A Rock and Family Vacation

[24]

None of it quite went how any of them were expecting. Blair anticipated that Silas would stroke her hair or place a hand on her thigh, tracing towards somewhere. Or she might feel his breath press against her neck during a quiet moment. These were perverts, after all, here because of them. The fact that they held off confused Blair, but she didn’t let her diligence lapse.

She kept a clear distance between her and Silas as he retrieved his cell phone from his pocket and squinted at the screen. The old man smirked and remarked, “If you’ll forgive me. I used to be able to recite puzzlers by the bucketful before running out. Now, I sadly require notes. This one is a little more intricate and it’s only fair that I pass it along accurately.”

The puzzle involved one thousand wine bottles and rats. Silas apologized for the imagery. Chester had a coy smile about this one and inquired if he could offer his own explanation. Silas waved him off and urged Blair to take it up first. Considering those particular factors, Blair had the sneaking suspicion that math might be involved. Not her best subject. The question was how many rats would it take to go through a thousand wine bottles testing them for poison.

The problem was the number of rats might diminish because of poisoning, therefore leaving not enough test subjects. Blair was able to arrive at a final number of ten with some basic estimation but wasn’t able to go through the complete solution. It was here that Chester and Silas offered up their thoughts on binary calculation. They worked from N and tabulated things that flew so far over Blair‘s head that the best she could manage was nodding and smiling. The fact that ten places could store 1023 positions intrigued Blair.

Silas looked over her with a wistful smile and remarked, “I tried this once with my granddaughter and she gave me exactly that same look. I’ve always done my best to make sure my girls and their girls have a basic understanding of mathematics and logic because it’s so easy for someone with a little knowledge to confuse someone with a little less. For young women especially. Speaking of daughters though, that would be an excellent segue into my next riddle.”

This one appeared much more reasonable to Blair on the surface. Two men are talking about their daughters, and one tries to get the other to guess their ages based on the product of the numbers, which was 72. As a second hint, the puzzler directs the other man to his house number, saying that is the sum of them. Blair took down the first number, which was given, but frowned when the house number was not provided, but rather the fact that the one man couldn’t guess their ages simply from that information. So, there was a final hint, to which Silas couldn’t resist smirking when providing it, “The eldest daughter likes strawberry ice cream.”

Instantly, Blair dipped the pencil she was using to take down the clues and placed a hand to her forehead. Silas howled with amusement while begging her forgiveness. Meanwhile, Arthur presented the rules of Agricola to Clare, and she wondered if it was similar to Rune Factory or Stardew Valley. Chester eagerly remarked that both those were delightful. Lacy’s stiffness around Chester started to wane when he urged her to retrieve something stashed away in the other room. It was a PlayStation 5 with two controllers.

On Chester‘s instructions, she pulled back some panels and revealed a massive flat-screen TV with several slots to place the console. Of course, the first game that Lacy asked for was Hades, along with some of the shooters she knew well. Chester knew of it but wondered if it might be a bit too “adult“ for polite company. Blair had to stop herself from laughing. Instead, he proposed Human: Fall Flat, a goofy multiplayer title with floppy squishy Pillsbury Doughboy characters. Lacy recognized it from videos on YouTube but hadn’t tried it before.

Listing out the different products possible, Blair stared at her list before the key detail finally occurred to her, “Two of the sums are identical, therefore that’s why he couldn’t guess. But only one of them has an eldest…” She circled and presented her solution as Silas smiled with delight.

These little games continued with several stumping Blair before Silas walked her through the logic portions. They eventually joined the board game after an initial round of practice and explanation. On the screen, the only action anywhere close to impropriety occurred as Lacy’s character throttled Chester into a train and then off a cliff. At some point, Clare glanced at her older sister with confusion and a hand held up, as if gesturing to the situation. It was the one puzzle that completely eluded her. Not even for a moment had any of the old men done anything that might be interpreted as suggestive or crude. Had they read the situation wrong?

