Writing Prompt I: "I saw him. The boy I had to kill" (pt. 4)

For the first time since I landed on this planet, I felt visible to every human I passed. Females were covering their noses and hurrying away, males were frowning at me, all avoided coming in contact with my filthy garments.

“Oy!”

I heard a man yell the unfamiliar word and assumed he was ordering me away from him, but he stepped in front of me and would not let me pass. “Excuse me, sir.” I attempted a second time to step around him but he moved with me, refusing to let me go.

“Boy, you reek to high hell.”

“Apologies.” I exhaled. I had never felt lower than I did and this human telling me I smelled bad was not helping. “I was accosted and my garments were ruined, but I have not money and males hit me.”

The man put a hand on my shoulder. “Robbed eh? Well, here, get to a laundromat- there’s one down the block- and get cleaned up.” The man put some scraps of paper in my hand and turned me to face the direction I had just come from.

I recognized the paper as Earth currency but I was not familiar with ‘laundromat.’ I turned to ask for clarification but the man was gone. I shrugged, much liking the human gesture and started walking. He was one of the first nice humans I had encountered and at that point, I was willing to trust somebody. I walked, trying to ignore the human’s reactions to my condition and stopped when I found glowing letters spelling ‘laundromat.’ I pulled open the door and was greeted by loud machinery and a clean, perfume smell.

I looked around and saw two females around my disguise’s age putting garments into a large white cube. An older male was pulling wet garments from a similar cube and putting them into a larger cube with a clear door on the front. I was far from the mood to attempt to figure out the machines myself to keep up my disguise.

“Might, please someone assist me cleaning garments.” The old male ignored me but the two females glanced my way. One laughed and shook her head, the other shrugged and walked over to me.

“Where is your laundry?” She stared at me for a moment. “You’re wearing it, aren’t you?” She exhaled and led me to a white cube in the corner. “It’s kind of private back here, strip down. Do you have quarters and soap?”

I frowned at her, confused. “Quarters of what?”

She pulled a handful of silver disks out of her pocket that I vaguely recognized as a form of Earth currency.

“Oh, I have not quarters.” I held up the paper the man had given me. “Will work this?”

“Sure, I’ll get you quarters… and some soap.” She pulled the paper out of my hand and walked to a machine near the door.

I carefully started removing my garments, hoping my disguise would still work without them. I was glad that I remembered a short research recording featuring someone named Mark who would go out with undergarments showing or I would not have known that humans wore clothing under their clothing. I had gotten a pair of undergarments like the ones Mark had warn. They were like close-fitting pants but stopped at the tops of the legs. Not the most comfortable things, but it was what humans wore.

I was embarrassed at being unclothed. It was my understanding that humans did not go out in public in just undergarments and my removing my outer garments did not follow their social rules. But I did not think I would fit into the white cube to wash my garments without taking them off.

A human had ordered it and I had no other choice so I did as directed.

I removed my shirt and pants and placed them into the large cube. Thankfully, my undergarment seemed to have remained cleaner than my outer garments during the incident and did not need to be cleaned. I pressed a few of the buttons on the cube, but nothing happened.

“Soap helps when you’re doing laundry or your clothes will just be wet and not clean.” The female laughed as she returned with an orange packet and silver disks. “Plus, you have to pay.” She ripped open the orange packet and dumped white powder on my garments inside the white cube, then closed the lid. She put four of the silver disks into a drawer on the top of the cube and pushed the drawer into the machine. It clicked and I could hear a rushing sound. She pushed two buttons on the control panel. “Wash your clothes in cold unless you’re doing underwear. It’ll keep your regular clothes from shrinking too much.” She leaned against the cube and crossed her arms. “This’ll take about an hour and then just put it in the dryer.” She bit her lip as she studied me. “Just call me over and I’ll help you.” She held out her hand. “I’m Daisy.”

“My appreciative, Daisy.” I looked at her hand, not sure what she was doing.

“Not from around here, are you?” Daisy laughed as she grabbed my hand and moved it up and down a few times before releasing it.

“No. I am from France!” I may have spoken too loudly in my panic because her eyes widened slightly.

“Cool. I spent last summer in Paris. It was pretty awesome.” She stared at me and I stared back at her, not sure what she wanted. “Alright, well, just call my back when this beeps.” She walked across the room back to her companion.

I stared at the white cube, unsure what to do next. The old man had finished moving his garments into what I assumed was what Daisy called a dryer and had sat down on a bench with a large paper covered in tiny writing. I had no large paper, but there was a bench nearby. I sat and made sure nobody was watching when I pulled my communication device out of my leg. I tapped the screen a few times and read about what was happening on Ooden. I was caught up in the news from my home planet that I nearly yelled when the large cube holding my clothes beeped loudly. I pressed my communication device back into my leg, stood, and walked over to the cube. I looked up to call Daisy but she was already walking toward me.

She opened the cube and pulled my shirt and pants from it. They looked cleaner and smelled better than before, so I approved of the cube.

“Now, for the dryer, it can be a little testy. As long as you don’t put your clothes in here for too long, you’ll be fine.” She pulled a door open on one of the larger cubes nearby and shoved my garments into it. She closed it, dropped three silver disk into a shelf like what was on the smaller cubes, pushed it in, and turned a dial on the front. “Since it’s such a small load, 30 minutes should be fine. A larger load will take longer. Don’t ever put wool in a dryer. Here.”

She ended her instructions with a smile as she dropped a handful of the silver disks onto my palm.

I held out my empty hand like she had done. “I appreciative this very lot.”

She took my hand and moved it like she had done before. “No problem. It’ll take some time and a few ruined bits of clothes to learn how to do laundry, but you’ll get there. Good luck.” She patted my bare shoulder then walked back to her companion. They both picked up large white boxes with holes in them full of clothing and left the laundromat.

Two nice humans in a row. Maybe this planet was not all bad.

I resumed reading about Ooden on my communication device until the dryer beeped. I was not as startled this time. I pulled my garments back on. They were warm and it felt good being clothed once again. I put my communication device in one pocket, the silver disks in the other, and left the laundromat.

Two nice humans, but I was ready to go home.

I needed to find the Bringer quickly so I could.

To be continued...