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THE COSMIC OWL

In The Cafe

 

'Waiter, we'd like two coffees, please.'

 

'Where do you think you are? ' The waiter sounded amused at Tom's request.  'You can have green tea or do without!'

 

'Two green teas then.'

 

'Anything to eat?'

 

'Just a ham sandwich, please.'

 

This time the waiter almost laughed aloud, but confined his merriment to a slight twitching of his lips.  'Ham?  You've got to be joking!  You can't get that here.  You can have egg, chicken, peanut butter or Vegemite.'

 

'How about a chicken sandwich with a little salad... oh no, don't tell me, no salad!'

 

When the waiter went off with their order, Tom looked across at Jenna and smiled.

 

'Not exactly what we're used to, is it?'

 

'Surely you didn't expect things to be the same as back home, did you?  You must have known that most things were going to be different now,' she replied.

 

'I guess I'm still not used to this.  I've never been so far from home.  Whose idea was it to come here for our honeymoon, anyway?'

 

'Yours, dear!  You always did like to do things in style.  Some place where our friends from the media couldn't find us, you said.'

 

'Well, one thing's for sure, we won't run into anyone we know here!  Just the two of us, with no paparazzi for miles.'

 

Not that they really hated the fame bestowed on such illustrious movie stars, but the constant lack of privacy did take its toll on occasion, so that finding a secluded honeymoon destination had been a top priority when planning their wedding.

 

They had both commanded respectable earnings throughout their careers, and had been wise enough to invest, rather than indulge in the high flying, alimony-paying, mansion-in-every-country lifestyles of so many of their contemporaries, which meant that the expense of such a honeymoon, though horrendous, was not prohibitive.

 

Tom glanced around at the other occupants of the small café, all of whom seemed oblivious to the famous couple in their midst.  'I suppose these people have been out of touch for so long they don't recognise us,' he said happily.  'Maybe they don't even have cinemas here.'

 

'Or videos, 'Jenna said.  'It's going to be wonderful to be anonymous tourists instead of being their targets!'

 

For the next half-hour, the happy pair relaxed over their refreshments, secure in the knowledge that no one was about to poke a camera in their faces.  Then Tom bounced from his seat, holding his hand out for Jenna.

 

'Come on, lazybones, we have a lot of sightseeing to do.  We can't sit here all day!'

 

They paid the waiter a sum which would have been exorbitant back home, then wandered hand in hand out through the door of the Two Moons Café, into the huge dome completely enclosing Canal City, on the planet Mars.

 

Yes, it certainly was great to get away from it all!