Chapter 1 - Link https://app.t2.world/article/clwlzw2gj6649541zmcp8hdxiqf
Luna bounced out of bed with an extra spring in her step. The moon was in Aquarius which is a great time for innovation. Wearing one of Nancy's woolly hats to bed because it was so cold wasn't the sort of innovation, she was hoping for but yay for Nancy! It was a morning that you could see your own breath inside. Not the weathers’ fault, in fact the day looked stunning. Just a very old house that probably never had insulation. On the plus side, Luna got to show off Nancy's wonderful gift at the market today. A full flower covered jersey. She had Moonflowers covering the jersey. Such a lovely gift. Like having her name all over it with a beauty that words can't show visually.
Luna put the kettle on to make a nice morning herbal brew when Kimoko strolled into the kitchen, showing her genetically gifted, completely naked body.
“Kimoko!!”
“Good morning, Luna, what's wrong?”
“Aren't you freezing cold?”
Kimoko looked down at her chest and with a cheeky smile “yes, it appears so.”
Luna, always the caring type. “You need to borrow some clothes? We're more or less the same size, apart from your incredible boobs”.
“Why thank you Luna” Kimoko did a little curtsey “but I'm trying cold therapy.”
Luna was intrigued. “Tell me more...”
Kimoko got excited that someone wanted to hear her new idea.
“So, people pay a lot of money to get cold therapy or do Wim Hoff courses right? And here we are in a lovely house that didn't get dressed to quite the same degree as its peers.”
“But we love it just the same” replied Luna.
“Yes, so rather than being inconvenienced by the cold I figure why not make use of what nature and this lovely house provides and start the morning with some cold therapy!”
Luna laughed a lovely bright laugh. “This day couldn't have started better! This is genius Kimoko. Just the innovation we need. How are you finding it?”
Kimoko pursed her lips. “I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I think I've had enough of the shivering for today and I can't really feel my feet, and look.”
Kimoko looked down at her skin and pointed to goosebumps that had come up all over her body
Luna pulled a second cup out of the cupboard. “Cute but surely cold therapy needs to be slowly worked into to. I’ll Make us a tea with Ginger and Kawakawa to warm us up from the inside. You get some thick socks on before your feet fall off.”
Kimoko beamed at Luna “Ok! I'll semi hurry back to my room, if I run, I’ll get wind chill. God Luna!! It's so coooooold!!!!! hahahaha!!”
Kimoko rushed and slowed and rushed to her room while laughing and shivering in equal measure.
Luna also added a cinnamon stick to the tea, and it was spectacular if she did think so herself
Kimoko returned with what seemed like every item of clothing she owned. She could hardly put her arms down.
“I wonder how long it takes to warm up” said Kimoko through chattering teeth.
Luna handed her a cup of the hot tea. “Drink all of this asap. Magicians’ orders” there was a running joke that she was a magician with herbal tea concoctions. Her cupboard looked like an apothecary with lots of amazing old glass jars and bottles full of wonderful herbs and flowers. The collection was probably her favourite possession. She traded some Himalayan Yoga Meditation sessions for the glass collection from someone else at the market.
Market day! One of her favourite days of the week.
“Are you coming to the market today Kimoko?”
“No, I'm supposed to be getting picked up to go to a battery hen farm protest. Just as soon as my teeth stop chattering.”
Kimoko was big on causes. Luna liked to live and let live a bit more or the cruelty and negativity of the world could get overwhelming.
“Well, good luck out there, if you need to skip this one just pop down to the market, you're welcome anytime as you know.”
“Thanks Luna, this tea is starting to make a delicious warming emanate out from my stomach. Hurry up and get to my poor toes!”
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The market was its normal busy self at the start of a sunny day. The bright sun brought smiles and optimism even when some parts of the ground still had frost. Grey and drizzly days brought a different mood. Luna believed all of Mother Nature's moods were to be respected for being special. Without grey the other colours were far less vibrant. Anyway, as a wise man once said, there was no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.
