Chapter 12 Robbie
ROBBIE
I hated not being able to easily communicate.
To say it was beyond frustrating would be putting it mildly.
I wanted desperately to ask him so many things: when would his friends bring my fellow abductees back?
Where would all of us stay? Were we even welcome to stay long term?
I wasn’t able to ask any of those things, or rather, I could, but he wouldn’t understand a single word of it, just as he hadn’t when I asked him if that room had been his bedroom.
Now I was being led out along the walkway, towards what at first I’d thought was a natural cave archway.
The arching top of the entrance might have been original to the space, but the rest certainly wasn’t.
Stone sinks hugged the wall, six in total, with a hand pump and a crystalline bucket in the middle of them.
I stared in awe as someone pumped the handle and steaming water came out.
Stinking slightly of sulphur, mind you, but clear and definitely a bit steamy.
After filling the bucket, the person I now guessed was female, thanks to her smaller, softer build and small, rounded breasts, poured the water into a sink containing dirty dishes already in some water, returned the bucket to the hand pump, and began to clean them.
Gree-Gree marched up to one of the empty sinks and quickly unloaded the basket he’d carried the dirty dishes in into it, stuffing a bit of cloth into a hole in the back of the sink at the bottom, which appeared to empty into a channel that ran along the bottom of the wall, draining into a hole which led to goodness knows where, judging by the wet marks underneath the other sinks.
Next, he walked over and began pumping water into the bucket.
I was oddly reminded of one summer when I was around eight, maybe nine years old, and my dad borrowed a tent from a friend and took us camping at a campground.
There had been a communal dishwashing area similar to this, only with much more modern sinks and plumbing.
Totally the same vibe though, and now I was wondering how they got the water into the pipes from wherever it led to.
And did they have different sinks to wash themselves in?
Or tubs? Or was there a giant hot spring like the ones I’d seen pictures of in Japan?
Or did they tongue bathe, since they were basically giant, furry cats?
I hoped not, because I was definitely not going to lick all the sweat and dirt and whatnot off of myself.
Besides, I wouldn’t be able to reach some of the places that would need cleaning, even if I wanted to, which I didn’t.
Nuh uh. Not after getting all gross while on the alien ship and then wearing their pongy ass clothes as protection, especially.
I had a sudden terrible thought. I knew I didn’t smell particularly fresh, but how much worse did I smell to Gree-Gree and the others?
Shit! The way their noses twitched as I stood or walked by them…
I had to smell absolutely foul! I stalked over to where Gree-Gree was filling the bucket a second time and caught his attention before pointing to the water and miming washing myself.
He slashed his hand through the air in what looked to be a negative response, the growling words falling from his mouth sounding adamant.
But was it a “No, we don’t bathe here,” or a “No, we don’t use water to wash ourselves,” or something else?
I chewed my lip, trying to decide which it must be, and coming up empty.
In the meantime, Gree-Gree cleaned up everything we’d used for our meal and placed them back in the basket we’d brought them in, removing the rag from the hole he’d stuffed it in, and wringing it out before placing it inside the basket with them, neatly folded along with the cloth he’d used to scrub everything.
He held the basket out to me wordlessly, and I took it.
Then he picked up the other basket, the one he’d put more cloths and bits of clothing in, like when my dad took me to the men’s showers at that same campground.
And duhhhh… I should have made that connection before!
So his response must have been a “No, not here,” and he was about to take me where the showers or whatever were.
“Rah-bee,” he rasped, gesturing for me to follow him, which I did because shit, I’d be lost without him.
We walked back towards his home, only stopping for him to take the basket from me and pop it inside his door before leading me further down, around a bend, and oh wow.
Ahead of us was a grotto of sorts, with a trio of natural pools.
Each pool varied in size, edges smooth and invitingly rounded as if coaxed into shape by many years of patient attention.
Steam rose languidly from their surfaces, curling into the air like ghostly serpents dissipating into nothingness.
Crystal clear waters beckoned seductively under flickering torches embedded within the stone, providing ambient light as it reflected in the water.
The scent was invitingly earthy, combined with a hint of sulphur that somehow only added to its raw allure.
I couldn’t wait to shed my clothes and join the others bathing there, and so I looked at Gree-Gree, hoping he’d show me where to go and what to do.
He smiled, tilting his head to indicate a direction he wished me to follow, leading me to the smallest pool at the very back of the grotto, which was unoccupied.
He settled the basket of clothes on a bench carved into the cave walls, removing the large swaths of fabric I now realized must be towels of some sort.
He placed them on the bench and began removing his boots and clothes, and I hurried to do the same.
He then took me by the hand, leading me to the pool’s edge, and I noticed he held a smaller wad of cloth in his other hand, along with what looked like a cake of soap.
He sat down at the pool’s edge, then slid in, and I saw the water here only went up to his waist. I dipped a toe in and shivered in delight. The water might smell like eggs that had seen far better days, but it was deliciously warm.
“What the hell,” I muttered to myself and followed his lead, sitting on the edge before lowering myself in. A bath was a bath, and ohhhh, shit! The water felt sooooo good! It was the perfect temperature, the heat seeping into my bones, chasing the last of the chill away.