I wooshed from a soft slope on the last stretch towards the store Lauren had sent me through. I giggled as the snow passed below me, and just for a moment I was forgetting just how cold the air was feeling against my face. The brief explanation Lauren had given me about her sled had sufficed to learn the basics to control this rather rudimentary vehicle, and after just a couple of minutes I had already started to really enjoy the experience. It was completely different from what I had experienced so far and I was very glad Lauren had given me the opportunity to live through this.

The store was a standalone building, just a bit bigger than Lauren’s house, which had a little parking lot for sleds right beside it. I parked my sled next to another one and removed my holostick from it. This prompted my holostick to ask me to set an alarm. While I didn’t think I would need it, I set it up anyway.

I walked in through a set-up that reminded me of an air lock, presumably to keep most of the hot air in and the cold air out while customers could get in and out with barely a hassle.

Inside of the store, there weren't really many people I could see. There was one cashier who greeted me as I walked in, and a bit further down the store’s central aisle I could see another woman in the same uniform stock up the shelves. Definitely very different from the supermarkets I’d used in my time on Earth before leaving for space.

I slowly walked through the aisles, looking for foodstuff and the wood that I had promised Lauren to bring along, after ten minutes or so I’d collected quite a bit of food, and my quest for wood had also ended in success.

When I arrived back at the cash register, the cashier started to scan everything I had collected. “Are you new around here?” She asked with a friendly smile.

I nodded. “Yeah, how do you know?”

“Everyone kind of knows everyone in this little town. Practically no one locks their sleds, either.” She nodded towards the camera system behind her. It pictured the outside area with a rather crisp quality. “That’s Lauren’s sled, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” I blushed and gave her another nod. “We are colleagues. Since I had nowhere really to stay, she invited me to come over.”

“Oh? That’s interesting.” The cashier smiled.

“Do you know her well?” I asked back, now slightly blushing.

“We went to the same school, not the same class or year, mind you. We only found out about that after the war, though. This is my parent’s business, and I came back from up North to help them rebuild. We still talk occasionally when she comes to shop. Of course not since she went to space. Since you are a colleague, I guess you went up into space as well?”

“I did.” I nodded and started bagging the scanned goods. “We are back for inspection right now.”

“And how is it up there?” She helped to put the last groceries in the bag.

“Hmmm.” I thought for a second. “It is rather beautiful, but it’s also scarily dangerous.” And that’s without big space bugs or an evil galactic empire trying to kill you.

“I think I'd rather stay on Earth.” She smiled and tapped her display.

“It is a beautiful planet, that’s true.” Only after I said it, I realized that probably wasn’t something someone from Earth would really say. “Uh, compared to all the barren rocks out in space, I mean.” Maybe I should just shut up.

Luckily for me, it seemed that the woman found me comment rather funny. “I can imagine.” She chuckled. “That’d be 35 672 federals please.”

I nodded and held my holostick next to the cash register. A beep later and the money had been transferred.

“Could you say hi to Lauren from me?”

“Sure thing.” I nodded. “Your name is.”

“Just tell her Kim from the store. She’ll know.”

“Fair enough.” I smiled and started carrying the groceries in one arm and the bag of wood in the other. “Goodbye!”

“Have a nice day!”

I got our goods safe and well, but still rather clumsily, back to the sled. With my holostick reinserted into the slot I made my way back to Lauren’s home. I hadn’t been gone for long, but I already noticed that the sun had already started to set again. The sled was a bit harder to control now that it was loaded, but all in all, it was still a very fun ride back to Lauren’s house. I let the sled pull me the last couple of meters up to the garage of Lauren’s home. Since she had locked it, I did need to find her to let me in. It didn’t seem like she was indoors so I headed around the back of her house and into her garden. -Is it really a garden though since there is not really something you can garden in?- There, Lauren was working on what I presume was the heating unit.

“Oh, you are back.” Lauren looked back and smiled. “I’m almost done. It needed a bit more maintenance than I expected.” She was handling a can of some kind of oil as I walked up to her.

“I needed to say hi from Kim. The lady from the store.”

“Ah cool. She must’ve noticed you were new around here. Small towns are like that.” Lauren waved me over. “Could you hold this open for me, please?” She pointed at some kind of heavy plastic board.

“Sure thing.” I did as she asked.

“Thanks.” She then started to spray inside. “Also, when it comes to meeting people. The neighbors have invited you over to eat some cake.” She nodded towards the fence to the left.

“Have they?”

“Yeah, I told them about us. The lady of the house had seen us come home yesterday and she wanted to meet you. They're a lovely couple. And they make some very very good cakes.”

“Well, in that case, we should definitely take them up on their offer.”

Lauren chuckled. “Yeah, but let’s just take it easy today. Got a lot of stuff to do indoors as well.”

“Mhmm.” I nodded.

Lauren inspected the inside of the unit one last time before she nodded. “Okay, you can let go now.” And then screwed the plate back in its place, after which she installed some other panels over the top of that. “That should work now. Could you take my holostick and check for me? My gloves are a bit oily.”

I nodded and took her holostick out and followed the same steps I had taken yesterday. But unlike then, when I pressed the button now, the button turned green and we could both hear a slight humming coming from the unit in front of us. “Central heating unit starting up cycle.” I repeated what I read on the screen.

Lauren smiled contently and clapped her hands together. “Great, that should warm up the house rather quickly.” She got up from her knees and beat the snow off her pants with the back of her glove. “I’m going to bring the tools inside and then take a quick shower if that’s okay for you. I worked up quite a sweat.” She then looked over to me. “I have a bath too if you would like…”

“A bath!?”

“Yeah.” She laughed. “Oh right, you probably haven’t had one before. Even more reasons for you to take one.” She winked.

I really couldn’t hide my excitement. So far I’d only read about baths in books and seen them in movies and series. I always wondered what it felt like to soak in warm water. From what I could tell, it was very different from showers. On top of that… It had also been quite a while since we’d been able to wash ourselves. We showered just before we left the ship, but that had already been quite a while ago and travel does make you feel icky after a bit.

That’s why I helped Lauren get her tools real fast and also moved the groceries indoors as fast as I could.

“Don’t rush it now, still need to wait for the bathroom to not be a freezer.” Lauren chuckled as she closed the door behind us.

“But a bath, Lauren, a bath!”

“I understand the enthusiasm, but believe me when I tell you that you really want the bathroom to at least be decently warm when you enter… especially if you have to leave the bath afterwards. I’m just making sure you are getting the best first experience possible.”

“How long do we need to wait?”

“Hmm, shouldn’t be too long, how about you get some loungewear ready for yourself while I load the groceries in the cupboards. When that’s done, it should be at least decently hot enough.”

“Alright… I guess I’ll do that first then.”

“Good girl.” Lauren smiled and got to work after she had ditched her outside clothes.

When I moved towards my luggage, I looked back over my shoulder and squinted slightly at my girlfriend. -I wonder if I could get her to take a bath together with me… or had that been her plan all along since she’d mentioned it first…-