Setup was easy and stress free. A lot of the stress-free part was because of Luna's market neighbour Jack. A few months ago, her generator died beyond fixing. A pretty essential piece of equipment when you needed to keep your freezers running. Luna sold all sorts of beautiful botanics fit for human consumption. She couldn't say medicines for legal reasons. A large part of her sales came from her vegan ice creams though and freezers were a necessary evil.
When hers broke down Luna had no idea what was wrong or how to fix it. Machinery was not her forte. Enter Jack, her shining knight in armour. Yes, her housemate Kimoko hated when she called him that. 'No woman needs a man to save her, you're just perpetuating the patriarchy by saying such things, even if it is slightly tongue in cheek.'
Luna didn't have the same opinion. Jack had armour for sure, a rough exterior that showed in his often-blunt delivery. Shining, he definitely shone. He had a heart of glowing gold that burst through the gaps in his armour. Knight? Well, when Jack said the generator was beyond repair, he gave her an old one of his that he said he was going to throw out anyway. Luna knew he was lying about that, but he refused to take any money or payment. He said something like 'having your shit served next to my exquisite proper ice cream just makes mine look even better'. She had it on good authority from her Taro card reader that he bought a generator and pretended it was an old one lying around. Her Knight in shining armour.
Kimoko liked to say now Luna would feel beholden to him. That wasn't true. He never mentioned the generator again and she just loved him for the amazing rough diamond that he was.
“Nancy!” Luna jumped out into the middle of the walkway that was filling with people having a lovely Sunday roam at the market. Nancy looked up from her knitting. Luna jumped into a star, like doing half a star jump and shouted, “I still love my amazing Luna jersey!”
“I'm glad it's still of use” Nancy smiled, still knitting despite looking up. “By the way, where is our Jack?”
Nancy was right. Jack was nowhere to be seen and the gate had been open to the public for a while.
“You haven't heard from him Nancy?” “No, my dear, I haven't heard anything.”
Annoying music started getting louder, punctuated by shooting sounds Pow Pow for six shooters and an American accented voice saying, “fastest cones in the west!” Nancy and Luna both looked down the row. In the distance, driving slowly towards them, blaring out its crass tune, was Graeme's ice cream truck.
Nancy leapt into action. Pouncing into action like a panther with unexpected speed.
“Luna, you search the grounds for Jack, see if you can spot him anywhere, I'll look after his spot.”
It wasn't a question; it was an authoritative command. One Luna was more than ready to obey.
Right. What to do first? The front gate. With a lot of excuse me's, she cut through and behind people's stall, across rows to take the most direct line. Bill was on the gate checking passes and making sure everything was in order.
“Bill! Have you seen Jack yet?”
“What's it worth to you if I have young lady?” Bill quipped.
“a free ice cream but I'm in a hurry.”
“One of yours or one of Jacks?” he said with suspicion.
“Bill! I'm in a hurry!! Both ok?”
“Ok Luna, he headed off that way round the back with the other late arrivals.”
Yelling thank you Bill over her shoulder Luna broke into a sprint which she couldn't sustain. Nonetheless she found him in short order and corralled him in the right direction.
By the time they got back to their traditional home there was quite the commotion. Graeme's incessant tune from his ice cream truck was on repeat and Graeme himself was animatedly talking to Elizabeth which included arm movements towards Nancy. Nancy had set up a chair in front of Graeme's truck blocking his access to Jacks traditional spot and was calmly knitting and humming away to herself.
Luna leapt into the fray. “Hi Elizabeth, what seems to be the problem?” Graeme didn't give Elizabeth a chance to answer.
“I think you know what the problem is Luna, you've been trying to block me getting into this area forever.”
Six-foot five muscle bound Graeme was a physically intimidating figure. Muscle bound body builder type. Luna feigned innocence in the face of Graeme's onslaught.
“You know the rules, if someone isn't here within 45mins of gates opening then someone else can take their spot, right Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth with her officious looking clipboard and serious expression confirmed.
“Whilst we don't have permanently reserved spots since that would imply ownership and open a huge bag of problems, we do have this curtesy for our long-term vendors...”
Graeme was too impatient to let Elizabeth even finish.
“BUT the rules clearly state...”
