by Dane Bagley
“She likes you, James,” said Steve.
“Hey, I can’t help it if I’m the most amazing guy she has ever seen. Besides, I’m used to it. I always have this effect on beautiful women—especially supermodels.”
“All I’ve got to do is shave—then I’ll be her favorite,” Kenny asserted.
“What? Are you kidding me? She can’t stand you. If you shave, maybe she won’t back off when you come near! No, I’m definitely her favorite.” James was clearly enjoying the attention.
“Look, she’s trying to tell us something. What is she doing?” asked Steve. The woman was holding out her left hand and pointing to it with her right index finger. Now she was dragging her finger on the hand. They looked at her curiously.
“I think she wants something to write on,” said Danny coming up from behind them.
“You’re right,” said Steve. “Hey Tammy, do you have a tablet close by?”
“Yeah, what’s it for?”
“She looks like she wants to write or draw something.”
“You want me to let it have one of our tablets?”
“We’re right here, we’re watching her,” said Steve.
“Aren’t we supposed to be studying her?” said James. “This is pretty interesting. Do you want to come over here, Tammy?”
“I am studying it, and in fact I need a blood sample so that we can figure out the genetics. Let me get the sample, and then you guys can play with your new toy.”
“James, get a tranq. gun. We are going to escort her for her blood work.”
“Hey, she likes me. She can’t stand Kenny. Let Kenny hold the gun.”
Steve stared at James and James dropped his protest. James looked at the woman and shrugged. He went and got the gun. Steve let her out and the woman looked over at James. Then she went over to where Tammy was prepped for her. The procedure was done in a few moments and the tablet was procured. They turned on a drawing app and handed the tablet to the woman who was still sitting at the counter. The woman looked up at the men curiously. Steve reached down and dragged his finger across the surface. The tablet picked up his finger stroke in a black color. Then he touched the color pallet, on the red. He then stroked his finger again on the tablet, and this time a new red stroke was there. He hit the clear button and looked at the woman. The woman looked down at the tablet and touched the surface quickly, and then withdrew her finger. A red spot was now in the area that she had touched. She looked back up to the men and then tried it again. She then touched the color pallet, and hit blue. She did a streak, and then a circular pattern. She looked back up again and took a deep breath.
She hit the clear button, and then stared at the tablet for a few moments. Her eyes squinted and then she looked up at Steve. She made a drawing motion with her hand, like she was holding an instrument. “Give her a stylus,” said James.
Steve almost asked Tammy, but looking over at her, he knew that he would be pushing his luck. He rummaged through her instruments and found a piece that would work. He gave it to the woman and changed the stroke size on the app. to approximate the small stroke size of her makeshift stylus. The woman was pleased, and she started to draw. She was very good; it only took a few minutes for her to have a small and colorful, full bodied self-portrait, drawn with the same green as her dress that she had on. “It’s her,” said Steve.
She then wrote several symbols. They were typical shapes: circles, triangles, squares, etc. The shapes were variously sized and some also had lines or dots next to, on top, or within the shapes. She underlined the whole of them and then spoke while pointing to herself. All of the men looked at her curiously. She then pointed to her self-portrait and then back at herself again. She then spoke the same way again, while indicating the shapes. The sound of this woman’s voice was angelic. Her tones and inflections were unlike any voice these men had ever heard before. To say that it was beautiful would be a severe injustice. It truly was the voice of an angel.
The woman continued to repeat her vocalization and gestures. Danny was the first to attempt a copy of her vocalization. “anzzaa.” The woman looked up at Danny with some excitement, and then repeated her word. Danny tried again, “azzamppa.” The woman smiled, giggled a little, and then repeated the word.
James, still enjoying his favored status, decided to jump in, “azzpppra.” She smiled encouragingly, and then repeated. “azzpprya,” was met with an approving nod, and then another repeat.
“aspprya,” stated Steve. This time she gave a smile and an approving nod, while repeating the word and pointing to herself.
“Aspiria,” said Kenny. She looked at him and uttered a new word.
“Aspiria,” she said in her angelic voice, and worked with the other men until they could all adequately pronounce it. Kenny was still the best at pronouncing it, and she indicated the stylus to him. He came over, and picked up the stylus. She indicated a space under the shape characters that she had written. Kenny looked at her with some confusion. The woman indicated the same space. Then she said, “Aspiria,” while indicating her characters. She then said the word again, and indicated the space under her characters.
“She wants you to write, ‘Aspiria,’” said Danny.
Kenny leaned in to write, and the woman leaned back uncomfortably. She was clearly, still, uncomfortable with Kenny. He wrote, ‘aspiria,’ and handed her back the stylus. The woman pointed to herself and repeated the word. Then she pointed at her characters and repeated the word, and finally she pointed at the word that Kenny had written, repeating the word again.
James pointed at himself and said, “aspiria.” The woman drew her head back, and shook her head and then smiled. She then pointed with emphasis at herself and repeated, “Aspiria.” James felt a little embarrassed. The woman looked down at the tablet, and indicated that she wanted to draw more, but didn’t seem to want to change what was already there.
