7. Magic Interferes in New Orleans

Location: Veneuron

Aliens: Human, Rivan

The weather controls in the city are out. Again. The humidity is off the charts. Everyone seems to melt their way from one place to another, congealing into pools on the transports. Personal fan drones keep bumping into one another, trying to follow their owners. Tempers are short and the day feels so incredibly long. “This reminds me of a story my grandma told me,” Louise says from the balcony. She’s always telling stories her grandmother told her. It doesn’t bother me, I actually really like it. But the heat has morphed me into a bit of a monster.

“Is that so?” I ask from the couch. We’re both practically naked, the sweat from our icepacks mingling with our own. I put down my display. I was only half-heartedly reading some report anyway. “How’d the story go?”

“She said it was a story passed down for generations,” she says, coming back inside. She lays on the floor beside the couch and I roll onto my side so I can watch her. The stories are little more than myths and-what did they use to call them? Fairy Tails? Something like that. But to see her tell them, I feel that might take my mind off how close to bursting into flames I feel. “It was way back on Earth,” she said. Ah yes, Earth. The fabled planet and home of the humans. I guess they had to come from somewhere, but to hear them talk about it, no planet would ever compare. If their ancestors had felt that way, maybe they wouldn’t have had to flee. I chastise myself, that wasn’t a kind thing to think.

“Where on Earth?” I ask.

“A city called New Orleans,” she said. “They held this kind of festival every year. They’d give up mortal pleasures for a long time. So on the eve of the fast, they partied like there was no tomorrow. Drinking and dancing. Colorful beads showered down on the revelers.”

“I guess I’d party, too, if I couldn’t for a long time,” I reasoned out loud.

“The thing about New Orleans,” Louise said, sitting up to lean her arms on the edge of the couch, her face hovering near mine, “is that it was full of magic.”

“Oh here we go again,” I said. Humans, even modern humans, held on to this belief in magic. Wonders and holy miracles. Or, no, if I have it right, magic wasn’t the same thing as miracles. People who believed in miracles didn’t believe in magic. The leaps and backflips of logic made me dizzy, but that was the human way.

“Don’t believe me? Fine,” she said. “But one year, during the festival - man, I wish I could remember what she called it. Anyway, one year, there was a terrible drought. The humidity made people fall down in the street. But the sky just wouldn’t give up its rain,” Louise said.

“I can see why you thought of this story,” I said, wiping my forehead and trying to get any ounce of cold left out of the ice pack on my neck. “Let me guess, it rained just in time for the celebration?”

“You’re no fun,” Louise said, sticking out her tongue and laying her head on her arms in defeat.

“Did I guess right?” I asked. She feigned tears.

“If you let me tell the story, you’d know,” she said. “But yes,” she said with a big sigh of defeat.

“Tell me, how did the mystical humans of New Orleans get the rain they so desperately needed in time for their party to end all parties?” I asked. I would honestly convert to any religion to end that horrible humidity.

“Magic,” she said, suddenly serious.

“If it rained right now, I’d believe it had to be magic,” I said. I felt bad. I had only meant to tease her. I genuinely wanted to know what happened. I was watching her intently, hoping she’d continue. I placed a hand on her arm and rubbed it, hoping that might be “sorry” enough. I opened my mouth to say something.

A crack of lightning appeared in the sky above our building. Thunder rumbled, startling me and Louise both. Black clouds covered the harsh desert sun outside the dome and a cool breeze swept through the apartment.

And it rained.

Giant droplets of cool, precious rain pelted the windows. We leapt up and ran out onto the balcony, the rain soaking us instantly. “Magic!” I shouted over the thunder and it was worth it to see Louise smile.