The Journey of Rick Heiden
All Rights Reserved © 2018, Rick Haydn Horst
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Once we had arrived at Amaré’s Tuscan-designed villa, which sat in a neighborhood of comparable homes, I would never have guessed he lived there. I appreciated its beauty with its columned covered porticos, stone walls, and terra-cotta roof, but I couldn’t imagine why a Japanese African lived in an Italianate home. Amaré answered the door in his Trust uniform of black and scarlet. We went through the motions of the traditional Japanese greeting, and Amaré welcomed us inside. We introduced Laurel, whom he had never met formally, and after a few minutes, we proceeded to the dining table. He sat at the head of the table, which had the benefit of allowing everyone a better view.
“I have heard of your group,” Amaré said to Laurel. “It pleases me that people wish to learn as much about the portal as they can. Perhaps, you will conceive of a means to gather evidence, so that we may move from a hypothesis to a theory of its inner workings.” He directed his gaze to us all. “I trust that this meeting is important. May we begin?”
We hadn’t discussed who would present the problem to Amaré but seeing as he and I had the greater rapport, I did it.
“I thought of a question earlier about how we might find Cadmar. Can we trace him using the enhancements in his body?”
“I believe the answer to that is an unfortunate no,” Amaré said.
“Indeed,” I said, “which we discovered at Bragi College with Team E. However, Laurel believes that while we cannot trace his body, we can trace his ring. If we create a device that mimics the portal’s field, we could use it to find the ring, and perhaps discover the location of his body at the same time.”
Amaré hesitated. “Yes,” he said, “you could do that. I see your problem, and it is not a small one. You were right to come to me, of course. You must know we have kept secret the knowledge you seek to create such a device.” He paused to think for a moment. “Forgive me, until now, the burden of that secret has remained light.” He took a deep breath, pondering. “Recovering the ring and Cadmar should that prove possible, has such importance that I have little choice than to provide the information you require, but I have stipulations. Firstly, you must disguise the device you create as best you can. It must look like something of no importance; otherwise, you risk drawing attention to it. Secondly, you must understand the impact of it falling into the wrong hands. The frequency it would contain is essential to locating the portal’s localized field while out of phase. If that frequency became known, and the portal proved capable of relocation, doing so would become fruitless.
“I have a piece of business that I must mention,” he continued. “Mr. Levitt, I must confer upon you full membership into the Trust before you leave.”
“I would rather you wait until we return,” David said.
Amaré nodded. “Yes, I know. You would feel you had earned it, but I have given the matter thought. No full member of the Trust has ever taken on a mission this dangerous, so we cannot ask you to do it as a student. I know you have difficulty with asking too much of yourself, and for that, I am sorry. We are, undoubtedly, also asking too much of you –too much of all of you. However, Mr. Levitt, please know that you have already proven yourself worthy.
“Laurel,” Amaré said, “I have a request of you.”
“Anything,” she said.
“I request that you lead the team that builds the device,” Amaré said. “This piece of equipment is crucial to the success of the mission. I will provide the information you need to create it on the condition that you hold it in confidence between yourself and only those who must know for this project.”
“I agree to that,” she said, “and it would be my pleasure.”
“Mr. Park, I also request that you assist with this endeavor. Between the three of you, you have the most scientific mind. Should it need any repair on the mission, it will be up to you to make those repairs.”
“I would be happy to.” Aiden adjusted his glasses, and I noted he squinted and blinked more than before.
“Does anyone have any questions?” asked Amaré.
“I have one, but it’s unrelated to the mission,” I said.
“You are my guest,” said Amaré, “please ask.”
“Knowing you as I do, I am curious. Why do you live in an Italian-style home?”
Amaré tended to find my questions amusing, and he smiled. “I live here for practical reasons. For a long while, I have wanted a Minka, a traditional Japanese home. I feel I would find it more suitable for me, but we have no land that One City occupies at present, which would suffice for such a structure. However, one day we will reach the suitable location I spotted jears ago further down the sea. Until then, I wait. I always endeavor to express great patience, and thanks to Mr. Park, I have time.”
