by Jesse Jordan
No more wars in countries that don’t want to be fucked with, but because of their oil reserves are considered so valuable, they’re ‘liberated’ on a constant basis. Oil can be used for its other uses, going back to being a chemist’s playtoy.
But I’m missing something. It’s so close, I can feel it dancing right there in the shadows of my brain. I’m losing too much in cross-linking, transmission losses are reducing the efficiency more than what’s acceptable.
“We can’t just make everything out of gold and superconducting fluids,” I mutter to myself as I look at the latest materials analysis. “It’d be fun though. That’s what I need, a superconducting putty….”
The comment is total foolishness, but it starts the wheels turning in my head, and I sit forward, entering the figures on a new configuration. High conductive putty….
“Rick?”
I ignore the voice, my mind spinning with the possibility. It was a minor plaything I’d been screwing around with years ago, a copper alloy that I’d decided wasn’t helpful unless we were to roll out hundreds of meters of it….
“Rick!”
I look up, growling. “What!?!?”
It’s Su Lin, and she takes a step back, surprised at the venom in my voice. I hate being interrupted during moments like this, I can already feel the idea slipping away from me and I don’t know if I’ll ever get it back. Not that Su Lin understands. “I… I started my period again. I thought… I thought you’d want to know.”
I hiss, anger flaring inside me. My back feels like hell, I’m stiff as a board, and I can feel the clock inside me ticking away. “Great. Just fucking perfect. Anything else?”
“N… no,” Su Lin says, shaken. Her face falls, and she looks down. “Rick, I know that this is important to you, but I’m trying the best I can.”
“Well maybe you need to try better!” I grunt, heaving myself up to my feet. A sharp pain flares up my spine, and I know I’m going to have to do something about this before I can’t even focus my eyes. “Maybe a little less caffeine and a little better nutrition! Or maybe you’re just not as fertile as you said you were?”
I don’t know what I’m saying, I’m just talking through my frustration and my pain, but Su Lin can’t tell that. Instead of quailing though, she turns her eyes up, glaring at me. “Maybe the problem isn’t with me! Maybe it’s with you! Maybe you’re firing blanks there, Mr. Orgasm Machine! Maybe all that baby batter you’re filling me with for half the month is flat and needs a little fucking leavening, did you ever think of that?”
“I-”
Su Lin isn’t giving me a chance to reply, though. Tears coursing down her face, she jabs a finger in my chest. “Fuck you!”
She turns on her heel and storms out of my lab, slamming the door behind her. I want to go after her, but just lifting my foot up sends a white hot bolt of pain up my spine and I collapse backwards. If my chair wasn’t there to catch me I’d probably collapse to the floor.
The pain’s so great I have to close my eyes, all thoughts of my idea washed away in sheets of agony. I don’t even know how long has passed, but through the pain I hear the door to my lab open again and someone approach. “Su Lin, I’m sorry. I just-”
“She’s upstairs in the gym, yelling in Chinese and beating the hell out of your punching bag with her staff,” Freida says. I’ve noticed it over the past six weeks, as the two women have gotten close enough to call each other friend. Whenever I do something that upsets Su Lin, Freida will let me know. She also will let me know, usually through her tone of voice, how she feels about it too. And right now, she’s sounding like she wishes Su Lin was down here beating my ass.
“Sorry,” I hiss, trying to sit up and failing. “I… I fucked that one up, didn’t I?”
“You did,” Freida says, coming around. I force my eyes to open, a throbbing needle of light stabbing me in the eyeballs as I do. “What’s the problem?”
“Stiffness… back… feels like I might have a migraine coming on,” I admit. “I… I was brainstorming, I had the idea on the tip of my tongue and she came in to tell me she’d started her period. I looked up and that triggered everything. It was like I just got a cattle prod shoved up my ass.”
“Don’t tell Su Lin that, the way she looks right now she just might be willing to do it,” Freida says, coming over next to me. She slings my arm over her shoulder and heaves me to my feet, holding me steady as the world swims in front of my eyes. “What do you want to do?”
