Re: Whatever happened to Owen Numan?

Who: Peggy Marwood, Peter Marwood and Efof
Where: Parrotts bar
When: After Peggy arrived
<snip>
Taking a look inside, Peggy saw that the pub was virtually empty. A
couple of young Technicians were sitting having a pub lunch, two
security guards were having a game of pool, a strange green man in a
bobble hat was wiping down the bar, looking happy. Peggy walked up
to the bar and the green man looked up.
"Hello, can I help you?" he asked.
"Yes. You can" said Peggy "cos Im your new boss!"
<end snip>
"Psst!" Efof whispered to Peter. "Is it too late to make a quick
escape or do you reckon she's seen me yet?"
"Er… she's seen you AND introduced herself!" Peter said.
After a short pause Efof changed his tune and cracked a cheeky smile.
"Hello there, very nice to meet you! I'm Efof your friendly waiter
slash bartender!"
He held out four hands for Peggy to shake. She was a little
uncomfortable about this. "Which one do I shake?" she whispered to
Peter, who shrugged.
She nervously shook the hand closest to her. It was all slimy.
"Oh sorry about that, I've just been cleaning the gents. You humans
can sure make a lot of mess after a Saturday night. Its as if you have
TWO places for stuff to come out of when you're drunk!" he laughed and
walked over to the bar.
"So let me show you around." He looked around, there wasn't much that
wasn't so obvious.
"Erm… well those are the tables right there… this here is the bar,
human people come and sit here when they want a drink. Males AND
females order sometimes, as I've noticed you're a very forward race of
people. Although I've never seen children or dogs pay, I suppose
you've still got a long way to go towards total equality."
Peggy looked at Peter as if to ask `is this really an alien of a
deformed crackhead off the streets?'. Peter again shrugged. "I've not
known Efof for very long, as far as I can tell, this is normal for him."
Efof continued with the tour. "These are what we call pint glasses…
people seem to drink from them, but they don't eat them afterwards,
which I find odd. But hey – I'm the alien around here right?!"
He pointed to some bar taps. "These pump beer straight from the tanks
onboard. Carling, Fosters, Carlsberg, Black Sheep, some others that
nobody buys, oh and this one…" he paused to stroke a glowing bar tap.
"This… as far as I know… is the special stuff! Owen Numan used to tell
me that nobody orders it because its so good and so expensive, he used
to tell me that instead of being pumped from a tank or keg, it's
pumped straight from an intersecting universe of pure beautiful
perfection. Are you taking all this in?"
Peggy and Peter seemed to be having a hard time taking all this in. Or
were looking around for someone sane they could talk to.
"Oh,, and last on the tour is this…" he pointed to a door behind the
bar that looked like it lead into a back room.
"This is where the dishes get washed, we just leave them outside and
the `dishwasher' does them for us."
"Oh is he another permanent member of staff?" asked Peggy.
"Shh!" Efof hushed them. "Do… do not speak of the `dishwasher'. He
gets very touchy."
"Who is he? A part-timer?" Peggy asked.
Again Efof shushed her. "We… do not speak of him. And truthfully,
no-one has even seen him. He just cleans the dishes and we let him get
on with it."
"That's ridiculous! Is he foreign? How much do we pay him?" Peggy asked.
"Nobody knows… he just is… what he is. Watch!" Efof placed a pile of
dishes on a ledge by the kitchen door and after a long moment of
silence and tension, a greasy hand quickly snatched the dishes away in
a blink of an eye. Then in another blink replaced them with fresh
clean ones.
Peggy was stunned. "I can't believe this!"
"Some say... that he was an alien monster who got stranded, or some
have thought that he's part of an invasion force that gave up and left
him behind. Some say he's a worker who's become mutated into the
perfect dishwasher. I just leave him alone, as long as he does his
job. I stick to the bar area."
"I think you'll be very happy owning this bar." Efof grinned. "So, can
I get my new boss a coffee?"
< Tag Peter! >
--- In JMC_Blue_Dwarf@yahoogroups.com, "Grant Smith" <Vila_Restal@...>
wrote:
>
> Who: Peter & Peggy Marwood
> Where: Jupiter Station & Blue Dwarf
> When: An Hour after Peter received Peggy's call
>
> Peter sat on one of the benches near the catwalk extended from
> Jupiter station to Blue Dwarf, nervously awaiting the arrival of his
> mother. He saw her coming a mile off, pulling behind her a large,
> pink Suitcase and wearing a bottle green jacket over a black blouse
> and black skirt, with bright pink 5 inch heels.
