Читать книгу Adamonde - Benjamin Vance - Страница 8

Jonathan was a great building designer and planner and still hoped he’d be a great architect someday. Even as he thought it, he realized some vague redemption. He’d designed a few nice buildings and homes, but nothing eclectic or Frank Lloyd Wrightish enough to be memorable. His wife encouraged him to be bold, but that wasn’t what people around his rural county wanted. They wanted standard, strongly constructed, winter-bearing structures that would endure over the ages and during all weather. He lost his business after his wife died … had sold it actually, because he just didn’t care anymore.

He still considered himself independent; not wealthy, but free enough to entertain his guest indefinitely if it came to that. He hoped it wouldn’t. As a meticulous planner, he took notes on everything; at least he’d started taking notes again after Adamonde ... arrived. Within that reclaimed, regenerating propensity to record, there were notes to take extra clothing to the veterinarian’s office.

He had to make sure the office had rooms which wouldn’t facilitate easy entry into a kennel or cat room and he wanted to make sure there wasn’t a “clinic cat” wandering around when they arrived. He had to be certain the veterinarian, Linda Donaldson was her name, was prepared mentally for Adamonde. He knew she wouldn’t be, and he worried about Adamonde attacking her out of jealousy, then he chastised himself for thinking Adamonde would be vindictive or jealous, but in his reality he had no clue.

One week after he saw Adamonde in the most clothing she’d ever worn in his presence, he decided to call Linda to see if he could get an afterhours appointment. She was not an easy person to contact. He left a message to call his home; told the receptionist it was urgent. Linda called the next morning. He started by introducing himself and mentioning his dog Larry and the badger bites. She didn’t remember him until he mentioned the death of his wife. He thought it was that, but actually she’d received Larry’s file from an assistant and the file was her only recall. She asked how she could help.

He said, “Well, this is going to be hard for you to believe, but I’ve stumbled across a possible genetic anomaly and I want to bring it in for you to assess and provide an opinion before I go to the CDC or anyone else. This anomaly will definitely surprise you and may be somewhat dangerous, so I suggest you see me after hours if at all possible.”

Linda responded with, “I’m sorry Mr. Price, I can’t make after hours appointments except in cases of emergency. I see the last time you were here was with ‘Larry’ and that was over 18 months ago. Did you get another pet?”

“Dr. Donaldson, you might say that, or when you see her you might not. Look, this could be a matter of National Security importance. I would not joke about this. It’s taken me two months to get this little anomaly prepared to see anyone, so I highly recommend you make an appointment and have a trusted assistant there if you don’t trust me, but you need to see this as soon as possible.”

“Well, you really do make it sound important and urgent. Why don’t you bring in your pet about 6:00 p.m. this evening? Please understand that I charge $125 for an emergency call, plus what I have to do to start healing or for possible referral, okay?”

“Listen Dr. Linda, when I come to the parking area, I’ll call you to make sure it’s okay to bring her in. Then I’ll drive up to your back door to be let in. I don’t want to chance anyone else seeing her.”

“I don’t know what I’m letting myself in for Mr. Price, so it better be good.”

“Oh, it is, it is! See you at six.”

He turned to Adamonde, smiled at her and gave her thumbs up. She tilted her head back and forth, moved her mouth as if speaking and muttered, “Chirp, cheep, chime, bling, ting, tinkle, chime” mocking his conversation. She smiled all the while, but he doubted her sincerity somehow.

When they arrived at the clinic there were three cars still in the gravel-covered parking area. He called Dr. Donaldson. She explained she was just finishing up with the last client and would be at the back door in less than ten minutes. He pulled up to wait and left the engine running. Adamonde reached to take his hand and inter-mingled her fingers with his. She looked at him intently then reached to shut off the engine and smiled at him.