“First… I need to apologize to Su Lin,” I rasp, clutching the edge of my lab bench and counting to fifty to let the pain fade away. “Next, I need to go to the hot tub, that’s helped in the past.”
“Okay,” Freida says. “Anything else?”
“Yeah,” I say, clearing my throat and taking a slow, tentative step. It hurts, but not as badly. “Make an appointment to see the doc. Su Lin asked if I’m shooting blanks, and maybe she’s right. Then… talk with the staff, I want this lab modified. Raise the tables and desks, get some big touchscreen monitors for the walls. Geek this place out so that I don’t have to sit down to do my work any more.”
Freida, who I’ve always suspected is a bit of a tech geek, grins. “I’ve got a few ideas.”
“Rick, I just got the results of your blood test back,” Dr. Gordon says as I pull my shirt back on. I don’t feel bad right now, in fact I’m feeling pretty good overall. “It looks like the pain’s just a progression of your symptoms. You’ve got systemic joint inflammation that’ll tend to get worse at night.”
“Systemic joint inflammation?” I ask, buttoning my shirt. “So I’ve got arthritis?”
“Well, my grandmother would have said you’ve got a touch of the rheumatiz, as she put it. Thankfully, most people with Trikala Syndrome don’t progress much past this point in terms of arthritic severity. Still, I’d say cleaning up your diet, going on an anti-inflammatory food plan can’t hurt things. Lots of fatty fish, stay away from the processed grains… I’ll give you a printout on it before you leave.”
“I’ll have my chef adjust immediately,” I promise. I blink, then laugh softly. “God, that came off as a rich, arrogant prick, didn’t it?”
“Not really,” Gordon says with a smirk. “Last time I told someone about the diet, their comment was their wife can’t cook salmon for shit, so he guessed he was just going to have to take the drugs. Now that’s an arrogant prick.”
I nod, sighing. “Yeah, about that. I’ve got a little crow still to eat in that regard. What about my other question, doc?”
“Your fertility?” Gordon asks. “Well, I’m not normally a doctor who does sperm counts, but thankfully this hospital has someone who handles just about everything. They’ll have the results in about twenty minutes, but if I can say… I don’t think your sperm count has anything to do with it.”
“Trikala?” I ask, and Gordon shakes his head. “What, then?”
“Stress,” Gordon replies. “While I was waiting on your blood results I talked with a friend who’s an OB/GYN, fertility specialist. According to her, most people put too much stress on themselves when they’re trying to have a baby, and that can screw with the internal mechanisms. According to her, she doesn’t even consider doing any sort of fertility treatments until a couple’s been trying for over six months. Her comment was it’s probably a good thing that people aren’t more fertile than they are, when you consider the hundreds or even thousands of times someone will have sex during their reproductive primes, only to turn out 2-3 children on average.”
“Yeah well, I don’t exactly have six months to sit around,” I grumble, tucking in my shirt. “So what can I do?”
“De-stress,” Gordon says. “Rick, I’m not sure if I agree with what you’re doing on a moral level, but I’m sure you’ve got your reasons. The least of which is the common human desire to procreate before you die. But if you and your wife have been operating under some sort of timeline… stop. Rick, what are you working on right now?”
&
nbsp; “I’ve got some corporate issues I’m dealing with, and there’s this energy idea I’ve got buzzing around in my head, and trying to have a baby….”
“Stop,” Gordon repeats. “First off Rick, as a husband I’d say you’re off simply because your wife isn’t in your top three. Corporate, you can delegate that. I’ve met your assistant, she’s sharp as a samurai sword. Your invention… Rick, your inventions are going to live forever. But which is more important, this one invention you’re working on now or having a child? And the only way you’re going to have a child is by being with your wife and both of you chilling out.”
I nod my head, taking in his advice. He’s right, more than he knows. My inventions might live forever, but they could also be responsible for the deaths of millions in the hands of a man like Harvey Stone. I don’t even have a ‘nuclear option’ of letting everything go to the public domain, because it would just trigger another arms race as governments on all sides would see the same potential Harvey’s seen and try to weaponize what I’ve done. I don’t have enough faith in the people who run the world to trust someone won’t get pissy at two in the morning and push a button that’ll kill half a continent. Better to let the assholes just rant on Twitter instead.
