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I believe to be about half a year into our trip to Erid. Me and Rocky have been doing what ever we can to keep ourselves busy and not go insane. I’ve been playing a lot of video games - thank you Stratt. Rocky’s been getting Mary to read to him Wikkipedia articles while improving his form-fitting xenonite suit. Today’s video game of choice is the walking dead. It’s not very scientific but I’m bored and it’s something to do.
~gurgle~
My stomach rumbles. It hits me that I haven’t eating anything or left to use the bathroom in close to 12 hours. Jeez! I got really sucked into this video game. I put it on pause and head over to ARMando for a burrito.
“Where Grace go, question?” Rocky asks me.
“Food. I’m hungry”
“I come with.”
He likes to follow me around like a little puppy. I guess I do the same sometimes. Wait, would I be considered the “pet” in this situation? My strange mental conversation is interrupted when I trip over a dent in the floor and I fall flat on my face. Rocky lets out a sounds that’s his equivalent of a laugh.
“Grace very clumsy.” He points out and I respond with a sarcastic laugh.
“ARMando! Burrito please and thank you” I request from the robot, who promptly hands me one. Rocky makes himself comfortable in his new xenonite suit on a pillow in the corner of the room while I do the same. It’s become a bit of a routine for us to eat together, or well, he watches me eat, in our make shift dining room. It’s basically two pillows on the ground next to each other with a small table in between near a window in the dormitory.
“Grace so noisy when eat. Disgust”
“Sorry bud, I’m trying not to chew too loud.” I say with a mouthful of food.
“No not food in mouth. Yes that loud too. Organs very loud. Louder than eridian organs. Inefficient design.” He loves to critique human biology but there never is any real heat to it. He just likes to tease to get a laugh outta me. Does he think we’re gross and leaky? Yes. Does he actually think our anatomy is defective? Sometimes.
“Well we can’t hear it, most of the time, and I don’t think humans ever evolved to co-exist with eridians.” Rocky lets out a chirp in response, which I’ve learned is his version of us responding with just a “mhm”.
“Hold on, can you actually see my organs? Since you can see through metals, can you see my organs digesting?” Im not sure I’ve ever asked him this before or really had a conversation about how well he can see my anatomy.
“Can sometimes. Hard to see with Grace moving body and shirt make louder sounds. If Grace stayed still and if Rocky was closer, could probably see better.” This gave me an idea. I set down my burrito wrapper on the floor and sat up straighter.
“What if I lay down and let you poke me, since you can articulate your hands in the new suit? You can tell me what you see and I can explain the human digestive system.” Rocky seems to perk up at the proposal.
“Yes yes yes. Rocky like idea.”
I drape the quilt on the ground to lay on it and remove my shirt. The floor here is cold metal grates and really painful to sit, lay or even stand on. I lay down shirtless with my arms resting by my sides while Rocky walks closer towards me. He pokes me lightly, I think he’s trying to test the waters to see how much pressure he can use. Gosh, does he actually think I’m that fragile?
“You can poke me harder, I’m not THAT breakable.” I say in a joking tone. He doesn’t respond but does poke a little harder, he’s probably concentrating on what he can see.
“Beating in chest is heart. Long tube behind is 🎶🎶, question?”
“Uh, that would be my esophagus. The.. the thing that takes my food to my stomach. There should be another tube in front of it that splits into two and connects to my lungs. I told you about lungs right?”
“Yes yes. Grace tell Rocky about air bags in chest. Rocky see those too. Other sac under wall. Very loud. Make disgusting sounds.” Rocky flinches at the sight of it. He really doesn’t like the sounds of my stomach.
“Yup. The wall is my diaphragm, it separates my respiratory system, which is in the thoracic cavity, from my digestive system and helps me breathe. The sac is my stomach, which is in the abdominal cavity. It’s where I digest food. My stomach is made of 3 layers of smooth muscles and full of gastric fluids that breaks down my food. Sometimes my stomach gets upset and-“ Rocky interrupted me.
“Grace also talk about stomach. Rocky learn when Grace Rocky first meet.” He’s talking about back in the xenonite tunnel he made to connect our ships together, I gave him a basic rundown of my digestive system.
“Right, well I forgot about that.”
“Rocky did not.” He loves to point out when he remembers something I forgot about.
“What blob on top, question?”
“That’s my liver. Its filters and metabolizes food. Definitely one of my more important organs, I don’t think I could live without that one. Inside my liver, I have another organ called my gull bladder. That one store bile, a chemical to help me digest.” Rocky continues to poke around my ribs and tapping another leg to see better. He eventually makes his way over to where my intestines are.
