Lunch at Burachok
Met Aelena for lunch today at Burachok.
For newer readers: Aelena is a young Velari student from an alternate Earth where humanity evolved rather differently. Velari biology follows rules of its own, and Aelena personally treats the rules of reality as polite suggestions.
I also have a crush on her.
She kissed me once, and we arrived in another world.
Neither of us is entirely certain whether that was romance, biology, or a transportation accident.
She is travelling to Mount Voras in Greece for her next university project, so we arranged lunch before our paths separated again.
Today’s menu was grilled pork ribs, roasted potatoes, grilled corn, grilled zucchini, and cabbage salad.
I ordered two menus.
Aelena looked at both plates, then at me.
“Are you expecting someone else?”
“Yes,” I said. “The second version of me who appears when the first one finishes eating.”
She was impressed anyway.
Halfway through lunch, one of my ribs lifted itself from the plate, grew four tiny legs, and began walking toward the edge of the table.
I looked at Aelena.
She continued eating her zucchini with complete innocence.
“Aelena.”
“It wanted to see Lviv.”
The rib reached the salt shaker, paused as though reconsidering its life choices, then marched toward her plate.
I caught it before it escaped.
“You cannot give my lunch free will.”
“I only gave it motivation.”
She smiled, and the little legs disappeared.
This is the difficulty with Aelena. Nothing around her is entirely impossible. A door may decide it leads somewhere else. A cup may briefly forget gravity. A mountain, under the correct academic conditions, might become more cooperative.
I ate the rib before it developed further ambitions.
Aelena leaves for Greece soon. She says the project is ordinary field research.
I have lived long enough to know that when a Velari calls something ordinary, nearby geography should prepare itself.
