by Lakes, Lynde
“I’m sure you were a real rogue, but I think Earth women today expect more.”
In spite of the questionable advice about how to handle women, Cortz felt his friend was a remarkable man, sane or otherwise. Hap reminded him of his master teacher on Uraticus. Putting out his hand, Cortz said, “Friends forever.”
“When you shake my hand, you’re pumping the hand of a crazy man, and the only thing I’m agreeing to is to deny everything.”
Cortz chuckled. He knew Hap was hiding his pleasure behind the gruff words.
“What’s the main difference between our planets?” Hap asked.
“Well, the trees don’t grow upside down on Uraticus if that’s what you mean. But since you like the ladies so much I guess the most distressing thing to you about us would be our shortage of women. There are very few single women of joinable age.”
“I gotcha. You mean marriageable?”
Cortz laughed. “You catch on fast.” He rubbed his forehead, trying to bring his thoughts into focus. “Twenty-five years ago, unknown to the general populace of Uraticus, proponents of a unisex population gained complete control of the baby production laboratory where test tube babies are developed. These scientists began to genetically program females out of our society.”
“You’re kidding! What darned fool would do a stupid thing like that? And why test tube babies? It takes all the fun out of getting kids.”
“Most women on Uraticus work. They found it inconvenient to carry an unborn inside them for nine months. By allowing the sperm and egg to be developed in the lab they could be guaranteed a genetically perfect newborn, free of all defects, disease, and allergies. Lab babies, in addition, were claimed to have superior intelligence and body structure.
“Few people cared to risk having children the natural way when they could be assured of a strong healthy offspring through genetic control.”
“And folks think I’m crazy!”
“You’ll be pleased to hear that a segment of society were morally against genetic manipulation and they continued to become pregnant the natural way. But because of that practice, it wasn’t until children were of educational mixing age that educators noticed very few girls were enrolled in the learning system. The leaders investigated, but by the time they discovered the scheme there was an acute shortage of female children.”
“What did they do about it?”
“The Council removed male-oriented scientists from positions of control in the laboratories, but there was a five-year gap where no female children were born except for the few born to women the natural way. Had the others been born, they’d be approaching our normal mating age. So we have a woman shortage.”
“So you came here, to steal our women?”
“No. Nothing like that. It’s the pollution. At the rate that it’s worsening, it could affect the whole solar system. I’m here to help control it if I can.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Hap said. “Now tell me, what do your lusty females look like? Are their bodies compatible with humans?”
Cortz laughed. “Very compatible. But they lack pigment and are very fair and like your albinos, they have platinum hair and striking ruby eyes.”
“Sounds like my kind of woman,” Hap said.
“I think any kind is your kind.”
Then they laughed, and arm in arm, they headed back to the complex.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Cortz sat on the low concrete wall that bounded the long breezeway outside Dr. Steina’s office. He rested a foot on the ledge while the other dangled. In spite of the warmth of the early fall morning sun on his back, his shoulder muscles felt tense. Overall though, he felt good. He had made up his mind to accept Greg’s identity. Even the awareness of confinement within the sprawling institution grounds didn’t dampen his spirits.
He moistened his lips and imagined that the taste of Darli lingered there. Cortz looked down at arms that had held her and ached to hold her again. As time passed, he grew edgy. He wanted this over with. Afterwards, he would make it right with Darli.
Cortz paced outside the doctor’s office. Then, he stopped and listened. He recognized the doctor’s high heels clicking on the cement walkway even before she rounded the corner of the ivy-covered building. Her step was light, airy.
“Good morning, Greg. Are you early or am I late?”
“I’m early. I hope you don’t mind. I needed to talk to you. It’s important.”
The doctor searched his face. “I don’t mind at all. Early is good.”
Dr. Steina unlocked and opened the door. Cortz stood in the doorway waiting. The doctor opened the blinds and the French doors leading onto the small private patio.
