Chapter 24 — In the chalet

The inside of the house was pretty nice. The walls consisted of smooth wood paneling, and the floor was covered by a warm rug in fake fur. They had received a quite spacious and cozy room for the night to come.

Marvin was now busy changing Milky's diaper on the bed, while Angie was preparing another bottle for the baby.

"I don't understand it." said Fluffy.

"What?"

"I don't understand what's going on. Why does this guy receive visions from my guys? While I don't… It's been months I haven't received a single message from them."

"Isn't it because we got rid of your blue jewel ?"

"No. The stone allowed only one-way communication. It allowed me to speak to my team. At least when their system worked correctly. But, normally, they can send a psychic message from their spaceship to anyone. They can just target someone on Earth and send a vision directly in the brain of that person."

"Oh yeah, it makes sense." said Angie. "I also received this kind of vision some years ago. This is what motivated me to go and buy you at the pet shop back then!"

"Yes. You were targeted. But now, why is this Gropius targeted? It seems that he receives continuous messages. I can only suppose that there is a major dysfunction in the spaceship's system. I think Gropius receives the messages actually addressed to your son."

"To Eugene? Really?"

"Yes."

"Agoo!" said the baby.

"Why would he receive any message from them?"

"Because he is the chosen one! These should be didactic visions that should teach him everything he has to know about us, about the Fluffy Galaxy, about his mission… He was supposed to receive those even before being born, when he was still inside your womb, to prepare him. But now, this crazy guru of a ridiculous cult receives all the messages! So my guys have targeted the wrong person from the beginning. And they seem to be unable to reach me at all. How can they be so deeply confused about everything?"

"Maybe next time you should use some less complicated system." said Marvin. "All these visions, and blue stones, and stuff… It's too complex. It can't work."

"Shut up, Marvin!" answered a wrathful Fluffy. "You have no idea what you're talking about. It always worked perfectly fine! Until this time…"

"It's okay, don't get angry." said Angie.

She was now giving the bottle to the baby who was drinking with great appetite.

"We all know these are complex engineering problems. But now, what about this weird ceremony we have to attend to? Can someone explain to me why we have to spend all night here?"

"I don't really know." answered Marvin. "Another proof of this guy's foolishness. Since he is now the guru of a sect, he has to stage and dramatize his alleged communications with the galactic beings, I guess. Tonight he feels like they're going to speak to him again. So…"

Fluffy explained more broadly:

"We're waiting for the next communication. They're maybe about to finally send him information about the day and place where they are planning to come and pick me up. Since I can't speak to them and give orders, I suppose that at some point, without any message from me, they will finally activate their braincells and come down for us anyway. But I need to know when.

"They certainly don't know their messages are reaching a random guy called Gropius. They think they reach your son. So, it would make sense if they gave him the right information, hoping he could soon communicate it to us. But, damn! Why are they taking so much time?"

"I see." answered Angie. "Now, he better receive that message tonight, because otherwise, I'm not staying here any longer."

Now Angie tried to put the baby to sleep in the foldable crib they brought with them. But Eugene wasn't sleepy and kept jumping in his bed.

"I wouldn't mind staying some more actually." said Marvin. "That place is really pleasant. Always wanted to have a chalet like this. And have you seen that nice fireplace downstairs? Good thing is that there's no lack of firewood all around here. Should stay nice and warm when it gets colder outside. I'm pretty sure it's better to spend the winter here than at home with all those damned power outages…"

There was a soft knocking on the room's door.

"Come in!" said Marvin.

Emilio's bearded, wrinkled face made its way through the door.

"Hi! Hope I'm not disturbing."

"No. Not at all."

Emilio entered the room with no more formalities.

"How do you like this place? Everything fine for you?" asked Emilio.

"It's very nice. Thank you. This place is wonderful."

"Yeah, for sure." agreed Emilio. "Life is good here, right? Nothing comparable with my previous life in the streets anyway."

"I can definitely see how it's better." said Marvin.

"Yeah, for sure. Anyway, if there is anything that doesn't suit you, anything missing for your happiness here, don't hesitate to ask me. I'm here for you…"

"Thank you, Emilio. We don't need anything."

 "I'm glad you find comfort here…"

He stood there for a moment, saying nothing, as if his last statement was requiring an answer that he was waiting for.

"Well, thank you" added Marvin finally. "We are grateful to Gropius for his generous invitation."

"Oh yeah, he surely is generous. By the way, since you are staying some longer, I thought maybe you would want to participate also in our community's finances…"

"Oh, I see… But I was not thinking that a fee would apply to us. We thought we were just guests here…"

 "Of course, of course, you are. But you see, all the maintenance of the chalet has a cost… And I was appointed as the official treasurer of the community. So, it's my responsibility… Of course, I don't mean to twist your arm. But it would be greatly appreciated if…"

Someone else's footsteps were then heard in the stairs.

"Emilio?" It was Karen's voice. "Don't tell me you're asking for money again."

Her voice was still soft, but laden with some sort of reproach.

"Me? Who said something about money? I mean, I'm not about dollars necessarily. I accept all kinds of currencies…"

"That's enough. The Master made it very clear that his teachings are for free. He doesn't want his followers to believe that he does all this to extort something from them."

"Mmpf? Really? I didn't know that. Well, anyway, I must go… Got some other stuff to do. So…"

Emilio disappeared without any other form of civility.

"Please forgive him." said Karen when he was gone. "He used to live in the streets, you know. A pretty rough kind of life, I suppose. This leaves some scars. So, I think you shouldn't be too mad at him…"

"I know, I know." answered Marvin. "No problem.

"All right. I'm glad you take it this way. Now, tell me, how is our little treasure doing?"

She smiled warmly as the baby started to babble:

"Da-da-da… Ma-ma-ma!"

"Oh, he's very talkative !"

 "Yes, and also full of energy…"

Eugene was still jumping in his crib, not sleepy at all.

"I think it's useless. He won't sleep any time soon…"

"It's not a big deal." said Karen. "He can come with us for the ceremony. By the way, this is exactly what I came to tell you. The ceremony I going to start soon."

"All right. We come down in a minute."