Both sisters sat staring at each other, each one hoping thatthe other would give way first and blink. Pixie must have read thedetermination on Poppy’s face, because her face softened and she nodded once inunderstanding.
“You’re right, Pops. I just worry. If anyone has thoughtthis through to the point of obsession, it would be you. Tell me everything anddon’t leave even one tiny detail out. I have to know what’s going to happen ifyou get selected and how to find you if I start to wig out.” Pixie took a hugesip of another hard cider she’d snagged from Poppy’s almost bare refrigerator.“And by the way, I am going to need something sooooo much stronger ifI’m going to be able to process this. Do you have the stuff to make ’ritas?”
“I think I’m out of the mix, but I might have straighttequila somewhere in the cabinet. We should probably try to stay sober thoughif you’re going to help me out with this packet,” Poppy pointed out, waving itin the air before setting it down.
Getting herself another cider from the fridge and gruntingover the stubborn cap for a second gave Poppy the time she needed to composeherself enough to figure out where to start. She picked up the Galactic BrideWelcome Packet off the coffee table again.
“Okay, it says here women are compensated based on how muchof the actual process they complete.” Poppy had to admit that the money was anice touch. With the resources they’d been spending on trying to secure otherenergy sources now freed up, the government was able to pay debts and moreimportantly pay brides to apply.
“I get ten thousand dollars for completing the applicationand signing the contract and that’s even if I don’t get selected! Do you knowhow many bills that can pay off?” Poppy pulled out some papers from her welcomepacket. “See here. It says if I fill out all questions, provide a doctor’sreport and sign the contract, then the first portion of the stipend is mine aslong as everything is verified.”
She sorted another paper from the stack and found the FAQsheet the Intake Center had included in the packet. “This says that the alienshave implants to be able to speak English as well as other languages and I’llhave the option to get one as well in case I want to understand their language.Well, I guess that beats the hell out of me flunking out of Spanish, like inhigh school.” There seemed to be so much information to go over in this packetthat her head was starting to spin a little.
“I really need your help with the medical part. It asks somestuff about family medical history on the second page that I wasn’t sure of.”
“What kinds of questions are these?” Pixie asked, skimmingthe first part of the packet.
“You know, the normal…age, weight, height, sexualexperience…” The last couple words were mumbled into her bottle of cider and ofcourse that was the part Pixie decided to latch on to.
“Did you just say ‘sexual experience’?”
“Pixie, c’mon now, you know the whole reason they’re needingbrides is to procreate. You can’t be surprised that it’s a question on here. Itreally does make sense. Plus those aren’t the questions I need help with. I’mpretty sure I can recall all of my dismal sexual experience on my own. Theharder questions are the ones I got stumped on. Do you know if Mom or Dad hadany medical problems before they died?” Poppy asked in a calm voice.
“No, they were healthy as horses. I’m not sure about ourgrandparents though. So what else other than medical crap do you need helpwith? This bundle seems huge. There has to be at least fifty pages of questionshere. Why didn’t you just fill this out online?”
“Because my crappy laptop decides to shut down every thirtyminutes no matter how much charge it has and after that press conference withthe hotties on it yesterday, their website keeps crashing. I actually preferpaper though anyway. It’s easier for me to flip back and forth. It is a lot todigest, but they probably have a bunch of questions to weed out the crazies andmake sure the matches are as good as they can be. The more questions there are,the more I actually feel like this might work.”
By this time, Pixie had moved on to the last cider in thefridge.
“Let’s open up that tiramisu you brought,” Poppy suggested.
Pixie nodded. She’d chilled out a little between the lastcider and this one, and Poppy was sure she was going to ask for a smoke breakon the deck when she realized Poppy wasn’t going to change her mind. Pixie andPoppy were both emotional smokers. When the shit hit the fan, the cigarettescame out.
Poppy decided they could eat their dessert straight from theto-go containers. She headed back to the living room to see Pixie gathering herstuff up.
“Sorry, Pops, stupid payroll problem at the office and ofcourse it has to be cleared up tonight before it can go for auto depositstomorrow. I can be back in an hour or two depending on how much my assistant hasfucked it up.” Blowing air kisses as she walked, she was already reaching forher phone again, most likely to yell at whoever’d messed up the payroll.
Poppy ended up filling out the rest of the forms on her ownthat evening. She admitted that her sister had not been necessary for her to doit. Poppy had really just used that excuse as a way to break the news ofapplying to Pixie. Her plan that her sister would be more supportive if she’dfelt as if she were involved in the process must have