Before we left, Aiden thanked Amaré for taking the bullet that Katheryn meant for him. She said she hadn’t intended to kill Aiden. However, since Aiden didn’t have the foundational enhancement, Amaré, without doubt, saved Aiden from a protracted period of recovery or worse. When the conversation ended, a series of bows ensued, Amaré joined Laurel to begin work, and we left for home.
We had a relaxing ride through our neighborhood. Edwardian Baroque buildings like those in London stood everywhere, but unlike London, the air smelled fresh without a hint of car exhaust, and commercialism hadn’t spoiled the view.
“Aiden,” David said, “I want you to think of it as your home too. Of course, you’re free to find a place when you feel ready. Until then, you can stay as long as you like.”
“Yes, please do,” I said in affirmation. I wanted Aiden to stay with us for several reasons, including for the sake of our upcoming mission, but I also felt he needed us as much as we needed him, or at least I needed him. I required the familiar around me, and while family serves that as part of its purpose, I had only David and Aiden as anyone I recognized. Many people we met could grow on me, but I expected a lengthy process of acclimation.
We stopped in the lay-by in front of our building. Several pedestrians walked by on the sidewalk while thirty shirtless bicyclists, both men and women, sped by on the road.
“That’s one of the competitions we have here between the colleges,” David said.
Aiden squinted at them. “I’ve never enjoyed competitions,” he said, “but I think I just became an avid fan.”
“I knew you would,” said David. “Please, remember that women are people. You will treat them as they would have you treat them, or you should expect to regret it. Women here are not the disempowered maidens Earth too often produces.”
Our Edwardian, neo-baroque-designed building and its grounds encompassed an entire city block. I looked up at the façade which faced away from the sea. It could have graced a neighborhood of London, with its rusticated main floor, its voussoirs, the built-in colonnade of paired iconic columns, and rounded corners with domed towers. It quite loudly screamed monumental, but I loved it. The ground floor contained the shops typical to Jiyū, but one could see six upper stories.
In the center at ground level, we passed through an archway leading to a wrought iron-covered door. It opened to a vestibule where a lift awaited passengers. The lift doors shut, and we began moving. I saw no buttons to push. “How does it know where we want to go?”
“Most homes here have an A.I. known as Hestia,” said David, “and she knows.”
“Isn’t Hestia the Greek goddess of home and hearth? How appropriate,” I said.
“She has a most fitting name,” David said. “I made several requests of Hestia yesterday. I’m curious to know if she completed them.”
The building had only three floors according to the lift, and the doors opened at the top. As David lived in a penthouse on Jiyū, the suite in London suddenly made sense. We stood in the foyer, and I caught a glimpse of the opulent room beyond the round-topped doorway. The exterior of the building did not reflect the interior’s décor. It had a lavish second empire design with a rounded foyer of white stone walls, decorative moldings, and beautiful dark-wood Corinthian columns that stretched to the fifteen-foot ceilings.
David took me in his arms and kissed me. “Welcome home,” he said.
Aiden smiled as he impertinently watched us. “You two seem perfect for one another.”
“I’m sorry, Aiden,” I said. “Does this bother you?”
“No! No, of course not. It’s just that I’ve often wished I had someone who loved me the way you two love one another.” He viewed us through squinted bespectacled eyes.
David put a friendly arm around him. “One City has many available women,” he said, “and at least one of them will like you enough to realize how worthy you are. We only need to polish you up a bit, and with some effort on your part, there’s no reason to think you couldn’t be exactly what some woman out there is seeking.”
“You think so?” Aiden asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“I think David’s onto something,” I said. “I’d listen to him if I were you. Do you have a problem with your eyes?”
“Yes! They’re driving me mad,” he said. “I’m having trouble seeing. Does Jiyū have an optometrist? I may need new glasses.”
