By Frank Roberts

Paco Reveras scrambled out of his tent, fighting with the doorway’s ropes and cursing the whole world in words that would make it all roll down to hell if it weren’t, at large, quite uninterested with what Paco had to say.

“Such language…” He suddenly heard a voice say. “And in the presence of a lady…”

“Save it, Katrina. You’ve been telling this joke from the day we met and, though I do admit that “lady” is not quite the word I’d use for you, it’s getting pretty old… And it gets even older as we speak, so instead of standing there, you could help me get out of this thing.”

“Actually, this tangled look quite becomes you…” Grinned Katrina. Then, seeing the murderous look in Paco’s eyes, she sighed and crouched down to help him out of the ropes.

Finally free from the tent-prison, Paco stood up and caught Katrina in a quick hug, smiling.

“Sorry for that. Being caught in a tent’s ropes is usually not the way I’d rather spend my time.”

Katrina flashed him another grin and pulled him in closer for a kiss. They’ve known each other for ten years, and lovers for five of them, so by now she knew exactly when his faces meant what the showed.

They met at the Rio carnival of 2345. Both were 15 at the time, which got them pretty lousy places at the parade. Paco was about to explain a guy who shoved him even further back what he thought of the man’s family and personal habits, when he heard much the same explanation from behind. He turned and was amazed to find out the words came from the mouth of a rather lovely girl who was standing behind him and whom he, apparently, stepped on when he was shoved back. Obviously, the girl saw what happened, as her attention was fixed to the guy who pushed Paco. Stunned, Paco watched as the girl passed him and stood by the man, swearing like crazy. The man was rather dense, but finally he turned and pointed at himself with a questioning face.

“Yeah, you, you overdone piece of raw slug!!!” The girl blurted.

That did it: the man started talking back, quite loudly. The contents of his remarks weren’t really inspiring, but he did have the voice power advantage. After a moment’s reflection, Paco added his own voice to that of the girl’s. The man, surprised, still tried to fight back for some time, but soon was clearly overrun and, making a “ta-hell-with-y’all” gesture, left. Paco and the girl both drew in a breath and laughed. Then the girl extended her hand.

“Katrina,” she said.

Paco broke the kiss, bringing Katrina back to reality, and started packing their things.

“We gotta hurry, if we want to be among the first ones. I didn’t put up with sleeping in these things to miss the opening.” He said.

Katrina smiled and went over to help. They were both sworn fanatics of The Carnival, which was pretty much what brought them together in the first place and kept the friendship over the years. So, every year, they’d leave the small apartment Paco had in Los Angeles and drove off through half the continent, to get to the carnival. They took a tent with them and camped out. Of course, since the forests were gone, it wasn’t much camping, but it did help them get good places to watch the carnival.

The Rio Carnival has always been a spectacular event, and even more so after World War III, when atomics were widely used, which was the major reason the Amazon rain forests were eradicated, leaving blotches of radioactively scorched earth.

To be more precise, it happened a few years later when scientists developed the nullifying shield, which eliminated the radioactive emanations from the infected sites. Of course, it had to be put near the sites, and anyone walking in too closely and passing the shield would suffer a quick, but extremely agonizing death, but the cure for stupidity hasn’t been discovered yet. Also, though the shields eliminated the emanations as they were “broadcasted” of the earth, eliminating the source was still beyond the powers of modern technology.

For Rio, however, that proved quite useful. The radioactivity seeping from the blighted sites had the tendency of glowing. During the day, the sun outshone anything the lands could offer. At night, however, these sites offered quite a view. The carnival organizers took advantage of that, setting the carnival to last long into the night, shutting off the artificial lighting at some point, presenting a view of the dancers against the glow of the lands. The effects were quite impressive.

Paco took a turn onto the interstate road, on his way home, half the continent still ahead. He cast a glance in the rear-view mirror at Katrina, who was sleeping peacefully, exhausted from the carnival “going-on”s , and smiled. She could be quite annoying and, occasionally, a major pain in the butt, but he’d never trade her for anyone else. Then he fixed his eyes back on the road and stepped on the accelerator. They still had quite a way to go.