I did my Qi-gong exercises for perhaps twenty minutes and then I heard the bell again and the monitor said, ‘GET DRESSED’. I took a few more deep breaths, letting them out slowly. Beneath the monitor was a chest of drawers and on top of it was laid out some clothing. I took each piece and put it on, underwear, pants, socks, T-Shirt, and button-up outer shirt. The clothes were obviously mine, from before the cataclysm, not something made in the village. I wondered about it for a moment when I remember that today we would be traveling through several other villages, but the more I considered it, the more appropriate it seemed. I was planning to take a car, not an ox and cart, or horses. We were going to be a very surprising sight as we drove fast down the road to the eight villages, and we would certainly be a sight when we climbed out of the strange vehicle to ask questions. We would want to have our questions answered quickly and truthfully. Dressing like this, in unusual clothing, would be dressing for success today. Clarice was a smart cookie, assuming that Clarice was the one guiding my morning.
I was relaxed, clean, and dressed. And I felt better than I had at any moment in the last two weeks. Well, better than any moment when I wasn’t having sex with one of the girls, anyway. And in some ways, even better than that. It was a good day. I felt like I was preparing for battle again. A battle that I would win with little effort, but with great consequences.
Consequences were important. Most people think of consequences as being the same as punishment. Sometimes they are only mentioned in the context of punishment. But actually, consequences were simply the result of actions and behaviors. The consequences of me loving the ‘little sisters’ was that my house was full of beautiful women who loved me; that was no punishment. The consequences of shutting down the school for women would be world changing as well. Actually, we weren’t abolishing the school for young women, just the existing one. We would replace it with something much better.
I pulled on the shoes that had been set out on the floor below the dresser and the bell sounded and the monitor changed to say, ‘EAT BREAKFAST’.
This was nice. Clarice, or whoever, was taking care of me, getting me ready, getting me relaxed, making me feel cared for and very much loved. What was under that red polka dot dress? Was she wearing panties? What did a lady’s bottom really look like? What would happen if I lifted the back of her dress and took a peek? I think that she would let me. As long as no one else knew about it.
Where did that come from? Wow. I didn’t think about it anymore right then, but instead took another breath and walked slowly out to the living room and to the little kitchen island where I saw a plate of sliced fruit and a few pieces of bacon. I sat at the counter, by myself, and ate the little breakfast in silence. Because of the way that the morning was going, I was able take my time and taste each bite as I chewed it. This breakfast was as much of a ritual as the rest on my practice this morning had been. I loved it. This was how a morning should be started, except maybe for eating alone. It was fine for today, and probably the best thing, but I wouldn’t want to wake up alone every morning.
As I took my last bite and washed it down with the last of the apple juice that had been poured for me, I heard Clarice in my ear-piece.
She said, “The car is out front My Prince. If you are ready, your chariot awaits.”
I smiled and headed for the front door.
Outside, waiting in front of the door to the guest house, was a blue sports car that looked like it was built for rugged terrain. Like I’d been told, a luxury dune buggy of sorts. And standing in front of it, side by side in a line, were the three women and the three nymphs.
Each of them was dressed. The nymphs in white coveralls, Raven and Lark in short summer dresses, and Clarice in pants and blouse with her hair pulled back into a pony tail. They were beautiful, as always.
Ellie stepped forward and saluted and said, “Troops ready for inspection, Captain,” and all the girls, except for Clarice, stood at attention and thrust out their chests statuesquely.
I smiled and gave a quick thought to how I should ‘inspect’ them this morning. I decided that a quick kiss would be enough, and I went to each one and kissed them on the lips, saying, “Very good. I’ll see you tonight, or tomorrow.”
When I was done, Clarice stepped forward and stood beside me and addressed the troops, who still stood at attention.
She said, “Very good. Now, Joshua and I will be out of range and unable to communicate most of the time that we’re gone. We may be able to be in contact when we are directly across the river, but most of the time, you’ll be on your own. Let’s review. Who’s in charge while I’m away?”
