by Danny
Danny Hearn sat on a small balcony with a girl named Rachel. They were watching the parade together, and Rachel seemed rather excited by the sight. Danny was mainly curious about the whole thing and a little put off by the fact that the PSI-Unit was getting so much damn attention.
"So, Rachel..."
"Yeah?"
"I didn't catch your last name."
"Johnson. Rachel Johnson."
"And you?" Rachel asked.
"Hearn. Danny Hearn."
"Right..."
The parade went on beneath them. Bright lights, loud music, colorful floats, a large crowd, the usual trappings of this sort of event.
"Big crowd down there," Rachel said.
"Yup. Big... big crowd," Danny said, agreeing.
"I didn't think there was even that many people living on La Perdita."
"A lot of them might be tourists."
"Maybe. So whereabouts do you live?"
"She wants you, Danny! See how she just worked asking you where you live into the conversation?"
Danny ignored Hal's rantings and answered the question. "I live in this old hotel, down that way," Danny said, pointing toward the south of the island.
"But you're not from here originally."
"Huh?"
"The accent. Australian, is it?"
"Yeah, I'm from Australia..."
"Really? Which part?"
"Melbourne. The cold part..."
"She wants you!" Danny continued to ignore Hal.
"What's it like there?" Rachel asked.
"Pretty cool, I guess. It's a nice place to live," Danny said, somewhat awkwardly. He didn't really know how to answer these sorts of questions about his past. It was, understandably, something he was reluctant to talk about with strangers. So, I'm from eight decades into the future, how 'bout you? wasn't exactly the best conversational icebreaker.
"So what brings you to La Perdita?"
"Uh... work. I work with some people here. Yup. Work."
"Cool."
"She wants you! She wants you! Go for it!"
"OH MY GOD!" Rachel yelled.
"What? What is it?"
"One of the balloons! The Tweety Bird one! It just started... flying around on its own!"
"Huh?"
"And where the hell did that cow come from?"
"M'xy..." Danny said under his breath.
"What?"
"Never mind. Uh... I gotta use your toilet. I'll be back in a minute."
Danny got up and went to the washroom, not the most romantic of locales, but Danny was pretty damn nervous about being on what almost seemed like a date. He unzipped.
"Go for it, Danny! She wants you!"
"Shut up," Danny said as he took aim.
"Come on. You've barely looked at a girl since we got sent back to this miserable excuse for a year! Have some fun!"
"It's not that simple."
"Of course it is! You've got a hot girl sitting there on the balcony just waiting for you to make a move!"
"Shut up!"
"So you're just going to sit around feeling sorry for yourself for your whole damn life? Fuck that! You're trapped here! Make the most of it!"
"SHUT UP."
"Fuck you."
"Shut. The fuck. UP!" Danny shook and zipped up. He opened the door.
"Were you talking to someone in there?" Rachel said. She was standing just outside the washroom door.
"Heh. Busted."
"Just... a bird. There was a bird on the windowsill."
"It sounded like you were yelling."
"Well... the bird was looking at me funny. I wasn't going to take that crap from the likes of him."
"...What?"
"I gotta go."
Danny left in quite a hurry.