He was shocked she even knew how to shut off the engine, but then realized who he was dealing with and she chimed and made the dimpled smile he loved so much. Soon there was a face at the back door. Adamonde squeaked as if she was frightened, but he knew she was fooling with him. She crossed her eyes at him to calm his heart, got out, shut the door and waited. Even from his vantage he could tell Linda was taking the measure of this beautiful little partially yellow-clad female about to enter her private space.

He opened the door and let himself and Adamonde in. Linda had a blatant client-ready smile pasted on her face until she shook hands with Adamonde. Her face slowly went pale as she discovered the special capability of Adamonde’s fingers and palms … and brain. Donaldson said, “Holy shit, her fingers are pulsating, holy shit look at her fingers; six of ‘em, and yeah … six toes I think; holy shit, look at her eyes. Oh, God I feel like I’m going to faint, Jonathan.”

She plopped down on a chair and yelled, “Donna … Donna, go home now! I got this covered!” Of course Donna wanted to see her boss’s eyes and see her boss’s mouth tell her to go home so she started to push through the swinging door. Dr. Linda yelled, “Damn it, Donna I said go home, now!” The door slowly shut and Donna went home, but Linda didn’t get up.

Jonathan said, “Dr. Donaldson I’d like you to meet Adamonde; Adamonde meet Dr. Linda Donaldson.” Adamonde said, “Chortle, chirp, chirp.” Linda said, “Whatever you are Adamonde, you are beautiful and unbelievable. What other wonders are you capable of?” She just stood and smiled down at Linda, then slowly reached to take her hand again. Linda reached for hers and they held hands and just looked at each other. Linda’s eyes dilated and her mouth dropped open a bit, as if in deep, sleepy concentration. Then she whispered, “Jonathan, this lady is totally in love with you and makes me wish I was. Son of a bitch, she’s talking to me with her mind and it seems natural as hell.” Tears started streaming from Linda’s eyes, but she was unashamed. She whispered, “I’m getting a little bit scared here, Jonathan.”

“Well then, Dr. Linda I assume you believe me now and trust me when I tell you that if you have a clinic cat or anything else with four legs running around free in this clinic, its life is in danger … no it’s dead unless you put it in a cage.”

Not taking her eyes from Adamonde, “Why … oh shit, never mind. There’s nothing running around free, everything’s in cages in the back.”

Jonathan said, “Can we pull the shades? I don’t want any innocent eyes seeing her in the altogether and in about thirty seconds that’s the way she’ll be. She’s tolerated her clothes about as long as I’ve seen her tolerate them.” Linda was looking cornered so he continued rather weakly, “Please relax, Linda, she doesn’t have any spines, well she does but they’re in her heels, but she’s beautiful and friendly, except to cats … damn, don’t worry, please. You’re the reason we’re here. I want you to get to know her and help me find out where she came from.”

Adamonde pulled off her wig, and in several deft movements she was completely nude. Linda turned away as if to give her privacy. He said, “You needn’t look away. You better get used to it. She’s just as liable to strip me while we’re here … or you. Anyway this is where I show you the unusual things about her, okay?” He went to close the blinds over the three windows, while Linda and Adamonde got better acquainted.

Linda stared at Adamonde’s body and slowly got used to her physique. She said, “Well it doesn’t take an Einstein to see she has four breasts. I wish mine were so nice; the big ones, not the little ones. Her belly button is in the wrong place, pardon Adamonde, a different place, and she has absolutely no hair, unless it’s microscopic.” She and Adamonde continued to hold hands and Adamonde started to fluctuate her irises. Linda said, “She can move her irises and … holy shit she moves her eyes independently.” Then Linda started laughing; Adamonde had crossed her eyes and smiled. She was trying to make Linda feel more comfortable and she’d succeeded.

Linda wiped her nose with a tissue in her right hand, but continued to hold Adamonde’s right hand with her left. She asked what else was different about Adamonde. Jonathan told her about her tongue, which she held out for Linda to see; about her ears, which had shallow tympanic membranes and about her spikes, which she demonstrated, but would not let Linda inspect. Jonathan informed her about the poison.