The five of them responded in unison, “The chief on duty, Ma’am!”
Clarice asked, “And who is the chief on duty?”
Again, in unison, “The one whose magic is working, Ma’am!”
Clarice said, “That’s right. The one who’s magic is working. And what is the duty roster for today, and for tomorrow if you don’t hear from us?”
Ellie stepped forward and said, “Finish the paths and markers for the Golden Triangle Ma’am!” and she stepped back into line.
Raven stepped forward and declared, “Prepare the Master Bedroom and the Family Bedroom, Ma’am!” and she too stepped back into line.
Wendy stepped quickly forward and said, “Top Secret projects on a need to know basis, Ma’am!” and stepped back into line.
Clarice raised an eyebrow and Wendy jumped forward and clarified, “Laundry, coordinate tractor activities, and bring Brenda’s avatar to the lab, Ma’am!” and she jumped back into line.
Clarice said, “Very good. And when those things are done, install network nodes to the west side of the property and have the tractors begin work on the west road, toward the bridge. I would like to use that road to reach the house if possible when traveling in that direction. The plans are already available. Help Lark make a skirt and a blouse if she wants to, and then work on other fun projects. But, Lark has to approve all projects that have not been approved by me already. Is that clear?”
They all barked, “Ma’am, yes Ma’am!”
Clarice said, “very good. I’m proud of all of you. We will be in contact when we can. Now, one more thing? What if you don’t hear from us by tomorrow night?”
Ellie stepped forward again and said, “If we do not hear from you by tomorrow night, we contact Paul and ask him to initiate a rescue mission, Ma’am!”
Clarice said, “Perfect. You are the best troops a commander could hope for. Salute and be dismissed.”
At that, all the girls pulled down the straps on their tops and exposed their breasts to me and squeezed them in my direction; then they pulled their tops back up, and giggling, ran off to various assignments without another word.
Ellie stayed behind and opened the door to the car for us. On the passenger side, there were two doors that opened from the middle, one facing back and the other facing forward. There was a lot of ground clearance, and it was necessary to step up about eighteen inches to climb in.
Ellie said, “I worked really hard to get it ready. See, inside, I took out the front and back seats and made a comfy place to ride. The doors open on this side of the car, but not on the other side. I got rid of the steering wheel and the pedals and stuff ‘cause you won’t need them. I made it for riding, not driving. There should be a step to help you get in, but I didn’t have time to make one. We can do that later.”
I poked my head into the interior of the car, and it really was very comfortable looking. A wide bench ran the width of the car at the back of the compartment, upholstered in what looked like black leather. Ellie explained that it folded out like a futon or sofa bed. The sides of the seat curved around and continued from the back of the compartment along the ‘driver side’. Additional benches were attached to the doors and when they closed, a complete ‘U’ shaped seating was formed. The roof was low and there was enough room to move about, but it was necessary to stay hunched over; there was no room
to stand up. The interior was almost completely black; the carpeting, the upholstery, the dash board, and the ceiling covering were all black. And the windows were darkly tinted. From outside, the interior of the vehicle was completely hidden from view.
I asked, “Clarice, there’s no steering wheel or way to drive it. What happens if something happens and you can’t control it?”
Ellie jumped in and said, “See that black button on the dashboard with the black label, lit with a black light? Push that. Not right now, but if there’s an emergency.”
It took me a minute, but I did find a button where she indicated: a black button with a black label on a black background on the black dashboard console.
Ellie said, “Push that and the car will race home. The interior will fill with protective foam to encase the occupants and anti-gravity lifters will kick in and fly you here at supersonic speeds. When you arrive, we will rush to get you out and revive you as soon as we can. In case in another catastrophe, the vehicle will keep you in suspended animation until a civilization re-evolves, capable of supporting you in the manner that you are accustomed.”
