Game of Two Halves, Chapter Two

By the time Flashsatsumas had opened his mouth to yell, the wheels of his turtle had left the rink. Fright lurched in him as he and his humble steed flew. Big boys. It had to be. Surely they were the only ones here who boasted such strength as to throw him thus, or to land him so body-jarringly on the gritty tarmac.

Flashsatsumas wrestled with his handlebars to ride out the momentum and come about, that he might look his persecutor head-on.

It wasn’t big boys.

There was no mistaking the blue-clad girl, though newly equipped with roller-skates, who stood tall and smiling while Flashsatsumas languished on all fours.

“Juniper?” he exclaimed.

The only reply was an extremely uncharacteristic wink. Then the figure twirled in its school skirt and sped off the opposite way, briefly poking at Flashsatsumas her comment on his skating so far.

This of course meant she was rounding the rink in the wrong direction, and had to weave in and out of patrons bumbling directly at her. Flashsatsumas knelt where he was and watched, stupefied. There wouldn’t have been much point in his attempting to give chase. The only thing was to hold his ground, and confront her as soon as they were face-to-face again. Luckily enough that time was right around now.

He opened his mouth, but she whipped by before the words were out.

That wasn’t all either.

Apparently a flicking finger had pinged with precision once the girl cleared his flank, for Flashsatsumas felt the uppermost of his containment-suit’s clasps fall open.

Panic possessed him, worse than that engendered by a billion Earthlings seeing his pants. He loosed the handlebars and splatted flat on his cheek atop the turtle, both scrabbling hands now desperately needed behind him. For once in a way his struggles were not to open that clasp but refasten it, yet it seemed that that stage of the operation was as tantalizing as the other. A pair of blue-stockinged legs meanwhile had swung once more into his line of sight, terrifyingly soon, and Flashsatsumas was in no position to put up resistance.

Ping!

She was gone again. And there were only three clasps on the suit.

“Juniper!” he begged.

Only it couldn’t be her. Flashsatsumas knew that by now. She – or rather, the real Mini-Flash Juniper – had told him the creatures were able to change shape.

But why that form, for the purpose of such incongruous behaviour?

Surely disguise or deception would have been more sensible schemes?

Not that that was the most pressing matter, for she was completing her final round.

“Will the girl in school clothes please skate properly or leave the rink?” demanded an irate female redcoat over the public address system.

Great, thought Flashsatsumas frantically. Discipline from someone who doesn’t exist.

Having abandoned all hope of doing up two errant latches, it was as much as Flashsatsumas could manage to clutch at either side of the rift and try to pull his slick protective coating together through main force, even though he knew he boasted nothing like the might, and an instant from now that third clasp was going to go too and then –

The girl was upon him when all of a sudden she put out her toe and skirt-bumped to a stop.

Then Flashsatsumas, prone against his saddle, plus several other boys who the terror of the track had cast down grazingly were gaping up as one at double gussets and blue-tinted Luttertons encircled by a fan of pleats, as the counter-Juniper vaulted skyward. The wheels on her soles span through air, and even leggy girl-skaters with shorts on halted bemused to take in the view.

A monorail train had rounded the bend overlooking the enclosure, and in one of its open-sided carriages sat the genuine article.

She’d thought she might be able to spy her friends more easily from on high.

What she spied instead was her likeness, and what it was doing to the friend she’d parted from just lately. Juniper didn’t draw breath until she’d cleared the side of the car.

What looked like a second sun struck rays and heliographs down onto the camp as two identical girls clashed midflight. Another blink and one of the duo had vanished into that fleeting brilliance, while the other made a picture-perfect skirt-parachuting touchdown and completed the ascent her doppelganger had started.

“It’s alright, Flashsatsumas, it’s me,” Mini-Flash Juniper assured him at once, while fixing his two loose clasps one-handed without having to look at them.

“Yes, I can see you’ve not got roller-skates on,” Flashsatsumas confirmed, as he scrambled gratefully to his feet. “But what was she?”

In reply, Juniper grabbed his hand. The abandoned turtle kicked from Flashsatsumas’s feet as he was fairly dragged to the exit and out through the swing-gate and past the ticket-booth. “Here! What about those skates you – ?” the man shouted after them, but so fast did Juniper go that the end of his protest whirled away to the nothingness it was. Nor was there any relent until the Mini-Flashes were at the arcade-mouth by the love-tester machine, Flashsatsumas panting and bewildered, but Juniper herself wearing an expression that was grave indeed.

“As I suspected,” said she.

There above them the monolith rose, inscribed with its forty character-assessments as before, but now there were only thirty-nine accompanying illustrations.

The smirking cartoon girl who’d somewhat resembled Mini-Flash Juniper was gone.

END OF CHAPTER TWO