She gestured to a chair. “You had something special you wanted to discuss?”
“Special and fantastic! I remember my whole past. My real past. At first, I imagined coming here from another planet. That’s why I lost my temper when you and Darli treated me like I was out of my mind. But, as the evening wore on, pieces fell into place.” He paused before relating the information he had learned from Darli. “Everything became clear, the explosion, loss of family, the mental anguish followed by me assuming fantasy identities to mask my pain. Then the realization that I wasn’t from another planet.”
“What about your depression? Do you feel it’s bearable now?”
“When I think about the accident, I feel a deep sadness. But things have changed. I no longer feel responsible for what happened. I realize now it was simply a tragic accident.”
She made a note on her pad. “You must have thought your feelings through very carefully.”
“I have. Now that my memory is back, what can I do to arrange my release?”
“You can just walk out of here, of course,” the doctor said, “but it’s important to be absolutely sure you can handle your memories. You had quite a shock.”
Cortz felt her scrutiny sharpen. With the back of his hand, he wiped away the sweat dampening his upper lip. “I have my grief under control now.”
She eyeballed him relentlessly. “It would be safer to give it a little more time.”
“How much time?” He felt the walls closing in again.
“A few days, maybe a little longer. I know your sister, your attorney…and even Darli will accept this sudden recovery as permanent if you agree to stay long enough to take some tests and undergo a complete physical.”
He couldn’t make a big fuss. It might make her suspicious.
“What about it, Greg, just a smidgen longer…for safety’s sake?”
Cortz nodded. “But I’m anxious to get back to my life, so please set up the tests and physical as soon as possible.” He knew he could pass a physical, as his internals were no different than those of Earthling’s. As long as no one tried to fingerprint him he should be fine. He stared down at his hands for a moment. “I feel terrible about the way I talked to Darli. Could you get a message to her?”
“I expect her around ten-thirty.” The doctor looked at her watch. “She should be here in about a half hour.”
“I’d like to speak to her alone.”
“Of course. You can spend the rest of the day together.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
Dr. Steina answered the ring of the intercom. “Yes…please ask her to come in.” The doctor smiled at Cortz. “She’s early.”
Cortz stood in anticipation. The moment Darli entered the room his gaze met hers. The apprehension and sadness in her eyes twisted his heart. He walked toward her. “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday.”
“That’s all right,” Darli said. But there was an unmistakable melancholy in her voice. She turned to the doctor. “Am I too early?”
“Your timing is perfect. Greg has made remarkable progress. I can safely say he’s on his way to complete recovery. He remembers everything.”
Darli looked baffled.
“I was confused yesterday,” Cortz said, “but my mind’s clear today, and I know now that I am Greg
Harris.” He smiled at the doctor and then at Darli.
Darli met the doctor’s gaze. “Greg is all right then?”
“Please, Doctor,” Cortz said, “may I tell her myself?”
Dr. Steina smiled and nodded. “If you have any questions after Greg explains everything, let me know.”
Darli turned to Cortz. “Please don’t keep me in suspense, tell me.”
Cortz wrapped his arm around her waist, “As soon as we’re alone.”
“Does Mona know about all this?” Darli asked.
“Not yet,” Dr. Steina said. “But I’ll call her. I’m sure she’ll want to drive up this evening and talk with you, Greg.”
Cortz was certain that the doctor would not only tell Mona the good news, but she’d also alert her to his strong desire to leave. Mona would be elated about his recovery, but she’d be concerned about him leaving too soon. That was another reason he had to be patient, take the tests and have the physical.
Dr. Steina punched the buttons on the intercom. “I’ll make arrangements for the Jeep,” she said. After a few moments she put her hand over the mouth piece. “We have a little problem. There isn’t anyone to drive you out to the knoll. I can’t let Cortz drive. You know…rules. But, Darli, do you think you could handle the Jeep?”
