#14: Banana Slug : Rolling on a River

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The small group of odd watercraft drifted slowly down the river, emphasis on slow. They kept out of sight. As far as they knew the government would shoot first and not even bother to ask questions later. That had happened before so they didn’t advertise their presence. They kept low, slow and silent. The SmokeShip and it’s remote controlled escorts followed the navigation channel in the middle of the river, as far away from either shore as possible. It was just easier that way. The rains continued. The river flooded and became deeper and deeper.

The Banana Slug, like it’s name sake, was a crawler. It crawled along the bottom of the river’s navigation channel. The shorelines of the river had receded farther and farther into the distance on both sides. The flood plain was flooded. It was flooded more so than it ever had been in written history. Even the tall trees, further and further from the river channel, were gradually disappearing from sight under the relentless rise of the water. This was far, far beyond any imagined thousand year flood.

The residents or perhaps they should be called the ‘crew’ of the Banana Slug, still hadn’t completely assimilated the implications of the smart matter that it was made of. The children who lived aboard it had done so easily. The adults were constantly being surprised by the children doing something they had never before considered, yet which seemed perfectly reasonable and obvious in hindsight.

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“See ya! Mommie! I’m going to go play!” Tommy shouted to his mother as he flew past her at shoulder level. Once he passed thru the front door, which snapped open like a camera iris to let him out, he gained altitude. He joined his buds....other pre teens. They momentarily engaged in a mock aerial dogfight complete with full aerobatics and combat sound effects. Pecking order thus established they fell into flight formation and buzzed main street on the way to their clubhouse.

The Banana Slug was plenty tall inside for children to fly. From the ground to it’s overhead “rain tarp” there was more than enough room for single story homes. Here and there it was higher where it made accommodation for taller structures. It was also full of SSmoke so that the kids, or anyone else, could fly if they wanted to. The children had found a nook or a cranny somewhere between a roof and the graphene envelope to build their own little hang-out. They’d picked one of the higher locations inside common area of the big SmokeShip.

After one last swoop the youngsters gained altitude heading for their ‘bat cave’.

Shelby had explained the SSmoke conferred ability to fly by using the analogy of ‘crowd surfing.’

“Those little bitty hands passing you from one to the other.” He’d say, referring to the little SSmoke-mote ‘hands’ or grippers. Shelby thought it was more like sliding thru self opening tunnels in the air rather than flying, but that sounded silly so he didn’t say it.

Tommy’s mother had waved him on as he streaked past. She still wasn’t quiet comfortable with the way her son could fly around like a superman but she was slowly getting used to it, all the parents were, everyone on board the Banana Slug was. There was no way to prevent the children from doing so other than to cage them, then they’d fly around in their cages. Flying was just too much fun. It was every human’s dream to be able to fly like superman. Those aboard the Banana Slug could do just that.

Cody’s mother floated slowly around the house re-arranging the furniture. The house, at her behest, cleaned and straightened itself, moved it’s internal walls, changed colors, lighting and gained or lost carpeting, to suite her whim.

“Kids these days.” She sighed. “they have it so easy.”

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The Next Episode will be
#15:Banana Slug: Stress…
The Previous Episode was
#13: Henry Drake -Executive Decision…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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