Linda moved to a leather desk chair and contemplated her mental position, with Adamonde still holding her hand. Linda was quiet a moment, then got a strange embarrassed look on her face, giggled and asked, “How about her vagina? She leads me to believe you said hers is different, and she wants to see mine; all of me actually.”

“Oh hell yes, she can pull me in erect or not and soon have me at attention. It has strong peristalsis; I think you’d call it retrograde. Also she doesn’t urinate. She defecates in long strings about as big as my middle finger and it’s streaked with white urates. I had to teach her to wipe and flush, but hell it’s easy when she’s latched onto me half the time, and naked as a jaybird and intelligent as any human. I found her on a … never mind Linda, I’m just glad you can see her too. I thought for a while I was insane and she was just a sexy figment of my imagination.” He paused, smiled and continued, “I hadn’t been with a woman since my wife died and Adamonde took advantage of me.”

Adamonde tinkled and jumped from Linda to him, then up on him like she loved to do, kissed him passionately, turned her head toward Linda and smiled with her irises fluctuating wildly. When she turned back to look at Jonathan he said, “Oh shit, my baby is getting turned on and there’s no turning her off Linda. You might want to go in the bathroom for a few minutes or so.”

Linda said, “I can’t, she wants me to stay, and frankly this is better than any “R” rated science fiction movie I’ve ever seen. Look, you wanted me to see her and this is part of her. Let me enjoy it for crying out loud. Where is that wonderful smell of cinnamon coming from?”

A chagrined Jonathan said, “Oh krikey”, as Adamonde stripped his pants down with her feet, and his shirt with her hands and his help. She reached for him, inserted his lengthening penis and they were off. He tried to shed his pants from the tops of his shoes, and heard Linda’s voice or mind say, “Sit down and I’ll take them off.” He did and she did, all the while watching Adamonde writhe in ecstasy and exude that wonderful smell. Just before Jonathan climaxed he glanced behind Adamonde and there sat Linda, buck naked with her head thrown back, legs over her chair arms, and both hands between her legs. His last independent thoughts before a climaxing and growling Adamonde came back into his mind were, “What the hell have I caused now?”

Before his wonderful partner came back to her senses he vaguely remembered Linda screaming in her release as Adamonde thundered in hers. Adamonde was always absent from his mind when they made love. Could it be she and Linda were mentally connected for that precise moment, and what were the variables it would foretell?

He was embarrassed to say anything to Linda as Adamonde and he gradually became one intellect again, but Adamonde said it for him. She turned to Linda, chirped, chimed, smiled and blew out a big breath of air. Linda smiled and said, “Man oh man, I agree, how-is-that-possible? I’ve never done that; would never even think it. Do you think she’s like a cathartic that removes our inhibitions perceptually, or even spiritually? Shit, I wanted to jump your bones right along with her. You’re lucky you don’t’ have two penises.” Adamonde giggled and chimed and Linda laughed out loud. Jonathan was a little scared, but Adamonde missed it.

Linda interrupted his misgivings with a strange detached rambling logic, “I think we should take some blood at a minimum, and I’d love to check out that poison on her barbs, plus I’d like to do a fecal if you could bring me some. She has traits … you have traits of reptiles and birds, Adamonde. They’re both beautiful species of animals on our planet, and your world too now, I guess. I sure wish I knew where you came from.” Linda, still nude, but apparently chilly or embarrassed, donned a long lab coat, leaving it partially unbuttoned. She puttered around her laboratory talking to them both. She stared at them, seemed to get her bearings again, turned and asked Adamonde if she knew where she came from. The Earthlings were both shaken when she nodded her head.

Adamonde went to Linda’s desk and secured a piece of typing paper and a pen. She put the paper down on a work surface of the lab and drew a perfect rendition of a tubular Mobius Band. She pointed at Linda and Jonathan and made a point on the tube. She pointed at herself and made a point on the same lateral plane, but on the opposite side of the tube. She smiled and squeaked her pride at their understanding; she came from another universe or dimension.

