(Continued from Hospital Hijinks -- Part One)
When Abdual woke up the next morning, he wondered for a moment if it had all been a dream. After all, it’s not every night a tiny journalist in pigtails and a fuzzy pink robe shows up in your hospital room. Then he saw the empty Jello cups on the table. Quickly swiping them into the garbage can, he couldn’t help but grin and hope that he’d see Yara again today.
As luck would have it, she popped in around lunch time. Seeing the fresh Jello cup on his tray, she gave him an exaggerated wink and he tried not to laugh.
“I see the aliens are feeding their captives well!” Yara eyeballed the half-finished plate of mashed potatoes and something that might pass for meatloaf. “If ‘well’ means that they’re fed at all.”
“It’s okay,” said Abdual. “I wasn’t that hungry, anyway, and alien food is kinda gross. Who knows what it’s even made out of?”
“Probably alien eel poop,” giggled Yara.
“And alien moose guts with alien onions and alien turnips!” added Abdual.
They hooted and hollered over a variety of potential alien dishes until Nurse Nasira poked her head in to see what was going on.
“My my, it’s good to see you two so lively today! What’s so funny?”
The friends looked at each other, then at her, and together they screeched, “Alien boogers and cheese!” They collapsed into giggles all over again. Nurse Nasira shook her head with a small smile. Let them laugh, she thought. Let them find whatever joy they can in this place.
Over the next few days, Abdual and Yara established themselves as the Human Youth Officers of Morale and Networking – HYOOMAN for short. They visited the other kids in the ward, and Abdual told them tall tales while Yara interviewed them about their experiences as alien captives. They pilfered Jello cups at night and distributed these “morale rations” during the day. (Little did they know that Nurse Nasira was secretly keeping the fridge well-stocked for exactly this reason.)
And then Abdual decided that the humans needed something extra.
They needed entertainment.
They needed to be included.
They needed to put on a show.
*** This story may or may not be continued here on BMaC... but the full and finished version will be included in my next book, Another 6 Stories by Haley, expected this winter.