“Do me a favor and close your eyes for a minute.”
He hadn’t quite caught on to what was happening to him. Aiden closed his eyes, and I removed his glasses.
“Before you open your eyes,” I said, “I will ask you to try not to freak out. Okay, open them up.”
Aiden opened his eyes, and they widened in wonderment.
“I can see,” he whispered to himself. His expression shifted rapidly, and he hurried to the foyer window. He stood there, staring outside for several minutes. “Have you seen the babies who wear glasses?” he asked. “That was me.” –he slowly shook his head– “I had no idea. Do you know how much this means…?”
“I can imagine,” David said.
“I know how you feel, Aiden,” I said. “When the first change becomes noticeable, it’s overwhelming. When my hair began growing back, my hand rubbed the stubble all day. Come on, how about we let David show us around our new home, and you can use your new eyes to see it?”
The home consisted of the entire fifth and sixth floors, both of which had fifteen-foot ceilings. The main floor had a living room, a sitting room, a library, a dining room for eight, and toward the back, a breakfast room just off the kitchen which didn’t look like any kitchen I had ever seen, a bathroom, and storage. All the rooms were magnificent in size and grandeur.
The second floor, accessible through the broad, freestanding, spiral staircase near the foyer, had four large bedrooms, each with a private bath. We could find the partially inset, expansive, grand balcony toward the back of that floor, facing the sea. It included a pool, twelve feet deep at its deepest portion.
The designer had covered the floors, apart from the kitchen, baths, and balcony, in various wooden mosaics that created intricate rug designs in every room. The light tan walls had tons of white molding and wall sconces. The overall ambiance with regards to the decor focused on a sense of continuity. No matter what room I saw, it felt like it belonged to the same living space.
“It’s beautiful. I could live here,” I said. “What do you think, Aiden, this or the moldy old hovel?”
“It’s lovely,” he said, “but it’s rather like living in a museum. I prefer modern, but this beats the moldy old hovel any day.” He leaned toward David. “And now, I understand why you called the hotel penthouse an expensive dump.”
David and I laughed. It was disconcerting for Aiden to reference a conversation he should never have overheard, but we accepted the fact.
“Indeed! Oh, and I quite agree,” said David, “this has an enormous museum vibe. I didn’t choose it, it came this way, but I’m glad it meets with both of your approval.”
“Who cares for the pool?” I asked.
“Hestia does,” David said. “Is anyone else feeling hungry? It’s mealtime again.”
When we got to the dining room, on the table, lay an impressive amount of food, which had not been there earlier. And I suspected that the new enhancements caused us to have a voracious appetite.
“So, have the two of you adjusted to the food?” David asked.
“It’s food,” said Aiden, “I’ll eat it.”
“It’s fresh and delicious,” I said. “What’s not to like?”
After eating, we became tired and sleepy. David told Aiden that we needed to lie down for a while, and suggested that he do the same, noting how sleepy-eyed he appeared and showed him to his room. Our bedroom, a richly decorated space with an enormous bed, had many pieces of hand-carved furniture. We removed our clothes, and David held me as we slept.
I awoke hours later, not knowing the time. I could see David’s face in the dim light that filtered through the dark glass on the windows that had appeared transparent when we laid down. He seemed more handsome to me than any movie star Hollywood had to offer. He slept peacefully on his back, so I watched him. I could see the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.
David opened his eyes and looked in my direction. “Hello. How do you feel?”
“Better,” I said. “Rested.”
“Good. I want to try on some of my old clothes. I’m curious to know if the pants in the wardrobe will fit. My leg muscles have had ten extra years of growth. After all the mountain biking, I probably should have stopped the anabolic enhancement before I went to Earth.” David got out of bed, and the glass in the windows slowly became transparent.
“How does that happen?” I asked.
“Do you mean the windows? All the windows have active opacity. Hestia controls it.”
