The Afterlife of Alice Watkins 1

by Matilda Scotney

  He bit his lip at his frank self-appraisal. He’d never met a woman like Alice. She didn’t wear her beauty to seduce or beguile, nor use her appeal to further ambition. New to this world, she was an innocent. And she had charmed him.

  She caught him watching her and jumped, gasping as she hit the cold water, he caught her in his arms and splashed her and she splashed right back. Thankfully, standing on tiptoe, she just touched the bottom of the pool so could get away from him when he chased her. They played together like children until exhausted, he helped her up onto a boulder behind the waterfall and put his arms around her. She leaned against him, making sure she was positioned so as not to come eye to eye with his lower half.

  Her wet hair was draped across her chest and dripping onto her legs, looking down, she saw her breasts outlined through the wet shirt and moved to cover them, hoping Patrick hadn’t noticed.

  His arm tightened around her, his body damp and cool against her back. He kissed the back of her neck, then trailed gentle kisses down toward her shoulder. She sat up.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, allowing her out of his embrace but keeping his hand on her back. She felt its warmth through the shirt.

  “Nothing.”

  Pulling up her knees in a hug, she turned her head towards him, smiling, so he wouldn’t think she was rejecting him, though that was exactly what she was doing. She just didn’t know why.

  “I wanted to ask you about the A’khet.”

  “Principal Katya told me that any education was out of the question. You are supposed to be relaxing.” He stroked her back.

  “She also said I could do what I wanted,” she reminded him.

  “That’s true,” he grinned. “Okay, ask away.”

  “Well, I know you know the A’khet well. This Knowledge you received from them, can you tell me more?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t,” he said. “Knowledge comes directly from the A’khet, but as I told you on the Significator, without it, we wouldn’t have such advanced space travel or shuttles or automatrans and definitely, no household utilities. A’khet helped the world recover from the effects of the plague. Mankind had so much work ahead in repairing society on this planet, A’khet, in their wisdom, did not offer us the means of space exploration until we made substantial inroads into rebuilding and reformation. When the space programs resumed at the end of the 22nd century, we were no further along than say, unmanned probes to Mars.”

  “You’ve come a long way. And only a few receive this Knowledge?”

  “That’s right,” Patrick sat up and leaned forward, adopting a similar pose to Alice. She was glad of it because his knees were hiding his you-know-what.

  “An ancestor of mine lived among them for a while,” he ran his finger down her arm, then folded his arms over his knees and rested his chin comfortably, looking out at the water sprinkling down from the waterfall.

  “She was the first to receive Knowledge and since then, any member of the Patrick family who takes up the same branch of engineering may receive it, but as I said, it can only be given by the A’khet. My sister doesn’t have it and that may be because she is an educator. You might get to meet A’khet one day. Principal Katya is close to them. I sometimes think Principal Katya has knowledge of some kind.”

  “I met one, Patrick, yesterday, Principal Katya introduced us, but it was all over in seconds. I thought I had offended her, or him. I’m not sure. Sarah, my steward said there is no he or she, only they, or just A’khet.”

  He was genuinely surprised.

  “A’khet are reclusive and for one of them to leave their community is an unusual move. You are honoured, Alice, and Sarah is correct, they’re genderless and there are no children. My ancestor has written papers recounting her time with them and mentions there seems to be no reproductive process. No-one can explain it and the A’khet aren’t telling.”

  “But they told you about the engines.”

  “They told us about Substance and how to align it, but we had to do our own work as well.”

  Alice hadn’t been behind a waterfall and it was nice just to sit here and chat, it would be perfect if Patrick and she could simply be friends.

  “May I ask you a question now?”

  She rested her cheek on her knees, hugging herself tightly and smiling an unspoken ‘of course’.

  Patrick thought back to a few days before, in the engine room. He hadn’t mentioned the incident to anyone, even Ryan. It might have been a random and unimportant memory, but he thought he would still ask.

