apinkyandthebrainhomage by KZ Rochelle (of course)
See what happened in the previous episode (i) of The Days of Our Pandemic. Or start from the beginning.
When last we saw K and Z in episode m, they were preparing to detail the plan to escape the confines of these four walls…
“I will tell you the plan for today,” said Z.
K looked eagerly to Z.
“We will use the flag system to our advantage.”
“How will we do that, Z?”
“You know the milky white flag right, K?” Z asked with condescension.
“The one that alerts the authorities we’re out of milk and other food supplies?” asked K.
“The only white flag we have is that one,” Z said pondering the figurative use of white flags and added, “unfortunately.”
“Yes, I know that one, Z,” K said far too enthusiastically for she believed that the whole plan was knowing about the milky white flag. It was not.
“There’s more, you fool!” Z said.
“Yes, Z. More milk. At the stores. That’s why we can raise the milky white flag to alert the authorities to get us more of the more milk from the stores.”
Z talked herself down from the ledge inside her brain. She exhaled heavily.
“We will raise the milky white flag so that the authorities believe we are out of supplies, but when their automated vehicles arrive, we will be ready, waiting, and steal away in the car before it drives off past the forest and into the hills.”
“We’re going to steal the milk?” K asked Z in confusion.
“Well, no. Well, yes. But no. Before we consume any food or beverage, we must hide ourselves away in the car that moves away from this house and these four walls!”
“Oh, I don’t know, Z,” K said. “I used to like hideaways. We had a hideout when I was a kid with no boys allowed. And a hideout in the closet. And a hideout in the playhouse in the backyard. But that was all before King Covid. Don’t we always hide away now? I thought that our plan was to not hide away. Z,” K wondered, “why would we hide away to not hide away? I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t understand, K,” Z said. “Is there anything you do understand?!”
K thought about that.
She opened her mouth to voice an idea.
She closed her mouth because she forgot her idea.
She opened her mouth again. “I understand that you understand, Z. And that means I don’t have to understand.”
“That’s the first wise thing I think I’ve ever heard you say, K.”
“Thank you, Z.” K grinned. “And I understand that the chemical potential is just the Gibbs free energy normalized to the amount of substance.”
Z stared through the glass. She blinked. She wiped the inside of the mirror with her sweater sleeve. Then changed her sweater rather than don a possibly-smudged thread or two.
“Right. Well,” said Z searching for her immense vocabulary. “Uhhh, the simplicity of the plan will be to our ad-, ad-” The word escaped her.
“It will help us?” asked K.
“Yes, K. It will help us. We will escape the confines of these four walls today.”
“I’d like that,” said K.
“Go,” said Z. “Grab the milky white flag and raise it up.”
K pulled the flag from the bin of flags the state required that she purchase and that every online store sold their own variant of. Hers were from Amazon Basics. Just like her socks. She stepped into the flag room that used to just be the laundry room and hoisted the milky white flag up onto its place on the pole.
K returned to Z to report her success.
“The flag is up, Z.”
“Good,” said Z. “Now it will just be a matter of time before we escape the enclosure of these four walls!”
“What shall we do while we wait, Z?”
“Get the camera ready, K.”
“Why do we need a camera ready, Z?”
“We will need a camera, K, to record our adventure in the automated vehicle. We will go to the forest but not just any forest, K. We will go to White Mountain National Forest. And Pigsah National Forest. And Superior National Forest.”
“And I’m-the-Best National Forest!” said K.
“There’s no such forest,” said Z.
Will K ever understand anything Z says? Will Z’s escape plan work? Find out more in the next installment of The Days of Our Pandemic...
KZ Rochelle 