“How does she know to do it?” I asked.
David smiled. “Ah! You have yet to notice them. They’re adept at remaining unobtrusive. Hestia, please let Rick see his Attendant.”
A tiny object floated down a few feet from my face. I put my hand out, and it landed upon it. I brought it close to my eyes. The tiny, dark-colored machine looked about the size of a fly made up of a ring broken into three sections. “An Attendant,” I said. “What does it do?”
“It watches over you, listening and learning about you,” David said. “I will take note of your likes, dislikes, habits, where you sit, your reactions, your expressions, anything that will allow Hestia to form a database of expectations of what you might need and want. For example, Hestia knows that we were getting out of bed to try on clothes because I mentioned it. She would conclude we needed light, so she would either make the windows transparent or turn on a lamp.”
“Is she the one who put the food on the table?” I put my hand out, and without my saying so, it knew I had finished looking at it. It went back from where it came.
“Yes, she takes care of the food,” he said, opening the wardrobe, digging through various pairs of pants. “Hestia’s only physical presence is the house robot. Like the Attendants, it tries to remain unobtrusive, but you’ll see it on occasion. I know this all must seem strange to you, but you’ll grow accustomed to it, and it can be nice, like with food on the table when you need it. The things Hestia does, I call kindnesses, but she can also fulfill home-related requests.”
“You had her do things before we got here. What did you ask her to do?”
“I didn’t think we would want to sleep on 50-jear-old beds, so you’re sitting on one request,” he said, “and Aiden is sleeping on the other.”
There came a light knock on the door.
“Correction,” I said, “was sleeping on the other. Come in, Aiden.”
The instant he opened the door, his eyes went straight for the ceiling. “Oh jeez, do you guys ever wear clothes?”
“What a time to get your eyesight back, eh? Nudity will happen,” said David. “You should work on growing accustomed to it now, roomie. Aiden, what size pants do you wear?”
“I wear a thirty-four waist and length.”
“Oh, well, none of this will come close to fitting you then.” David tried pulling himself into a pair of pants he hadn’t worn in ten years. They fit great around the waist, but they were so tight through the thighs and seat that it would cut off circulation. He couldn’t even button the fly. It made me laugh. Aiden would have laughed too if he hadn’t made such a study of the ceiling tiles.
“Looks like we all have a problem.”
“Yes,” said David. “We need clothes, but for now, we each have a suit, the clothes they gave us at the temple, and a robe. Hestia, please have all the clothes in my wardrobe recycled before we get back. We should return in a few hours.”
Bringing cloth bags with us, we walked to a clothing shop David used down the street.
“How do you feel?” Aiden asked me.
“I feel much better, and you?”
“I feel great,” said Aiden. “It’s strange to see clearly in the peripheral and without frames blocking the view. My eyesight is astounding; I couldn’t see this well even with glasses.”
“I never had eyesight as bad as yours,” I said, “but I’ve had a noticeable improvement.”
“The best a pair of glasses can improve your vision is about 20/15 for most people,” David said. “We have 20/8 vision. That’s part of what the foundational enhancement does. It tunes your body to an optimal level when it can.”
Svend the tailor, a man with light brown hair, fair skin, and an affable temperament, turns into a terrible tease when he thinks he can get away with it. He enjoyed having us there. The shop had many things ready to wear, and that’s what we needed. The robotic machine in the back made all the clothing from Svend’s designs. The tailor offered to have us scanned so that we could have custom clothing, but David suggested we should wait. He pointed out that our arrival on Jiyū would cause our body composition to change, especially for the next few days.
As we left, Aiden and I both expressed that we had the oddest sensation. We found what we were needing, thanked the tailor, put our selected clothing into the cloth bags we brought with us, and we left. It seemed weird to shop with no money involved. Aiden said it felt like we stole it, and it did.
“Why would anyone bother to make something, and take nothing for it in trade? I don’t get it,” said Aiden.