For a guy without a face, it’s easy to tell what emotions he’s feeling. Right now I can tell he’s concentrating but also confused. Rocky is very still, except for the arm poking me next to my belly button.
“That’s where my intestines are. There are 2 main kinds; the small intestines, which the food passes through first, and the large intestines. Those are sort of in a rectangle around my small intestines. Food passes through the small intestines and they absorb all the nutrients and water from the broken down food, well it’s now technically chyme since it’s been partially digested, and mixes it with mucus. Then the food goes in the large intestines where electrolytes are absorbed and anything that wasn’t absorbed in my small intestines. After that it’s stored in my rectum until I poop it out.”
“Gross.”
“It’s not that gross! Everyone poops and it’s basic biology. Even you poop! You poop out of your mouth. That’s gross.” This reminds me of teaching my kids, how revolted they’d be when I got to the poop part of the digestive tract.
“Grace organs very squishy. Grace very gross leaky space blob. Inside and out. Rocky very solid outside. Efficient. One hole for everything. Very little leaking.”
I chuckle a bit. Rocky resumes to poke around my abdomen. Gee this is really getting me reminiscent of my old class, although now I feel like the experiment.
“I feel like you’re enjoying this a bit too much.” I say teasingly.
“Rocky learn human biology. Is fun. Grace is squishy and fun to poke.”
There it is. He’s using me like a human fidget toy.
“Can see food here. Big lump.” He pokes a the side of my abdomen, probably something in my large intestines.
“That would be this morning’s breakfast. It will most likely stay there from 10-59 hours, till all the water gets absorbed.” Rocky chirps in response before moving his finger up and down.
It’s been a long time since anyone’s touched me. Years. This is the most physical contact I’ve had with anything in an extended time. I now realize that I forgot how ticklish I become when you rub my lower abdomen.
My limbs begin to thrash around involuntarily while laughing hysterically. I accidentally slam my leg into Rocky, very painfully I will say. He immediately retreats his arm and backs away from me.
“Seizure! Seizure?! Grace okay, question?! Rocky hurt Grace, question?!” He frantically waves his arms around, not quite too sure what to do while I continue to flop around on my quilt like a helpless fish out of water. I’m laughing too much to respond. After a minute of thrashing around and laughing, I sit up to compose myself, catch my breath and gather whatever is left of my dignity.
“No not a seizure but I’m okay, bud. Actually my leg hurts. That will probably bruise later.” I look over to him and smile.
“Just very ticklish. Have I ever explained that to you? If I haven’t that might be very disturbing to watch.”
“No no not explain. Rocky thought hurt Grace .”
“Oh, no buddy. Don’t worry you didn’t hurt me at all. Human nerves are weird. If you touch people in certain spots, usually under our chins, behind knee caps or in my case, on my belly, we tend to just flop around and laugh. Even though nothing is funny. The nerve endings in the epidermis send mixed signals to my brain and can’t tell which part the signal should be sent to; my somatosensory cortex that processes touch or my anterior cingulate cortex that decides if the touch is good or bad. So I just flop around and laugh involuntarily. I don’t particularly enjoy being tickled. It’s uncomfortable but not painful. But I understand it can look like a seizure if you’ve never heard of this happening. Sorry I scared you.” I shoot him another reassuring smile and pat the top of his suit.
“Grace sure is okay, question?”
“Yes, I promise.” I hold out a pinky.
Rocky makes a mischievous sound, the kind that isn’t a word but he’s up to something. He moves closer to me, cautiously before lunging an arm forward and tickling the same spot at before. I begin to laugh and thrash my arms around again while rolling on the quilt.
“Okay okay!! stop stop!! It’s funny I get it.” I say between laughs. He giggles but stops when I tell him to.
“I’m gonna regret teaching you about this, aren’t I?”
“No. Maybe.” Rocky replies. Darn space alien.
“Okay!” I clap my hands together as I sit up.
“Let me put a shirt back on and we’ll update your vocabulary. I think you’ve learned a lot of new words today.”
“Yes yes yes. Rocky already come up with new word for esophagus. Is 🎶🎶. Means squishy gross tube.” I chuckle at his definition. Technically he is right.
We spent the next three hours sitting on the floor updating his language and coming up with words for organs. The ship lights begin to dim.
“Oh goodness is it time for bed already? I guess I am getting tired.”
“Grace should sleep. Will he stupid if not.” Rocky loves to boss me around when it’s time for me to sleep. I crawl into bed while he gets comfortable in his atmosphere to watch me. I see him pick up some half finished project as a begin to drift off.
“Goodnight Rocky.”
“Goodnight Grace.”