Just the FAQ Ma'am.
That pile of diamonds had triggered her memory of falling, freezing, climbing and of the scraped knees and elbows. The memory could no longer be suppressed. The more she tried to NOT think about it the more she HAD to think about it. Perhaps she, and Alvin, weren’t crazy after all. She couldn’t NOT think about the FAQ sheet. A FAQ sheet? Hadn’t the little dragon said something about FAQ sheet. What the fresh hell was a FAQ sheet.
ping
Frequently Asked Questions
concerning Structural Smoke.
A computer like screen sprang into her awareness. It seemed to be floating a comfortable viewing distance in front of her eyes. All that she had to do was ‘say it’s name’ mentally, and a choice of posts ranging from bare text to full sensory, multi-media, artificial reality, presentations on' it' appeared. The search engine, if that's what it was, was purely intuitive and much better than Google search.
Some would call it witchcraft.
She shook Alvin, HARD.
“Honey. “ she said “wake up. You got to see this”.
“Mmmmrph!” Alvin replied brightly.
“Wake up. Oh please wake up. This is scary!” She said.
He woke up. Slowly.
“What? What’s the matter dear?” he rubbed his eyes.
“Tell me I’m not going crazy. Do you see that?” she was almost in tears.
He was staring at her chest. Her night gown had come open.
“Oh yeah” he said “I see them.”
She slapped him, but not very hard, barely a tap, yet somehow she neglected to close her gown.
“Men! Is Sex all you ever think of?” she scolded.
“Absolutely not” he said “Sometimes I think of beer!”
It was a long standing joke between them. Good. He was awake.
“Do you see THAT!” she said “Not THESE! THAT!”
She gently slapped his face again and pushed his head toward where she was looking.
“Well I’ll be damned” he said “What is Structural Smoke?”
That night they remembered what structural smoke was, AFTER a cuddle session. She was shook up and needed some holding. The canoodling escalated, as it always did into much more than mere holding. Some time later they’d cleaned up and were examining the FAQ sheet together.
‘Hmmm” she said “I just remembered something. Take off your shirt and come here.”
“Again? Yesssss Dear” he hastened to comply.
“Not that.” she said “ you’re not a teen ager any more. You won’t be ready for another hour.”
She proceeded to examine his skin closely.
“What are those bruises?” she asked.
“What Bruises?” he asked.
She got a hand mirror so that he could see better. “Those bruises. Don’t they look an awful lot like something a bullet would do?”
“If I got hit that many times in those places by bullets I’d be dead” he said “I haven’t been wearing any armor that I know of.”
“That you know of? Didn’t you say something about fog?” she said.
“Well yeah,” He said “That fog. I guess some of those bullets almost go through.”
She’d learned to control the FAQ screen. She positioned it so that the both of them could see it better and mentally entered a search phrase.
“Huh.” she said when text displayed. “this IS just like a computer”
Alvin wasn’t all that computer literate. “Yes dear.” he said.
After an hour or so of reading, cross referencing and experiencing virtual media presentations she said “It would appear that you were saved from being shot by SSmoke.”
She looked at the diamonds that were not diamonds that he had brought home. She’d brought them into the bedroom. She picked on up and concentrated..
“What do you want?” she asked Alvin.
“It’s been an hour.” he leered “You know what I want.”
“Other than that.” she grinned. She just KNEW what he was going to say next.
“Beer” he said.
“Yup” She thought. That was her guy. She’d been right.
“Ooooookay.” she said concentrating. The small, robin’s egg sized crystal in her hand turned to fog, then the fog turned into a small pixie

“Huh?” Alvin said. Julie swatted him someplace appropriate and he settled down. He was pretty sure that what ever was going to happen he was going to like it.
He was right. Julie got the knack of tele-operating the Pixie really quick. She flew it into the kitchen, removed a can of beer from the fridge, opened it, and flew back into the bedroom.
And spilled it all over Alvin.
“Oops” she said with a smile. “how clumsy of me.”
It was on.
Julie DID have the knack of operating the Pixie. There was more SSmoke to be manipulated.
They had a marvelous time.
To Be Continued
Yarn
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If you are just now discovering this story and want to read more
it begins here
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Disclaimer
The Hobo Picture is a Public Domain image from
Samantha at the Worlds Fair
by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
Illustrated by
Baron C. De Grimm published by
Funk and Wagnall's Company 1893
.
The Badges are graciously provided by
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Unless otherwise noted
All other Illustrations are from
Pixabay