“Yes. I drove one like it the summer I worked at the San Diego zoo.”
“Good,” the doctor said. “I’ll get someone to bring a set of keys to you.”
Cortz smiled, but he felt like an out-of-control space rocket. Making everyone accept him as Greg was like a blind spaceman walking a repair line, never sure of the next step, never sure if it was the one that would trip him up and plunge him to his death.
Minutes after leaving Dr. Steina’s office, Cortz helped Darli climb into the driver’s seat of the Jeep. The feel of her tiny waist between his hands caught him off guard. Heat surged into his fingers, into his veins, down his arms, settling between his thighs. He knew with so much at stake, he shouldn’t be thinking about how much he wanted her body pressed close and his penis vibrating wildly inside her….
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Cortz snatched glances at Darli as she drove across the grounds and turned onto a tree-lined dirt road that circled the wooded acreage behind the hospital. The dagger-sharp glance she gave him made him wince. “Okay, no more stalling,” she said. “Did you really get your memory back, or is this a ploy to spring yourself from this place?”
Cortz felt a chink in his armor of deceit. Dare he level with her? He wanted to be honest, but she hadn’t believed him yesterday. He couldn’t risk that again. Regret washed over him as he acknowledged that she would have to be deceived along with everyone else. That wouldn’t be easy. She was too attuned to him to be easily fooled.
He forced conviction into his voice. “It was like a fog dissipating into a sunny day. Everything was clear,” he said, “I was Greg.” Did she recognize that he’d only repeated exactly what she’d told him earlier?
He couldn’t tell. She listened to his story without comment. Her eyes never strayed from the hairpin curves of the narrow road. Abruptly, she swerved to the side and cut the engine. She closed her eyes briefly. Her lips trembled as though she was fighting tremendous emotion. “Thank God. Now you won’t have to have shock therapy.”
He shuddered. The current might have wiped out the brainwave, language and behavior transference he’d undergone, the metamorphosis that allowed him to function as an Earthling.
He locked his gaze with Darli’s. He wanted to take her in his arms but a warning in her expression stopped him. “What?” he asked. “You look upset. Everything’s fine now.”
“I know. It’s what I wanted, for you to remember…”
“Do I hear the word but coming up?”
Darli nodded. Her fingers trailed along the top of the steering wheel. “It just hit me. I know Cortz, not Greg. Everything has changed. You’ve changed.”
“How?” He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to turn and face him. “Inside, I’m the same person.”
“I fell in love with a single, gentle, caring man. Then you said you were from another planet. I had fallen so hard for you I was ready to accept even that. Then I discovered you were really someone named Greg who had been married and had children. I thought I had faced that too. But the truth is, when I look at you, I see Cortz. I don’t know Greg. You’ve had a whole different life beyond what I imagined. Am I in love with you, or a fantasy man who never existed?”
“We have astrology in common.”
“Yes, but you’re an inventor, not a starman from another planet.”
“I’m inventor with a knowledge and love for the universe. Ask me anything.”
“Don’t play with me. Our relationship has been one disaster after another.”
“I don’t see it that way. We skirted the worst disasters. I survived a mugging, avoided shock therapy and I will get out of here soon. And to point out that I know a bit about your profession, I know for instance that astrology had a role in the word disaster, the word you seem to find necessary to toss around. Its Latin roots dis—a prefix indicating negativity—and the noun astro, meaning star, gives you the word disastro, which means a negative event affected by the stars.”
She stared at him, her mouth open. Then she laughed. “Now you sound like my Cortz. Why do you toy with me like this? I’m so confused.”
“I know this has been stressful for you,” Cortz said, feeling knots forming in his gut. The black hole between showing just enough of himself and convincing Darli he was Greg grew wider and deeper with every lie. “I’m deeply sorry.”
She touched his face. “I guess I know that. I see the regret reflected in your eyes.”
