Ms. Chloro pulled out her electronic pad, placed it on the table, and began the meeting, “So, let’s start off with the bad news. The bad news is that the deal we have been trying to hash out with CT has fallen through; apparently, they feel that their hover saucers should be for people only and not for some sort of food producing bio domes. Which is understandable in the grand scale of things, since it takes a very long time to build just one hover saucer. Plus, I knew we would be pushing our luck since they did allow us to use this hover saucer to conduct our business. But, I am glad to say that we were able to secure a very large area of the Southwest side of Los Angeles, am I correct?”
“Yes, Ms. Chloro,” said Bell, “There have been no mass animal activities in the area we were looking at, so the state officials gave us the go ahead to start breaking up the concrete to make way for farmland. The only stipulation is that we need people from—”
“Yes, yes,” interrupted Ms. Chloro, “I am fully aware of the rules and regulations when it comes to paving the way for farmland. Let’s just hope no animals decide to make any homes there in the next few weeks, or we will have to try and find a new area.”
“It should not be a problem Ms. Chloro,” said an employee sitting two seats down from her, “We have already placed aroma barrels around the area and coated the building top to bottom with slip gel.”
“But I wish not to take any chances,” Chloro said, “So let’s begin on acquiring the rest of the surrounding L.A. area while still working on the part of New York we have been trying to acquire.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Now, how is the science department coming along with the new GMO project Ms. Airsea?”
“Well Ms. Chloro,” Roxy began, “Our division is not having any problems developing the new protein bars we wish to introduce to the public next year. What we are worried about are the 'Insect/Arachnid Debates' that are going on—”
“Just keep moving the project along Ms. Airsea. That debate is going to last longer than a year, perhaps just as long as the Great Animal Liberation Debates. I just thank God some politicians were able to argue that plankton are more of an insect than a shrimp. Anyway, let’s move on. Paris, were the forms for the tree tags completed and sent out yesterday?”
There was no answer; Frank was lost in another hallucination.
“Paris?” Chloro repeated looking up from her electronic pad, still no answer.
Frank was too busy escaping the world to explore the moon. The giant hole in the center of the room where the round table had been was now a crater on the moon. But Frank was not alone, he had Martian by his side to explore their new home and say “Goodbye Earth.” Martian floated toward Frank and placed his paw on Frank’s leg, just like he had done this morning. Then, the paw started to lose all of its fur, grow a thumb, and become a human hand; it was actually Roxy who placed her hand on Paris’s lap out of worry.
“Paris!” Chloro said a third and final time; the hallucination was over.
“I’m…” Paris answered, “I’m sorry Ms. Chloro…I…”
“Thinking about Roberts?” she said sternly.
“Uh…yes…I mean…”
“We have lost a lot of people this month but that can’t be helped. When an animal kills a human for food or protection, it is a part of nature. They were not murdered. We just have to accept it and move on as best we can,” Her answer was rehearsed. Like an old doll who would only repeat “mama” when someone pushed the right button.
“Humans killing humans or animals is murder,” thought Paris, “Animals killing humans is natural.”
“Now,” Chloro continued, “What about those tree tags I asked you about?”
“Oh, I…they are…I mean… I filled all of them out and had them sent yesterday like you asked. So, they are being processed right now, and we just have to wait for their response,” Paris said quickly getting his thoughts together.
“Alright then, I want you to get with Marshall and Graham after the meeting, so you three can go over our proposal to obtain farmland in the Houston area.”
The meeting went on like this for an hour. The only reason it stopped was because an alarm went off on Chloro’s electronic pad indicating that it was time for lunch. Everyone waited for Ms. Chloro to leave the room first. Once she was gone, all the employees started to move out of the office. Paris turned to Roxy and gave her his answer.
“Yes,” he said.
“I’m sorry?” she replied.
“Yes I would lo…like…like to help you move in.”
“Wonderful!” she said smiling gleefully, “Does Saturday work?”
“That will work just fine,” Paris said smiling nervously.
“Great, see you Saturday then. I can arrange for a hover vehicle to pick you up at your place.”
“Oh, no, that’s quite alright. Your hover building is not too far from where I live. I can walk.”
“Oh, okay. Well, I will see you later then Frank,” She could have asked him to eat lunch, with her but she did not push her luck. It was a big accomplishment to get Paris to come over to her place and that was good enough for her. Even if she did ask him to lunch, Paris would have not been in the right state of mind to go. It was hard enough for him to say yes to her, what with saying no to Bell’s offer to meet outside of work and feeling awful about it. Paris could not say no twice in one day. So, he said yes to the second offer and felt less lonely than he did when he declined the first.
Chapter 4
“Guess what happened to me today?” Paris announced finding Martian lying on the table with his legs plopped over like a cat taking a nap. After being caught not playing the part of a dog, Martian quickly adjusted himself for the role of canine and jumped up on Paris to give him some kisses.
“Alright, alright,” Paris said trying to calm his friend down, “Settle down so I can tell you about my day. Well, to start off, I made it to the office about an hour and a half early today! That never happens. Normally, I get there about 30 minutes before my shift starts, but, for some strange reason, I did not run into any traffic. I mean there were animals all over the place as usual, but nothing that would cause me to hide out somewhere until they scattered. So that is that part, now let me tell—”
“Police, anyone home?” The conversation had been interrupted by two police men walking into the house. Due to the open door/window policy, there was no such thing as “breaking and entering” anymore, yet another problem for the middle and lower classes was not having the right to privacy. The police loved this and took advantage of it as much as possible; the policy was to their advantage since they were able to walk in and catch someone doing illegal drugs, or perhaps harming an animal, and immediately take them into custody. Martian started barking until Paris told him to hush up. He obeyed the request as the police officers entered the living room.
“Hello sir, and how are you doing today?” One of the officers asked.
“I’m fine, what can I do