To dispel any doubt, she made another dot on the Mobius far from the previous two and distorted her face into a grimace. Then she pointed to her dot and at herself; pointed at Earth’s dot and toward Jonathan and Linda. When she pointed to the distant dot she mimicked the sound of an explosion and used her hands and arms to emphasize an exploding planet. They both felt a loss when she transferred the emotion. Then both partially naked other people in the room exclaimed “Another galaxy; she came from another galaxy!” Jonathan asked, “Baby, what happened to the other planet?”

Adamonde looked at the floor and whispered, “Gohhnne, haall gohhnne!”

“Well, how many planets are left in their galaxy which the beings could have gone to?”

Adamonde held up her two thumbs and index finger into her rendition of a zero, but didn’t utter a sound. A chill went up Jonathan’s spine, but he asked the question anyway, “Adamonde, how many other planets in your galaxy have intelligent life?”

She held up her fingers in the same manner … zero!

Jonathan could not ask the next question, so Linda took over, “Sweetie, are there any more planets in our galaxy which have intelligent life?”

Adamonde slowly shook her head and a single pink tear formed in her left eye. Linda and Jonathan decided not to ask any more galaxy questions at that time.

Linda finally subdued her own racing mind and asked, “Sweetie can I take some blood to check your species? It may hurt a little, but not much if I rub with alcohol. When Adamonde smelled the alcohol, she recoiled and would not let Linda come close with it. Linda then went through an exhaustive smell test, trying every smell of topical sterilizing liquid and gel in the clinic, and Adamonde finally settled on an odorless clear yellow antibiotic surgical gel. The venipuncture was simple and painless. Linda took two vials and put on a colorful animal band aid, which Adamonde promptly removed and displayed to Jonathan with a smile.

After the venipuncture, and somewhat successfully deterring Adamonde from admiring and comparing the weight of each other’s breasts, Linda checked Adamonde’s temperature with a human forehead thermometer and checked her heart rate and blood pressure. Her temp was 102 degrees Fahrenheit, but her resting heart rate, sounds and blood pressure were about the same as human. After the superficial exam, Linda wanted to document everything with photos, but Jonathan forbade it, citing possible government interference and confiscation of Adamonde. Linda understood, but then asked if she could do radiographs of Adamonde’s chest and pelvis. They conferred with Adamonde and she popped onto the X-ray table and lay down with a chime, a smile and a suggestive pelvic thrust toward Jonathan.

The radiographs were astonishing. Adamonde’s bones appeared as dense as steel and just as opaque. Her lungs were dramatic, almost like a continuum of air chambers, and her pelvis and abdomen revealed no obvious reproductive organs or kidneys. She only had eight pairs of ribs, and Linda was relieved she had digital radiography so she could study Adamonde’s physiology on DVD at her convenience. The blood would be sent to the lab the next morning, and results would be back by the next evening. They did not try to X-ray her feet and ankles for obvious reasons.

It was almost 11:00 p.m. when Adamonde and Jonathan left. Jonathan was partially clothed, Linda was marginal, and Adamonde was not. The two ladies hugged, but Adamonde did not attempt to “monkey” Linda. Linda hid behind the door holding her lab coat closed as Jonathan and Adamonde departed. Still in a marginal afterglow before they left, she couldn’t understand why she felt so profoundly alone after their SUV pulled onto the highway. Adamonde tinkled, chimed and looked back toward the Vet clinic. Jonathan said, “I know, Baby, I know. Maybe we’ll see her tomorrow.”

A flushing toilet woke Jonathan the next morning. He lay in the bed and received flashes from Adamonde while she tinkered in the kitchen. She was attempting to fix breakfast and it alarmed him. Although he got assurances from her confirming she could handle it, he was worried about popping grease and bare skin and something else … lightly veiled. When he reached the kitchen, there was Adamonde, wearing only an apron; with two eggs and bacon frying and a spatula in her hand. She whispered, “Sheee?” Jonathan relaxed and kissed her on her bare shoulder and neck. She tinkled her delight and he registered his via a grumbling tummy. He asked, “Since when did you start cooking?”