  “When we were at the Gravidarum, you pointed to the Substance housings and said, ‘I know these’. Had you seen them on the registry?”

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t understand engines. The only ones I have ever seen are in cars and motorbikes. I certainly don’t remember seeing the ones on the ship anywhere before that day. Are you sure that’s what I said?”

  “Positive. Hmm, car and motorbike? I know of these. Combustion engines, 20th and 21st-century pollutants were used to power them. I thought it odd for you to comment on the technology.”

  “Patrick, I say and do many things I either don’t remember or that make no sense to me. Don’t read too much into it. I have a lot of memories to recover and occasionally, the water gets a bit muddied.”

  He had to be satisfied with her answer, there was no other explanation, so he reached out and gently pulled her back against his chest. She had to close her eyes as he moved his body to hold her close. His bottom was already more of his anatomy than she needed to see.

  “You know, you have me thinking about you all the time,” his voice was low. “Your hair, your eyes, the things you say, your sweetness. And now I know about crochet and blue hair and panties.”

  “Panties!?”

  She squirmed away to glare at him, accusing, forgetting to avert her eyes. He had seen her panties!?

  “Well,” he flashed her a crooked smile and kissed her hand. “I haven’t ever actually seen anyone wearing them, but on you, they’re quite sexy!”

  “Patrick, you are shocking!” Wriggling free of his grasp, she scaled down the boulder back into the water, Patrick in pursuit.

  Scrambling out of the pool, she didn’t look at him as he flopped onto the grass, insisting she would only lie next to him if he lay on his stomach, laughing, he rolled over and Alice closed her eyes so as not to see his bottom as she laid down beside him. They spent a pleasant hour, letting the sun dry them off, Patrick’s arm draped lazily across her back and occasionally, brushing away a little insect or pointing out the native wildlife that turned up to investigate.

  “I’m dry now,” Alice said, in danger of dozing off in the warmth and peace. “What other things do you like to do when you are here?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  He reached over and handed Alice her blouse. “I’m not much into sports but there is one pastime I do enjoy, you might too, but I’ll need my shirt back.”

  Alice stood and held up her blouse and slacks. This time, he took the hint and turned his back, but she heard him having a little, hardly suppressed chuckle to himself. Once dressed, she handed him back his still damp shirt, and it was her turn to turn away, only opening her eyes when he took her hand to lead her away from the pool.

  They clambered up the grassy slope, leading to the side of the stream that fed the waterfall. From the top, they had a good view of the house Patrick had lived in as a child. He stopped to look.

  “You have happy memories of this place?”

  “Yes, I do but I didn’t live here until I was five. My parents were both in the military, working on the starships. They met, married and had my sister all within a year. Mother had short assignments on Saturn Station, she was a geologist and had a special interest in Saturn’s moons, but my father’s assignments were always that bit longer, mainly because of the importance of his work and the fact he had A’khet knowledge. From the beginning, they decided only to have one child, with the idea that when Eileen w
ent to aptitudes at 15, they would return to work in space.”

  “What happened?”

  “Me!” he laughed. “I happened. Mother became pregnant when Eileen was 10. It’s rare and usually a result of a chip malfunction. It was a surprise when I came along, it meant they never returned to long-term space assignments.”

  “Were they upset?” She thought how angry Ted had been when she became pregnant with Steven when Michelle was 10 as if it were all her fault.

  “Not at all! They were great parents and Eileen and I had great childhoods, but my father was injured in an explosion on the space dock. He recovered, but even after extensive investigations, no-one ever discovered the cause. The injuries kept him earthbound and Principal Hallam, the World Principal at the time, requested he come here to Principality One to become an adviser to the Space Program Engineering Division at the Tabernacle. Hence, that house and this…” he gestured all around and towards the pool, “my playground.”

  They were standing by the stream, the pool below them.

  “That way is a shortcut to the Tabernacle,” he pointed towards a narrow crossing. “There are stepping stones over there.”

