Within the hour, Lexi herded Shachi and Penguin into her truck, which still dripped water from the storm the night before. They climbed in, and Lexi took the driver's seat.
"What is this thing anyway?" Penguin asked, and she gave them a incredulous look.
"You don't know what a truck is?" They shook their heads. "It's an automobile. Basically, like a ship for land." She compared, remembering they were pirates. Turning the key, the engine sputtered to life, and she shoved it into drive before heading down the second half of the looped gravel driveway.
"Hmm, what is it made of?"
To Shachi's question, she shrugged. "No idea. They make them in big factories." Seeing no one on the road, she turned it towards the small town of Fairview.
An awkward silence fell over those inside, and Lexi decided to fill the void. Grabbing a CD from the holder above, she slipped it into the player.
"What's that?" She smiled, glancing at the two in her rearview mirror.
"You guys don't have CD's in your world, huh?" They shook their heads again.
"CD's?"
"Yeah, they play music. You burn the music onto the disc and then you can play it in the CD player." A moment later, the opening bars of Bad to the Bone came on, and Lexi nodded her head up and down with the music. The gentle hills passed by as she steadily drove the long stretch of road to the town. Every once in awhile, a car would pass by.
"What kind of music is this?" Penguin questioned, eyes wide with wonder. Shachi looked to be in the same kind of trance, listening to George Thorogood sing the lyrics.
"This, my friend, is classic rock." She tapped her wheel with her finger to the beat.
"I broke a thousand hearts, before I met you. I'll break a thousand more baby, before I am through. I wanna be yours pretty baby, yours and yours alone. I'm here to tell ya honey, that I'm bad to the bone!" Lexi sang, catching the attention of the two in the back.
"You know the words?" She chuckled, nodding her head.
"It's easy to memorize these songs when your radio doesn't work." She clicked on the radio, but the only sound that came through was an ebbing static. She switched it off, placing both hands on the wheel again.
"Wanna learn the words?" She asked with a grin, and they nodded enthusiastically. She cranked up the volume, and started the song over again.
Law sat on the couch, eyeing the infernal device Lexi had labeled the 'TV.' She'd thrown him a rectangular object called a remote, neglecting to explain what exactly it was supposed to do. With the unhelpful instructions to 'knock himself out,' she'd left with his two engineers.
Nana, who'd wandered back into her room early on, was fast asleep on her bed, and was therefore no help to Law. He sighed deeply, and Bepo wandered over.
"Maybe you press one of the buttons?" The bear suggested, pointing to the remote. He glanced at it, picking it up in frustration. Eyeing the numerous buttons that adorned its surface, he took a shot in the dark and pressed the only one that wasn't black. The red one at the top was pushed down, and a small click sounded. They both looked up at the TV, but it was still dark.
"Hmm…" Law muttered, but suddenly the screen turned on and produced a very loud noise.
"-FOR THE VERY BEST DEALS IN USED CARS. WE CHALLENGE YOU TO FIND A BETTER PRICE WITH OUR COMPETITORS." The TV blared, causing both of the pirates to jump.
"Turn it down!" Law shouted, trying to plug his ears with his hands. Bepo grabbed the remote and frantically searched the device for the sound, if there was one. There! A small volume button arrow going up and down was in the middle. He hit the down arrow, and it quieted a notch. Hitting it a few more times, the TV was at a much more reasonable sound level.
The room was quiet once more, though oddly out of place after the sudden noise. Law listened for Lexi's grandmother to come shouting out the bedroom door, but there wasn't a sound. The screen showed a man with several metal contraptions of varying colors, outside in a large expanse of pavement. He continued to talk, patting several of the machine on the front.
"From commuters to family vehicles, we have 'em all at Larry's Used Car Gateway!"
"I wonder what a car is." Bepo commented, and Law agreed. The term 'car' wasn't familiar to him. Perhaps it was similar to a ship? Looking back at the remote, Law inspected the rest of the buttons.
"It appears we can change what we watch with this 'channel' button." He pressed it, and the screen changed to show the outdoors somewhere, with several people holding guns.
"Joey's first sighting of the 5-pointer was early the second morning, and he couldn't wait to take a shot." The men wore camouflage, and Law guessed they were hunting. He pressed the button again and again, going through the channels one by one, not really understanding anything that was on.
Lexi parked among the few dozens cars in the parking lot, chuckling when Shachi and Penguin pressed their faces up to the glass.
"Woah." They said, watching as people walked by with dogs on leashes and cars passed by. "Besides a few things, our worlds don't seem that much different." Penguin added.
"Really?" Lexi unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. The three got out and she made sure to keep an eye on the two in case they decided to run away and see what the world had to offer. There was no doubt in her mind that losing the two would make the captain very angry. And probably homicidal.