“IF I may finish Graeme! We do have this curtesy for our long-term vendors and Graeme is correct that after 45minutes someone else may take the spot for the day”.
Luna couldn't let this stand. “That's ok Elizabeth because Jack is here, he just had a little car trouble.”
Graeme wasn't happy, “Hahahahaha!! Come on! I was here first!!” He finally seemed to realise his manner with Elizabeth was a bit aggressive, so he changed his tone and turned on the charm.
“Come on Lizzy love, give me a turn, I don't wanna be stuck out on the edge again and you read it yourself in the rules.”
By this time Jack had made his way up from his car to check on the situation.
“It's ok Luna, I don't wanna make a fuss...” Luna cut him off with a stolen quick look and shake of her head. She silently mouthed the words towards him that only he could see “He called her Lizzy.”
Game over. Elizabeth hated being called anything other than her given name.
Elizabeth started writing on her clipboard. It was silent other than the incessant noise pollution coming from Graeme's truck. Elizabeth closed the cover on her clipboard.
“Jack? You're ready to set up?” Jack nodded.
“Graeme. You are right 45minutes after the gates open to the public you may take a spot. The problem for you is the spot is still vacant. Your truck is in the walkway and since Jack is here, he takes precedence.”
Graeme was incensed “UNBELIEVABLE!!”
Poetically it was at that point in the song that the six shooters went off POW POW! Elizabeth started to make her exit, but Graeme wasn't finished.
“I'm only not in the spot because of that old fuckin nag with the knitting!”
“Oooh Graeme” Luna countered in a teasing tone “Roid rage much??'
Elizabeth wasn't going to take that. Her clipboard was open again, pen furiously writing, and a piece of paper ripped off and held out to Graeme.
“Abusing other Vendors, that's a one week ban Graeme. Go home”
He desperately forced himself to not reply. The physical struggle on his face was witnessed by all but Jack who'd slipped away somewhere.
“Now Graeme” Pow Pow! What an annoying tune. He got into his truck with an ironic round of applause from those that witnessed the confrontation and drove his truck slowly off to the exit. It seemed to be off on a bit of a lean, however. Jack rejoined Luna.Elizabeth
“Where were you at the end Jack?”
“Well, you seemed to have it covered and he was being such a dick I went round the other side of his truck and let the air out of his tires.”
In the excitement Luna reached her hands up, grabbed hold of Jack's face and kissed him on the cheek. Which they both felt a bit awkward about afterwards but laughed, nonetheless.
“Thank you, Luna, that was very kind of you.”
“You mean getting you your spot or the kiss?” Luna said with a cheeky sideways look at Jack.
Jack was too embarrassed to reply, laughing as he felt heat rising to his face. He was blushing like a schoolgirl on prom night when her crush asked her to dance. His wheezing chest turned his laugh into an uncontrollable coughing fit as he struggled to breathe. Brilliant. 40 going on 100.
Luna held him up by his arm as he was bent over coughing. It subsided and he got himself under control.
“Sorry about that, bit of a cold”
“Bullshit Jack, you need to see someone about it, it's been getting worse for months.”
Jack didn't have the heart to tell her that he'd seen doctors and specialists. They'd come up with no answers. It's why he sold his dairy farm and moved into a smaller place and the ice cream; well, he'd always loved ice cream. Brings a little joy into the day. Now he spread those little pieces of joy on market day with the help of his best friend, Rosie, his cow.
“Yeah, I'll get onto that next week sometime. Chemist might sort me out with a few lozenges. Anyway, more importantly, I gotta get my shit out of the walkway and into my spot!”
Effectively changing the subject was an art. One that Jack was pretty good at.
“You know you're a bit mental Luna, helping a far superior ice cream set up next to you.”
Luna took the bait; she couldn't help it.
“Oh, here we go... you really want me to go into the horrors of factory farming?”
“Last time I looked my place didn't look much like a factory, not that you've seen it.”
Luna was talking but not really listening to herself. She was studying Jack's face to see he was ok. At least he had a bit of his old bite left, that was a good sign. His slowed movements, however, was not.
