Chewing Rocks Read Online Free PDF Page B

dinner rolls sailed out of the dark, gently arcing across the room in the standard Ceres ten percent gravity. A wadded napkin got past her guard and slapped her across the face. It stuck briefly and slid very slowly down her chin.
    “Johnson ,” Sno shouted. “As soon as I can see you, I am going to kick your scrawny butt all the way up Strawberry and back down.” Sno was pleased Johnson was at Mario’s. She was not exactly what Sno would call a friend, but Johnson had grown up on Ceres and was one of the few young women Sno’s age she could tolerate for a while.
    The woman’s voice floated out of the crowd. “How did you know I was here?”
    Sno snorted , finally spotting a small group of people, “You hit me with your used napkin and it stinks to high heaven of anchovies and oyster pizza. No one else on this rock can stomach that garbage.”
    Johnson replied, waving Sno over to an empty chair at her table. “If you don’t like it, you should learn to sometimes step left when you come in, not always to the right. Sit down. We saw the Sedona on the dock boards. Figured you would be here before now. There’s an empty squat box between Spanky and Norm.”
    “ I would have been here earlier, but I had to drop by Queene Mines for a meet-n-greet, then I got to ream Ernie down at United Mech about some bad equipment.” Sno smiled at the memory.
    She had lit into Ernie from the get-go. He had taken the abuse like a trooper, letting her rant on and on until his earther co-workers had come into the office from the warehouse. Out of the sight of the others, Ernie had winked at Sno. He backed up and cringed into a corner letting Sno tower over him. It was no easy feat to tower over Ernie, since he was as tall as Sno and twice as broad. Ernie had relented on the autojacks and promised complete replacements delivered within the hour, plus a twenty percent store credit for her next purchase as a bonus to make up for her lost time. Sno stomped out of United feeling much better at having blown off steam.
    Johnson laughed. “Ernie already sent me the vid eo. You didn’t see the faces of those lumpers he works with. They looked confused at first, but then they got the bejezzas scared out of them. Ernie says it should take ‘em down a notch. He has been complaining that they are getting a bit uppity with some of the miners. This might save ‘em from a beating in a dark alley some cold summer night.”
    Sno said, “ Might or it might not. I might have done something just like that if I hadn’t started on Ernie before they got there. Freaking earthers passing off garbage like the crap they sold me. They ruined the profit on a whole trip. Hey, sounds like you have a direct connection to Ernie. I wasn’t there but fifteen minutes ago.”
    The short, heavy set girl at the end of the table spoke up, “Yeah, the two of them been making googly eyes at each other for a couple of weeks now. ‘Nuff to make a decent girl sick.”
    Sno said, “Well, Spanky, that keeps you safe. You haven’t been decent around men since Bob Touchette took you to watch the moon rise.”
    Spanky replied with a sigh, “I never did get to see the moon rise.”
    Johnson laughed, “Not what I hear. I hear you saw Bob’s moon rising and setting over his shoulder about six inches at a time.”
    Spanky snorted in her beer. “Six inches? Not likely. Ol’ Bob was nine or nothing. I was truly sorry to see him take that job on Io.”
    Sno said, “I hadn’t heard Bob left. Sorry to hear that.”
    Spanky shrugged, “Ain’t it the life of a miner’s daughter! I miss the man, nine inches and all. Hey, Johnson, do you want to timeshare Ernie? There ain’t that many single men left around here.”
    Norm spoke up for the first time, “Hey! What am I?”
    Johnson said, “You are my fourteen year old brother, so you don’t count. Be a good brother and go to the bar and get us all another round of beers or I will tell Mom you’ve been drinking again and