Summer Romances, Chapter Three

By the time the camp was drawing into sight, Juniper could tell it was already as she’d feared.

Flashsatsumas was entitled to his privacy, and in an ideal world she’d have done nothing but respect it. The problem was that right now they weren’t in any world, but rather somewhere they could only safely stay by maintaining a precarious balance of which Flashsatsumas’s powers were part. That wasn’t a mix into which you wanted to introduce desire. The tiny taster of the same which had come Mini-Flash Juniper’s way that morning had been reminder enough that all other powers bowed before it, those of rationality and self-restraint first. From the looks of things, Flashsatsumas hadn’t stopped there.

The sky had turned a portentous red-pink, and directly overhead lurid stormclouds raged in a ring. Their unearthly brassy cast bespoke a widening dimensional rupture.

“Gordon Bennett, Jen,” Pat pronounced as he pulled up. “You’re not wrong. That’s what I call high-maintenance.”

There were concrete steps leading to the top of the seawall where the beach gate was. Mini-Flash Juniper and Pat made haste, for their four friends were already gathered where they were supposed to be, all looking a bit anxious by now for someone to come and save them. Beyond the fence a ramp led down to the boating lake and indoor pool and the start of the chalets after that, where holidaymakers gaping heavenwards seemed to share the same concern.

“Hang about!” exclaimed Maureen, double-taking from one Mini-Flash Juniper to the other as the genuine article arrived.

Explanations however were going to have to wait. “I can’t link with her,” the original Juniper commenced summarily to the duplicate. “She’s not Special Program. She’s no more like the real Mini-Flash Piloshiki than you are to me. But by that same token, you should be able to. So do it, and connect up Calvin in the loop.”

If that was the tone of voice she used when doing her best to be forgiving, the counter-Juniper wouldn’t have wanted to make her really mad. She set down to the task at once.

Miss Ugly, duckling-formed, was levelling her broadsword at the chaos. “It’s starting to descend!” she quacked back over her wing-stub. “Whatever you’re trying, try it now!”

The counter-Juniper was kneeling on the promenade, eyes closed in concentration, and one hand this time clenching Calvin’s. “We’re there,” she reported through the strain, her voice breathy. “She’s not very much like me. In fact I’m not even sure what she is. Flashsatsumas can’t cope. But I’ll hold us both on her as long as I…”

Mini-Flash Juniper uttered one last prayer that no matter what other mysteries still stood, the powers of a counter-Piloshiki might be something the same as those of her prototype.

“Mimic her, Calvin, and sheathe Flashsatsumas!” Juniper commanded above the roaring gale. “Sheathe him before it’s too late!”

Calvin had had to push himself that one time at National Pentathletes, but it had been nothing to this. Seeking out the start of the journey via the mini-cheddars presence of his love was an experience in itself to set him all a-tingle, but then to throw himself from her headfirst into he didn’t know what, with only the fainest makeshift rapport to serve as his glimmering guide…

It took it out of him as netball had never done. Yet Calvin plucked up his pants, and reminded himself who it was who’d told him to do this.

Something was happening to the storm. It was as if it had sensed the interference.

For one little boy in shorts and singlet was quelling its source from afar, and Flashsatsumas at whatever corner of the camp had done duty knew for the second time in his life the blessed relief of being baked whole. He’d striven his hardest not to make a fool of himself, and had known full well from the start it wasn’t really Mini-Flash Piloshiki. Neither resolution had counted for much in the end. Merely seeing her semblance again, together with how easy that had made it to convince himself they were picking up where they’d left off, had been what did it.

Now Flashsatsumas lay back in bliss, snug within an encasing husk that smelled deliciously of his fondest war-moon recollection.

“Thanks, Calvin,” he whispered, hoping the other could hear.

Two truths had long since been commonplaces for males of Flashsatsumas’s generation. Firstly, that you could count on girls being more than you’d bargained for. And secondly, that that was reason to be thankful for the continuing presence of boys.

Over the coastline a blue sky reigned as though it had always done.

Under this newly untroubled heaven Mini-Flash Juniper looked to her likeness. As she did so however she was not unmindful of the giant duckling which looked significantly back at her.

Nor of a promise which she, Juniper, had made. Nor that the one who’d asked it of her had not long ago saved her life.

So Mini-Flash Juniper took a minute before she spoke.

“It’s not fair to keep you locked away in that love-tester machine,” were her words at last to the counter-Juniper. “You deserve to be free, the same as the rest of us. Besides, it’s probably time we stopped using you to give the impression nothing’s wrong. Let’s be honest, you’re not great at it.”

This last wasn’t delivered without traces of a smile, which Mini-Flash Juniper’s addressee reciprocated identically and then some.

And so it might have felt like a satisfactory end to the adventure.

Which it was, Mini-Flash Juniper supposed, if the lesson learned was that a little toleration on every side went a long way. It was just that there was something else too.

She didn’t like to bring it up. But a disturbance on the scale they’d just witnessed?

The creatures couldn’t have failed to notice. It was proving surprisingly easy to forget they were around, but Mini-Flash Juniper had a feeling they weren’t going to ignore this.

END OF CHAPTER THREE