Clarice grinned and said, “Well, not exactly.”
Ellie smiled and said, “Well, not exactly. Um, but if you push the button, the GPS will be set to drive you home automatically.”
Clarice said, “And?”
Ellie said, “And, the wheels will stay on the ground and by protective foam, I really meant comfortable air conditioning, and by suspended animation I meant the relaxing music would play on the stereo. And by, ‘in the manner that you are accustomed’, I meant sexy nymphs who want to love you all the time. Can I come?”
Clarice said, “Do you really want to?”
Ellie grinned and said, “No. I know that I have to stay here and be chief some of the time while you’re gone. Who knows what Wendy would try to build if she were in charge. I just wanted to see what Joshy would say if I asked him. He was going to say yes, I could tell. He loves me.”
Clarice said cheerfully, “How could he not? So, are we ready to go?”
Ellie said, “Lunch is in the little cooler.”
Clarice said, “Good. We’ll see you tonight or tomorrow. I’ll try to let you know.”
Clarice kissed Ellie on the lips and hugged her and then the two of us climbed into the black interior and Ellie shut the doors behind us.
The car started to move. It was silent, except for a bit of muffled noise from the tires on the dirt and gravel outside. Instead of turning down the path toward the river as I had expected, it went farther up the driveway toward the woods at the back of the house.
Clarice and I took seats next to each other on the bench at the back and she explained.
She said, “I had the tractors trample a path out to the main road from here, rather than going back to the river and down to Paul’s farm. They didn’t clear a trail, they just ran down some of the brush and other growth. The trail twists and turns a lot and they picked a route that did the minimum of damage to the foliage, while continuing to move us in the right direction. It was mostly so that the path wouldn’t be too obvious and wouldn’t invite visitors. It’s more like a trail that would be made by deer and other wildlife than a road. It will make it possible for the car to navigate to the road, but we may get scraped up a bit along the way. The nymphs will redo the paint if necessary when we get back. It might not be necessary. We do need to conserve hard to replace commodities, like epoxy paint. But, what do you think of it?”
I said, “It’s wonderful. The ride is surprisingly smooth.”
She smiled and said, “Yeah, full real-time adaptive suspension. No matter what the wheels hit, we’ll hardly feel it. Unless we want to.”
I asked, “Why would we want to?”
She grinned and said, “The seating folds out into a bed. Sometimes a bit of herky-jerky motion might be nice, if the activities called for it.”
I smiled and said, “Oh, if we were back here making love. Bouncing along. I see. Um, were you wanting do that right now?” I was hoping that she wasn’t.
She squeezed my hand and said, “Not particularly, but it’s always available when you want it.”
The car turned this way and that for about twenty-five minutes. This was by far the slowest part of the trip. We were only able to go about five miles per hour, and the distance to the road was just over a mile. Just before we reached the road, Clarice announced that there was no one in sight and the car turned right, and headed west.
Now we were making good speed. The car carried us along at between twenty-five and forty miles per hour, depending on the conditions. A lot of dust was kicked up as we traveled, but we reached the west bridge without seeing any travelers. We crossed the bridge slowly, testing whether it was still safe, and not wanting to add more stress to its old structure than necessary. When we were across, it was another five miles to the village of Riverhood.
The plan was to look for signs of Antonio, the Merchant, in each village that we came to. Somehow I’d expected to meet up with Antonio before we came to whatever village was home to the school for women, but now I realized that I had no way of knowing. We could find Antonio and then double back if necessary, but should we stop and ask along the way? No, Antonio should be found first. I would explain what I was going to do, and then go find the school wherever he told me to go.
The trip from the bridge to Riverhood was done at about fifteen miles per hours, and we did slow way down to pass two different travelers as we went. We slowed down, so as not to frighten them or kick up too much dust, but we did not stop or speak to them. I wondered what they thought of our strange vehicle, but we didn’t stop to find out.
