raises her arms in triumph.
“Ta-daa!” She says happily. We all blink at her in confusion.
“What, Princess?” Pidge asks.
“I did it!” She replies.
“Did what? You didn’t blow a bubble yet.”
“No, but I chewed gum and walked at the same time. According to the Earth records I’ve read, no blonde there is able to do it.”
Everyone exchanges looks, then we erupt into laughter all over again. Allura returns the same confused look we just gave to her.
“What?” She asks. It just makes us hoot all the harder.
Keith finally recovers enough to gently explain the concept of blonde jokes to her while the rest of us wipe at our tearing eyes. When he’s through she still manages to laugh at the whole thing and decides to return her attention to opening gifts, chomping her gum all the while.
Pidge has gifted her with the very same wind-up duck Keith mentioned before. It waddles convincingly across the table on its test run, making the mice flee from it in all directions. I have to grab it to keep it from doing a suicide dive off of the table.
Hunk’s present is an entire season of Love Binds the Heart on digital disk. Like she needs to watch soap operas. Her life already is one.
Sven has gotten her a folding chair, easel and a nicely-carved wooden box with a set of top-notch oil paints and brushes in it. The whole set folds up for transportation in a canvas shoulder bag. Allura looks very pleased with it. Pidge walks over behind where Sven is sitting and rests his hands on his shoulders.
“Say, Princess, isn’t Romelle’s birthday coming around soon?” Pidge asks. “Maybe you could paint a picture with your brand new oil paints for a birthday gift.”
Allura looks thoughtful. “Romelle does collect art, she might like that.”
“Yeah, and a portrait would be especially nice. Need a subject idea?”
Sven twists his head around to give Pidge an exasperated look. Pidge grins at him.
“Well, I’m sure I can come up with something,” Allura says. Sven is about to breathe a sigh of relief when Allura looks at him and gives him a pleasant smile. “You wouldn’t mind posing for me, would you Sven? You might as well be my first subject since it’s your gift.”
“Ahh...” He stammers.
“Wonderful! We can start on it tomorrow evening, all right?”
“Umm...”
“Thank you. It’s so nice of you to volunteer for me.”
Allura goes on to the next gift, and Sven shoots an icy glare at Pidge. Pidge chuckles as he returns to his seat. I bet Bandor gets this little piece of news before the week is out.
Two hours and dozens of presents later, Keith finally steps forward to hand her a plain envelope. She opens it up and removes the card, one of those outrageously fancy well-wishers covered in flowers and sentimental poetry. She reads the extra writing he put in it.
“I owe you one extra-special gift, to be delivered later on this evening.” She looks up at him. Keith gives her an embarrassed little grin.
“It’s still being worked on as we speak. I have to go and get it a little later.”
Allura looks stumped. She glances at me, and I shrug back. She sets the card aside and picks up the boxed set Hunk gave her.
“So, who wants to help me watch some of these in the sitting room?” She looks at all of us. Keith makes a face, but he’s the first to volunteer.
“I’ll get the popcorn,” says Pidge. He gets up and dashes into the kitchen as Allura, Hunk and Sven head for the door. Keith catches up with Allura and offers to carry the box for her. She gives him an odd sort of look as she hands the box over.
In the sitting room, Hunk hooks up Allura’s new disk player to the monitor. Allura sits down on the couch, and Keith sits right beside her. She blinks at him in surprise. He smiles at her. She looks down at her hands briefly, then back at him with a soft smile of her own. Maybe watching the soaps will set the right mood and he’ll decide to kiss her now, give her the doll later.
Yeah, right, Lance. And maybe pigs will fly. But why not? I know that lions do…
| To Saralinda: Part 6 |
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To Saralinda: Part 8 |