Prologue 2: Itty Witty Bitty Kitty
Tepha gasped when she saw the contraption.
”Oh! Oh! I’ve seen this before. On some of the old holos. It’s ah...ah...”
She snapped her fingers quickly trying to jolt the memory out of hiding.
”Oh yeah, it’s called a Fairest Wheel!”
Ledo looked on with skepticism.
”Fairest compared to what?”
”I i don’t know. Not anything I know of. It’s just what it’s called.”
”What’s it for?”
”For riding of course. And also I think they are supposed to break down trapping you so you have a romantic encounter in them.”
Ledo looked on with more confusion.
”How would you be trapped? Couldn’t you just walk off of it?”
Tepha considered the question and quickly dismissed it.
”Don’t be a killjoy. It doesn’t do anything, it’s just there for fun. Come on, let’s give it a try.”
Ledo had deep reservations about it all. It seemed to just be a waste of valuable space and a potential waste of time. He studied the four-legged mammals going up and down. They didn’t seem to be any unifying uniforms or equipment for them. Some had gold saddles, some had silver. Some where smiling while others looked to be running really fast. One of them was painted in black and white stripes for some reason.
”Really? After everything we’ve done, with everything we could do this is how you want to spend our time?”
She gave him a playful punch on the arm.
”Come on, Ledo. Live a little. What’s the point of traveling if we don’t indulge in the local customs? Listen, you made some money off that frozen guy, you made some money charging those pirates passage. Rig looted some cargo from the derelict and now the ship is in dry dock getting worked over. What is there to worry about? What is there to spend our time on?”
”How about finding a buyer for some of this cargo? And making arrangements to get some more. We ended up fleeing Jone with a nearly empty hold. We could have had so much more in there, at the very least made a chunk of money off of a mail run.”
”Well you can go about being an old man but I’m going to enjoy the Ferris wheel. Now you are welcome to join me watching me go up...and down or you can go off and do old man business that will get done when we finish. So what’s it going to be?”
Ledo gave an exasperated sigh. He could tell he wasn’t going to enjoy it. What was there to enjoy? And yet Tepha’s good mood was infections, like a case of Targillian pox. He knew he wouldn’t enjoy it, but he figured she would and through her he might have a good time. Besides, she had a point, what else was there to do?
”Well I suppose after everything that’s happened we deserve a little time alone, away from the others.”
Tepha didn’t even look surprised. She had a smile on her face that said she knew he was going to follow her no matter what objections he had raised. It was this brief smug smile that said Protest all you want but you’re ass is mine.
He held out his hand and she grabbed it in hers, jokingly dragging him towards the ticket booth to ride the “Fairest Wheel”.