She said, “Teeeveee.”

He simply smiled and said, “Oh, the Cooking Channel; your whispering English is getting better.”

“Yeessss, praacktuuusss, khyyoo.”

“Oh, so you think I’m getting better at listening, huh?”

She tinkled and chimed with a small Earthly giggle at the end that surprised them both.

He mocked her with a smile, “Well, sounds like it isn’t just mhheee.”

She put down the spatula, turned off the stove top and poked him in the ribs; first with one hand’s finger, then with the other. He laughed and became defenseless; knowing quite well what was ahead if he didn’t stop her. Between fits of laughter he managed to fib, “Your breakfast is burning … you beautiful, mean alien!”

She stopped and looked him in the eyes, hers dilated, but not fluctuating and whispered, “Luufff khyyoo!”

He sobered quickly, but was left with a big smile, “I love you too, Beautiful. How’s my Baby feeling this morning?”

Surprisingly, she responded with a strange mix of mental and audio notes suffixed with, “eeeeuwwww!” and held her left hand over her abdomen.

A million confirming and conflicting flashes ran through his mind, which her attempts to soothe and slow down only confused. Adamonde finally squeaked loudly and then grunted her disapproval to stop him. Eyes still locked on him, she turned her head sideways, put her pulsating hands against his cheeks and whispered, “Ihhmmee Ookaaa … ooookkaaayyyy!”

“Yeah, you say you are, but there’re a million things you’ve been exposed to which could harm you. You probably have no immunity to many germs and we have no immunity to whatever commensals you carry.” While he was talking, Adamonde was shaking her head, smiling and interfering with his thinking. When he finished she thought for a few seconds, shook her head again and faultily formed, “knooo deeeseeesees fruuumm mhheeee!”

“How does that happen? How can you be sure?”

She stared at him and tried to engender soothing thoughts, but he only got more agitated. Suddenly her eyes got wide in recognition, and she retrieved a copy of his Popular Science magazine, turned the pages to an article on a new particle generator and put her finger under the word “generator”. Once she knew he was concentrating she put her finger on her head and spun around with her apron flapping, stopped and said, “Heeereee, chirp, ookaaa!”

“Do you mean … the method by which you arrived does not allow anything but your cells to survive?”

She jumped up and down twice, nodding her head, grinning and clapping her hands. She was ecstatic he understood, but he stayed sober and it took her a second to understand why. He confirmed her sense with, “That doesn’t mean you can’t get our diseases does it?”

She hung her head to think, looked up and stared into his eyes and for seconds they just stood and stared at each other. Then Jonathan said, “What are you shielding from me, Baby? I know there’s something you aren’t letting me find.”

She said, “Luufff khyyoo.”

“Baby, please don’t try to fog my mind. I love you too, but I fear for you constantly. Now, for the first time I fear you’ll catch some damned human disease and I’ll lose you. I couldn’t live if I lost you.”

“Jon … tathan lifffe, ookaaa? Mhhiii baahbeee kiffee mhheee baahbeee.”

“What the fu’ … are you saying? I … give you … no way! I give you baby? No frikkin’ way! Are you pregnant … pregnant from me? How can that be? We’re not even the same species for God’s sake. How can you be pregnant? You are pregnant! Holy shit, this can’t be happening … oh my God, this is wonderful. You are pregnant. Are you really pregnant? Oh my God, I’m going to be a daddy; I’m going to be a daddy!”

He picked her up for a change, and she gently wrapped around him, not without passion, but seemingly with a more profoundly felt love. She had no smile, pinkish tears oozed from her beautifully wide, questioning eyes, and she saw deeply into his soul. She loved what she saw and kissed him as a woman and wife would. She chirped and jingled deeply in her throat as they kissed ... and kissed … and light pink tracks lined her cheeks.