The Zenith

They were showered in snow before rolling up a driveway, the gentle rise slowed them enough to jump free before she kicked it into her hand. But the running wasn't done.

A hand on Griff's belt, she rushed him into a diner which hummed with happy noises. Green laser light fell over them for a moment before, a light on the floor led them to a pure white table. Light and circuitry painted two seats. It went from a sterile sheet of paper to a richly coloured home. White became aged mahogany with a digital menu that glowed into whatever shade ancient scrolls were.

In a minute a tallish, blonde with dreadlocks reaching down to her bosom arrived. The dreadlocks were in a white lacey net that hung loose like unstrapped lingerie. Griff's gawking was proof that to call her hair rib length would have been a disgusting understatement akin to porn censorship.

"Hey ya'll, I'm Tiffany, I'll be yer waiter, how ya'll doin'?"

Kate had not expected that accent but liked it.

"We're… amazing, like this place. Can we start with… double hot and double thick hot chocolate. We'll decide on food later." Kate said.

"Sure sugah" She said winking, the act showing off the gleam of her light brown eyes.

When she left Kate sighed, pressing her face on the table. Griff's half of the table had become a screen, the glow painting his face an eerie orange. Soon he was using his finger as a sling to fire digital bananas into a basket that got smaller each level.

"I was way too unfit and way too fat for all that running." Kate grunted.

"Oh, come on," Griff sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I can barely breath." Kate wheezed into the table like a lover's earlobe.

Griff offered a pat on the head. Just one, the game still needed to be played.

"Griff, look up that Zenith thing." She said.

"I'm busy."

"Use my side of the table."

"I'll help ya Sugah!" Tiffany said, putting their hot chocolate down.

The hammer of a gun could never snap forward with the speed Kate's spine had snapped back. Her toes bounced, launching her knees into the table, thighs sinking into the cushions as her skull was trebuchet'd into attention so fast her hair covered her face.

Tiffany smiled in intense understanding and brutal sympathy.

Griff's grin was so wide his face consisted of a forehead and teeth.

The shake was shockingly thick. Thin slabs of chocolate stuck out but were quickly melting as steam rose. It wasn't hot chocolate; it was soup.

Kate's bladder tingled at the sight of it.

"So ya'll lookin up a Zenith? Someone mention it on yer arrival?"

"Okay, number one… yes, but how are you all guessing that we're new? Is it the accent because we're technically from Massachusetts."

"It's the cold. Don' get me wrong. It's cold here. But there's a pill or a cream fir it. Literally a dozen differen brands. And ya'll dressed like ya'll never heard of em'"

Kate and Griff gaped.

"Oh.. we-, Well, w-"

"Where do we get them?" Griff managed.

"Watch." Tiff said raising her wrist.

They both raised their wrists.

She flicked as hers and both theirs flashed.

The table changed as a mountain of footage flowed in as windows, icons and thumb nails. It was massive.

"Skateboarding, mountain biking and is that an early release on the Happy Tug? Is that even possible?" Kate asked.

What she got back was a knowing smile.

"Okay then, could you at least tell me what's happening?" Kate asked.

"Oh, naw tha's disappointin'."

"I let you down?" Kate said with fake pout.

"That board, those scrapes. I guess, I jus thought." She shrugged.

Kate was smiling but there was a sinking in her gut she hadn't expected.

"We got a Zenith." Griff gloated, around a mouthful of soup.

Tiff's brow raised, disbelief as clear as a sunrise.

"What was that girl's name... Jackie." Griff continued, no amount of etiquette or need to communicate would keep his mouth free of chocolate.

"Jackie, red hair? She tole ya'll about it?"

The disbelief had clouded over. Tiff looked moment's away from sitting with them. Something had changed, hell Kate wanted her to sit.

"She had two drones." Kate added and a part of her soul shrivelled and died from the cringe.

"Only two? Must've been a slow day. Ha! Look I'll be back, other tables. Fir breakfast' how's about some poached eggs? They're a specialty of the state.

"Again, we're from Massachusetts. It's not one of those DIY dishes, is it?" Kate asked.

"So you know?"

"I was guessing from your tone. But I'd rather a fork to mouth meal, no extra work."

