Читать книгу Adamonde - Benjamin Vance - Страница 10

Linda was lost and rational thought failed her, so she finally called her male friend in Guatemala. The time zone was a bit different and she woke him, found he was still married; she assumed unhappily so from the way he seemed to enjoy their conversation. The discussions lasted well into his night and her evening. He said some things … some things he should not have said, but which kept her sane for the moment. It was as if he knew, or somehow sensed, she was helpless.

She hired a relief veterinarian and was in Guatemala within two days. She took plenty of money, but didn’t intend to stay long; she just wanted to look into his eyes and see if she was still in there somewhere. Apparently she was, because they slept in a damp bed the second night and didn’t sleep at all the third, mainly because his marriage was trash. He’d married on the rebound from Linda and seldom saw his wife; a Dallas attorney. Still, she hung on and visited him once in a while; not lately, but twice in the last three months.

Dr. Larry Michaelson was with an elite team of Veterinary pharmacologists investigating jungle remedies for a large U.S. company subsidiary laboratory; unhampered by U.S. regulations. They’d discovered many good things, but he thought none as good as the woman sitting on his groin at that moment. He was in love with her then, had always been more or less in love with her beauty, and she knew it. Because of that tenderness, he felt a bit defenseless, and asked for details about her job to pull her toward him more.

She told him the latest developments, but he mostly kept silent and used his intellect for something other than arrogance. Over the course of four amazing days, he extracted the unbelievable story of Adamonde and her poison barbs. Of course he didn’t believe Linda, but if he had, Adamonde’s contribution to the molecular and genetic pool would be extravagant. If only it were true … if only it could be so.

Linda remained at her small white hotel for five days and returned to Oregon sated, tentatively in love again and determined not to screw it up. She couldn’t wait to tell Adamonde, but Adamonde already suspected. Adamonde told Jonathan, so Jonathan knew. They were both happy for her … especially Jonathan. He breathed a great sigh of relief for Linda, and himself. Adamonde left out the part where Larry coveted Adamonde’s poison … if it was real.

Linda knew Larry didn’t believe her, well not everything she told him, especially the part about Adamonde. She’d keep that a secret from Adamonde and Jonathan. Oh, that Jonathan! Still, every time she thought about the intense pleasure she received from him through Adamonde she wanted to strip and enjoy herself, and him. She thought perhaps she should call them, even though she no longer felt the deep connection to Adamonde. She sensed it was because of Larry and her love for him that she no longer sensed Adamonde. She had no clue.

Adamonde and Jonathan had become more settled and closer sensorially after their baby revelation. They couldn’t get much closer physically than they’d been since she first beamed into his life from … wherever, but they kept enjoying the attempt.

Adamonde took English writing lessons on her yellow computer, and constantly left Jonathan little wordy, misspelled and missed-meaning notes of love around the house. One can try, but it’s difficult to learn the nuances of English conversation from a computer and from scratch when one has never uttered a single vowel. She tried though, and given her intellect and Jonathan’s constant praise and assistance, she persisted.

Jonathan added a red pen to his meager holdings, which she allowed him to keep in a small nerd pocket protector near her yellow computer. Everything around it had to be shades of yellow, so she reluctantly allowed the red pen … probably just because it was his. Often he would find her notes already corrected, since she was loath to waste computer paper. She wrote several at one time as well, and kept them stashed in the yellow desk drawer. It was just one of the many idiosyncratic things she did, which embedded her ever deeper into Jonathan’s heart.

Jonathan and Adamonde established a baby monitoring center in their home, which consisted of a door-jam height measuring station, a weight scales station and a tummy silhouette measuring station in which a bare-bulb lamp was taped to an end table and turned on every week at measuring time. She had grown just over two inches and was at an even four feet, ten inches, just two months after her announced pregnancy. Her tummy had grown by exactly zero inches, but she had gained three pounds of marshmallow weight.

Jonathan asked questions as they occurred, but neither of them knew how long Adamonde’s pregnancy would last, with Jonathan as the father. She’d conveyed to him that a normal pregnancy for her kind should be about seven human months, but he didn’t think he could make it that long. It wasn’t due to lack of sex; she had absolutely no lack of sexuality, and quickly learned how to parlay a good tummy rub or a back massage into a screaming tumble on the couch or floor or bed or kitchen cabinet, etc. Jonathan’s problem was one of mystery.

Although they “talked” constantly via brain, intimate whispers and archival notes she left around the house, he’d never been one to not shake a Christmas or birthday present. One of the flaws in his character was the complete lack of appreciation for any mystery. He received no thrill from a mystery; just irritation, quick and thorough investigation and explanation, in any order.

He questioned Adamonde constantly to determine every facet of her existence and origin. After three months of loving her, he’d learned many things:

First, she originated from a planet which was so far from Earth that she couldn’t convey a proper distance. She inferred that due to warped sub-universes there was no real way to determine distances in space, only time. It confused Jonathan and smacked of a damnable mystery.

Second, her world was a three star world. One had been a planet and was small; another exchanged plasma with a third smaller sun so that her world received bright and dim light during the cycles. The dim light was yellow and the most beautiful. Her world had celebrations when her dim yellow sun’s perigee brought it closest to her world and turned everything yellow for several weeks every cycle.