Then, it hit Blair, and everything made sense. Especially how flustered the host was when they arrived, and he didn’t anticipate they would be girls. If she needed confirmation, it came when Arthur lingered on the child card for his farm. The cartoon image of a boy in farm clothes got the old man to sigh. He thanked the girls for their company, but I spoke briefly about young men. “Sometimes, when you get older, you need to get in touch with a certain energy bolstered by young lads to truly remind the body and soul what living is all about. That boundless spirit and chaotic energy. Not to speak ill of any of you girls. But you know that boys are a different sort. Sometimes, I even feel so separate from the other lads.”

Blair did her best not to show a visceral reaction to this. She had to be grateful that what happened to them happened. Or else these creepy old guys would have their hands all over as they talked about sucking up energy. It wasn’t so much relief as finding out you’re not the sort of meal a predator is interested in. She figured just bringing out the rock would be fine. Not using it on anyone, not yet, and not without cause.

As an explanation for why she did it, she noted the pieces for the quarry looked rather underwhelming, so she prefaced, “Why don’t we use this?”

Arthur leaned forward to take a good look at it with his eyes squinted and wearing a casual smile. “Oh, would you look at that! Quite a remarkable piece! Unfortunately, I can’t say more than that. But…Chester? Don’t you collect minerals?” Looking over his shoulder, Chester paused the game and craned his neck to get a better look.

“Oh, that’s lovely! Reminds me of an oil slick, although I prefer this to that.” He leaned on his walker and gradually made his way over to carefully appraise the rock with a glance. Blair held her breath as Chester reached across the board and picked up the rock from where she had left it.

She waited for some sign of shock or surprise from the man, but he turned it around a few times and concluded, “I believe it to be a kind of fire or rainbow obsidian. Relatively rare, I must say. Typically, only found in Oregon. Could do with a nice polish. Appears to have a striking amount of magnetite and more hematite than I would expect. Lovely color. Where did you find it?"

Blair gestured to her sister Clare and noted that she found it along with the beach not more than two miles from here. Chester raised his eyebrows and appraised the rock again. “I’m going to assume you’re not teasing me but, in my opinion, this sort of rock has only been found in the Pacific Northwest. Definitely must be a transplant or perhaps tagged along with builders or materials. Quite a quandary.”

Before he put it down, Blair remarked that it always gave them a little static shock whenever they touched it. Chester chuckled and noted, “Oh? Bit of a joy buzzer? Well, not this time. Arthur?” He lobbed the rock toward the other old man, and he just managed to cradle it without dropping it.

“OH! Confound it! I’m thinking about my next move! Darn near bruised my wrist. Silas? I present it to you with fair warning rather than just YEEEEET, as you kids say.”

Silas held it in his fingers and examined it before passing it back to Blair. He noted that none of them felt a shock, but surmised, “Since it was at the seaside, that could explain the difference. The humidity is slightly lower in these hills.”

Blair eagerly accepted this explanation and put the rock back in the bag. She had no clue why it hadn’t worked. They should’ve received a shock, and something should’ve started progressing in them. Unless maybe the location did matter. Or it was out of charge. Or only worked within a certain age range. Though none of those possibilities felt clear or reasonable. Lacy got up from the game and announced, “I need to use the restroom. But I don’t know where it is.”

In this, Silas stretched to his feet and offered to direct her. It came as a relief to Blair that they weren’t a captive audience for these men. but the host returned and announced that he would guide Lacy the rest of the way.

Lacy found herself briskly irritated at the guy lingering right behind her shoulder. She couldn’t really juke out of the way of him but made sure to put as much distance between them as possible in the hallway. It was bad enough that she had to be out dressed like this, but then also stuck with three old guys who weren’t perving on them only because of this horrible vacation, as she had figured out about the same time as Blair.

She really did have to use the restroom. Although she could probably hold it, she wasn’t interested in making a gross mistake. The nearest restroom wasn’t too far from the women’s locker and part of Lacy‘s brain considered screaming bloody murder and acting peak girly while saying a child slavery or abduction ring was going on. But she feared everyone else could be in on it.

