Munmun(44)

“This is prettymuch what I was afraid of,” frowned Hue.

“He’ll study with me and retake the test in six weeks, dontworry Dad, he’ll retrack for sure,” promised Kitty.

“I hope so, for his sake,” grimmed Hue.

“I hope so too,” I agreed, wasn’t the right thing to say though.





DREAMWORLD


And what about Prayer, great question, she stayed at Wet Almanac Middlerich. It was a life of tasks she couldn’t do, languages she didn’t speak, problems she couldn’t solve, and distances she couldn’t cover.

It was grades of FAIL and PLEASE REWRITE and SEE A COUNSELOR OR SOMETHING, attendance records of LATE and ABSENT and STUCK IN THE LOCKERCAGE AGAIN, misery and mockery everywhere you look, but she was determined to succeed.

But it took a bad toll, I could tell in Dreamworld, she needed Kitty Music even more than me, just lay there like a zombie corpse in her operabox, letting the songs massage and crush her.

Every morning I woke up first, I had the longer commute, long walk to the busstop and a longer busride to Eat. So rightbefore I left I would shake her awake, and always there was two or three seconds of sick terror on her face, pleading eyes of, ohno I can’t do it again, saggy mouth of, please don’t make me spend one more day pretending like this could ever be a success.

Then she’d shake it off or swallow it, smile bravely, tell me, “Thanks bro, have a good day at school, just hope you’re learning as much as me,” gottahandit to my sis, she’s a fighter.





LIFEANDDEATHWORLD


Was I learning as much as Prayer, definitely not. I had to agree with Hue, Lifty education was kind of a joke.

Lifty classrooms were basically gyms and the entire morning was just bodywork. Throw weights around, jog on a hamsterwheel, fight the waves of the sloshy drowningpool, and ofcourse play vicious sports with the intention of kill the other team.

Then the afternoons weren’t super bookish either, mostly just simulations and preparations for the most common Lifty jobs, mining, drilling, shipping, whaling, sharking, struction and maintenance, firefights, floodfights, rubbleclearing, disasters ingeneral.

Lots of periods were free because there weren’t enough teachers to go round, hey guys for the next hour and twentyminutes how about you go chill with your crew in Mun World or the parkinglot, hope you have a crew though, otherwise those times will be pretty lonely.

But even lonely strolls through Mun World can be exciting for a kid who was ratscale a weekago.

Mun World was miraculous to me, an endless shopscape of aisles for miles. Infact that’s the jingle, Aisles For Miles At Mun World, Miles is even the name of the storepet, a flatscreen with arms and legs who dances endlessly near the frontdoors.

The point of Mun World is, everything you need for middlepoor life is available here, no need to look for anything anywhere else, youneedit wegotit, clothes, food, chairs, drugs, phone and water contracts, toiletseats, littledogs, guns, frozenfoods, microwaves, lottery and gameshow tickets, dolls, bombs, guitars, we have them all and more, spend your munmuns only at Mun World please.

So Mun World was paradise, for that reason also a dangerous terrorzone. Paradise because everything was something that fit in my hands, begging me to buy it, bright slick magical object made justforyou, take it back to your middleroom and own it, hold it, hug it, an amazing feeling. Notescreens, skateboards, hairgel, bodyspray.

But mostofall the clothes, the styles, ohmygod.

Here in Mun World were shoes that fit my feet like the shoefactory had met me, infact known me my whole life, faithfully made me hundreds of perfect shoes in beautifull rows and stacks. Here were hats that fit my head, shirts that hugged my arms and belly, pants that squeezed my butt into terrific shapes.

Here were soft cool wild fabrics, bright violent colors, fresh new styles.

And the freshest of all was Fresh But Chill, in Highend Halfscale Fashion, you have no idea.

Fresh But Chill was the style I desired in my deepest heart, in my happiest dreams. Hoodies chockfull of mesh and ribs, soft mysterious teeshirts crowding and bustling with secret logos, tattery clingpants and leglets, shoes as chunky and gleamy as doublecars, and dontforget the skinnybelts.

“Well, will you get a load of this hunky posterboy for Fresh But Chill,” said Lease the flirty shopgirl the first time I tried on a full outfit, “can you let me admire you for just ten seconds, please.”

She was doing a great job of admiring me so I rewarded her with a spin move, followup with an overtheshoulder glance and waggled my butt like a naughty little dude.

“Wow and dang, mostly wow but a littlebit dang forsure, hey Jeans you gotta see these fly dancemoves,” Lease exclaimed to her salesfriend Jeans, who can blame her.

And Jeans hustled over, the salesfriends oohandahed, for a few minutes I was the wild fresh king of Mun World.

“If you walk out of here not in those clothes, it’s a literal crime,” worried Lease.

But the outfit came to twohunfifty munmuns, five weeks of my fiftymun allowance, more than my entire munflow at that time.

“I can’t afford it,” I whispered in shame.

“Tell you what,” said friendly Jeans. “For just a starter rate of a hundo a week you can become a lifelong subscriber to Fresh But Chill, constant deliveries of the sharpest chillest style, you’ll be hookedup forever and it’s the best value byfar, sicktypercent off this outfit for example.”