Tales of the Ragoon, Kate's Movie Star (4 page)

“Put it upside down,” Kate instructed. Runyon
turned the bowl over.

“Thanks,” she said politely.

“You’re welcome,” he replied.

Kate felt awkward with him around. He was a
movie star for heavens sake’s. Why did the Ragoon have to stick him
in her house? What was the point of giving her to him?

Kate had been avoiding that last thought.
Like the vast majority of Americans, she grudgingly pretended that
the Ragoon had imposed single gender property ownership on the
country. In reality, people were going about their business while
ignoring the Ragoon proclamation.

True, there were some jerks who were taking
advantage of the situation, but they faced heavy peer disapproval
from the people around them. It was considered un-American by many
Americans to deliberately use the Ragoon gender rules to one’s
advantage, or even to publically agree that the female gender was
the legal property of the male gender.

At least, the Ragoon rules allowed the female
population to refuse sexual advances from anyone including their
so-called male owners. The hermaphrodite Ragoon had a pathological
fear of rape or sexual exploitation. They had millennium year old
laws against sexual assault and sexual extortion. But there were
other things that jerks could do and get away with. Kate didn’t
like to think about those things.

Eventually, night came and they all retired
to their respective rooms. Runyon tossed and turned on the small
cot, trying to get comfortable. After several hours, he finally
dozed off.

He was awakened by the LED lights on the
ceiling blinking off and on. He turned over and stared up at them.
They were wireless, products of Ragoon technology. He had never
actually seen any close up. He had read about them. Apparently,
they used some kind of microwave energy.

“Are you decent?” Kate’s voice came
impatiently from the doorway at the top of the stairs.

“Give me a sec,” replied Runyon. He put on
his pants and said, “Okay.”

Kate came down the stairs.

“Geeze, are you just getting up?” she asked.
“It’s almost eight thirty.”

“You try sleeping on this piece of…,”
grumbled Runyon.

“I have brothers,” replied Kate primly. “I’ve
heard the word ‘shit.’”

Runyon ignored her and asked, “Don’t have a
Cal-King bed stashed anywhere do you?”

“Sorry, fresh out,” replied Kate. “That’s why
I got you up. Don’t you think that you better start looking for
some stuff to furnish your room? Matt left me his van. We can use
it to haul stuff for your room.”

Runyon blinked his surprise and then smiled.
It was a genuine smile, not his trademarked smile. “That’s nice.
Thanks, Kate.”

“You should thank Matt,” she replied, and
then she turned and hurried back up the stairs.

Kate shut the door to Runyon’s room and
leaned against it while demanding that her heart stop pounding. The
sight of Runyon in just his pants had caused this silly reaction,
she thought. In her mind, she examined the disturbing image. His
chest was almost hairless, with just a small amount of hair around
his pectoral muscles. She thought about his pectoral muscles. He
was in good shape, she admitted to herself. She wondered if he
worked out regularly. His waist was narrow, his shoulders not too
muscular. His golden hair had been mussed. He was even more
exciting, just having awakened, than he looked when he was made up.
Besides, he has a butt to die for, she admitted to herself. What
were the Ragoon thinking?

Runyon decided that the first thing he needed
was not a bed but a car. He and Kate made their way to the local
used car dealership. When they arrived they saw a man with his head
under the hood of a late model sporty two door. He was unhooking
battery cables. The man saw them and waved. Runyon and Kate walked
over to the man.

“Hi, folks,” the man said with a big grin.
“You’re just in time to try out this little baby. The previous
owner thought that there was something seriously wrong with this
honey. Turns out, it just needed the battery to be recharged.”

Runyon rubbed his hands in anticipation. “All
right,” he exclaimed. “Finally a piece of luck. Let’s take her for
a drive, Kate.”

“Nope. This is not the one we want,” replied
Kate. The salesman and Runyon stared at Kate.

“Why not?” asked Runyon, irritated at Kate’s
lack of enthusiasm.

“Because Consumers Today mag says that this
model is prone to electrical problems,” replied Kate. “I looked it
up on the net this morning. Before you got up.”

