In 2006, I participated for charity in Blogathon. The idea is to write a post every half hour for 24 hours. At hour 22 of posting to my blog, this story made quite a bit of sense.

Copyright 2006-2008 by Jayne d'Arcy

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She caught her eye just as it drifted over her cup of coffee. Blushing, Mirine tucked it back into her eye socket and blinked a few times. Nasoor's smile sparkled like burnt sugar. He found Mirine to be such a delight, that such trivial things as just happened really didn't bother him. Picking up the cooked egg on his plate and slinging it across the restaurant toward the kitchen, he offered Mirine a handful of wine. Mirine sipped delicately just as the waiter caught the tossed egg.

"Monkey dung! Snorkeling gravel humpers! Grinding sempre fidelis odalisques!" The waitress snapped the order to the four-eyed cook who mumbled each item to himself just as he placed a fresh order upside down on the floor for pickup.

Nasoor had taken Mirine to the Snide Wittershunks Cafe twice before; it was a pleasant spot with not too much noise, and good food that was really cooked and not squirted out of a food prestidigitator. Mirine was gnawing on a piece of bacon rind as Nasoor considered his words carefully. He'd been thinking about this for two seconds; preparation had been months, though.

"Mirine," he began softly, "We've googled the brine grift for weeks now and I think our compatibility ratios are more than..."

"Acceptable?" She smiled. "Logic grid escattlebutt dictates your actions, sweet lungs," she blushed and caught her eye before it slipped out again.

Nasoor grinned and waved over the waiter. The waiter presented Nasoor with a blobby block of grey jelly. "Then there is no other path to take, Mirine. You will consent to be my flesh to flesh fruity goodness?" He presented Mirine with the wobbly jelly.

Mirine took it, squashed it on the table and retrieved the ring that swam within the mess. Placing the ring on the knuckle of her second finger, she landed a fine roundhouse punch to Nasoor's chin causing him to flip backwards out of his chair and into the six-armed embrace of a giggly Cattermalwumpus. He muttered apologies and went to sit in Mirine's lap. "Such joy!" he said as he bit Mirine's lower lip. "I will be like a man stoned who walks through life with no pain."

Mirine laughed, thinking of all the children Nasoor would present her with. It would be an eccentric life.