“When infected by Starglow, Salawanda moved faster, glowed brighter and regurgitated more lolleylanders than any other Vibratom in recorded history. She generated an enormous amount of heat. Starglow mingled all his molecules with Salawanda’s and the two became totally intertwined. But, THOUGHT assignments were of short duration and after what seemed like no time at all a messenger arrived and told Starglow, “By order of the RULERS you are to leave this assignment immediately and go to Squarefield where another Vibratom awaits you.”
“Oh, no, no. That’s terrible,” Bettina cried. “Tell me it isn’t true? What did Salawanda do? What happened to Starglow?”
Condensation dripped within Bettina’s stratified layer, as if she was about to involute.
“I’m afraid it’s true, Bettina. That’s why it’s so important that you hear this story. Anyway, no one had warned Starglow, or Salawanda for that matter, about love. Remember when I told you how dangerous love is and how you must use love- contraception?”
At that moment, Bettina’s mother shivered as a streak of cold atmosphere from Bettina flowed past her, and she understood that her relations with her daughter were damaged.
“So…what happened?” Bettina asked.
“Well, after the initial shock brought by the messenger that Starglow was reassigned elsewhere, he had no choice. He extracted his molecules from Salawanda’s and lost cohesiveness. He degenerated into a disconnected THOUGHT. His molecules lost synchrony and moved independently. He developed internal randomitis, Sheets of gray stuff, which no Vibratom had ever seen before and remains mysterious to this day, folded around his perimeter, yanking his core in all directions simultaneously. Salawanda lost her violet aura. She stopped regurgitating lolleylanders and her snotchel secreted a foggy, sticky substance barring any other THOUGHT from entering. She was not even able to transform into a Statacom and remained motionless, THOUGHTLESS and empty as the space between orbitals for all eternity.”
“Poor Salawanda,” whispered Bettina.
“Yes, poor Salawanda, and poor Starglow too,” said Loella, hopeful that she had made an impression on Bettina.
Loella continued.
“Starglow oozed away from little Salawanda, who was as devoid of energy as she was filled with the ambient cold. Starglow stretched slowly in one direction and then another trying to reorient his molecules, but to no avail. After traveling less than twenty kitopters from Salawanda he froze and became transparent, indistinguishable from the hard, grey rock supporting him. He was never seen again.
“They had tasted love, Bettina, the old fashioned kind that humans suffered from before their Great Extinction, and there was no returning,” said Loella, her voice dropping a decibel or two.
After a moment of silence, as if in mourning with all attention directed inwardly, Loella looked up and found herself alone. Bettina was gone and had left a puddle of icy condensation in her place.
Loella gazed towards the horizon and recognized that familiar violet glow emanating from Bettina’s fuzzy cloud. She also saw a bouncy little Cloudlet floating next to her that was clearly Henle. He too glowed, but with a softer, bluer aura. Their edges ebbed and flowed, overlapping and entangling each other, becoming one and then separating again, over and over without apparent concern as they drifted out of sight.
Loella shrunk her perimeter and contracted her core. Her stratifications bloated. “I tried,” she uttered softly to herself, and then she closed her padoodles.
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