Runyon looked at the battery cables, and then
he looked at the salesman who cleared his throat. “Well, we do have
other vehicles available,” said the salesman in a more subdued
voice.

They wandered around the lot for a while
until Kate said, “This is the one.”

“Aw, Kate,” groaned Runyon.

There was nothing particularly wrong with the
old four door sedan that she had picked out. The body was in good
shape, there was no rust, the tires were good, and the engine
rumbled perfectly. It was just… well… boring. It was not Runyon’s
usual style at all.

“How much?” Kate queried the salesman.

“Uh… I can let that one go for seven grand,”
he replied.

“We’ll give you ten thousand,” offered
Kate.

“What?” chorused the two men.

“If…,” Kate paused.

The two men looked at one another, and then
the salesman bravely asked, “If what?”

“If you hire Runyon Silverstar to promote
your car lot for one weekend at the rate of two thousand five
hundred dollars.”

“What!” burst out Runyon.

“I thought you looked familiar,” said the
salesman looking Runyon up and down. He turned back to Kate. “So I
make an extra five hundred dollars if I rebate twenty five hundred
back to you. I suppose you want that in cash?”

“That would be fine,” replied Kate.

“All right,” agreed the salesman. “It’s a
deal.”

“Just wait a minute,” said Runyon to the
salesman while glaring at Kate. “I need to talk to my friend in
private.”

He grabbed Kate by the arm and marched her
away from the other man. Kate scowled at him but she did not resist
until they were out of earshot. Then she shook off his hand.

“What the hell do you think you are doing,
Kate Garcia?” growled Runyon, his face in her face. “I can’t do a
tacky promo for a tacky used car lot. I’m a star. Do you know what
this will do to my reputation?”

“How badly do you want that new bed?”
countered Kate.

“What?” Runyon took a step back.

“What do you think will happen to the rest of
the ten grand that the Ragoon is giving you to buy a car if you
don’t spend it on a car?”

“Uh…” Runyon thought about it. “You think
that they will keep the rest?”

“I don’t think that they are going to stick
it in their account, but I don’t think that they are going to let
you keep it,” explained Kate.

“So if I give this guy ten grand for a seven
grand car…”

“He gives you back twenty five hundred. In
cash. All you have to do is to stand in his show room for a few
hours and smile that silly smile at people.”

Runyon glanced around. “What showroom?”

“So you have to stand in the lot. Big deal.
Don’t be such a baby.”

Runyon scratched his head, and then he said
reluctantly, “All right, I’ll do it.”

They went back to the salesman. He and Runyon
shook hands and they went into a small portable building where the
man filled out the paperwork. There was a slight hiccup when Kate
handed the man a Ragoon debit card.

“The money is coming from the Ragoon?” he
asked as he stared in horrified fascination at the card.

“Yes, is there a problem?” asked Kate. “They
should be good for it.”

“Oh, I’m sure that they’re good for it,”
replied the man. He hesitated for a moment as he thought
furiously.

“You know,” he began again while making eye
contact with Kate. “It might take me some time to get things set up
right for this Silverstar promotion. I’m pretty busy right now, and
there are a lot of other important promotions coming up. Of course,
I’ll go ahead and pay you now.”

“No problem,” replied Kate.

She and the salesman exchanged smiles.

They all got into the just purchased car and
drove to the bank, where the salesman verified the authenticity of
the debit card and then withdrew twenty five hundred dollar in cash
which he gave to Kate, over Runyon’s objections. Then they drove
the salesman back to his lot. When Kate stopped to use the
restroom, the salesman pulled Runyon aside.

“That’s some smart little lady you got there,
Mr. Silverstar,” he said to Runyon. “She’s a keeper if I ever saw
one. Wish I could introduce her to my oldest boy.”

Runyon sighed. “Yeah, she’s something all
right. Do you have any idea when we can do the promotion?”

The salesman waved vaguely as Kate returned.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, Mr. Silverstar. I’ll be in touch.”

As Runyon and Kate drove away, Kate remarked,
“I had a feeling that he might think twice about doing a promotion
with someone who had the Ragoon looking at them.”

“Huh?” said Runyon.