David informed us of the reason as we walked to a local cobbler. “When it comes to work, things are drastically different here. No one works for a living. We all have ensured that everyone gets the necessities of staying alive. People work because they enjoy it and wish to remain productive for the community. To give back, one might say. Unlike on Earth, we hold the resources of this world in common to us all. No one person owns any of it. That is part of what frees us from the bondage that results from using money. The fabric that Svend uses is not his, the machines he uses are not his, the shop is not his, and the power is not his. However, when I say these things are not his, I mean that in the sense that they are no more his than they are anyone else’s. Those belong to the community.
Some people will do what they do for a lifetime. Other people will change their minds in just a few jears, and that’s okay, but whatever they do, it’s for the community. Shops come and go all the time. Someone is always deciding they want to try it.
People will always need well-made, well-designed clothing. Svend’s clothing is some of the best here. He does what he does because he enjoys it, and he’s good at it. Because of that, the community accepts his shop. It is they who decide which shops survive and which shops fail. If no one comes to your shop, then the community has spoken, you either do better, change your product altogether, or close the shop.
“Svend has been a tailor in that shop for a couple of hundred jears; he has a passion for and loves what he does so much, the only payment he needs is a friendly face, a kind word, enthusiasm about his work from the people who shop there, and a thank you. When the shop closes for the day, he goes home to his mate, and they enjoy their time together in a life well-lived. It’s the same for all the other people who do what they do on Jiyū. Do you understand?”
Honestly, I had a tough time with it. I readily agreed with Socialism on many things, like healthcare, but the experience with the tailor went beyond Socialism. I couldn’t even call it Communism; they had no state to control the means of production. The indoctrination we received to think and feel about the monetary value of virtually everything provided a lifelong immersive paradigm so pervasive that to reason otherwise felt like grinding gears. It would have to take time, but it worked on Jiyū, and it sounded like a beautiful idea.
The cobbler scanned our feet and legs from the knees down so we could have shoes made for us. In the meantime, however, we acquired pre-made shoes–including gym shoes–to get some exercise.
We dropped by a local training center. It resembled many gyms on Earth and had more equipment than I figured we would ever use. A diner that David used on occasion sat right next door for an after work out meal. We went in and started a routine that evening and put our names down for some gym time a few hours before the last meal of the day. David assured us that the foundational enhancement had primed our bodies to pack on some muscle. We just needed the tension of the weights to make that happen, and I knew I needed the exercise.
We sat on the grand balcony after eating last meal, just before sundown. We had an eventful day, and I felt good. I saw signs the new enhancements began working as I had begun losing body hair profusely in various locations. I looked forward to having the connection with Iris and whatever else the next day might bring, but when Aiden excused himself to shower for beddo, I thought David and I would have a chat. “Tell me about the Trust.”
“Okay,” he said, “it’s a bit paramilitary. It has no real power structure, apart from Amaré, who isn’t the leader, but he is considered Prime. That’s why he carries the gold sword. It’s his function to declare a student ready for full membership and perform the ceremony honoring them with the responsibility of the Trust. Dmitry used to interpret for him, but I guess that’s unnecessary now.”
“How does it function if there’s no hierarchy?”
“That comes down to the actual purpose of the Trust. The Trust exists as a defensive last resort. If all else fails, we have the Trust to kill invaders. I know that sounds harsh, but there comes the point where someone may give you no other viable option. You kill them, or they will kill you. The members receive training for that purpose. We have an armory of energy weapons, and we practice with them for proficiency. We also know hand-to-hand combat, and the use of the sword. The Trust has four kinds of swords. The inductee has a sword of weighted wood, dulled, and blunted. Once they demonstrate to the satisfaction of a full member some suitability, they move to the next level, and that’s where I am.”
“I remember you said at Facility3 that you wished to join the Trust.”
“Yes, it’s also why I spent ten years on Earth,” he said. “We perform service to the community. I had many things I could have done, but I chose that when Odette, who had the London post, ended her ten-year stint about the same time.”