"Yir good. Then I recommend the breakfast pie special. It'll put ya in a good mood." She said with another wink, which was clearly some kind of signature move.

She took off without a confirmation.

"She didn't even check if we'd be cool with it. I guess we trust her?" Griff asked.

Kate shrugged before dipping her spoon into her hot soup. The chocolate had melted on top creating a chocolate puddle in the centre. The fact that melted chocolate wasn't close enough to sink…

Warning: Calorie negative

"Let's check the footage, see what the hype is." Kate offered.

The footage left her gawking. The crowds were incredible. The moves awesome. It was like nothing she'd ever seen. The snowboarders, skiers and bikers were flying, they were unbelievable. It made her twitch and shiver, her tailbone aching from all the useless sitting. She should have been moving, running, climbing, anything!

Warning: Calorie negative

The first thing to come was pecan pie, a slice split in two. The original slice having been anaemic in the first place but topped in an authoritatively strong lemon honey syrup that formed a shell that hardened like glass as it cooled.

Warning: Calorie negative

Then came a glass of ice water and a pill, and then followed a strange bacon pie of some of the best most filling egg in the world. It was like they'd turned bacon and onion into a jelly and put them together with Lego eggs only to flash fry the whole thing while keeping soft enough to be eaten with a spoon but solid enough for a fork.

It left Kate grunting on the chair only to see Tiffany out of uniform and sitting next to her. She had her legs on Griff's side, she had a plate too.

"Okay, I was stalling ya'll 'coz my shift was endin and if ya'll have Jackie's attention, then, you got mine."

She tapped the table and a soft while light rose. Around the table more lights filled the centre. The image of a man holding his snowboard, completely airborne as fireworks rose behind him in tune with the movement. Kate wasn't looking at an image, it was art.

"Now, that's a moment of Zenith. Now watch as he rises. There's the Zenith of up and down. He's already started a double backflip, look at insane air he's getting and when he moves."

The man flipped from the jump but was unhooking the board and flipping it back onto his feet, all before he touched the half pipe's slope with an ease so contagious Kate's bladder tingled as though it had eloped, sobered, annulled and just landed back into her groin.

The crowd's screaming froze.

"So when you reach the top," Tiff said reversing the footage.

"That's the moment?" Kate asked.

The smile she got back was annoyingly small.

"Yeah, but"

She lifted her hands after tapping her wrist against the glass. The image rose, the detail and resolution expanding.

"When you see the whole thing in slow motion it gets better. Look at how his speed appears to boost like he's in fast forward. It's planning and talent, but it's also a moment beyond time and space. There's other stuff but that's a whole other thing. Now…"

Tiff flattened kissing the table before flicking her wrist and threw the image away before tapping her head. She touched the table and Jackie's face rose, spinning slowly. It was an oddly stunning photo. Had her cheeks and freckles glowed so individually before?

"Why's Jackie chasing ya?" Tiff asked, she remembered her food a money and sat back with the plate on her lap.

"My boy here did a flip off a trash can and landed on a post." Kate said.

"Oh…" Tiff granted with a mouthful, she was clearly disappointed. "Tha's odd. How far was tha grind?"

"Barely any." Griff said.

Tiff's entire face scrunched in bewilderment, then it fell.

"The post was vertical across a str-"

"It was a vertical street post. Turned away from the float to a flip and kickflip that made me piss my pants" Kate said, remembering the horror.

Griff gave a muffled cry after Kate reached over the top and threw Griff into a head lock of such precision it could only come from an older sister. Masterfully she scooped up his arms mid-fail and squeezed the way a fist squeezed a tomato. His cries turned to gargling.

The image of Jackie started talking. Tiffany rubbed her plate clean with her fingertips and licked them before she touched the air and a soft red light fell over them. A wall formed closing them in their booth.

"Stream incoming, stream incoming." Tiff said quick.

"You a fan?" Kate asked.

Tiffany scoffed.

"What? No!" Tiff all but yelled.

Tiff thought a moment.

"It's a fisherman looken across the dead sea to see another fisherman. We're polite enough te get drunk togethir but we are nawt friends."

The finality from her thick jaw as it gained a squareness made Kate smile.

Tiff bit her lip, thoughtful.

"My courses ain't done yet and I don't wanna risk… but screw it. I'm too interested, come, see the real city."