I slept heavily that night. There weren’t many nightmares haunting me, I was thankful. Awaking from a calm but strange dream involving weird goop and an Olympic run, I noticed a weight on me. Touching it, I realised it was an arm. Half asleep and with a blurry vision, I looked over to see Caroline’s face lying towards me. She had her eyes shut, and she seemed very much at peace.
My heart felt like it had skipped a few beats as I saw her peacefully lying there. I kept as still as I could and gently tried to move her arm back. Needing the toilet, I realised I needed to get over her to escape the bed. I placed her arm on her side and she moved clumsily, clearly still asleep.
Coming out of the duvet, I moved it more onto Caroline, then twisted over her. My arms were on either side of her, my body hovered over her, and I hoped she wouldn’t wake up. I stumbled out of the bed and struggled to stay on my feet. Grabbing the wall, I moved as quietly as I could but still bumped into things, causing a bit of sound. I turned and noticed her still sleeping. Taking a deep breath, I continued on and, as quietly as I could, I moved my hands along the wall as I scurried into the bathroom.
It was such a relief as I went. I must have needed the toilet for a long time while I slept. With the shower right there, I thought I would also wash myself. As I stumbled out of the bathroom, I saw Caroline stand there half naked. She went red when she saw me, attempted to cover herself with her hand’s and did a childlike giggle. My towel then fell to the floor and made the situation worse. I was so embarrassed.
It wasn’t long before I corrected myself. I quickly tried to think of something to distract us from this predicament, and so I asked about breakfast.
“Ah, yes…” Caroline said as she stumbled for words. “Eh, this mobile home doesn’t have an EMC. They didn’t design it for The Liberty. I’ll order a portable EMC machine.”
I nodded in agreement. But then personal hygiene sprang up in my mind as I felt the fur on my teeth. I realised I hadn’t brushed my teeth before I slept and asked for a toothbrush.
“Of course,” Caroline responded in the most timid and shy way possible. “I should put on some clothes!” She said as she stumbled towards the cupboard and almost into me. I moved out of the way. She opened the door and took out her dress to put on. I noticed she had placed the clothes I left in the bathroom in there. I looked at them but knew that I did not want to wear my clothes again after being in them for so long, so I left her to it. She slipped on her dress and quickly dashed out of the door.
While she was away, I glanced around the room and found myself a sheet. After I dried myself, I quickly wrapped the sheet around me. I then sat on the bed just as Caroline entered back into the camper.
She was holding a box that looked a little like a tabletop oven, then placed it on the kitchen counter. I stood up wanting to help, however she did it quicker than I could offer. It instantly lit up and the sound of wind filled the room. “English Breakfast?” she asked. “Or at least as close to an English Breakfast I could get with the database available.” She took it out of the machine, and it looked similar to an English Breakfast, but I could tell that it wasn’t. She handed it to me and I looked at it for a moment.
The bed retracted with the centre splitting, and then the two halves moved under the outer edges. It caused the sheets to sink into the centre and onto the floor. Caroline folded them up and placed them into one corner of the newly formed bench seat. Once she had finished, she stepped away, and a table emerged from the floor. While she did that, the oven type device was flashing again. She went to it and pulled out another plate of whatever I had.
We went to the table, and I went to sit, but we didn’t have knives and forks. I looked up and saw Caroline rushing to the little machine again. After a flash and the sound of wind, she pulled out a tray with drinks, knives, forks and napkins on. She laid it all out in front of me and I looked across the table to say, “thankyou.”
“You’re welcome,” she said with a smile.
I struggled to get my arms out of the sheet at that moment, attempting to understand how I could eat. But then, there was another flash from the oven like device. Caroline got up, open the machine and then in a slightly comical, dramatic way revealed a bathrobe for me. I smiled at her, loving the moment, said thanks and took the bathrobe into the bathroom to change. I felt much more confident when I left the bathroom in it, but was still worried about falling over and revealing more of myself than I really should. Especially since I was having to lean on the wall to get around.
I fell down hard when I sat and hurt my tail bone. However, I was concentrating on not letting it show. After seeing Caroline already eating and concentrating on her food timidly. I did the same. It was awkward. I dared not to look up, wanting to make sure I finished the meal and got to brush my teeth. Occasionally we looked up at each other, suddenly all red faced and flustered, and then continued to eat in silence. It was weird how it could go from us joking around to thick sexual tension in the air so quickly. I became determined to finish the meal so we can go about our day. I felt so nervous as the tension increased between us during the silence. My palms were so sweaty.
I ate my last bite. Then was wondering how I could get to the EMC machine without so much social contact. This time when I got up, I fell over as I felt weak in the knees. “Are you okay?” she asked as she came running over and my lower half on show revealing more than I really wanted to.
“I’m just wanting to get a toothbrush to brush my teeth.” I replied as she helped me up.
“Okay, I can get you something better.” She said as the EMC machine was lighting up.
I went over to it and opened the door. Inside were two small devices that looked like we should bite down on them. I pulled them out and looked at them.
“Pass one to me.” Caroline said as she held me up. She took the device, then placed it into her mouth and bit down onto it.
“Put the device in your mouth… I made it release a mint taste, a little like toothpaste.” she said when she temporarily took it out of her mouth. I nodded.
Looking at her awkwardly, I placed it between my teeth and bit down. It beeped and then began vibrating. I could feel it vibrating across my teeth, on my gums and even across my tongue. After a short while, I tasted a little mint flavour. It was much milder than the ones on Earth, somewhat nicer.
I attempting to take it out of my mouth for a moment and Caroline put her hand against mine, pushing the device back in. The device continued to vibrate as it cleaned my teeth. Eventually, it stopped vibrating and beeped three long tones into my head. I guessed that meant that it had finished, and I took it out of my mouth. My mouth felt great, and I was admiring how great my teeth felt as Caroline was placing the devices back into the EMC machine.
I approached closer to observe the flashes from the oven like contraption. Caroline closed the door and the sound of wind filled the room. I didn’t think about how close I was getting to her before she turned around and bumped into me. We both fell to the ground, with her on top of me. There was a sharp moment of pain for me before it subsided. Her face hovered over mine with her arms supporting her on either side of me. She just looked at me for a moment. “Are you okay?” she asked, her face red with embarrassment.
“Just a little pain, but I think it has subsided now,” I replied. We both continued to stare into each other’s eyes before she kissed me. After that, let’s just say we didn’t leave the camper until the next day.