9. Evan
EVAN
I’d looked forward to meeting Thalen after seeing his picture.
I’d had to mentally fan myself; he was that damn hot in his picture.
In person? Oh, yeah, baby! I was definitely attracted to him, and the shy way he’d offered me flowers he’d brought to give me?
Oh, Lord have mercy! He was super adorable!
Then I watched as he gave Jason the stuffed kilt-ha he’d brought with him.
He was so gentle and kind, and so much so that Jason was immediately taken with him too.
Not that I’d really worried about that. From the moment we found out I'd matched with Thalen and he saw the picture of his “new dragon man dad”, he was all team Thalen.
I was right there with him, imagining our Little House on the Space Prairie life on New Haven too.
“So, which one is our farm?” I asked excitedly.
The picture of Thalen I’d gotten had shown him outside with a field of wheat growing behind him, which could have been just about anywhere, as it was all prairie grass and wheat fields as far as the eye could see, with a bunch of buildings dotted around.
“We’re actually right on the edge of town,” Thalen responded, taking a left turn at the second intersection.
The first one had a big fountain in the middle, with a statue of a dog with a cat sitting on its back in the middle of it.
I knew from watching Jesse's vids that the base had an inscription dedicating it to the animals, and it was there to provide drinking water for them while accompanying their owners in town.
This second one was a regular crossroad, with small signs here and there announcing what building was going to be on the empty building lots later, while other lots held no such thing.
He drove us out another ten minutes by my reckoning when I spotted a house that tickled my memory.
It was a double geodesic dome of some sort, the top of it made of glass, and had a front porch slapped onto the front of half of it.
Three more geodesic domes were nearby, one made completely of glass and, from what I could make out, holding plants, so I decided it must be a greenhouse.
The other two were plain off-white, and I had no clue what they were for.
A long rectangular building was off to the side, close to a pen where some of those weird kangaroo rabbit things that laid eggs were in a pen.
I blinked as he turned into the yard in front of the house.
“This is us. First farm outside of town limits,” he announced proudly.
“Do you have robots? This looks just like the buildings on Tatooine in Star Wars!” Jason burst out, already scrambling to get out of his harness.
I snapped my fingers. “Yes! That was what the buildings reminded me of.”
Thalen looked apprehensive as he helped Jason out of the flitter.
“Wars? No wars. Just a peaceful farm.”
I laughed. “No, that’s a movie franchise.
We’ll have to watch it together sometime.
Um, one of the imaginary planets is a big desert, but they have buildings kind of like these.
” I tried to not show my disappointment as I added, “After seeing Walnut Grove, I was expecting something a bit different.”
To my relief, Thalen nodded. “Bob, Jesse, and I talked about that, and since my house was too small, I had them make it bigger, and we redid the inside so it was more traditional farmhouse, as they called it.”
“Really?” I squealed. “I can’t wait to see it! But I gotta ask, what’s all this under the tarps?”
Thalen scratched his head at the base of one horn, his tail low to the ground, though the tip of it was twitching, betraying what I believed to be anxiety.
“It’s just some furniture. They said you were bringing your own stuff, so I thought I’d empty the place out so you could put your things where you wanted ‘em and have a look to see if there was anything out here you wanted to keep.”
“You don’t have to get rid of all your things,” I said, feeling a little bad.
“Oh, I’m not attached to any of it or anything. They’re just basic, sturdy stuff I had replicated so I had stuff.”
“Well, if you’re sure,” I said.
“Look, Dad!” Jason called out. “There’s a swinging bench on the porch! And a rocking chair!” He plopped his butt into the rocking chair, Benny in his arms as he began to rock. Benny licked his face, happy for the attention.
Thalen and I went up onto the porch, and I admired the swing.
It definitely looked large and sturdy enough for the pair of us to sit on together, and I was already imagining us out here at night after Jason went to bed, gently swinging while holding hands, looking out over our crops under the light of the three moons.
It was so romantic I could just die. I’d always been a huge romantic guy at heart, and too shy to do anything about it.
Not that anyone had stepped forward wanting to sweep me off my feet.
More like take me dancing or out to dinner and then bend over.
I’d stopped accepting phone numbers after that, and truly, the whole find your perfect soul mate if he’s out there and was a Dragonii thing was one of the reasons I knew applying for a colony parcel was perfect for me.
I’d told myself not to get my hopes up, but then, bam!
Another of my three wishes had been granted.
A kid, a farm, and a husband to call my own.
He opened the front door, and it was like stepping into an alternate past. There was a large, empty living room space with an empty room to one side that I guessed was either an office space or meant for a dining room. Another door off to the side turned out to be a half bath.
