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    Touchable
    Touchable
    Touchable
    Ebook24 pages20 minutes

    Touchable

    By John Walters

    ()

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    About this ebook

    After fleeing systemic intolerance on Earth, a lonely man on a far-flung interstellar outpost receives an exciting offer from a battle-jaded veteran - but there's a catch. She's lonely too, and wants a traveling companion, but only if he agrees to assimilate a hitchhiking alien life form.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAstaria Books
    Release dateJul 4, 2021
    ISBN9798201209773
    Touchable
    Author

    John Walters

    John Walters recently returned to the United States after thirty-five years abroad. He lives in Seattle, Washington. He attended the 1973 Clarion West science fiction writing workshop and is a member of Science Fiction Writers of America. He writes mainstream fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and memoirs of his wanderings around the world.

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      Book preview

      Touchable - John Walters

      Touchable

      While suited up out back using caustic chemicals to clean alien drool off plates and cutlery, I heard the bell ring for the human-compatible section.

      Quickly I divested myself of the protective apron, gloves, and helmet, washed my face, scrubbed my hands, and grabbed my waiter's pad.

      The customer was a fit, attractive woman with short auburn hair, a tie-dyed sleeveless shirt in shades of beige and burnt umber and dark chocolate, and a complex tattoo that started at the top of her left shoulder and ran halfway down her arm. She was sitting by herself in a booth, the only human customer in the cafe at this hour, a fold-up pocket computer splayed open in front of her, typing rapidly and sometimes pausing to tweak the display with her fingertips.

      She didn't seem to notice that I had entered the room. Ignoring employee protocol, I sidled around so I could see what she was working on.

      Half the screen displayed a 3-D rendering of a rural landscape, which I could tell by the flora and cultivation patterns was somewhere off-planet. The other half was text which I was polite enough not to attempt to read.

      Still I lingered, fascinated, for an indeterminate amount of time, until I realized that what I was doing could be construed not only as rude but also an invasion of privacy. Additionally, that old impression of inbred inferiority tried to grope its way out of the ancestral dungeon to which I had committed it.

      I took a few steps sideways so I was facing her. Are you ready to order, ma'am?

      She looked up, startled. She had large brown eyes with tiny flecks of green

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