Dave & Shanice - A Magical Adventure: Part 8

The bullet train that lead out of Village City was overly luxurious due to a bevy of misappropriated funds and a local congressman's promise of comfort for the masses (aka the middle class). Being of no affiliation, political or otherwise, Dave and Shanice had no qualms about indulging in the luxury that surrounded them. Luxury came to them in the same manner that an absence of luxury came to them - like a drop of water meets a rolling stream.

Luckily, Shanice's grandmother, who volunteered weekly in one of Village City's suburban aviary parks, had left her TransPass on the bedside bureau. In this way things flowed through Dave and Shanice. By not expecting an object, that object was drawn to them as if they were an emotionally distant boy with a rusty Firebird and the object was a girl with low expectations and limited options. They meet it all with open eyes and quick fingers.

They sat in a wide booth with a marble tabletop and benches upholstered in prickly green velvet. Bird's Eye maple lined the train's deep window frames on which Shanice leaned as she's stared out at the passing Boysenberry Orchards and trackside shacks. They were outside of the suburbs, the exurbs, the post-exurbs, and well into the sweetened countryside heading for the Luke Merlin Memorial Botanical Gardens - deep in the heart of Chickawack County.

Dave reclined in the booth and sipped at a half-full Gin & Crabapple that he had obtained from their neighbor's table after the man had retired to the observation deck. Dave held Shanice's hand lightly in his own and brushed his thumb slowly against the small veins that ridged it's back. He let his eyes fall out of focus as he stared up at the ceiling and it's pattern of gold leafed hexagons. He could still feel last night's chemical reactions uncoiling throughout his body, their signals growing weaker with every passing town.

Shanice turned to him and said "One more stop Dave, we're almost there. Is Alan meeting us at the station?"

"Yes, he'll be there," Dave said "but don't expect him to lead us directly to the Door of Lonely Planets. Being the Director of the Botanical Gardens, he'll want to show us his latest experiment first. He wrote to me about it weeks ago. It's called Transparent Grass and I think it has been waiting for us..."