Andromeda!

☄️🔭📘

I learned a hard lesson from the previous day to leave class just a smidge before the bell. Last period wasn’t much more than a study hall for me, so it wasn’t hard giving them the excuse that my dad had to pick me up early. That way I avoided the Baka cult rush.

What a difference in time it made, walking down empty halls with a straight shot to my locker and the exit. I was home free!

Not quite. There was a little trip I needed to make downtown before dad showed, so every second counted.

Part of me knew I was going to regret it, but I was planning on buying Baka some treats for his help yesterday, and maybe an apology card or something for hitting him. He certainly didn't deserve it, but it was more to clear my conscience than make him happy.

I had to thank that himbo though for being helpful and telling me about the bike path, because that saved a heck of a lot of time. The only problem was that I had to keep looking over my shoulder to see if any old men were riding down the path on ancient two wheelers, since I couldn’t hear their bells.

Man, spandex was not hugging that old guy's rump very well…

Anyways, I followed my phone's instructions to the second hand antique shop. There’s a big reason why I wanted to visit this place first, and it wasn’t for the giant stone frog doing a yoga pose behind the register. There was something else here that caught my eye in the window…

A telescope!

I needed that telescope. Any amateur stargazer wouldn’t be caught dead without one. Ever heard of a stargazer without a telescope? NO YOU HAVEN’T BECAUSE THEY DON’T EXIST!

There were just a few problems I ran into if I did buy it though.

First, I had to keep it a secret from dad. There were rules on how much free time I had and what I could do with it, which was as follows: zero and nothing fun. Most of my day was wake up, makeup, head to school, pretend to pay attention, leave school, wait for dad, study, then bed. It sucked.

He wasn’t being a stiff about this for no reason, because a girl like me had to work especially hard to make a career for herself. Who wanted to hire the deaf girl without a good reason, after all? She was a liability.

I had to be extra skilled to compensate for what I lacked, which meant I worked harder than everyone else, on top of already having enough troubles communicating anywhere I went.

This was my daily life. I was used to it, for better or worse. But that didn’t mean I could keep all that pressure bottled up inside forever. That’s why I was lying to him about joining a club. It gave me at the very least an hour or two to do something for myself. The math club was the perfect excuse, since he knew how good I was at that, and it was a skill I could use in the real world.

Little fact about me: I hated math, but I kinda’ needed to learn it for something important I wanted to do. It was my dream to be an astronaut, or at least a professional astronomer. I’d settle for either. So studying for real wasn’t all bad with that goal in mind.

But dad had this pipe dream of me eventually going to law school and becoming a Shiawado company lawyer, like him. They made video games and were pretty passionate about protecting their intellectual property. When they weren’t secretly sending out ninjas to silence small time copyright offenders, they had my dad battling in the courtroom on their behalf. He had his work cut out for him, but made bank doing it.

I really didn’t want to be a lawyer and make lying a career. So here was my plan; I buy that telescope, use it to make a big discovery in space, and prove to dad that astronomy can be just as good a career choice!

Seeing the state of the telescope up close however didn’t fill me with much confidence. Like, yikes. This thing was dusty as a top shelf dictionary in a frat house. It was one of those dopey ‘baby’s first telescopes’ too. I wouldn’t get pink eye for looking into the lens, would I?

Ugh…

I was really hoping it would be higher quality and even brought a purse full of loose change to splurge too. I guess the positive side was that it was cheap.

Oh well, beggars couldn’t be choosers.

The antique lady was pretty busy glued to her radio, almost appalled at it for some reason, which meant she was facing away from the counter. It was like she didn’t realize I was in the store. A few throat clears later and she finally looked my way, ready to make business…

Her lips didn’t move much while she talked, so I was sorta’ lost at what she was saying. But I just nodded along until she stopped, then I gestured to the telescope in the window.

Why did she look so sad about me wanting it? Was it special to her? Just so I didn’t look like a jerk, I matched her unhappy expression with one of my own, then pointed to it again with a few dozen yen in hand to buy it.

Once that transaction was done and over, that telescope was all mine for the taking!

Ah crud! I still had to make a stop at the candy store, so I should have gone there first. Now I had to lug this old thing around while shopping!

📻🎤👑

My life was done and over. Woe was me. The doctor's verdict was in, and it was very bad.

This jubilant jaw of mine had a fracture the size of a pen tip on its surface, large enough to keep my perfect voice from reaching its healthy heights. I could talk a little, but stress it too much and face what felt like a tooth being tortuously pulled by interrogators.

It would be weeks, maybe months before I could get back on the radio. The problem Mimi’s aunt didn’t seem to understand was that I didn’t have that kinda’ time. My listeners needed nourishment, and only I could feed them long term honeyed words to keep them happy. Mimi was a good substitute, but how long could she keep the ship from mutiny?

I begged and pleaded for some treatment or wonder drug to speed up the healing process, but she claimed there was no such quick cure.

Medical science failed me, and the gods had forsaken me. There was nothing to do but go on a smoothie diet and whisper like a mouse for six weeks.

Woe is me…

How long would it be before the world forgot I existed, like a fad quietly fading out of style? This generation had the attention span of a goldfish, confirmed by my own, constantly changing personal tastes. If I didn’t keep it fresh, I’d lose the kids, and that was a death sentence for anyone in the public eye.

