The two women entered the room, one waddling, one walking slowly to keep the same pace. The men stood as the women sat. Amara watched as Maya was placed immediately between two of her men on one sofa while Paxton squatted down in front of his wife and demanded to know if she took her nap this afternoon. He spoke in a quiet tone, but it was a demand for compliance, nonetheless.
The love between the men and their wife was overwhelming and Amara almost cried from the joy of it. Again, there was that tinge of jealousy and longing in her own belly. Her female anatomy was on high alert hoping for some gratification.
Ethan joined Amara on the opposite sofa. She had grown more accustomed to his serious demeanor, but it still frightened her at times. And her close physical proximity was a bit unnerving. Today, there was a concerned unspoken inquiry she felt from Ethan. She smiled at him. His anxiety lowered. On the video com it was difficult to sense him but when she was this close, it was easier. He was adept at shielding his emotions, but she could still feel the strength of them.
Before she could settle in too comfortably, Amara lifted her face to the huge man towering over her. She opened her mouth to speak but before she could utter a word, he had lifted her, sat in her spot, and arranged her on his lap. There was nothing hesitant in Finn’s manner. Nor did she think he had ever felt out of place.
“Finn,” she began.
“Hush, baby. We need to settle things before we go home.”
Her hackles rose at the brush off. Ignoring the belly twinges from his strong aura of something like protective ownership, she spoke in heated, hushed tones.
“If I go with you, you mean. You’ve always assumed but never asked. I like it here.” She spoke quietly but looked him in the face. “And put me down. I’ll get heavy fast and more than that, I’m used to sitting in my own seat, thank you.”
The others were talking but Ethan must have heard her for she felt his hand on her thigh as he squeezed it firmly but not painfully. He was both warning and comforting her. She wondered what he was warning her of when Finn tightened his grip on her hip, pulling her ever so slightly closer to him as he leaned in closer. He shifted her long mahogany tresses away from her ear and mimicked her tones.
“I like you on my lap, but you may sit between us if you’d prefer. We have a few things to discuss but us leaving you here, is not one of them. Now, you may sit on my lap or on the sofa but if you disobey me, there will be consequences.”
Amara knew he was claiming his territory and that plot of land he wanted to possess was her. He was serious. His emotions were intensely dominating. She could almost hear the ancient Norsemen in his declaration. She liked it and resented it. Women were not chattel. She knew that, believed it, so why did she feel comfort? It was all so damned confusing.
Her core should be screaming, but it was melting. In a counterproductive move to her pleading insides, she slid off his lap. Ethan gave her a disapproving stare but made space. Barely. She wiggled, but neither man budged so she sat, much more uncomfortable than when she had been on Finn’s lap. Irrationally, she wanted to pout but didn’t dare. Nor did she imagine she would be able to move to another seat. Any real defiance on her part would likely ignite even more of the dominant traits they already had on display. She sighed her frustration.
“I’ve never agreed with disturbing the natural order of things and gender selection is just another version of gendercide,” said Sterling.
“Besides,” said Wilder, “As those countries who practiced it earlier discovered, if you want to kill off a nationality, then produce only one gender.”
Amara spoke without thinking. “It gets worse.”
“What does, and how do you know that?” Wilder was the fun-loving male in this trio, but she could sense his suspicion mixed with true curiosity. She felt no anger in him.
She shrugged. Ethan patted her thigh. She looked into his dark eyes that were the color of a starless winter night and yet warm, not cold. “You need to finish the thought and answer Wilder. We can’t help if we don’t know everything.”
“You can’t know everything because I can’t teach it all to you but know that the marks on my back and the reason I’m here is because of what you are talking about, gendercide, gender selection, genetic engineering happens everywhere soon. It is encouraged, sanctioned, and paid for by the world governments. But the cost is devastation to both women and men.”
The room was silent until it suddenly wasn’t. Big beefy hands pulled her back onto the lap she had exited earlier, and tree trunk arms wrapped around her as though to protect her from all comers but there was no danger.
Maya spoke from Zander’s lap. When she ended up there, Amara had no clue. “Well, there’s no time like the present to explain it all to them. Should I go get the coffee?”
“No,” said three men almost simultaneously. Maya grinned. “Well, someone has to get it.”
Sterling spoke into the room. “Darla, coffee for seven.”
“Hey, I want coffee,” protested Maya.
Sterling stared her down as his look said, “Really?” He reminded her, “You know coffee is off limits now and you can have anything else on your list of acceptable beverages.” Maya made her choice with a huff.
Ethan spoke to Amara. “First, let’s start at the beginning. Tell us everything.”
Two cups of coffee, a glass of purified water, and a piece of chocolate cake later, Amara had described everything important before today, including answering all their questions. “What was the year you were born, Amara?”
“It was 2179 when I left home to come here. I was born in 2151.”
“Let me get this straight, you will be born in one hundred years?”
