"What else has more than four legs?" Kiera pressed.
"My God, Kiera!" Evelyn sighed and rubbed her face. "You want Romas to come in here and explain things?"
"I want to go home," Kiera replied.
"This will be better than home," Evelyn promised. "And I'll be with you. So will Romas. You needn't worry about anything. Besides, you said you'd stay at least a week, right?"
"And the cats?"
"The cats … they're domesticated and really very nice."
"Are there other creatures with more than four legs?"
"I really, really don't know." Evelyn shook her head. "Can you think of anything else but spiders?"
"Is there air on your planet?" Before Evelyn could answer, another thought occurred to Kiera. "Are you an alien, too?"
"No, no, no! I was born in Mississippi. I swear it to you, Kiera. I wouldn't lie to you about anything like that."
"Just keep it from me until I awaken on a spaceship?" she retorted.
"I asked you if you wanted to come," Evelyn reminded her.
"I said no!"
"You said you'd think about it."
"You didn't tell me where we were going!" she said, incredulous.
"It's far away, like I said!" Evelyn said somewhat defensively.
"Omigod! It's so not just far away!" Kiera replied. "And women don't have any rights where Romas is from. He said as much! So I'm going to be stuck on a planet far away without a bus ticket home surrounded by spiders the size of basketballs and being bossed around by Neanderthal barbarians who forbid me to talk and lock me in the bathroom!"
"You're adorable even when you're so upset!" Evelyn grinned. Kiera's chest clenched as she began crying again. Evelyn threw her arms around her and hugged her, chuckling. "You'll be okay, K-K. You'll see."
Kiera squeezed her back, feeling very, very lost. She forced herself to withdraw from the surreal world and let herself go numb. After all, when she finally awoke from this nightmare, all would be back to normal, and she would have new inspiration for her paintings. She kept telling herself she'd wake up from this wacky dream soon.
Six days passed on the ship. She awoke six more times willing the nightmare to be over. On the seventh morning-- if there were such a thing in space-- she lay in bed and stared at the dark grey ceiling. The world was becoming more real as the days passed. She'd avoided the galley Evelyn had tried for three days to drag her to and said it would prove they were on a ship after she challenged Evelyn to prove it wasn't a dream.