It was only a matter of time before someone else came along, perhaps inspired by my power, or maybe blessed with my birthright, and made a radio show just as good...half as good…one third as good.

“Hade, you're going to be fine,” Mimi’s aunt claimed. “It’s not the end of the world. I said you’ll probably be able to start chatting on the radio again in a few wee-”

“It’s over!” I cried. “Ouch. What am I going-ouch-to do if I-ouch-”

“Keep crying like that and you’ll never recover,” she said, pulling down the X-rays on the light wall. “Just head home and get some rest, okay? You’ll recover before you know it.”

She was so confident, but that was because she was a doctor with a comfortable career. I was just a man trying to make a living off of a now broken blessing.

“Ugh…” she grumbled and searched her desk for a little pill bottle, then presented it like a prize possession.

“Is that a wonder drug that can heal me?” I asked, sparkles in my eyes.

“It’s tylenol.” She shook the bottle. “It’ll help with the pain. But I don’t think it’ll cure that desperation.”

“Does this mean I can get back to talking on the radio?!” I got very excited.

“No. Stay off the radio for a few weeks. You don’t want to risk making the fracture worse. Doctors orders. And don’t think I won’t know if your on, smart guy.” She pointed to her radio.

It was like she read my thoughts. But everyone in this town did listen to me, so I was out of luck.

The walk home was pathetic. I was such a loser now. A no good highschooler who didn’t have anything to share with the world, back to a time where nobody knew my name and I was lost in the crowd of skilless mediocrity.

“This sucks,” I sobbed. “What do I do now? How am I supposed to live without talking?”

That was the hardest part. Everything I did relied on negotiating, and I couldn’t get my way if I couldn’t chat people up.

“Guh!” huffed a voice, a female voice, across the dark street. “Huh! Guh!”

Heavy footsteps followed the voice, as if she were lugging something big. Moonlight finally cast over the high hills and I saw none other than the one responsible for cursing me on the other side…

“Blondy…” I growled and grit my teeth, immediately regretting that gesture as pain scattered through my skull. “Ouch…I should-ouch-give her a piece of-ouch-my-ouch! Piece of my mind-ouch!”

I was so pathetic. The only thing I was gonna’ give her was a laughing fit at this rate.

She didn’t notice me until I walked right in her path, hands on my hips like a parent awaiting a tardy child.

“Well well well…” my eyes narrowed and my head tilted up for an extra menacing effect. “Look who we have here.”

She was still stomping forward, lugging a rocket launcher…? No, a telescope. Was she going to hit me with that too?

“Maka?” her eyes widened before going soft and concerned. “Maiomu?”

How could I stay mad at that cute face? I mean…What an evil person she was!

“Don’t ac-ouch-act cute with-ouch-me-ouch! I know you-ouch-are trying to secretly kill m-ouch-me...ouch.”

Were those lousy pain killers ever going to kick in?

Her brow raised with concern, like none of that got through to her. She just mumbled something and approached. I cleared her some room, expecting her to just ignore me and walk right past, but then she planted down the telescope on a tripod and turned to me. It took me a moment to notice we were on the balcony by the river. A very nice spot to make the most of that telescope, if I may add.

“So you are a stargazer…” I muttered.

When she had the telescope in place, she pulled out a bag from her purse. It was a batch of fresh cookies, and they smelled good.

“A-me-ai.” she said, holding the bag open. “Omeaai, Maka.”

“Ame…” she gestured to her bag of cookies when she said that, as if offering them to me. “Tabetai? You want me to eat one of those?”

She nodded.

“Ome…” I tried to translate again. “Obe…? Obea-na-obenaa-Gomenas…” It was on the tip of my tongue… “Gomen nasai!” I finally concluded. “You’re apologizing and giving me these cookies?”

She nodded again, then held the cookies up to me with an innocent smile.

My heart fluttered with warmth for a moment and my cheeks turned red. Was that the tylenol kicking in and confusing my judgment, or did I feel flattered that she was making amends for yesterday?

“T-thank you.” I stuttered, taking one of the cookies, worried they may be poisoned.

They smelled good enough…

They were fresh, gooey and tasted like oatmeal. The softness made it easy for my wounded mouth to chew.

I nodded along with her and for a moment I lost her blue eyes in the stars behind her, like two full moons.

“Uh…!” I choked on a cookie as I caught myself in that thought. She quickly started reluctantly smacking my back to help me cough it out. “Th-thanks, Blondy…ouch...” I jumped back to avoid any more of her touch. “Well, I guess this tribute will suffice as an apology.”

She made a giggle and shook her head.

“Maka.”

“Stop calling me stupid!” I ordered. “How would you like it if I called you something mean like that?”

Her eyes went wide with opportunity and she pointed to herself. “Amae a, Andromeda eu…” she said. “A-n-dro-meda.” She annunciated that pretty clearly.

Was that Blondy’s name? Andromeda? That was an exotic mouthful.

“Andromeda,” I uttered. “Mind if I call you Meda-san?” I grinned. “That’s a lot easier to say for me.”

Her brow furrowed, but she shrugged in submission.

“Amae a, nan eu ga?”

Now she was asking for my name, which was weird because I hadn’t needed to answer that question in a while.

“Hade Nodo. But you can call me Hade-sama,” my brow bounced, tantalizingly.

“Maka-jan.”

No way was she calling me 'Baka-chan.' I wasn’t going to stand for that!

That’s it! She was Blondy, through and through!