  Placed short distances apart, the stones were large and flat enough for Alice to negotiate with ease.

  “Did you put these stones here?” she imagined he played here often in his childhood. To her amazement, Patrick told her no, Ryan had placed the stones there when Patrick hadn’t been big enough to lift them but wanted to go back and forth whenever he needed to go from the house to the Tabernacle.

  “I was 6 or 7, a scrawny little thing,” he smiled at the memory. “Ryan about 13 or so. He and his sisters were here for recess.”

  Alice couldn’t imagine Principal Ryan ever being a child, he was too large.

  “Where are your parents now?”

  “My father died a few years ago, Mother lives back in our home principality and Eileen lives there too. She’s married and has a son, Edmund, he’s 14.

  “Your mother will be thrilled to see you, Patrick. Mothers are important,” and briefly, a shadow dulled the brilliance of her eyes. On instinct, he softened his voice to match the sudden change in her mood.

  “Yes, they are, and my mother is wonderful. I’ll take you to meet her one day.”

  He lifted her hands to his lips and held them there. Patrick couldn’t possibly have known but speaking of his mother reminded Alice of Michelle.

  “Don’t be silly mum, you aren’t a nuisance. I’ll pop over when I’ve finished feeding the twins”- Michelle, Alice’s daughter.

  And then she would forget to come.

  “Mums need their kids, Patrick,” Alice said, removing her hands from his and turning to walk down the hill towards the Tabernacle, leaving him to stand and reflect on the meaning of her last, somewhat mournful remark.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  It did not surprise Alice that Patrick, with his years of being the only child who lived at the Tabernacle, knew every single hidden path and back entrance to the building, and naturally, to the kitchen where he was eager to try the hamburgers he’d heard about from Principal Katya. Chef, fed up with the sight of meat patties, showed Alice how to use cooking plates and heating beams to make them herself, then left her to assemble the burger using a bun that wasn’t real bread and ketchup that only gave a nod to ketchup. It all made little difference to Patrick, who, impressed by the fact Alice could cook, finished the whole thing in three bites, it took him longer to finishing praising her “invention.”

  In the afternoon, he took her to another of his favourite pastimes. Archery. Alice smacked herself in the face several times before shooting any arrows and she missed every target. Most of the arrows disappeared into bushes or the sky, never to be seen again or, as Patrick teased, for collection from space dock after being plucked out of some unsuspecting, passing starship. By the end of the afternoon, her only compensation was a sore arm which Patrick massaged until the stiffness eased, but in no way, did it spoil her mood. For too many years, Alice had been a stranger to laughter and play and today, she experienced all those things, mostly, she thought, thanks to Patrick. Apart from his romantic overtures, which she didn’t know how to handle, he might be just what the doctor ordered.

  Now there’s a thought. Dr Grossmith wouldn’t have ordered…?

  She knew it was foolish. Patrick’s importance to the Significator couldn’t be underestimated, that he took time away from his work to be with her should be assurance enough his affection was genuine.

  So, between archery, happy conversation and visiting one of the city’s pasticiums, the afternoon flew by and as foreseen by Principal Katya, crochet class went ahead without Alice.

  Just before sunset, Patrick left her at her suite to bathe and change her clothes before dinner. She stripped off, wrinkling up her nose as she picked bits of grass off her skin and from inside her blouse, even finding a daisy stuck to her tummy. She waved her hand over the water controls and stood to watch the bath fill, idly contemplating the bubbles arising from too liberal a dose of the lavender scented gel she’d discovered in the toiletries. Looking up, she saw herself in the image definer.

  “You,” she said out loud to her flushed and vibrant reflection, “look like the cat that got the cream.”

