Planet Fever (37 page)
Authors: Peter Stier Jr.
-Froward Morfoni
I CLIMBED
up the stairs and unlocked the door to my apartment. I walked in and set the groceries on the counter.
“Hi there,” Mona said, from behind her easel.
“I remember you!” I joked. I always said this to Mona when coming home.
“I remember you, too!” Mona winked.
“Damn, it’s hot!” I opened the fridge, grabbed a pitcher of lemonade, poured a glass and gulped it back.
Mona peered out from behind her painting and smiled. “That’s why I’m painting something cool.”
I walked over to Mona, massaged her shoulders and checked out her painting: a picture from the point of view of a female, her bare legs extending out onto a lounge chair. She is holding hands with a male in a lounge chair next to her, facing a swimming pool that is located on the surface of the moon. The sky is black and they are watching the marvelous earth in the background like an oceanic sunset.
I gave her a thumbs-up and kissed her on the head.
“Colonel West called,” she said.
“What the hell did that weirdo want?”
“He just said, ‘Tell Eddie Bikaver he is a hero.’”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. Then he hung up.”
I shrugged and briefly contemplated what kind of psychological operation that asshole was trying to pull on me.
“Oh, and some guy stopped by. He dropped off one of your notebooks. He said you left it in his ‘rig’.” She gestured over to the coffee table.
I looked and there was one of my red notebooks, with a sticky-note on the cover that read, “You’re welcome.”
“And EZ and Lisa called. Dinner and a movie?” Mona asked.
“Sure.” I opened the notebook and a torn-out page from a newspaper fell out. It was the movie section. On it was highlighted (in green) a movie; a classic:
The Rescuers.
Thanks, Woods.
PETER STIER JR.
is a mammal and glad the other mammals on the planet have not invented atomic weaponry—he thinks one species per planet might be enough. He is a video editor by trade and has learned to appreciate lifting heavy objects repetitively in the same building with other people doing the same, as well as riding bikes that go nowhere, running up fake stairs and exerting considerable effort on other such contraptions. He lives in Los Angeles and loves his wife and dog.
If you enjoyed
Planet Fever
, be sure to leave a review on Amazon. People like those. And I’ll be much obliged.
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or
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MOM, DAD,
Simone, Winnie, friends, family, and Joshua Messiah – not sure why you did what you did for us but I thank you for doing it.
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