“So, you have a sword. May I see it?”
We entered the house and descended the stairs to the living room where a case lay on the mantle of the white marble fireplace. He brought it down, placing it on the sofa table.
“I couldn’t take it with me to London,” he said, “so I put it here to protect it.”
I could tell this meant a great deal to him. He treated it with a kind of reverence, and why not? People earn trust, and on Jiyū, having that trust, honored them with the responsibility of protecting the community.
The three-foot-long box of dark wood had carefully inlaid gold filigree. When he opened it, a sword lay before me resembling the others I had seen, but in niobium blue like the pistol David carried. The blade looked razor-sharp. The pommel contained the insert left empty on the front, with his name and the motto Scientia nos Defendit on the back.
“It’s beautiful. When will the ceremony take place?” I asked.
“The morning before we leave, I expect.” He placed the sword back into the box.
“Will you wear your sword on your back too?” I asked.
“I will,” he said, holding me to him, “but not on every occasion.”
“Well, I should think not,” I said.
In Aiden’s absence, and a brazen disregard for whether he would walk in on us. David kissed me and laid me down on the couch. We kissed me for several minutes.
“Fuck me right here,” I said.
He smiled. “Alright.” He unbuckled my pants and pulled them down to my knees. He did the same to his. He picked up my legs and leaned over to rub his cock on my hole. His enhanced cock started making a lot of precum (something it wouldn’t do before), and he squeezed out enough to lube me up. He pushed his cock into me, and after a couple of tries, he held his cock balls-deep in my ass. Shoving my knees up to my chest, he rammed my hole. That position allowed him to have maximum thrusting power and he fucked me as hard as he could.
I asked him, “Do you enjoy servicing me?”
“I am your mate. I live to service you, whenever, wherever.” He focused his attention on me the whole time he fucked me, watching for any sign I needed him to stop, but I never gave him that sign. I knew he had the strength to continue fucking me into the night, and I would never have asked him to stop. I didn’t want his cock taken from my ass, if he could leave it there forever, it would have pleased me.
The sensations he caused, made me quiver and he had me close to cumming all over myself. When the spray began, I came all over my face and my chest. He laughed when it happened, but he didn’t stop.
When my orgasm stopped, I laughed using my fingers to get the cum out of my eyes, but his thrusting never stopped pleasing me.
“Let’s see you do that again,” he said in amusement, fucking me faster.
I began scooping the cum off my face and putting it into my mouth. There must have been a big blob of it on my cheek that he found too tempting because David tipped my legs to the side and leaned over to lick it off my face.
He fucked me for another fifteen minutes, the big head of his cock stroked my prostate enough to trigger another orgasm. When I felt ready to cum again, I told David. He rammed me a few more times, and we both came. I came all over myself once again. He kept sliding in and out of me ensuring I had the most enjoyable orgasm he could give me. He leaned over and licked my face clean and kissed me.
“I love you,” he said.
Afterward, we got ready for bed, and I slept with my head on David’s shoulder and his cock in my hand.
The morning of the second day, after sunrise at second meal, David declared himself ready to visit his parents. We had invited Aiden, but he declined, and I couldn’t blame him. Aiden intended to go to the college to help with the device for a while, then drop by the beach later.
Humans evolved in a dynamic where the parents’ age maintained a constant chronobiological distance to that of the child. However, that didn’t always happen on Jiyū. They had an unusual parent/child familial structure, and I found it fascinating to witness through David’s experience with his adoptive parents.
David’s parents lived on the opposite side of the city, and we strolled to the train station. On that beautiful, comfortable day, a light breeze from the sea came in through the buildings and funneled through the tunnels that provided easy access to the other side of the mountain.
I had thought it odd that they used a single rail maglev. I figured Jiyū would have advanced far beyond a maglev train.
“They thought to build an anti-gravity train long ago,” said David, “but realized it would require more power than the maglev.”
