What Happened On My Space Vacation
an excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

CONCERNING THE QUESTIONS THEY ASKED HER AT THE SUPER ULTRA MEGA MARKET

“When is your baby due?”

The question took Sabatha Storm by surprise, almost causing her to drop the box of meal tablets she’d been about to hand to the young girl standing behind the safety barrier. Sabatha paused. She wasn’t sure what sort of question she’d expected—something more along the lines of “Do you want all this express tubed to your home instead of carrying it yourself?” or “Where you aware that there’s no money on your credit cube?” perhaps—certainly nothing as personal and potentially embarrassing as what she’d actually asked. She quickly came to the conclusion that she hadn’t expected any question at all, since the clerks usually express tubed the purchases right to your home unless you asked them not to.

“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” the girl asked as she took the box of meal tablets and dropped them into the processing chute. Sabatha’s lack of response to the first question wasn’t enough to deter the follow-up apparently.

Sabatha looked over her shoulder to see if the girl was talking to the somebody behind her, but the only person standing there was a red-haired man afflicted with inescapable dwarfism. The Dwarf was carrying an armload of boxes so garishly pink and yellow that she had to avert her eyes. She knew exactly what was in those boxes since Holliday had more than a few of them at home. Yeah, there was no mistaking Quantum Girl!!’s trademark colors. The Dwarf was carrying at least ten Quantum Girl!! dolls in various outfits in the one arm. Under the other was a single, bigger box that had Quantum Girl!!’s spaceship, the Quark Pony!!.

The Dwarf didn’t look like he was capable of being pregnant, or at least he wasn’t showing if he was, so Sabatha turned back to the clerk, reached into the hovering basket that contained the rest of the items she wanted to buy, pulled out another box of meal tablets, and slid it across the counter, fully expecting a third question—perhaps something along the lines of, “Are you planning to have more kids after this one?”