“What about your landlord?”
“He’d look a lot better with wings.”
(“Really?” Ken asked Angelica.)
(“Of course,” she nodded.)
“Ken’s fifth tenant is Cassandra Pyredom from the planet Talsenia. She carries around something most people don’t in this day and age.
“It’s a sword.”
“Yes, specifically what you would called a ‘saber’. My mother gave it to me.”
“Do you carry it everywhere?”
“Yes. It’s force of habit. Most females on Talsenia carry one.”
“How are things here on Earth? Is there anything different, as in adjustments to make?”
“Talsenia‘s culture is influenced by the military, so there’s more rigid discipline there than here. It’s also more patriarchal on Earth. But at this house, things are a little more like ‘home’.”
“What about the other tenants?”
“They’re, in a word, fun. We’re like sisters. I’m an only child, so it’s something I hadn’t really experienced before.”
“What about your landlord?”
“Kenaeth? He reminds me of my father, since Talsenia men are the ones who take care of home, like cooking, cleaning and laundry.”
“What did you come to Earth for?”
“I have an interest in languages, so I’m studying linguistics at the same college as Alisa.”
“And that brings us to the littlest of the tenants.”
(“Who is she talking about?” Katrina asked.)
(“Who do you think is the littlest of the people living in this house!?” Ken said.)
The camera rested on the coffee table, where a small Victorian chair was. An empty Victorian chair.
From off screen, Katrina was heard. “Am I really going to be on TV? Is this really a video camera?”
Katrina’s face appeared on screen – upside down. She must have been sitting on the camera.
“Hey, Mister Cameraman. Do you like your job?”
A voice from off camera said, “It pays the bills.”
“Miss Faerblood, how about our interview?” Sophia said from off-camera.
“Oh, right!”
She flew to the coffee table and sat down in the chair.
“That’s right. Katrina Faerblood, from the planet Betlin, is only about a foot tall,” Sophia said as a voice-over.
“You are very cute.”
Katrina shifted shyly in her seat. “Thank you, but you’ll make me blush.”
“What do you do here, Katrina?”
“I measure time, gravity and space fluctuations in this area.”
“That sounds really scientific.”
“It is! I collect the data and send it off to scientists on my home planet.”
“What do you think of the other tenants?”
“I thought it’d be a little scary, since I knew everyone would be bigger than me. But everyone’s really nice to me.”
“What about Ken?”
“Ken’s like my big brother, and he takes care of everyone. And he always lets me ride on his head.”
“Do you like it here?”
Katrina beamed a big smile. “Yeah! It’s like we’re a family here, which makes being away from home a lot easier.”
“Do you do anything else?”
“I help out with a store, for clothes and items. As you can see, it’s kind of hard to find clothes in my size.”
“Are you glad you came?”
“Yep!”
The scene went back to Ken, sitting in a chair in the living room. Sophia once again did a voice over. “Back to the landlord, Kenaeth Goldwrite. The tenants have been here about two months. What does he think of them overall?”
Ken folded his arms and mulled the question, and then finally came up with his answer.
“They’re a bunch of screwballs.”
(“Hey!” his tenants yelled at him.)
(Ken simply pointed to the TV for them to keep watching.)
He smiled and gave a Sophia a warm look. “But, you know what? I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have in my home.”
* * * * *
Ken was sitting in the living room, drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. Cassandra came from her room into the living room, carrying a novel.
Ken glanced back and saw her. “Hey, Cassandra,” he said, and went back to his newspaper.
“Ken, I have a language question.”
Ken stopped, dreading at what might be coming next. After all, he wasn’t really expecting to answer questions like Katrina and Alisa had. So, to make sure he wasn’t going to lose his mental stability even further, he had to confirm something.
“Stop right there,” he ordered.
“Huh? What?”
“You’re not going to ask me anything about ‘buck,’ or ‘buck naked,’ or ‘nekkid’ or anything else about being nude, right?”
Cassandra was really confused. “I don’t think so. Why in the world would you think I’d ask anything like that?”
Ken, satisfied that a normal question was coming, just shook his head. “Oh, no reason. What’s your question?”
“I’ve been looking through some books, and I came across a term I’m not familiar with, so I thought you could explain it to me.”
“What is it?”
She opened the novel to a bookmarked page and looked for the term. Finding it, she asked “What’s a ‘birthday suit’?”
Ken fainted.
THE
CHAOS
WILL
CONTINUE . . .
Afterword
“Chaos in the midst of chaos isn’t funny, but chaos in the midst of order is.”
~ Steve Martin
I had to look up that quote. It seemed appropriate enough for this book.
That being said, hello everyone. Edo-chan here.
Well, you hold in your hands my first novel from an overactive imagination.
Truth be told, this novel wasn’t the first one that I wanted to write and release. The plan (and everyone has plans that follow through perfectly) was to finish writing one about how all the aliens first showed up on Earth. Near the beginning of this book, Ken reflects on the fact that a teenager went up into space. That was supposed to be the first one.
And I went about half way through the first draft of that story . . . and then I got the idea for a slapstick action comedy. The result of that idea is the book you’re holding. I’ll get to the other one eventually; while this one is fun to write, the other is interesting to write. But that’s a story (literally) for another time.
Most of the overall situations, such as driving and Halloween, were planned out, but the chapters were written as the pen moved me. Yes, the old-fashioned pen. I find I’m able to write more if I put the story down on paper first instead of typing it. It certainly isn’t efficient since I had to type it anyway, but let’s ignore that little incongruity shall we?
Action, comedy, mystery and a bit of dark drama.
The two recipes in this book are not of my own design. They are from my Yokoshiba Cooking School text, and noted here so that I don’t claim anything that isn’t mine.
I hope you enjoyed reading through the first volume. The series shall continue, so I hope you pick up the second book when it comes out in the future!
—Edo-chan
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