“Well, yes and no. That was the year I was born but now, with the time walking that Maya explained to me, I have come back in time one hundred twenty-eight years. So, it seems that while I’m here, I won’t be born when 2151 comes back again. I don’t pretend to understand all of this. But maybe my descendant will.”
Maya interjected when it seemed that Amara was through talking. “Okay my friend, we have the background and I believe they have digested enough. Now you have to tell them your life path.”
Finn, who had not asked any clarification questions in the whole of Amara’s retelling, asked, “Her what?”
Everything from the dreams, to stopping gender selection, and her need to help others, was all discussed, in great detail. Maya supplied explanations when Amara did not seem inclined to do so.
Wilder hadn’t smiled once during the whole uncovering of things. He rose abruptly. “We need to go home.”
Maya was lying on her back on the floor with her feet flat in what she said was a comfortable position. Amara stared at the pregnant woman. She sure moved a lot trying to get comfortable and her belly moved just as much. Had Amara sacrificed the experience of motherhood for others? Maya struggled to sit up when Wilder spoke. Paxton helped his wife to her feet. Finn patted Amara’s thigh to indicate she should get up as well. She heard him as clearly as if he had said, “stand up.” She had bonded closely to Finn already with his indulgent, demanding personality that comforted her.
“But aren’t we going to talk about how to stop this from happening? I mean, I have to start somewhere.” Amara was agitated. She hadn’t sensed the change in Wilder before he had spoken so abruptly, and it threw her off balance.
“If Wilder thinks we should go home, then we go home. We do not go against each other, Amara. You’ll learn that fast,” said Ethan as he reached for the two cases Maya had insisted Amara fill with clothes and other items she would need.
“But,” Amara looked around at Finn who grabbed her hand and started for the door.
“Stop.” She jerked her hand out of his bear sized paw before he realized her intent. “I don’t want to go, not if you’re all going to ignore me and what I have to do.”
Wilder said his goodbyes without acknowledging Amara’s distress. She recognized his irritation, and it confused her
. Ethan followed suit showing no signs of distress, only curiosity and Finn moved behind her, making a push toward the door. Amara stopped moving and tried to step out of Finn’s path.
“Do you go under your own power or mine? If I have to carry you like a little girl, I will also punish you like one.”
“Oh!” She walked out but before they were through the door completely, Finn turned back and left this parting word. “We need to talk about this privately. Please understand.”
“Of course,” said Sterling.
In the car, Amara sat stone faced, staring out the window while the men who had taken over her life discussed things like the weather, the sports scores, and dinner. She was so angry, Amara was glad she was the only one who was an empath. The feelings that accompanied her thoughts were appropriate for no one, especially not the persons they concerned. The men’s talk covered innocuous subjects, but they were in turmoil. Especially Wilder. Amara fretted.
The world was so different now. Soon she was distracted by the old buildings, the cars, the people waiting in line outside what appeared to be an old movie theatre. Yes, things were certainly odd and yet familiar in this time. She was glad she had taken Sterling up on his invitation. She’d been excited to meet the man who created the Interfacer. He didn’t seem like a genius, but he was.
Sterling had invented a small microchip device that once inserted under the skin, usually at the back of the head behind the ear, exchanged information with the host person’s mind. It held all the information needed to make integrating into a new world easier. In her case, it would explain the differences in this world from hers automatically. It had already helped her today, but she was still feeling the odd effects of it. It would go away, she was told.
She had soon realized that her knowledge of history would not be enough as living here had many distinct variations from her time. It was obvious that she would fare better if she could get the boost that Dr. Remington’s implant would give her. She would know her time and then know what everyone knew now. Brilliant. She had accepted the implant without mentioning it to her men. Well, they weren’t yet hers, officially. Maya had shaken her head in disappointment when Amara demanded no one else tell them either.
“Creative punishments,” chanted Maya.
Amara had it implanted yesterday. She needed to get a handle on the mind numbness it had immediately induced. Today, she was able to control more of the chatter and chaos it created in her head as the exchange of information was calming down. She would wait until the thoughts slowed to a manageable level, and the headaches went away before she revealed her little helper. Then she would lay down the law according to Amara. Her new life with three sweet but misguided gorillas would change direction. In the same breath, she hoped Maya wasn’t right about punishments.
Chapter 10
Amara
“Where is she?” asked Wilder.
“Amara is in her bedroom,” answered their disembodied and artificially intelligent house assistant, Charlotte.
“Are you sure you don’t want her in the Restoration Wing with the other women?” asked Finn.
“No, unless you’ve changed your mind about keeping the minx. If so, then we will have to discuss it. She isn’t a woman we are trying to return to a life outside of this place, outside of us,” said Wilder.
“Look, Wilder,” said Finn with some annoyance, “I’m hard as concrete here thinking about that woman in there, so I need to ask what has gotten into you? I’d wanted to have a real conversation about how Amara got here. She isn’t in our records because she fucking time traveled. It’s not just that she is from the future, there is so much more. It doesn’t make mathematical sense and I’ve been working on the time/space continuum factor for a number of years.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I don’t mean to cause you any more unrest than this whole damn thing has created in all of us. But you can ask her later, after she has settled in,” replied Wilder calmly.