The restroom was somehow starkly cold despite the blistering heat outside. Her tummy gave some angry gurgles, as though it had as much to complain about being here as she did. Lacy grabbed the disabled stall at the edge of the room because it seemed like it was getting at least a little bit of warmth and had a sense of privacy without open windows to look through. Before anything else, she made absolutely sure that the paper dispenser had both rolls, they spun out easily, and there were covers for the seat.

With a deep breath, she sat down and shivered. Infernal parts of this strange body gave unwanted reactions as she wrapped her arms around her chest. Sniffling, she grabbed a length of toilet paper, which hardly even met the requirement of one ply. She coughed and cleared her throat. Her hands felt achingly dry despite the humidity. The paper did more to scratch and irritate her nose than clear away the sniffles as she blearily whimpered, “Can somebody help me? I don’t wanna feel this way. Help…”

The words were desperately so quiet that if she had missed someone on the way in, she could avoid the absolute embarrassment of some random woman thinking she could actually help her. She didn’t need that. But she needed to say it out loud. Like an invocation.

At least, this wretched brunch hadn’t been as bad as their parents or any of them feared. The old guys treated them more like respected dolls than objects of fancy. But they were still just here for their entertainment. It disgusted her.

At the same time, she could imagine it happening more. The boys at school looking at her and seeing someone she didn’t feel. Considering her gross development, she was terrified THAT would be all they would see. After all, that was all she saw sometimes in certain girls and especially in her vision of Krystal. But being a part of it was different.

The clothes weren’t quite as terrifying as she initially expressed. The problem was how much they showed and clarified the awful truth beneath. A robe had ambiguity, heck even a dress had ambiguity. The clothes she had on were inherently truthful. They showed her slim girly legs and acknowledged the fungal mold squishy projection exploding out of her chest. It was impossible to feel comfortable when the raw exposure of what she had become was so viciously displayed.

Back at the room, Blair managed to acquire her first child in the game and gained more movement options. But her mind was entirely focused on puzzling out the deepest mystery of why the rock only worked on them and hadn’t shown any other signs of activity. She soon realized that it was literally looking her in the face as Arthur rested his hands on the table.

“Those rings you wear, are they special?” She tried to make her tone sound casual or like a girl asking about something pretty, but it still felt stiff and obvious.

Arthur turned his hand and Silas also looked at his own ring as they both glanced over at Chester, who set the controllers aside till Lacy returned. Silas answered for the group, “It was a gift. Some sort of invigorating ring. Bit of poppycock. Like those silly balance bracelet energy things. But never can hurt to try, placebo and all that, and they have a nice look.” Blair was well aware that asking any of them to remove the ring and then attempt to hold the rock would be desperately suspicious.

Glancing down, she had a new quandary though as the rock suddenly appeared to lack much of its usual luster. The oil-slick shine and hint of radiance had dulled to the point that it more closely resembled simple obsidian.

Back in the restroom, Lacy loathed every inch of the paper provided as she uncomfortably used it to get clean. She swore to never again use any public toilets, even though she recognized that was a promise she could never keep. Opening the door to her stall, she almost jumped back in fright at seeing someone else standing in the bathroom with her.

The figure stood over by the faucets with her hands stretched halfway out, as though she feared to turn the knob. It was a girl who didn’t appear much older than her. Shoulder length, strange hair spread over her shoulders. The hair had the color and presence of storm clouds with deep sections of gray bundled in with foaming white and heavy black. She wore a top that looked rather like a sweater with little speckles of light similar to Clare’s star field dress but with sections of black and violet and matching shorts. Her skin was starkly pale, and her lips seemed to lack any pinkness.

The strange girl wore a flat expression as she spoke, “Hello. Call me Krystal.”

[I have a question at the end of the chapter again to help with suggestions for where the story should go. I'm a couple chapters ahead but I love seeding ideas from people as much as possible. Feel free to add an idea which doesn't show up in the options. Also, if you see any random typos or uncapitalized starts of sentences, please pass them along. I have to cut down on my editing due to release speed and my programs don't seem to be catching lowercase sentences. Thank you for reading!]

Poll below.