“Yes, but why a train?”
“For human beings, some things are optimal like a mirror above a bathroom sink, for example. Sure, the kind of mirror and sink may differ, but the idea is the same. It’s the same with the train. People will always need basic types of transportation.”
“What about teleportation?” I asked.
“That’s what the portal seems to do. If you can duplicate it, we’ll appreciate it if you let us know. I’ve read some hypotheses on the topic. Someone thought it had to do with quantum entanglement. When the spheres at both ends form simultaneously, entangled as they are, the objects inside somehow exist in a different state, both here and there simultaneously in a state of quantum flux. The portal somehow knows to let the contents come into existence as matter in the opposite sphere, but we can’t imagine how that happens. Then again, the evidence one day may point to some other explanation.
“Have you tried experimenting?” I asked.
“Yes, we’ve taken sensors through, and they provided no readable data at all. First, you’re here, and then you’re there. We can detect no time in between of any duration. So, while Jiyū is deep in the quantum era, the portal remains beyond our knowledge.”
The train had a quiet, smooth ride, but unlike public transportation on Earth, it seemed safe, clean, and lacked any graffiti or advertising. It stood well above ground level, providing a better view of the sea. Sailboats and college rowing teams raced across the water, while indistinct images of the beach flickered into view between the buildings, which gave me a thought.
“Do you think Aiden will enjoy himself at the beach?” I asked.
“I predict he’ll have a problem,” said David.
“What problem?”
“No one has subjected our people or beaches to puritanical prudery, or for that matter, a Victorian-era sense of modesty.”
I burst out laughing. “Oh, how bad of you! It’s hard to say how he’ll react.”
“I know which part of him will react,” David said with impish delight. “I look forward to the time that he stops inspecting the ceiling because someone isn’t clothed. Nudity is not a morally heinous crime, and adults should know the difference between nudity and sex. But on Earth, factors beyond their control have prevented most of them from ever obtaining that level of maturity.”
“If I know human beings,” I said, “and I believe I do, things should change when he realizes how much better he already looks. Have you noticed the change in diet has already made him lose a great deal of excess water weight? He looks thinner already, especially his face.”
“He’s not the only one,” David said, patting his stomach.
“Oh, I know,” I said, “I feel it too.”
On the way to David’s parents, we made a short walk through a lovely arbor canopied park from the train station. They lived in the picturesque gothic district, and their home had pointed arches and windows. They had planted several exotic trees in the front and side yard, but the lawn did not contain grass. However, the low-growing plant there did look as if it had the benefit of never needing a trim.
David knocked, and I took the man of twenty-five who answered the door as David’s father. At my height with curly, brown hair, long enough that it covered his ears, he seemed handsome. He wore a blue pullover and a pair of tan pull-on pants.
“Oh, hello,” David said, “I don’t think I know you.”
“I’m Damek. You must be David,” he said, smiling. Then over his shoulder, “Mother, David’s here!”
I recognized David’s shock, and I could see he didn’t know how to deal with it. Damek invited us inside, but David’s discomfort made me nervous. His adoptive parents had been together for several hundred jears with no children. They ended up with David. David grew up, and during his time on Earth, they suddenly decided to have a child of their own…apparently. They had the freedom to do so, of course, and even David would acknowledge that, but his mother didn’t mention Damek at the temple. It seemed cruel to leave him as a surprise.
I could see into a living area, and it showed like many houses, with tired decorations. David’s parents had settled in quite obviously. One might find the setting right at home somewhere in New England.
I came from a family of huggers. Like many people who know these things, I considered human contact essential to psychological and emotional health, and I also knew it as the healthiest southern tradition that the American South ever had. I have never had a problem with hugging. David loved to hug and hugged me all the time, but he acted as if he didn’t expect one from his mother. She greeted us, and still did not hug David, which made me wonder why they didn’t have that custom.