“He’s never going to call you, Silverstar,”
explained Kate patiently. “He got the full price of the car plus he
made an extra five hundred dollars. He doesn’t want to take the
chance of crossing the Ragoon.”

Runyon stared straight ahead for a moment and
then he remarked, “You’re one smart kid, Garcia.”

Kate scowled. “I’m not a kid.”

Runyon laughed, and changed the subject.

“So where can I find my Cal-King?” he
asked.

Kate snorted a laugh. “Get real, Silverstar.
There’s no way to get even a queen bed down those stairs without
rebuilding them first.”

“But you said…” Runyon gave her an indignant
look. Kate stifled another snort of laughter.

“We’ll find you a nice double mattress and
box springs,” said Kate.

“A double?” cried Runyon, appalled at the
sudden image of having to sleep on a mere double mattress.

“Would you rather sleep on the cot?” asked
Kate.

Runyon groaned. “A double mattress it is,” he
accepted sadly.

They bought a mattress set, and they also
found Runyon a dresser, a chair and a desk. Runyon thought about
purchasing a nice antique lamp for only one hundred fifty dollars,
until Kate reminded him that there was no electrical socket down in
the bomb shelter.

“There was a gasoline generator. I guess the
guy didn’t realize that it would have poisoned him. Dad took it
out,” said Kate.

Kate and Runyon had a full day of shopping.
They were both tired by the time they finished hauling his newly
purchased furniture down to his room. That’s when they realize that
they had neglected to purchase a frame for the box spring. Runyon
dismantled his cinderblock desk and set the box spring on the
cinder blocks.

“Tomorrow, I’ll need to buy clothes,” said
Runyon sniffing at himself.

The only clothes he had were the one that had
been returned to him when he and Kate had been released from the
Merced Human Rehabilitation Center. He supposed that the rest had
been expropriated by who ever had crushed his car.

You would think that the Ragoon would have at
least allowed me to keep those white shorts that they forced us to
wear while at the Center, he thought. He remembered how embarrassed
many of the younger people had been when they had appeared at lunch
in front of members of the opposite sex while wearing the flimsy
clothing. For some reason, it suddenly struck him that Kate must
have been wearing the barely opaque light shirt and shorts
also.

He looked at Kate who was putting sheets on
his bed. She was wearing a pair of baggy pants and an oversized
t-shirt. He wondered what she looked like while wearing those
Center shorts and shirts. It occurred to him that she had probably
looked very nice indeed.

Kate looked up, and caught him staring at
her.

She scowled. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” he replied hastily.

With a suspicious glance, she tossed a pillow
on to the bed, and then she marched up the stairs and disappeared
through the door.

Runyon lay down on his new bed and stared at
the ceiling. He had to admit that Kate was right about this
mattress. Even if it was only a double sized, it was a lot more
comfortable than the cot.

Runyon thought about Kate. He realized that
he liked her. She wasn’t his usual type. She wasn’t a beauty like
the girls that he normally dated. Of course, many of those girls
had paid, or their agents had paid, for body enhancements. Runyon
decided that Kate didn’t need any body enhancements.

Not that he cared about her body he hastened
to remind himself. After all, she was only. He stopped and thought.
How old was Kate? Eighteen? Seventeen? Even younger? At twenty two
years old, he was an adult and she was off limits. Still, it didn’t
hurt to admire her lovely body in private.

True, she was kind of bossy. But she had a
kind heart. And she was smart. She had known exactly how to
manipulate that used car salesman. Runyon was uncomfortably aware
that Kate seemed to be able to manipulate him, too.

After a bit, he got up from his new bed and
went upstairs. The boys were in their room playing a video game as
usual, and Kate was vacuuming the living room. The noise made it
impossible to talk to Kate.

Runyon decided to take a drive around
Livingston. He quickly found that he could not go far. Livingston
was not that large an area. He could go north as far as McConnell
State Park. To the east, Sultana Drive was his limit. He took Main
Street south. Absently, he noted Livingston High School. That must
be where Kate would attend school when school resumed. He was not
allowed to continue south past Westside Boulevard so he turned
west, and then he drove slowly along that road until he came to his
limit at Washington Boulevard. Runyon made his way back to the
Garcia home.