After a time, Momj’s stomach began to grumble. He checked the clock. 1230 already? Momj sighed. Time for lunch then, he decided. Momj took a final look over the document, saved, and put it in the “to reply” folder. Then he got up, stretched, and lurched over to the kitchen for lunch.
When he reached the kitchen, Momj found Adish and Mika arguing over a piece of paper on the table.
“I’m telling you, this is the formula for intercept form,” Mika was saying.
“And I’m telling you, you’re wrong!” Adish retorted.
“What seems to be the problem?” Momj asked, coming around to peer at the paper.
“Math homework,” said Mika in tones of disgust.
“Honestly!” exclaimed Adish, “we just can’t figure it out!”
Momj looked at the worksheet. It seemed like they were working on different formulas for exponential format. “Well,” he said, “I can tell you that numbers three, five, and seven through eleven are wrong. The rest are right, though I can’t really read them. You guys should be neater.
“Anyway, what’s in the cupboards for lunch?” Momj looked at them expectantly.
They returned blank looks. “Who said anything about lunch?” Adish asked. “It’s only about 1100!” Then he looked at the clock. “Oh… 1235 already?”
“Well then, what is for lunch?” Mika got up and started poking around.
Eventually, Momj had cold pizza, Mika had last night’s lasagna out of the fridge, and Adish had curry warmed up in the microwave. They chowed down. While they were eating, Mika and Adish quizzed Momj on sports trivia, which he knew nothing of.
“Gods! Don’t you have football on Mars?!?” demanded Adish. “At home we play it in special stadiums, and everyone comes to watch! Good players become really rich and big celebrities too!”
“And basketball too!” Mika added. “Why, it’s so big on Skimmer Station, that we had a star player for a captain once! Not that he was any good at administrating, but he did get the popular vote.”
“Well,” Momj said tentatively, “I think we have shuffleboard, and a modified type of baseball, but last time I checked that was it. It might have changed though. I don’t follow sports…” Momj trailed off in embarrassment.
Adish laughed and patted Momj on the shoulder. “That’s all right kid! We understand if you’re too nerdy to follow sports. I mean, Candice doesn’t, and that means you have a license to not like the awesomeness of sports.” He either ignored or didn’t see Momj’s offended look, and turned to discussing teams and players with Mika. Momj ate the rest of his meal in silence.
After lunch, Mika and Adish ran off to do meditation. Momj began to walk slowly back to his room. About halfway to the stairs up to the third floor, Silas and Brooks caught him at a window. “What’s wrong?” Silas asked.
“Adish. Mika. Sports. Me knowing nothing.” Momj sighed deeply.
“Yeah, they’re really bad, hunh?” Brooks said, sympathetic.
“It’s bad enough for you,” Silas complained, “all that puts you and them at opposite sides of the table is your interests! For me ‘n Brooks, it’s that and our natures. I mean, look!”
Momj looked at the plant coming in through the window to curl around Silas’s arm, and the pool of water swirling around Brook’s feet. Suddenly conscious of the winds constantly tugging his hair and clothes, Momj smiled and said, “Yeah, you’re right. Anyway, how are you two doing?”
“Oh, I’m going to meditation,” Silas told him. “You know, everyone meditates after lunch, when you have a nice full belly and everything!”
“I’m sure not everyone meditates, Silas,” Brooks remarked. “Certainly not normal people.
“Anyway,” he said, turning to Momj, “Ikan has a special lesson with Misha this afternoon, so he’s with her, and not meditating with me, as always. It’s in that walk in freezer of Aria’s.” Misha was the Elemental Master of Ice, and Ikan’s teacher. “Oh, I almost forgot! After meditation, do you want to come into town?”
Momj grinned. “Sure! I haven’t gone in to town in a medium while, so I suppose they have a new pinball machine. I hope they still have my last high score up on the wall for the tourists to gawk at…” Momj’s grin widened. He was known in Trader’s Haven as the “Pinball Wizard,” and the reputation was well deserved.
“Yeah, I haven’t been to an arcade in a while either,” Silas said thoughtfully. “I hope my Pac Man skills haven’t gotten rusty…”
“It’s a deal then!” Brooks said. “We meet after meditation in the Sand Buggy garage, and then we are so going to town!”
“Yep!” Momj agreed. “See you there!”
And so they went their separate ways to meditate. Momj went to the end of the deck on the roof of West Wing, Silas to a patch of moss on the floor of his room, and Brooks went to the waterfall room.