“Okay doc,” I finally say. “And if there’s a problem still?”
“If nothing sparks in another two months, we can look at fertility treatments or insemination,” Dr. Gordon says. There’s a knock on the door, and one of his assistants brings him a paper. Gordon looks at the numbers, smiling. “Well, nothing wrong there. In fact, your sperm count is a little higher than average. So do what I said, just relax, let it happen, and give me a call if you have any more symptoms.”
“And if I get too stiff to… uh, do the deed?” I ask, and Gordon laughs. “What?”
“Rick, most men don’t have a problem with being too stiff, but exactly the opposite. As for if your back and hips are painful… well, that’s not quite my field of expertise, but I have heard some women don’t mind getting on top. Let Su Lin do the work.”
“How was your trip to the doctor?” Su Lin asks when I find her in the kitchen, billows of smoke erupting from a wok as she seems to be taking a rag on a stick and rubbing at it furiously. It reeks, and I can see the kitchen staff wincing but not saying anything.
“Just fine… what are you doing?” I ask, trying not to sneeze. “It smells like you’re two steps short of a kitchen fire.”
“It smells bad, but it’s needed,” Su Lin says with a smile. “I’m seasoning the wok. Chef said it’s like seasoning cast iron.”
“I understand. Anyway, Doc Gordon says that I’m fine, although the stiffness is a sign of my degeneration. He gave me a diet to follow, it’s supposed to help. Lots of fish and fish oils, fresh vegetables and fruits, stuff like that. I already stopped at a health food store and picked up capsules of fish oil to help. Uh… I don’t want to interrupt you eating what you want.”
Su Lin stops, pulling her stick from the wok and giving me an evaluating look. “You mean it?”
“Yes,” I wholeheartedly declare. “Su Lin, I’m sorry for what I said the other day, you know that. But also… well, Doc Gordon says that maybe what’d work best for us is to just take a real vacation. Stress screws with hormones, all that stuff. But that also means when we’re not on vacation, I want to give you as stress free and happy a daily life as I can.”
“You too then,” Su Lin says, pulling the wok off the stove and setting it aside. “Stress works on both of us, you know.”
I smile, nodding. “Okay. So, how about that idea I had a while back of going to Colorado? How’d you like two weeks or so in a cabin in the Rockies?”
Su Lin thinks, then nods. “Can I bring my wok?”
I laugh, nodding. “Sure. Anything that’ll fit inside the chopper you can bring.”
Su Lin
I look out on the view from the porch of the cabin that we’ve rented, inhaling the scent of the mountains and trees around us. About a hundred meters away is a lake that looks crystal blue in the morning light, and I stretch my arms over my head, relishing the freedom.
“You look happy,” Rick says behind me. I turn around and see him holding out a mug of green tea, which is okay for his new diet. I don’t know if it’s making any difference in his morning stiffness, but he’s moving around earlier than I expected. I take a sip, nodding my approval. “Can’t take the credit. I used that bagged stuff you packed.”
“Which is exactly what I’d have done,” I say with a chuckle. “Just think, two whole weeks cooking for ourselves. Hope you’re ready.”
Rick looks back over his shoulder at our ‘cabin,’ which is still bigger than the apartment I lived in in Beijing. “The freezer’s stocked, and the market down in town isn’t that far away, so I’m sure we can get fresh fruits and vegetables if we run out. Besides, we’ve got twenty kilograms of rice. I mean… is it possible for two people to eat twenty kilos of rice in two weeks?”
“Possible, but probably not the best idea,” I admit. “That was just the size of the container.”
Rick laughs, putting an arm around my shoulder. “So what would you like to do, then?”
“First, I want to confirm… you’re out of touch with everyone, right?”
Rick nods. “Only Freida has the number to the phone I brought with me. And I don’t have a data connection, so if I get any ideas, I have to write them down on paper.”