Third, her home world was about half again larger than Earth, and turned a little slower so that her day was about thirty hours. Her people were shorter, but stronger and not squat obviously, but exceptionally strong on Earth. He thought perhaps Earth’s lower gravity was the reason Adamonde was adding whatever mineral she used to increase the height of her skeletal structure. She told him she was growing because she was having, “…Baahbeees.” Adamonde grew when pregnant, he rightly guessed, but did she shrink when not pregnant?

Fourth, peoples of her world wore only necessary clothing to protect skin in special situations, or to hide flaws or scars. It was a socially accepted means of appearing whole and many folks wore body pads of beautiful colors and patterns or even jewels, or slightly transparent metals over their scars or flaws. It didn’t focus attention, it enhanced beauty. In Jonathan’s mind it highlighted the stark differences in two cultures.

Fifth, there were no different races in Adamonde’s world. Hers was a homogeneous society. There was one brown intelligent race, united against a small, but fierce ancient host of three significant prey species which sometimes became predators. The prey races were semi-intelligent and some were not animal, but a hybrid of chordate and non-chordate species. When she explained, or tried to explain the prey species, he wished for longer heel spikes or perhaps the ability to freely project multiple spikes. He actually shuddered during her explanation of the prey species and how to kill them; sometimes eat them. When explaining the “eating” part she subconsciously moved her finger toward her mouth. He was sure they weren’t as tasty as marshmallows.

The sixth, but definitely not the final revelation he would interpret from Adamonde, was that there were only two planets left with native intelligent beings. There was much lower life throughout the universe, but most was so predatory there had been no chance to evolve or devolve. When Jonathan asked how her people had evolved, she said, “Aahhdde …hemonntt kree … ate …heed bhhyy Ghott!” When he asked her to clarify what “creation” meant, she told him essentially that three planets had been blessed with creation. Life on any other planets was a result of nothing more than pollution by created beings.

His mind reeled with questions after the statement of creation. He thought he might vomit. Forming a relevant question was almost impossible, but perhaps he wanted to hear it again so he asked, “How were you created, Baby?”

“Seelliyy Jon-tathan, Ghott mhaakeees mhhee!”

“God made you?”

“Yeessss!”

“What God made you?”

“Jon-tathan, hoourr Ghott!”

“Sooooo … you’re saying God---the same God---made our worlds?”

“Ghott mhaakeees three whorlllss Jon-tathan! Oonhee, onee” not being able to say it properly, she held up one finger, “oonhe-e gohhnne!”

“My God!”

Adamonde said, “Yeessss!”

“I meant it’s really hard to believe. How can it be that you are so far, I mean your planet is so far … I don’t know what I mean? I mean he is God after all, I guess. What happened to the other planet?”

“Deeeseeesees!”

“How could an entire civilization die from diseases? Weren’t they advanced? There must have been billions die. How can that happen? My God, is that why you’re here?”

“Yeessss.”

“Weren’t they smart enough to solve their disease problem, Baby? What happened, did the disease vector or pathogen mutate? Did they blow themselves up?”

“Yeessss.”

“Will you please explain it, so I can understand it?”

“Knooo, khyyoo dhoont beleef hhiinnn Ghott.”

“I sometimes wish you would stay out of my mind, alien. Why would God let something happen like a young wife die of cancer? It makes no sense.”

“Sheee thheere?”

“No, I don’t see there! Are you giving me a lesson on theology?”

“Jon-tathan haff nhooww.”

“Baby, please talk to me our normal way for a bit. I know you’re trying to learn English-speak, but it tires you and me both. This is too deep.”

She started walking and over her shoulder said, “Yheellooo teeeveee.”

They went to the computer she called her yellow TV and grabbed the wireless keypad she was so fond of dancing with. The conversation went mental and keypad for about an hour.

Adamonde told Jonathan Price that the Arama population died because they thought they were more intelligent than God. They didn’t understand the concept that everything was given them for long life and happiness, a lesson that Adamonde’s world had understood for millennia. There had been no contact with the Arama by her people, until the very last thousand years, after the machine had been developed to take advantage of dark-matter gravity wave, sling travel. The travel could only be terminated over water in any case and many attempts had been made to save the Arama; evidently without success.

With every succeeding revelation came more questions, until the two weightiest arose. He saved them for last.

“Baby, how old are you?”

“Aahhdde … hemonntt isss baahbeee, mhiii luufff; sheeveen huuntrett yeeers, mee-bee.”

“Seven hundred years old?”

“Yeessss!”

It was mind numbing and Jonathan had to delay his next question for fear of knowing. He reluctantly asked, “Will you ever go home, my love.”

“Knooo, thiisss mhhiii hooome.”

I mean is yours a one-way trip?”

“Yeesss, affraaadd!”

“My God, I know how afraid you must have been. I felt it when you arrived. It was profound.”

“Affraaadd nhooww!”

He looked at the face and knew. He grabbed her, almost in terror himself and spoke soothing words; supportive and calming words as he stroked and kissed her head. He transmitted his total resolve to protecting her and their children. He conveyed his undying love, devotion and protection as long as he lived, which could be a fraction of her lifespan. He vaguely heard her singing somewhere in his consciousness as he swore his life-long allegiance.