Chapter 42 Warp Speed.
For some reason, it brought a lot of unexpected panic to her. She thought she had hours to decide on how she would comfortably handle his presence.
"How can he get here so fast?" she wailed. She looked at the sky above to see what her father had seen but she could not find a single silhouette or trace of any space ship.
"His space ship has warping capabilities." her father answered.
"This is not a star wars movie, why is he warping?" she wailed again. She looked as though she would break down in tears at any moment. She had forgotten that nobody in this room had ever seen star wars before. They did not even understand a single thing that she said.
They were looking at her as though she was losing her sanity.
"Why do you look frightened?" Carolyn pushed Scarlet's hair behind her ears and she asked her. "I thought you would be happy."
Scarlet looked at Carolyn and she replied tearfully, "Big sis, you will not understand my conundrum."
"Sister, you were brave enough to enter the Blue forest alone, you can conquer your fear of Esong Wu." Fey's shy soft ever supportive voice added itself to the mix.
"Right." Scarlet said. Fey had a point, she was no coward, she was a grim reaper that arrested souls of the dead. She had even captured a soul eater.
How could Esong Wu be more scary than the old deity for example. She had resolved to take care of Justin and be his mother. She had to pull herself and her family out of poverty. How could a governor be timid?
With a new resolve she made up her mind to face him. "I am going to take a quick bath and change my outfit. I cannot face him looking like this."
There was a bit of dirt on her face and the entire bottom part of her jeans had turned brown due to the dust. If he saw her looking dirty wouldn't he find her disgusting? She had to face him while portraying confidence, beauty and intelligence. He needed to see that she was not the old Scarlet, she was a better version.
Version 2.0 because version 1 was dead and gone.
"That's the spirit." Dorian Su was relieved.
"Sister Carolyn, send Justin to my room. I will give him a bath and dress him up nicely."
"Do you need help with your hair?" her mother asked.
"No." she replied.
"What can we do then?" her mother asked.
"Help me peel the potatoes in those boxes in the kitchen and chop some vegetables. When he arrives just bring him into the house and give him some refreshments. There is ready juice in the cold storage, I prepared it yesterday."
"He is one minute out, we need to go and welcome him." her father tapped Adler on the shoulder.
When they were gone, Mega Su sighed as she looked in the direction of their sitting room. The old furniture stood out like a sore thumb.
"I feel …." she said but then she stopped.
"Sister, do we have any way of covering the old furniture? Mother must be worried about our family's reputation."
"Do we still have a reputation to save?" Elroy asked sarcastically.
Mega Su slapped Elroy on the butt. "How can you say that? This is your sister's husband, we have to make your sister look good for the marriage to work. It's hard enough knowing that our family does not equate to his but welcoming him to this....." she stopped and sighed.
"I have some chairs that helped teacher make. They are soft and very comfortable, why don't we replace the old furniture quickly?" Scarlet suggested this because she had enough furniture in her storage to furnish one hundred houses.
Back then, people only cared about stuffing their bags with food. Things like sofas, tables, television and the like were not a priority. She had spent time disappearing all those things into her storage space.
For once, Mega did not argue about her using her teacher's things illegally. She welcomed the idea wholeheartedly.
She took out one entire set of grey sectional sofas and two love seats. All of these had matching fluffy pillows. She also took out one coffee table that had been crafted out of marble.
Beord carried all of this furniture one piece at a time from her room to the living room.
For a final touch, she took out one black soft fluffy carpet.
Carolyn brought Justin to her as Beord was lugging the carpet out on his shoulders.
She realized that she had been right to insist that the little boy take a bath before meeting his father because he was so dirty. He looked like he had been rolling around in a mud bath like a little piglet.
"Yi," she said in shock, "What have you been up to you dirty little baby?" she asked as she guided Justin to the bathroom.
Justin was all too happy to fill her in on his wonderful day.
"I watered the fields with my friends and taught them the seedling growing song. It was so much fun, Koko slid and fell down on his bum in the field. It was so funny." he chuckled so carefreely and happily.
"Did you say sorry to Koko when he hurt himself?" she asked.
"Koko is a girl mummy." Justin told her and then he chuckled again.
"Oh, mummy did not know that." she replied. "You should bring Koko over for a visit. Mummy would love to meet some of your friends."
"Okay." he replied.
She had taken off his clothes by this time, she asked him to close his eyes as she scrubbed the dirt out of his hair with some fruity smelling shampoo. She washed his entire body carefully with warm water.
"Mummy this soap smells sweet." Justin said and then he stuck his little tongue out to lick the bubbles.
She swatted him on the ass gently. "Don't eat the soap." she said sternly. "It will make you sick."