“Save that drawing,” commanded Steve. “That may be real important.” Kenny was still close at hand, and he saved the drawing. Then he cleared the page, so that she could draw again.
The woman gasped, and looked up at Kenny and then at the rest of the men with alarm. “It’s still there,” said Kenny and he pulled up her drawing. She looked relieved, and then indicated that she wanted to write again. Kenny showed her how to clear the page again.
The woman took a good look at James, and then began to draw. She was clearly drawing James. It wasn’t quite as good as her self-portrait, but it was easy to tell who she was drawing. The darkness of his skin was over-emphasized, but she clearly had some talent.
“It’s James,” said Danny.
“issjmnnnzz,” said the woman with a very different sounding voice. It actually sounded horrible, and was exceptionally nasal. She pointed to James and said it again. Then she pointed to herself and said, “Aspiria.”
“James,” said James and pointed to himself.
“Jmnnnzz,” said the woman and smiled while indicating him.
“James,” he said again.
This went on for several moments, until she was getting closer. She then wrote in her shape characters next to the picture and said, “James.” James and the other men continued to repeat the name “James,” and as they did so she continued to reformulate her characters. Sometimes she would change the shape. Then she might change a shape’s size. Sometimes she would change the lines or dots near the shapes. Finally the men were satisfied with her ability to repeat, “James,” and she was satisfied with her characters. She then indicated to James to write his name under her characters. He did this, and then saved the file. She smiled up at him and said, “James.”
He pointed at himself and said, “James,” and then pointed towards her and said, “Aspiria.” To which the woman did the same. James was feeling very proud, and was pleased that he was still her favorite. She pointed at the clear button, and looked at James for approval. He nodded with a s
mile, and she cleared the page.
Steve’s drawing was next. The same episode was repeated. His name took her a little longer to get, and she said it with such a nasal emphasis, that it didn’t sound very good at all when the group indicated success. “Why does her voice always sound so beautiful, except when she tries to say our names?” asked James.
“I think that we must sound like that to her,” said Kenny. “Think about how we sound when we say, ‘Aspiria,’ compared to how she sounds.”
She drew Danny and then Kenny next. Danny’s skin tone was also over-emphasized. Kenny’s beard was really exaggerated. Everyone laughed when she did that, except Aspiria—she seemed a little embarrassed. The pictures of the men took on almost the appearance of caricatures. Their features were somewhat over-emphasized, but the effect was not comical—except Kenny’s, of course. Everyone was enjoying themselves immensely. They were captured by the moment, and the time was flying by. This woman, who had already cast a spell on them by her beauty and elegance, was now drawing them in further with her personality and talents. Each of them, like Bob before, was mesmerized by her. ‘Enchanting,’ would only begin to describe her persona.
It was Tammy’s turn next, and she drew her beautifully, although Tammy’s back was turned. She had obviously studied Tammy’s face that afternoon. She actually enhanced Tammy’s beauty in the picture, and Steve felt very proud. “Tammy,” said Steve.
“Yeah, what?” came Tammy’s voice from across the lab.
“No, Tammy. I didn’t call you. She’s trying to learn our names. You should see this picture that she drew of you.”
Tammy turned around, and looked a bit irritated.
“It’s beautiful,” said Steve. Tammy shook her head and turned back to her work.
Aspiria then attempted, “Tammy.” Again, it was very nasally, but she seemed to work extra hard. It seemed extraordinarily important to her that she get Tammy’s name right. Upon completion, she hurriedly drew two more people. The faces though were left without any detail. She shrugged.
“It must be Mike and Bob,” said Danny.
Aspiria had not gotten a good look at either of their faces, and they had left after their blood work. The men were starting the process of teaching her Mike’s name, when Tammy interrupted. “Guys, I need some space. I’ve got a lot to do. It’s time to put your pet back in its cage. You can play with it later.”
Steve looked up, and thought about protesting, but as he saw the look in her eyes, he realized that this was not a request, and it was not negotiable. “Let’s clear out,” he said. James had put the tranq. down a long time ago, without realizing it. Danny went up to Aspiria and indicated the cell. Aspiria looked hurt, but only momentarily. She got up and began to walk toward her cell. Danny escorted her, but did not put his hand around her arm. Steve realized that they were treating her with much less security. He felt torn. Part of him wanted to get the men back into military form, but part of him wanted to treat Aspiria with greater respect. He let her enter herself into the cell, and did not ask James to pick up the tranquilizer.
Danny locked her in. He felt—different—doing so this time. Aspiria looked at Danny and smiled. “Danny,” she said in her nasally tone. He smiled, and walked away.
Soon the room was empty, except for Tammy. Tammy did not look over at her, but kept at her work for hours. Aspiria wanted to have the drawing device. She wanted to study their writing. Instead she lay down and closed her eyes. She tried to picture the sounds and characters in her head. Communication was going to be difficult, but she had to try. Her thoughts soon turned to Roloff and Caryell. Soft tears began to roll down her cheeks. She didn’t want to show her emotions to Tammy, so she kept the sounds and sniffles quiet.
Chapter 24
