Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Unlike every other paneled door that has looked like metal, these have a foggy glass appearance. Except the fog moves as if the glass were a screen, but never quite enough to let us see through to what waits beyond.
Vabila smiles back at me and gestures to the doors. “It’s empty today but as we make our way back to the motherland, the bathing halls always have at least a few rooms full. You can always close your privacy screens. At home, the bathing halls are usually full. I’m sure you could convince Bo to make you something a little more private, though.”
I’m not entirely sure what she’s trying to explain, but I also haven’t moved past the first thing she said and didn’t wait for a response.
“Can you stop doing that?” I ask her as we have a second while she places her hand into the black square in the very middle of the double panels.
She shoots me another look. “Doing what?”
“Talking … prophetically?”
I’m not even sure if that’s the right word, but if she’s not reading my thoughts to combat my silent worries and insecurities, then what else should I call her prophetic remarks spattered through every moment of our interaction?
“I cannot,” Vabila eventually replies.
The doors slide open with a satisfying hiss of warm, damp air that kisses our ankles as we cross the threshold into what she calls the bathing hall. I instantly understand why as the corridor we leave behind opens to a quiet oasis of cavernous rooms tiled like stone, and a long but narrow pool directly in the middle stretching down between the suites on either side.
Vabila goes forward, and I’m still in awe while I catch up. I count at least a dozen rooms, six on either side sectioned off from one another. As two near the front have the screens pulled so I can’t see inside as we pass, I understand how each person, or a group, could have their own space if they didn’t want to join the common area. Each room we pass that I peer inside, the ceiling illuminated with those same mirror-like panels from the corridor, that I can see features a stone wading pool rolling with steam near the surface as water pours down from overhead waterfalls.
Despite the hall not being in use for the rest of the members of the ship, the water features run on constant stream without pause, never overflowing in the clear blue pools below. All the way at the end, Vabila stops to grab a satchel left on the bench that hugs along the common pool next to one of the last rooms that already has the privacy screen pulled nearly closed.
“I brought things earlier to save time,” she says, producing the cotton-like satchel for me to take.
“How big is this ship?” I ask. “I don’t think I appreciated the capacity on the outside looking in.”
Or maybe my mind had just been elsewhere.
Vabila shrugs as she directs us beyond the thin, but opaque, screen that she presses buttons on until it shuts and fuses to the track in the wall. It becomes as sturdy as another wall. Just like that, with the sound of running water in the suite bouncing off the pool and stone tiles, I’m not sure I would hear anything else beyond this room.
It’s instantly soothing.
“Some things appear one way, and you may never understand the same thing through the perspective of another,” she says to me. Offering nothing else to clarify her point, Vabila begins pulling the tiny gold rings topped with stones of vibrant colors from her fingers until each are in her palm when she then reaches to a protruding shelf of stone along the wall and drops the jewelry into a ceramic bowl. I place the satchel in the same place. Then, she asks with a hand out, “May I?”
“Uh—”
“May I undress and help you?”
“You don’t have to help, really, I know how to wash. I just need something clean to put on when I’m done and Bothaki.”
“I’ll give you those few moments of peace you’re longing for but won’t ask of me,” Vabila replies as if I said as much, “once I am sure you’re cared for and rested enough to truly appreciate it. Deal?”
I’m more than grateful for the translator in my ear that helps to keep our conversation clear and frank, but it’s the sweet and friendly smile of Bothaki’s sister that eases me into agreeing.
“Okay.” I nod. “Deal.”
She continues to explain the various clothing trends and preferences on their home planet as she peels the heavy, black frock dress with the hood up and off my body. Smocks and gowns of many styles are most common with their females—a detail she shares with a sad smile I don’t understand—while the males tend to base their choice of clothing on the day’s given task. Standing in only my undergarments, I then step out of the bra and panties with Vabila’s gentle urging. Completely naked, she keeps her gaze on mine when needed and doesn’t make my current state the focus between us while she empties the satchel of items on the shelf.