  Setting the image definer to full length, she surveyed her body. Her breasts were firm and round, with rosy pink nipples. Her skin glowed with health and her belly, smooth and flat. A faint line was just visible between her breasts and she ran her finger down to where it finished above her navel. Where they put in the new cells for her heart and other things, she supposed. She twisted around to search for scars on her back but besides two tiny indentations above her kidneys, it was unblemished. A nice body, far nicer than the one she had in her old life.

  Later, Patrick stood with Principal Katya waiting for Alice to arrive for dinner.

  “So, Patrick, a conquest?”

  “Not really, Principal Katya,” he replied, clasping his hands behind his back and glancing towards the door where he expected Alice any moment. “She’s a mystery, I know she has a fondness for me but as soon as I get close, she pulls away. I’m at a loss.”

  Principal Katya gave much thought during the day to Patrick’s unrestrained delight at seeing Alice. Many women fell under his spell and it would indeed bewilder him to meet a woman who did not succumb at once to his charm, but never, had she seen, as she had that morning, Patrick make such a show of public affection towards one woman.

  “No, she has conquered you is what I mean.”

  His face broke into a broad smile and he shrugged a little.

  “Well, you must admit, she’s exceptional. Beautiful, sweet…” he drifted off, lost in thoughts romantic.

  Principal Katya considered telling him of A’khet’s solemn disclosure,

  “She is A’khet Umru.”

  Perhaps attempting to speak of it would invoke a paralysis of speech, the temporary stilling of the tongue placed on all Knowledge holders by the A’khet, lest their most precious secrets fall into the wrong hands. When A’khet communicated with her, even though the word was unknown to Principal Katya, she became conscious of the extraordinary sanctity of Umru, but the meaning was withheld. Principal Katya had been close to A’khet for many years and had received necessary snippets of Knowledge in that time but none that carried the weight of Umru.

  Patrick was falling for Alice, so, in this matter, she would keep her own counsel and only tell him that A’khet has requested Alice to visit them at their sanctuary. They may then inform him of Alice’s special significance themselves.

  “A’khet came to see her.”

  There would be no other ground-shaking revelations tonight she decided.

  “Yes, she told me. Interesting.”

  “They want her to go to them.”

  “They do?” he turned to her, his perfect forehead creasing into a frown and he waited for her to explain, scanning her face for the answer to the unspoken ques
tion of “why?” But Principal Katya wisely allowed the question to hang between them.

  Alice’s arrival at the dining hall distracted him. Wearing a simple and elegant ankle-length white dress, her hair swept over her shoulder, she saw they were waiting for her, but took the time to greet statesmen and councilmen who acknowledged her as she made her way across the room.

  “I’ll return as soon as I’m able, Principal Katya,” Patrick kept Alice in his sights, “and take her to A’khet then. Right now, she’s enjoying the Tabernacle,” he glanced down and gave Principal Katya a conspiratorial wink, “and me, I hope.”

  She put her arm through his and smiled.

  “I hoped you would take her, Patrick. She deserves to know who she is.”

  Dinner turned out to be a pleasant affair, one shared with Statesman Mellor, who enjoyed the company without contributing too much to the conversation and a somewhat dour and serious Statesman Evesham, who Alice had met only once. Statesman Evesham succeeded Patrick’s father in the Space Engineering Division and his wife, Karla, a stunning ebony-skinned woman in her fifties and possessed of a wit to rival even Patrick’s, also attended. Alice, the two statesmen and Principal Katya spent much of the evening watching the amusing repartee between Karla and Patrick, a lively display of one-upmanship which Patrick was at risk of losing. Alice had never laughed so hard and the evening such fun, everyone forgot the time, ending up late to their beds.

  Patrick escorted Alice back to her suite. The sensor lights only offered a dim response to their presence in the deserted corridor. She opened her door and turned to him.

  “I wish you weren’t leaving tomorrow, Patrick. I had a lovely time today,” she said.

  In reply, he gathered her into his arms, stepped into the room and buried his face in her neck. It was so sudden, Alice gasped. She heard a soft click as he pushed the door closed with his foot.