When we came to Riverhood, we drove directly through the village, slowly enough that we didn’t cause trouble, but seeing no sign of Antonio in the square, we headed on without a word to anyone.
It was nine miles from there to the village of Skamanus. It had been about twelve days since I had last seen Antonio. He was traveling east through the villages of Greenspont, Meadows, Rockshale, Eastbridge, and then across the east bridge and back toward the west where he would pass through Stevespont and Skamanus before coming to Riverhood and then to Bonvale again.
I knew that it was his custom to spend roughly three or four days in each village. Less in the smaller ones, more in the larger. That led me to estimate that in about twelve days, he would have finished with three or four villages, and was likely on his way to, or in, Eastbridge, or perhaps on his way to Stevespont. On the other hand, when he left Bonvale, he had no women with him, and perhaps he wouldn’t stay in each village so long on this trip. If he had no women to find arrangements for, he would pass through the village and collect any that needed his services and move on without setting up an ‘event’, the auction-like arrangement whereby he found homes for unattached women.
The nine miles to Skamanus passed quickly. The road was flat, and though winding along the river, easy to travel.
At one point, as Clarice and I sat quietly in the back of the car, watching the scenery go by, I said, “Clarice, I think that I had a memory. This morning as I did my Qi-gong practice.”
Chapter 12 The Brenda Anomaly
Clarice said, “Oh? What was it?”
I said, “It wasn’t much, just a glimpse. It was a woman in a red dress with white polka dots. I couldn’t really see her, but she seemed to be cooking and I felt like she was someone special. Could it have been Irene?”
Clarice said thoughtfully, “No. Irene never cooked. If it was here at the residence, and if she was cooking, it was Brenda.”
I didn’t say anymore about it, but it gave me reason to think. In my memory, I clearly loved her. And it seemed that I was attracted to her as well. I wondered if it was going to be strange. Of course it was going to be strange. Clarice had said that Brenda has nursed me as a baby. And now, she was going to take her place in our family again. What was our relationship going to be like? I was a little ashamed that in my memory, th
at I wanted to look under her skirt, but I was thrilled again at the feeling that she probably would have let me. Somehow, I felt half-confident that she would have encouraged me. I knew that it couldn’t have been Irene, and Clarice had confirmed it. It must have been Brenda. What had our relationship been like? Was there more to it than anyone had been aware of? I found myself getting a bit excited by the idea. Was Brenda more to me than the robot housekeeper?”
Clarice broke into my thoughts, or more accurately, added to them, saying, “Joshua, there is something strange about Brenda.”
I asked, “How so?”
She said, “Well, when I went to review the information about her, it was like some of it was hidden from me. I didn’t know that anything was hidden from me. Um, Alice had these protocols, and she didn’t know about certain parts of the house until some trigger happened. It used to confuse her, and everyone else. She had these things where…like with your grandma Lily’s bedroom. One day, Alice doesn’t even know that there’s a bedroom there, because it was hidden by a wall panel and it was like the wall panel kept her from seeing it. But when Lily moved in, the panel was revealed and removed and then Alice acted like she’d always known about it. I didn’t think that there was anything that I didn’t know about.”
I said, “How could you? If you weren’t supposed to know about it, how could you know that you didn’t know about it?”
She smiled and said, “That makes sense. Yeah, if I can’t know about it, then I can’t know that I don’t know about it. OK. That seems fine. So, yeah, that’s funny, but it makes sense. Anyway, there are things about Brenda that I can’t find out. It’s like there’s this whole part of her that’s missing from any recordings or records that I have. It is kind of sneaky. It’s almost like someone went in and erased, or hid, certain sections related to Brenda. It was done really well and it’s like the story all flows from beginning to end with no gaps, but if you look really closely, you can see hints where it just kind of says, ‘and then it was the next day’, with no record of what happened for the rest of that day.”
The Wounded Page 11
