Rei's last day on Earth - 3

Whether you write a single book or a whole series, to make it realistic, you need a backstory for each of the main characters. When the time came to write Rome's Evolution, I finally had an opportunity to blend together all the little tidbits I had sprinkled throughout my novels regarding Rei Bierak's past into a single, self-contained intermezzo. It's a seven part series and here is Part 3:

     Since he was nearly two hours late, Rei’s parents rushed him to the dining room table where the four of them had prepared what they called his last supper. Every inch of the table was covered by casseroles and serving dishes. It was literally every food that Rei ever liked or claimed he liked. There was pizza, ribs, steak, fried chicken, turkey legs, corned beef, egg rolls and other foods uncounted. The festive meal included wine, no pruno tonight, and a lot of laughing, mixed with the occasional tear.
     For dessert, Ruth Bierak and Sally brought out three cakes, each with twenty five candles. Ruth made Rei blow out every one of the candles for each birthday they would never spend together. One cake was chocolate-covered banana cake, Rei’s favorite. One was chocolate, chocolate-chip with fudge icing aka Death by Chocolate. The third was a cheesecake drizzled with strawberry syrup. Rei elected to have a healthy slice of each one even though he knew he’d catch holy hell at the Mission Center for gaining weight.
     After dessert, Rei’s parents ushered him into the spacious living room and made him sit by himself on the loveseat. Raul and Sally sat down on the sofa and held hands while Rei’s parents stood before him. Rei’s mother had her arms hidden behind her back.
     “What’s up?” he asked trying to peer behind his mother.
     “We got you a little going away present,” his mother said bringing her hands forward. She was holding out a box, roughly four by six inches, wrapped in gold foil. She handed it to Rei.
     “Oy,” Rei said, hefting the present. “You know I’m so close to my weight limit as it is,” he opined. “What is it?”
     “You know we’d never spoil a surprise,” Rei’s father said. “There’s only one way to find out so go ahead and open it.”
     Rei tore open the paper. Inside was a shiny white cardboard box. Inside the white box was gray foam packing. And in the center of the foam packing was a gleaming, dark silicon blue rectangular object. Rei took it out of the box and inspected it along all sides.
     “Is this what I think it is?” he asked, with a broad smile on his face.
     “Yes!” his mother said. “It’s a custom-built solid-state music slab, completely solar-powered. The earpieces clip on magnetically. It has no moving parts and they assured us it would survive for a thousand years. It’s all your music in one tidy package!”

So now you finally get to see where Rei acquired his music slab that he recovered during his one and only space walk during their flight to Deucado. Notice that I had to slip in the fact that it would last for tens of centuries because that's how long it was before Rei was awakened.

The list of foods that Rei loved was, of course, just a list of foods that I loved. That was how my grandmother used to cook, all you ever did was have to say you liked something and it was made for dinner for every meal thereafter until she died.

Tomorrow, Part 4.