Kelly extracted small bowls from the cupboards and prepared all the toppings ready to be arranged onto the pizza. They had mozzarella, little pepperoni, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, halved cherry tomatoes, basil, and green onions.
The sauce began to bubble, so Kelly stirred it, added some paprika, sea salt, and black pepper, then she turned down the heat. "Now we let it simmer for a little bit." They set the timer for forty-five minutes, and the stove buzzer went off.
"Garlic bread is done!" Kelly proclaimed, and they removed the breadsticks from the oven to cool. They put the breadsticks on a plate and headed for the living room to watch a show while the sauce cooked.
They were going to watch one of their favorite shows, a classic called Friends that had first aired over fifty years before. It was sad to think that most of the cast had passed on over the years, a fact Mika was not acutely aware. It's one of those things as a kid that comes as a kick in the gut, to know that your favorite childhood characters are no longer with us.
They were watching the "One with the Race Car Bed." Monica ordered a bed and got a race car bed instead, while Ross tried to impress Rachel’s dad.
Mika loved the show and wished she could have lived in New York City when they did. It was a much different place now, busier, crowded, with automated taxis.
She would never be able to hear taxi drivers shout absurdities to one another on the street. It seemed like such a classic thing, something she would never experience.
After the episode finished, the next one began, "The One with the Giant Poking Device." It was a hilarious adventure in which "Ugly Naked Guy" was lying on the floor seemingly dead when they made a long poking stick to check.
How wonderfully absurd they were, Mika thought, all five of them, lined up trying to poke the would-be dead guy. "Why don't they just knock on the door?" she had said while laughing at them.
Just then, the buzzer sounded. Mika hopped up excitedly. "To the sauce!" she proclaimed with excitement. Kelly laughed and got up with her, trailing her to the kitchen.
"Smells wonderful, Auntie," she said as she moved her chair into place. She then stood on the chair as Kelly checked the sauce; she could barely wait to try it.
Kelly took the lid off, and they both leaned over and took a deep breath through their noses. Kelly grabbed the wooden spoon and removed a sample.
Blowing on it to cool it, she said, "Here you go, Jelly Bean, you can try it first." Mika smelled, rose onto her tip-toes to meet the spoon, and tasted the sauce with a little slurp.
Her eyes got wide and lit up. "It's soo good, Auntie Kelly. Can we make it every week?" Mika asked with zeal.
"Of course, and we can try different stuff in it next week," Kelly said. Mika was elated.
Kelly tried the sauce herself. "It needs just a pinch more sea salt," she declared. She bowed her head and gestured to Mika to do the honors. "If you would, Madame."
"It would be my honor, my Lady," Mika said with grandeur, giving a little curtsy.
Kelly turned off the heat to the burner, and on to the oven. Mika added the pinch of salt, and then they both tasted the sauce once more. Kelly gave her seal of approval and looked to Mika, who made the "OK" sign with her hand, then kissed her fingertips and pushed them out. "MuuaaHH!"
They began building the pizza, spreading the sauce thick, since that’s where the flavor is. They sprinkled it with cheese and added the onions and mushrooms.
They used the Canadian bacon and pepperoni to form the shape of the United Americas, using mushrooms for the water outline.
They added a little more love on top in the form of sprinkled mozzarella and put it in the oven. Kelly turned to Mika and asked, "Are you excited for tonight's movie?" She knew she was. Onyana was Mika's idol, and Kelly approved. She was so beautiful and sweet; you couldn't help but love her.
Onyana's big screen debut was in a magnificent representation of the ancient time of Egypt. It was one in which Onyana had starred as an angered, all-powerful extraterrestrial entity.
She had come to Earth in the form of an evil deity to wreak havoc on the hearts of mankind. She manipulated, tortured, and enslaved thousands. She further ordered mass sacrificial offerings of the young and heart-filled variety, all to please her.
The cinematography was spectacular, and Onnie glowed on screen. Even when she was casting down humanity by the dozens, she was enrapturing. People gave into her as if magic; men lined up to present themselves to her body and soul, all while she slaughtered their communities.
She laid upon humanity vengeful wrath for the pain she had experienced a millennia before. I guess when you're immortal, so are your painful memories. And so grows the past that follows you.
In the movie, Onnie’s character "Crandalae," after a great deal of death and destruction, fell for a kindly male servant. Witnessing the tenderness in his heart, the walls she had built around her heart began to crumble.
She fell for this depiction of the humanity that people were capable of. She saw in this man the beauty of what she once had, followed by the pain. This time the pain was a crushing realization of who she had become.
She softened and stopped the killing, slavery, and oppression. Slaves were released into the streets and further provided with a way to contribute. Lands started producing vast amounts of food, animals proliferated, and the ships over-flowed with fish.
The lands began to flourish, just as Crandalae and Amon's love blossomed into something amazing. She made him Pharaoh of all the lands, and they ruled them together.
The kingdom prospered, the people loved their rulers, and they cheered whenever they laid witness upon them. Crandalae began teaching select people more about the Universe and how it worked.
She guarded the information and bestowed fundamental technological advances to help them read the stars and cycles. Their progression seemed unstoppable until the King made a discovery.
The movie ended with the King witnessing the truth of their now benevolent Goddess. She was a mortal from the sky, with the technology of the stars. The screen cut to the King's face and slowly zoomed to the right side of his face,s centering on his right eye.
As the screen turned dark, a look of deceit crept across his face... The credits rolled. A second movie had been in the works since the beginning, and they shot a lot of the scenes simultaneously.
However, they put everything on hold, and production was set to resume after the cloud. "Hell or high water," as they said. It's funny, for the first time since it was muttered a century before, it might actually be the case.
Kelly and Mika were fond of Onyana for more than her beauty and sweet disposition. It was her value of family. They felt a bond to her because of the relationship she shared with her parents.
Everyone wanted her attention; she could have anything she wanted. But she would rather spend the time with her parents, traveling the world. If all that wasn't enough, there was her deeds.
Onyana, who loved the people in return, donated ninety percent of her earnings from the film to a massive philanthropic endeavor. She had employed an army of excavation equipment and purchased twenty thousand shipping containers of various sizes, as well as other types of containers.
There was no shortage of people willing to donate labor in trade for a place among the lucky inhabitants. She purchased over a hundred acres in an area in what was once known as Colorado — surrounded by mountains.
They buried septic tanks and systematically placed several back-up, gravity-fed water systems. They were placed as far from one another as manageable.
They further buried septic systems beneath everything, lending to the gravity system. Flexible reinforced water bladders were buried above the housing units, feeding the units with water pressure without the need