“The dining room used to be my bedroom,” Thalen said. “And they took the shower out of here to put in a closet for towels and stuff.”
“And the bedrooms are now on the other side,” I guessed.
“Yes. Four bedrooms and three more bathrooms. There used to be a second bedroom on this side, but when they remodeled the kitchen, they used part of it for the kitchen and part of it for a pantry.”
“Very roomy,” I murmured, wandering back towards the kitchen.
I stopped dead. What I was looking at was so kitschy it was cute!
“I absolutely love it!” Running my hand over the Formica topped dinette that sat next to the door on one side, I simply had to ask, “Where on earth did you guys find one of these in such mint condition? Is it a repro?”
“It’s replicated.”
“Well, it is absolutely fantastic. I can see us having breakfast here every single morning and using it to roll out pie crust and stuff like that.”
He looked relieved that I was so happy with everything that I couldn't resist going over and placing a kiss along the underside of his jaw.
“I can tell a lot of thought and effort went into making this homey for me and Jason.” He stared at me wide-eyed when I stepped back, so I decided to let him get over being flustered by going over and checking out the retro fridge and stove.
“Huh. These are more replications, aren’t they?”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “They use the most advanced applications of galactic tech, so they are high performance. They are crystal powered, so don’t require an external power source.”
“What happens with these crystals when they have to be replaced?”
He blinked. “Each one lasts five hundred years or so, which means what they are powering will wear out first. They are then repurposed into powering a new unit. If they develop a fault and need replacing, such as when they become too old and brittle and lose their ability to self-recharge, they simply become inert stones.”
Talk about being energy efficient and eco friendly!
The fridge was very roomy on the inside, and had a butter compartment inside of the door that, when I placed my hand on it, felt warm.
“That keeps the butter at optimal temperature. Cool enough not to spoil and warm enough to spread.”
I noticed the top two shelves were lazy susan style and the bottom one was a pull out glasteel one on bearings.
Two drawers nestled beneath, one marked ‘crisper’ and the other ‘meat and cheese’.
I closed the fridge door and peered into the freezer on top.
It was large enough to hold a week’s worth of frozen meat and some veggies, and maybe a tub of ice cream and an ice cube tray.
I shut it, nodding to myself, already thinking about how I’d make use of the kitchen as I was bound to be more helpful here than I was in the fields, though I definitely saw myself out there doing my bit.
Then I spied something set in the wall over the dinette. “Ohh! A replicator!” Forget ice cube trays, that bad boy was all we needed to make ice cold drinks and anything else we wanted. It was definitely going to get used on nights I didn’t feel like cooking, too.
I darted back to the stove, loving how it looked so vintage.
I lifted what I thought was a forgotten pot lid and was excited to see it actually belonged to a pot set into the stove.
“A built in crock pot!” I said. “And a griddle,” I added, running my fingers over the middle.
The griddle had a handle at the base, which I lifted up.
“Oh! I’ve seen something like this on a homestead video I watched!
That’s for grilling sausage, burgers, and bacon, and you can do it while cooking the pancakes at the same time! ”
“It’s good?” he asked, shifting from foot to foot.
“Oh, babe, it’s better than good. It’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious fantastisco, it’s so great!”
“It’s a stove,” Jason said, sounding unimpressed.
“But one we can make pancakes on top of!” I insisted.
He perked up at that. “We’re having pancakes?”
I laughed. “Sure, we can probably rustle up the ingredients for those. Pancakes for supper!”
“And bacon?” he asked.
“And bacon.”
He turned to look at Thalen. “Do you like pancakes?”
“I do not know what those are."
“Oh. Well, you’ll have to try them, but I promise, you’ll love pancakes, D.D.”
“D.D.?” Thalen and I asked at the same time.
“Yeah. You’re Dad already, and he’s my dragon man dad, so D.D. for Dragonii Dad.”
Thalen broke into a grin so wide, I thought his face was going to split in two. His tail reached out, draping itself around Jason’s shoulders. “I am honored to be your D.D.”
He eyed the tail on his shoulders. “Does this mean I can have a pony?”
Thalen threw me a panicked look.
“D.D. and I will discuss that later, after we get our things unpacked and he shows me the barn. Why don’t you go let the barn cats out in the barn and grab the food and water bowls and fill those up. Actually, do that first and then let the cats out so they see the food and water waiting for them.”
“Okay!” he raced outside to climb up onto the trailer to do as I asked.
“I better get our indoor cats and Duke situated inside too,” I said.
“I’ll help you,” he offered.
“Okay, but first, these flowers are wilting. We got something I can put them in?”