Even Elephant Girls Get the Blues

Sally quietly came back to the Company gathering and stripped off her lab coat. There was no point to science now that Dr Bruce would never know how far she’d come. She looked at the lovely prelapsarian paradise, and the people who were ready to lapse it, and decided that was it. She said goodbye to Killa, who was sympathetic but who offered her a job, missing the point, and then went to say goodbye to John.

Somehow, that didn’t work. He offered to come with her, despite the fact that she couldn’t guarantee J.T.’s Tools any turnover. He kept talking, and she felt, distantly, possibility. She closed her eyes and imagined John’s voice golden, and the arm around her someone else’s.

She tilted her head against his shoulder.

Hide and Seek

Sally Sevens entered the lab, looked around, and sighed. Outside the sun shone fiercely. She made a point of looking underneath tables, disturbing a pseudo-pangolin which she made the pretense of inspecting; she went over to the aviary and tickled the flying octopus from Octagon III.

Then she walked over to where the air conditioners were humming away, and tapped John Tarik affectionately on the shoulder. “Tag,” she said. “Have you been on the horuang beans again?”

“What? How?” said John, startled.

Sally sighed again. “I keep telling you, John. We can only change into living organisms. No matter how long you stand in the corner humming with your arms folded, you will not turn into an air conditioning unit.”

John stalked over to his corner to play with his power tools. They understood.

After a while, Sally came over and gave him a hug. He hugged back. There were worse things than an armful of Sally–as long as she wasn't an anaconda at the time.