Episode 32 – Silk Pajamas

Aoraki – Dieter’s House

On the ride to his house, Dieter handed out cold sodas from the limo fridge along with various snacks. For Tag especially, some like the meat jerky crisps, he had never seen before.  He decided that he really was feeling much better now that his paws were firmly back on terra-firma and he eagerly devoured anything and everything that was offered.  There were many new sights for Tag to take in, multi-lane black-top roads, traffic lights, houses that had hardly any space between them, taller multi story buildings, that Jaak explained had apartments which were houses stacked one on top of the other that yes, people actually lived in.

Dieter: And no Tag – they don’t have long drop toilets!

Once the boys had jumped out of the limo, and their bags retrieved, Dieter assured Jarvis that they could manage to take the bags inside themselves, as Jarvis still needed to take Schön to his next meeting.

The door of the house opened and a casual but smartly dressed hunde, with flowy chestnut brown hair came down the front steps.

Dieter: Hi Mom! We’re home!

Tag this is my Mom, Anna.

Anna: Hello boys! Jaak – its so nice to see you again, and yes, I think you have grown taller too! Dieter seems to need new jeans and shoes every couple of months lately!

Anna then turned to Tag who was on the verge of hiding behind Jaak again, but this time Jaak was too quick and gave Tag a gentle but firm shove in the direction of Anna.

…and you must be Tag. Well you are very welcome too, Dieter has told me lots about you – I hear you are the master of tight spaces!

Tag gave Anna a shy, but pleased smile.

Tag: Hullo… Miss Anna – and yup I sure am! The tighter the better!

Jaak and Dieter just looked at each other and grinned.

Anna: You boys go on in and make yourselves at home – Dieter will show you where to go.

Dieter’s house had three living levels, and Dieter’s room comprised the entire third floor, running from the front, right through to the back. There was a large double bed at either end, and in the middle a comfy looking sofa that Dieter explained also turned into another double bed. There were clearly going to be plenty of places to sleep. Jaak dumped his bag on the spare double bed and motioned to Tag to dump his by the sofa. Opposite the sofa there was a large holo-screen TV with a vast assortment of various video game controllers. On a low table to one side, a large brick set model of a Tet sat in pride of place.

On one side was a bathroom with a huge jacuzzi bathtub, separate shower, stacks of fluffy white towels and much to the fascination of Tag, a fully flushable toilet – with pipes. For Jaak, it was like seeing a long lost friend after too long an absence.

Jaak: What shall we do first?

Dieter: Let’s hit the pool!

Tag: Yay! Shorts or no shorts?

Dieter: Shorts. We have neighbours!

So with the noise greater than that of a thousand stampeding mammothants, the three boys pounded their way down the stairs and out the French doors into the back garden.  Jeans, sweat-shirts and t-shirts were peeled off and this time, for the sake of the neigbours, swim shorts were donned.  They spent the next couple of hours in happy noisy aquatic fun.  Jarvis had re-appeared and he left out three blue and white striped beach towels, which the boys quickly grabbed as they headed back inside still dripping water everywhere on the parquet floor.

Anna:  Dry yourselves off properly before you go up stairs boys!

Dieter: We will!

…as a trail of wet paw prints disappeared up the staircase.

Later that evening…

After a dinner of build your own burgers with just about every filling you could think of, the boys headed back upstairs eager to spend an evening playing video games on the holo-screen.  As they entered Dieters room, the visitors found that all their things had been neatly put away into draws and the three beds already turned down.  There was one surprise though – on each of the beds they found a set of silk pajamas, each in a different colour.  Red for Jaak, blue for Tag and green for Dieter. In addition there was a monogrammed initial on the jacket pocket – J, T and D.

Dieter looked at them, nodded, smiled and knowingly uttered one word.

Dieter: Jarvis.

Jaak: Let’s get changed into them now – I bet they feel great!

The three boys slipped into the silk pajamas which they indeed found to be luxuriously slippery and soft. Their day clothes were left in a haphazard pile on the floor. 

One of the cyan stones slipped out from one of the jeans pockets and it was now glowing a bright iridescent blue, gently pulsating with light.

Jaak: That’s my stone!  Wow, I wonder why it is glowing so brightly like that?  Where are yours guys?

The other two boys then rummaged through the assortment of discarded clothes and found their own stones, which too were glowing and pulsating with the same blue light.

They then sat on Tag’s sofa bed each holding a stone in their paw.   The three stones seemed to glow and pulse in unison and when they moved the stones closer together they glowed even brighter still and pulsated faster.

Tag: Let’s see if we can make them fly, like Layan and Grandpa Snow did.  Hold them out in the palm of your paw!

The boys did just that.  They each held their stone out in the palm of their paws.  As the stones continued to glow and pulsate, they became completely translucent with diamond like clarity. Each passing second brought about a new level of intensity. Slowly, and in unison, the stones gently rose from their palms and they then started to revolve in a triangular pattern between each of the boy’s outstretched paws.  Faster and faster they spun until the stones were a solid blur of blue rotating light.  A sudden flash of iridescent blue light permeated to each corner of the room and the hair on each of their heads, stuck straight out like it had been super charged with static electricity.  Then, as fast as it had started the light faded and the three stones stopped spinning, landing with a plop into each of their paws.  They were now back to their usual faint, bluish, opaque colour.

Dieter: That was freaking awesome!

Jaak: Holy shit!

Tag: Wicked!

The boys just sat there for a few minutes looking at their stones and looking at each other in amazement and wonder.

Once the boys were satisfied that the stones weren’t going to do anything else, they put them carefully away.   Next task at paw was to spend a few hours shooting swarms of invading aliens, who were attempting a hostile take over of the Planetary Confederation of Eis.  Eventually when they could no longer keep their eyes open, and Tag had already curled up asleep next to Dieter, the other two boys headed over to their own beds.

Previous: Episode 31 – Barf Bags and Barks
Next: Episode 33 – Balls and Malls

2 thoughts on “Episode 32 – Silk Pajamas

  1. Shuichi Fox (@newcarpathia) 30 March, 2022 / 18:14

    “Jaak explained had apartments which were houses stacked one on top of the other that yes, people actually lived in.”

    I take it they don’t have any sort of TV at all up north? Interesting contrast that we have a planet with some areas back in the 1920s, others not far from our modern times, and yet others set into the future relative to us.

    And between “Master D” and “Master of tight spaces” this storyline seems to be going all-in with the innuendo. 🙂

    • Craig 30 March, 2022 / 19:04

      I suspect any kid raised in a small tight knit rural community that likes to keep to themselves would be a little overwhelmed at their first ever visit to a big modern city.

      It was also mentioned in the first episodes that due to the valleys location, deep volcanic valleys and geological make up that getting coverage from the TET net was virtually impossible without an expensive satellite dish. Not sure Gazza would run to one of those.

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