Her touch triggered a hot surge of desire. He drew her into his arms and crushed her tightly against his chest. She tried to elude his kiss, but he parted his lips and feathered light taps over hers. He put all the tenderness he felt for her into each pat, while playing down the vibrating, the searching. The sweet taste of her mingled with the saltiness of the lone tear that escaped down her cheek. She closed her eyes tightly and he used her moment of vulnerability to kiss the path of tears that escaped and slid down her face.
“It’s me you love,” he murmured, “me, not a fantasy!” He hoped the passion in his voice didn’t frighten her. “And, I love you.”
She pulled back slightly and studied his eyes. Did she feel his gaze burning into her soul, branding it?
****
Darli couldn’t question the sincerity she saw in Cortz’s…Greg’s eyes, yet she wondered about the wisdom of getting in deeper with him. When he had amnesia, she could justify being by his side. He needed her. But now that he was well, it became glaringly apparent that he was a stranger. Until he mixed her up by sounding just like the old Cortz. She was so confused. Her heart had gotten her into trouble again. Only this time the pain was worse and the risk greater. In spite of all the warning signs, she’d fallen hard for him. And such an overwhelming love had given him the power to hurt her.
“We lost each other for a while,” he said, “but now I remember our time together and I want to make more memories. I promise you I’ll find a way for us to have a lifetime of them.” His fingers dug into her shoulders. “Don’t doubt this undeniable force between us. Trust our love,” he said in a husky whisper that stirred a surge of heat from her head to her toes. “Promise me you will give us a chance.”
She closed her eyes briefly. Giving their love a fair trial would be far too easy; not giving it a try would be impossible. She touched his face and whispered, “Cortz, I do love you.”
Cortz! Oh God, I called him that again. “I can’t seem to think of you as anyone but Cortz.”
“Then call me Cortz,” he said, brushing away her tears with his fingertips. “I like it. Now, let’s see that smile that makes my heart sing.”
She couldn’t help smiling. His unique way of saying things always lightened her mood.
“Stay where
you are,” he said, holding up a hand.
“What are you up to?”
Instead of answering, he jumped from the Jeep and ran around to her side of the vehicle. When he held out his arms, she swung her legs toward him and allowed herself to be lifted from behind the wheel.
“What are you doing?” She couldn’t hold back a delighted squeal.
“Something I should have done long ago,” he said, taking long strides, carrying her deep into the woods.
Perhaps her visits to a mental hospital had affected her own thinking because instead of protesting his impulsiveness, she wrapped her arms around him and tucked her head into the hollow of his neck.
He paused in a shaded clearing of tall grass and glanced around. “Perfect,” he said, as he stood her on her feet close beside him.
“For what?” she asked, unable to control the unsteadiness in her voice.
He dropped to the ground, clasped her hand, drew her down beside him and gently guided her downward, until she felt the soft grass beneath her head.
“Cortz…I…I definitely don’t think this is a good idea right now.”
“It’s a great time. We have to celebrate.” Before she could protest further, he bent and kissed her, his mouth searching, convincing, until all apprehensions vanished, leaving only a hunger to be with him. She felt his weight against her breasts…felt the rapid beat of his heart, matching her own.
He paused and looked into her eyes. She traced his full lower lip with her fingertip, trailing slowly across his chin, down to the pulsing vein in his neck. She retraced the trail with her lips until she found the warm skin at the hollow of his neck. She heard the catch in his breath and then his mouth claimed hers again, demanding more.
Suddenly he stopped kissing her, and with a voice dissonant with agony he whispered, “I have feelings and emotions stronger than I’ve ever experienced before. I want you so badly I ache.”
“Me too,” she said softly. There was so much more she wanted to say, but emotion choked off her words. She offered her lips…wanting more kisses…needing them. But he didn’t kiss her again. He sat up, furrowed his brow, and looked into the woods in the direction of the road. She didn’t see anything but a lattice of lanky trees and lacy ferns.