>
> "coo-eee! Peter dear, its me!!, come and give your mother a kiss"
> she called out as soon as she saw him and tottered over to where he
> was sitting.
>
> "Hey, Mum" he said, rising to help her with her case. It was much
> heavier than it looked and planting a kiss on his mother's cheek.
>
> "How's my boy then? You looking after yourself? eating properly? You
> should get your haircut" she said all in one breath.
>
> "er...come on. I'll show you to your quarters" he said, trying to
> avoid his mum's nosiness.
>
> "Aren't you going to ask your dear old mother why she's signed on to
> this ship?" she asked in her thick cockney voice.
>
> "Yeah, I was wondering about that. What happened to the Horns?" he
> asked.
>
> His Mother turned and looked at him. A Deep Sadness registering in
> her eyes.
>
> "Well, you remember when your father passed away, about a year ago?"
>
> "All to well, I remember, I had just been transferred back to Earth,
> to work at Space Corps HQ."
>
> "Yeah, well dear the thing is, Your father and I spent so many
> years, and had so many good times running that place, that it just
> felt empty without him. But then I met this nice young man named
> Owen Numan."
>
> A Nasty feeling came over Peter "Oh God Mum, your not marrying a
> younger man are you?" he asked in shock.
>
> Peggy gave him a clip round the ear "Course Im not you little
> scallywag, What I was going to say was, he was telling me how he
> owned a bar aboard some JMC Vessel, but was looking to set up shop
> on Earth. He said the ship was called Blue Dwarf, and when I traced
> you to there, I gave him the Horns, and he sold me Parrotts."
>
> They arrived at Peggy's Cabin, and when Peter looked inside he
> noticed that it was significantly larger and more luxurious than
> regular cabins.
>
> "Jesus Christ!" Peter exclaimed, taking in the luxury of the Cabin.
>
> Peggy gave Peter a slap across the cheek. Which resulted in pain of
> biblical proportions to spread through Peter's face.
>
> "That's for blasphemy that is! I didn't raise you to take the Good
> Lord's name in vain."
>
> "Yeah, didn't mean you had to slap me!" winged Peter.
>
> "Oh Shut up and stop acting like a baby." was Peggy's reply.
>
> She deposited the suitcase on the large mattress.
> "How did you get these quarters then mum?" inquired Peter.
>
> "I pulled some strings with those Admiral friends of your dad's. If
> Im going to spend my days on a Mining Ship, travelling through the
> Universe, I might as well do it in style. And besides, I've stayed
> in those cramped ship Quarters before, No room at all in them."
>
> "If you say so" Peter said, no longer really caring.
>
> "Well, now I've got to go see some chap called Efof about running my
> bar."
>
> Peter, thinking about the potential situation that could erupt out
> of Peggy meeting an alien for the first time, decided to fill her in
> on Efof.
>
> "Mum, there's something you should know about Efof."
>
> "There's something I should know about Efof. He's not gay is he?"
>
> "No, he's an alien."
>
> "What? He's Mexican?"
>
> "No, he's an alien. A real live Alien."
>
> "Oh, for a minute there I though it may have been serious."
>
> "Ok then. Well, I'd better take you down to Parrotts."
>
> They left her Quarters and took the Xpress Lift up several hundred
> floors, walked down the Promenade and came to a stop outside
> Parrotts. Its quintessential pub-ness made it look that it look like
> it was meant to belong on a Village green, not in the middle of a
> Space Ship.
>
> "Looks rather cosy. Why don't we take a gander?" said Peggy,
> entering through the double doors.
>
> Taking a look inside, Peggy saw that the pub was virtually empty. A
> couple of young Technicians were sitting having a pub lunch, two
> security guards were having a game of pool, a strange green man in a
> bobble hat was wiping down the bar, looking happy. Peggy walked up
> to the bar and the green man looked up.
>
> "Hello, can I help you?" he asked.
>
> "Yes. You can" said Peggy "cos Im your new boss!"
>