“Hello, David,” Siona said. “Rick, welcome to our home. Please come through.”
They didn’t seem to utilize Hestia. She led us to a kitchen where she prepared for the next meal manually. The kitchen looked closer to what I would recognize as a kitchen. Fruit and vegetables lay on the counters, they stored dishes in glass-fronted cupboards, and a sink sat beneath the window with a view of the back yard.
David’s mother introduced us to Damek, and we sat at the kitchen counter, watching her chop vegetables.
“Did you enjoy Earth?” Damek asked.
“I considered it a job, but it had its moments,” David said. “Have you gotten a place yet?”
“Oh yes, I’m thirty-two,” Damek laughed at the clumsy attempt to know his age. “I visit the parents on occasion. I was helping Dad with his latest project. He tinkers on an old transport that Venn retired twenty jears ago. It’s junk.”
David’s father came in through the back door. He resembled David’s mother; they both appeared out of chronological step with the position of parenting a forty-year-old. I had difficulty wrapping my mind around it. His features looked much like Damek, and he wore some old clothing while he worked in his shop out the back.
“David? Where have you been? We were expecting you to visit when you first returned,” he said with a voice that held an authority his appearance couldn’t reflect.
“It’s complicated,” David said. “Father, this is Rick, my mate. Rick, this is my father, Liander.”
His father nodded in my direction and greeted me, although it seemed perfunctory. I found myself feeling as if some unsaid thing was happening, and it disturbed me. I was missing something crucial. I sensed nothing adverse with Damek, so it was just the parents. I studied Siona’s face, and I saw something, but I couldn’t make it out.
Liander took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. He turned to David and paused just before he took a drink. “I’ve heard you’re going back to Earth to fix the mess you left there.”
David had his eyes fixed at something out the window, either he refused to react to such provocation, or he felt numb, having heard such things from him so often. His mother said his father had changed; I couldn’t imagine how. Siona eyed David with an odd expression, had I seen pity or something else?
Damek then made the timely decision to leave –not even he could take the tense atmosphere. He said goodbye to us, then to his parents, and that’s when it happened; they both hugged Damek before he left. At that point, I had had enough. Once Damek passed the threshold, I let David’s parents have it with both barrels.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but how the two of you treat David is disgraceful,” I said. “You hold him, not just at arm’s length, but a world away. He’s not really your son, is that it?” –David tried to stop me– “Oh no, I’m not finished. I know this is your home, and I respect that so long as civility reigns here, but that’s not happening. David is my mate, and I love him. So, it will be a snowy day in hell before I let anyone treat him as disrespectful and cruel as the two of you. David, let’s leave.”
That’s when I took David’s hand –to drag him away from those horrible people if I had to– and against what I thought he might, he didn’t stop me. We walked toward the station.
It upset me terribly; I was shaking. I have a mild temperament, and I would never do what I had just done. Once we reached the middle of the park, David pulled to my arm and stopped me. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly as I shook.
“Thank you for what you said and did. I’ve never dared to say anything to my parents, but there’s something you need to know. When I tell you this, please keep in mind that I’m not their biological son.
“As a teenager, I grew up all hormones and pheromones, which I suspect precipitated the incident that happened after I turned nineteen. Siona became inordinately and inappropriately attached to me. As an oblivious and inexperienced nineteen-year-old, I didn’t recognize it. One day, she cornered me in the hallway, and she kissed me, but Liander saw. I then realized what had happened, and made Liander believe the fault was mine, so the repercussions would not fall on the only mother I had ever known. We kept the incident between the three of us, but things were never the same. I’m not making excuses for their behavior, but know, that’s why it’s happening.”
“Oh, David, how awful for you.” I had felt aghast over the situation, but it explained things beyond the scope of the incident with his parents. However, understanding why in no way lessened my dislike for them. If anything, it intensified it for its injustice. I wouldn’t stop David from seeing them when he chose, but I saw no plans to grace their home with my presence again anytime in the future.