“We need to know what the implications are to her being here from the future. Not that her time walking hadn’t been a passing thought, but I honestly never considered it a real possibility. Now we know, all I can think about is how to keep her. Is there a timeframe? We can’t know if we don’t have her explain it all. You’ve been acting strange since Amara told her story,” said Finn.
“No,” corrected Ethan. “Ever since she told us about the population manipulation and how she was affected by it.”
“Because Ambrose is working this problem. Dammit, I’m working on something that sounds exactly like what could, if not monitored well, turn into what Amara described. Evidently it did.” Wilder slammed his fist on the table.
“Yes,” said a soft-spoken voice from behind them. “You’re right, Wilder. You see, the world got used to seeing women as lesser in value after the first remedial efforts to correct population imbalance. After the Annihilation War, women were needed to create more men. The world was so devastated at the high male casualties that restoring the lost men quickly became the goal and the symbol of recovery. Unfortunately, once you do a big push like that, even when the government said they didn’t need to push male births any longer, it was already an accepted behavior.”
“It’s as you had contemplated, Ethan,” noted Finn.
“We could try to stop it from happening, Amara. The problem is if we do succeed, you might not be alive. What are the chances your father or grandfathers are products of this population explosion? They may not exist therefore, neither would you,” Wilder pointed out.
Ethan nodded. “And that is what you realized. Not only that we are part of the push by aligning ourselves with Ambrose in this project, but that we could lose her by doing what is right.”
“But aren’t all those women’s lives worth it?” she asked. “And I know my genealogy. I know who produces my grandparents, and they did not participate because my family did not agree, and they always wanted girls. There were too many boys already.”
Wilder turned towards Amara, his stare penetrated to the bone. She shivered. “Is that why you came here?”
“Maya believes it is why. I’m not sure that is the whole reason.”
“Are you here because she knew that I was on that very committee? Are you here to be with us long enough to get the changes you want and then you plan to go back to your little island to live out your life?”
“How could I when I didn’t even know that time walking existed? That you existed? Why would I have done that after I was stolen from my family and put through a living hell? If you believe that of me, then I will ask Maya for a ride back to the Compound. You aren’t the men I thought you were.”
Her voice wavered and she hated it, but she had begun to have feelings for these men. Wilder was desperate in his pain and he was the eternal optimist. Maybe they were like all the rest. Thought the worst of a woman.
“Let’s calm down and look at this logically.” Ethan displayed the least emotion but Amara could feel the depths of his need, his pain. “She couldn’t have known. We have to believe her because we need to and it makes the most sense.”
“Not because I wouldn’t do that to someone? Not because I’m not that type of person or that technology hasn’t advanced to that level or that I don’t even know where I came to, let alone how to get back?” Her voice dropped. “Not because I care for you?”
Ethan continued. “We need to discuss this and put these doubts and thoughts to rest. I believe you and going past that, we are left with another devastating possibility.”
“What?” Amara couldn’t imagine what would be worse than her men believing she would take from them and then leave them and her heart behind to return to her time and place.
Finn groomed his beard with his hands. Amara had watched him do that on the video chat when she had first met him. “We believe you, but Ethan is right, there is more to this.” Finn looked hard at Wilder who did not dispute his words. She could sense his frustration. These men were controllers of desti
nies and not being the captain of their own future’s ship was uncharted waters for them.
“See, honey,” Finn said as he drew her into the circle of his arms, “If we change the course of births now, we might find that you wouldn’t be born, and we might lose you because of it. We’re flying blind here.”
Ethan was twirling his ring. Amara watched him and something inside her shifted in his worry. “Look,” she stared straight at Ethan. “My family was secluded and not affected by the effort. Our island has nearly half male, half female, which is another reason why we were made targets. No re-engineered DNA. Besides, I have to exist to tell you to help me fix the future.”
All three men shook their head. “No,” answered Wilder. “I see it differently. Even if you want to stay, you might not have the chance. If we change the future, then the future goes on differently, creating a new future. One in which changing things is unnecessary. You would not need to be born or at least not need to come here.”
Amara turned to look at Wilder and sighed. “You will rub your neck raw if you don’t stop.”
She didn’t need her empathic abilities to understand their frustration but their newly discovered tells assured her she was right. The telecom conversations every day had done a great deal of educating on her men. She could sense their thinking and concerns. She also could feel her abilities strengthening since the implant. She would tell Maya of the enhancements, so she could share with her husband. The last bit of logic that Wilder pointed out didn’t have to be part of her equation. Her family did not manipulate their children’s genders.
Her men, as Maya had begun to refer to them during the previous week, had strong feelings for her. They were obviously intense enough for her to not only pick up the emotions, but she could sense their need for her. She almost choked with the tightening of their inner protective instincts. Their desires ran as deep as hers in only a few days. It was frightening and exciting.
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