"Come on, let's go." She shouted, and the two snapped out of their exploration. Following her up to the door, they stopped.
"Where's the handles?" They asked, seeing no way to open the metal doors in front of them. With a chuckle, Lexi continued to walk towards it and, like magic, they opened before her.
"What is this?"
"Automatic doors. There's a sensor at the top that detects when someone walks by. They open for you." She added, knowing they would ask how it worked anyway. She waited just inside the doorway for them to pass through.
"This is so cool!" They walked up to the doors then backed away, watching as they closed again. She sighed. Their curiosity would make this trip a lot longer than she'd imagined.
"Ok, let's get what we actually came here for." She raised her voice, and they finally realized she was waiting on them.
"Oh, right!" They followed her inside, and Lexi conveniently ignored the strange looks that the other people were giving her.
Lexi grabbed a cart, but after the two fighting over who would push it for her, she was forced to give it up. They settled it by each having one hand on the handle, and she sighed at the two. They were just too much sometimes.
"Ok, we need stuff for sandwiches, lettuce and other vegetables for salads, and several cans of soup." And with that, they perused the aisles with Lexi feeling more and more like she was a mother toting around two five-year-olds.
Nana had woken up about ten minutes later, but she didn't mention the loud noise at all. She sure was a heavy sleeper for being so old. Emerging with wild hair, she took a seat on the couch beside him. He regarded her cooly, deciding that she was currently in a lucid state and not in danger of grabbing the nearest gun, as Lexi warned sometimes happened.
"What kinda rubbish are you watching?" She asked incredulously, gesturing to whatever the hell he'd put on. Law raised both eyebrows, not used to anyone speaking to him in such a manner. Nana shook her head, snatching the remote from his hands and pointing it towards the TV.
"The only good show on nowadays is Family Feud, and I won't tolerate anything else in this house!" She announced, and Law was at a loss for words. Glancing at Bepo who lay on the floor several feet away, they both shrugged.
She changed the channel to a very flashy and noisy scene. There were two families facing each other, with flashing lights and podiums for each of them. One man stood in the middle, holding a microphone. He held a set of cards.
"Debra, you've only got one strike, so you're not in danger of giving the Allen family the question, but good luck. Name a beverage that might be served at a child's birthday party." The woman named Debra thought for a moment.
"Lemonade!" She called, and there was applause.
"Is lemonade on the board?" The man called, and the screen showed a large board with several words and numbers next to them. There was a ding, and the word lemonade appeared, along with the number 34.
"Only one more word to go!" The announcer called, walking to the next person as the clapping continued.
"I don't understand the concept." Law turned to Nana, and she scoffed.
"Boy, have you been livin' under a rock? Who doesn't know how family feud works?" He wasn't sure how to respond, so he didn't. "Well, you're gonna learn today, so shut up and pay attention." She said in determination, and he wasn't really at liberty to decline. Her brisk manner was just too surprising.
Thankfully, Lexi was able to find everything she needed without being kicked out of the store, though she was pretty sure she was close to it. She'd spotted the manager giving her dirty looks at each shout of surprise the two made. If she expected them to behave maturely and calmly, she was sorely disappointed.
Every aisle had something they had never seen before, and they insisted on stopping to look at it. Lexi found herself dragged along the aisles to gawk at the bags of cookies and the frozen boxed meals. It seemed their world didn't have such things, which surprised her.
Finally, after much lecturing and dragging the two towards the check out lines, she was able to distract them by sticking magazines into their hands to read, thankfully shutting them both up as they scanned the pictures and words.
Finally making it up to the checkout station, Lexi pushed the cart beside the machine, and the two pirates, unfortunately, finished their magazines.
"Woah, what's that?" Penguin poked at the checkout counter, seeing the buttons on the screen. The touchscreen beeped, as he'd pressed the 'Pay Now' option, and Lexi swatted his hand away.
"No touching, no scanning. I do all that, got it?" She really didn't want to accidentally be charged for fifty heads of lettuce because of their meddling. Thankfully, they seemed to shut up and nod obediently. Sighing, she started swiping the items across the scanner, and it beeped every time she waved it across.
The two seemed mesmerized, as if it was some holy shrine to technology, and it kinda creeped her out. Finally, after scanning all her items, she hit the pay button and swiped her card.
"What's that card do?" Lexi was reminded of a four-year-old wanting to know what everything was, and it was starting to convince her of never having kids.
"It's a debit card. It's linked to your bank account, so it just takes the money out for you. You don't have to have cash with you all the time."
"Ooh." They murmured, eyeing it like it was gold. She shook her head.
Sticking all the bags into the cart, she started walking away. "Let's go before you accidentally wander into the McDonalds or something."
"What's that?" They asked, and she only grinned.
"I'll explain another day. Just get to the car."
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