“Low tech,” I quip. I hug him back, sipping my tea before clearing my throat. “One thing, though… uh, I noticed the cabin has only one bed.”
“I noticed that too,” Rick says with a hum. “Well, that leaves us two choices. Either we can share a bed… or I could make you sleep outside.”
I turn, shocked until I see the laughter in his eyes and I realize he’s joking. I punch in lightly in the gut, and he doubles over in mock pain as he staggers down the porch. “Ooof! Now I get the Chinese housewife, huh?”
“Keep it up mister, and I’ll give you even more,” I growl. Rick turns and pulls me to him, wrapping his arms around me. This close, I can feel the warmth of his body and the strength of his arms, and my heart speeds up as my pussy starts to moisten. “Hey… no fair.”
“Who said I’m fair?” Rick asks. “Seriously though… I’ve been wanting you to join me in bed for a while now. If you don’t want to though, I’ll sleep on the sofa. That thing is big enough and soft enough for me.”
I tilt my head up and stand on my tip toes, kissing his slightly scratchy chin. “No way. We’ll try out sharing the bed tonight. Should make certain things… easier.”
“You’re hardly easy, Su Lin. But I like you that way,” Rick replies. He lowers his lips and we kiss, my body warming more and I wonder… here on the porch? I might be willing.
It’s with a little bit of regret from me that Rick pulls back, and I reach down, pinching his butt. “Tease.”
“This is our vacation, so my sweet wife, what would you like to do?” Rick asks, reaching down and pinching my butt back. “We can do that if you want.”
“Hmmm… for sure. But first, can we take a nature walk? I want to explore that lake.”
“Sure. Let’s go get changed, I’m not wearing the right footwear for a nature hike.”
Thankfully, living in Minnesota means plenty of opportunities for last minute camping supplies, and I’m able to change into my still relatively new hiking shoes quickly. Rick still beats me though, coming out of the bedroom while squirting his forearms with insect repellent. “It’d be hilarious if I somehow picked up a case of Lyme disease,” he jokes as he hands me the spray. “Actually, probably this is more for the mosquitos than anything else.”
“Never had a problem with those at home,” I reply, and Rick shrugs. “What?”
“Not as many in Minnesota I guess. Or maybe they just don’t like the way I taste up there. Oh, I’ve got the water bottle.”
We start off, not straining ourselves but just enjoying the walking trail th
at goes around the lake. This ‘resort’ isn’t quite private, I can see another house on the other side of the lake, but it is so small that we don’t hear anything other than the birds, the burble of the brook we pass at one point feeding into the lake, and the sigh of the wind through the pine trees as we make our way around.
“This place… it’s amazing,” I whisper as we come across a blue jay on a branch just above our eye level. “I’ve never seen a bird like that before.”
“How often were you able to get out into nature?” Rick asks, shrugging off his light pack and sitting down on a nearby rock. “I mean, Beijing is a pretty big city.”
“And being the unwanted child didn’t help those matters,” I admit. I sit down next to Rick, stretching out my legs and looking out on the lake. “At first I didn’t understand my mother’s anger. The first memories I have, she’s yelling at me. For a long time I didn’t understand, I thought there was something wrong with me. I mean, that’s literally what she said about me. She said I was wrong, that she wished I could just be like all the other children. It took me a long time to figure out what she meant.”
“She wished you were full Chinese,” Rick comments, and I nod. “Is it that bad for biracial children in China?”
“Oh, according to the government of course there isn’t. But the reality is, even within China itself there are ethnic groups that are higher on the social ladder than others. China is very much a hierarchy, and while I wasn’t the lowest of the low, I was pigeonholed in a lot of ways. Especially after puberty hit and I started developing.” I take a deep sigh, shaking my head. “I guess I can’t blame the Japanese for it totally, but a lot came from there in the form of their imported anime, manga, stuff like that. There’s this image in Asia… Caucasian girls are sex fiends. Especially blondes, thankfully my hair’s nearly black and straight. But I was judged to be some sex obsessed airhead from the get go.”
