“Okay,” said Boomba. “You can take your helmet off.”
Dax could barely understand the muffled voice from the confines of the space suit helmet. The visor shielded his eyes from his surroundings making navigation near impossible. Boomba had led Dax by burying his head in the small of Dax’s back and pushing him forward, though Dax didn’t have much confidence in Boomba’s depth perception. In fact, after the third time Dax’s knee was slammed into a foreign object, he doubted whether or not Boomba could see at all. But now they had stopped moving and Boomba tapped Dax on the leg incessantly. I guess that was the signal that it was time to peek. Dax unlatched his helmet and attempted unsuccessfully to tug it off of his head.
“Boomba, I’m stuck!” Dax cried.
“Bend over.”
“What?” Dax’s ears were pinned beneath the opening of the helmet.
“I said, bend over!” Boomba yelled.
Dax leaned forward and felt the pressure of Boomba’s tiny hands pulling on the helmet. The opening was tight, but with Boomba yanking, the thing popped off his head and Dax stumbled backwards into something hard. He turned and saw a massive pair of biceps connected to an even more massive torso. The creature stood on its two arms while a comically tiny set of legs dangled freely. It had two eyes resting on stalks which protruded from its otherwise plain face. It turned to Dax and spoke in a voice that reminded him of the sound of ice crunching underfoot. He couldn’t understand the language but he could definitely understand the angry tone. Boomba flitted between Dax and the bulbous gentleman and began speaking in the same gravely language. Dax wasn’t sure what he said but the big armed threat choked out a sound that he hoped was laughter.
“What did you say to him?” Dax asked.
“I just told him his muscles were looking especially beefy today,” said Boomba. “Flattery will get you everywhere with a bulkin.”
Boomba once again leaned his body into Dax and pushed him away from the strong armed brute. With the threat of violence behind them, Dax finally had a moment to take in his surroundings. A world of sights and sounds stormed past his senses and assaulted his neurons. There were hundreds of people, all from different species, bustling about in a space big enough to fit an entire Star Frigate. Dax ran over the railing in front of him and looked down. They stood twenty stories up and there were at least twenty more above them.
“What is this place?” Dax asked in amazement.
“Only the largest candy store in the known universe,” Boomba said.
He smiled so wide, it looked as if the lines of his mouth might extend past his body. Boomba was an adorably small alien. His hairy blue body only came up to Dax’s waist and Dax wasn’t even that tall to begin with. At first glance, Boomba appeared to be nothing more than a big ball of fur with one single eye in the center of his body, but Dax knew better. Underneath all that fur concealed two tiny legs and two tiny hands.
“Holy spumoly, look at all these people!”
Dax lost himself in the throng. There were tall skinny green folks, ones that looked like walking alligators, even some that looked vaguely human - albeit with purple skin and horns. Dax had met a lot of people from a lot of planets but this was the most diverse selection he had seen in one place.
“Who doesn’t have a sweet tooth?” said Boomba, “I mean apart from those without teeth. You know what I mean. Let’s scoot, there’s a place I think you’ll like.”
Boomba skittered off into the crowd and Dax ran after him. In the center of the facility stood what looked like a giant gumball machine, only the gumballs it contained were as big as Dax. Each one looked like a miniature planet, complete with land masses and weather patterns. A particular green and blue gumball brought back memories of Earth. Dax caught an elbow in the side - although it could have been any number of foreign appendages - and snapped out of his reverie. He scanned the crowd for Boomba who had already reached their destination. He was quick for a little guy. Dax caught up with him and stared at the sign above the shop.
“31,000 Flavors.”
“It’s an ice cream parlor, just like on Earth!” Boomba said excitedly. “I know you’ve been missing home. Especially on the anniversary of…”
Boomba cut himself off as he watched Dax’s face droop at the mention.
“Come on, let’s go inside.”
As he stepped inside, Dax was greeted by the attendant behind the counter. He wasn't of any species Dax had encountered. The attendant had orange skin and six arms and wore a red and white striped apron.
“Welcome,” he bellowed enthusiastically. “Care for an authentic iced cream? Made the old fashioned way by extracting fluid from a strange mammal’s teat. Who wouldn’t want that?!”
Dax chuckled a little at the entire concept of this place. They were trying desperately to replicate an ice cream parlor but clearly had never seen one with their own eyes. Dax looked at some of the ice cream flavors with a mix of confusion and revulsion.
“Boomba, these flavors are barf town,” said Dax, “I’m pretty sure that one has live insects crawling in it.”
“What, you don’t like Chunky Dumpster?”
Dax laughed, “No.”
He continued to scan the endless rows of ice cream flavors until he found the one thing he’d never expected to taste again - rainbow sherbert.
“Excuse me?” Dax asked the attendant.
“What can I do you for, kid?”
“Does this rainbow sherbet have anything in it that would kill a human? It’s not radioactive is it?”
“No sir, just frozen milk and sugar.”
“I’ll take one scoop, please.”
“One scoop coming right up.”
They paid for their cones and then Dax and Boomba took a seat next to the window to watch the crowd rush by. Boomba’s tiny hand poked out from under his fur and held a cone that was stacked so high with scoops of ice cream that Dax was sure it would topple. Dax didn’t need that much ice cream, a little taste was all it would take to bring him home. The flavor transported him light years away and suddenly he was sitting in his living room on earth. Everyone was there - his mom and dad, his baby sister, all his aunts and uncles. The smell of burning candles still lingered in the room and Dax could see the half eaten birthday cake sitting on the dining room table. The gentle hum of voices surrounded him but he was able to pick his mother’s out of the crowd. She was the nicest person Dax could remember. He looked at her and she smiled at him from across the room. Dax looked down at the bowl of rainbow sherbert in front of him. One bite left. He lifted the spoon to his mouth and savored the flavor. It tasted like home.
“How’s the ice cream?” Boomba asked.
Dax swallowed and and looked over to Boomba whose face was filthy with ice cream residue.
“It’s perfect,” said Dax.
Boomba’s giant tongue swept his lips in an effort to recapture the remaining flavors that dwelt there. Dax rested his head on his free hand and gazed out the window. A young girl was walking tentacle in tentacle with her parents, her face aglow with wonderment.
“Hey Boomba,” said Dax. “Thanks.”
“No probs, friendo! I know it’s been tough for you and I just wanted to do something special. Happy birthday, Dax.”
Sprinkles on Top was written by Daniel Weinell and illustrated by Maribel Navarro.
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