by Barbra Novac
Oh…yeah. Just like that baby, typed Chloe.
Placing the vibe against her clit, Chloe watched that woody tongue work her sex to perfection. He was controlling it beautifully, and Chloe made her character writhe hard in response. Other trees helped to hold her down, completing the intensity of the sexual image. Chloe watched this for a few seconds and then placed the heavily buzzing vibe directly against her clit. The instant whirring combined with the powerful images on the screen set her off in the direction of her orgasm.
The other trees, carefully holding her down and running their leafy fingers over her body, now all extended their weird, snakelike tongues in her direction. Soon her whole cyber body was engulfed in the licking and sucking with these strange serpentine muscles.
I’m coming, Chloe typed into the keyboard, awkwardly with one hand, to let them know they had her where they wanted her.
The trees kept up their ministrations until they could see Chloe hadn’t moved in a while. In the intuitive world of cyber, this meant the real woman was hard at work on her own body. Chloe came in a wet rush, her excitement materialising and flushing her vagina with thick, clear fluid. The charge of adrenaline, combined with sweet, postorgasmic fervour, raced through her as she slumped back in her chair, spent and very happy.
Chapter Six
James lay in Max’s arms in their bed, looking to the valley as the dawn edged its way into day. The sun shone off the sand-coloured rocks of the Three Sisters, and James wondered at the magical love a parent had when they could make anything happen in order to save their child.
He sighed. Max’s gentle breathing caressed the back of his neck, and he felt he could almost die with the happiness he felt.
Almost. One thing was missing from their lives, and James knew he would have to talk to Max about it. It wasn’t for him. James was happy with Max, with their life, and with the intellectual pleasures of the farm. But he knew Max needed something special. Sadness ate at Max, deep inside, and James felt it every time it stole another piece of his beautiful lover.
James had a controversial idea, and he needed to approach Max with it carefully. He’d never asked Max about the sadness inside him, though of course he knew all about it. James, like everyone who grew up on the farm, had heard the story from his father. It was the topic never discussed. Now James had to ask Max. Max’s mask was about to come down.
As these thoughts ran through James’s mind, Max stirred, nestling in closer to him, pulling him to his body, the way any mammal reaches for its mate. He could feel Max’s semierect penis pressing against the cleft of his ass, and he felt his own start to harden in response.
“Mmm… Good morning, lover…” Max mumbled into James’s hair, sensing he was awake. “What are you doing awake on a weekend when you don’t have to get out of bed?”
James pulled Max’s protective arm farther over his own body, nestling into his man. “I have something on my mind, and I wanted to ask you about it.”
James felt Max stiffen a little and then relax again. “Is it a serious thing? Should my heart be racing like it is, or can I calm down?”
He lifted Max’s fingers to his lips. “It is nothing terrible that will threaten anything we have. I am just interested in something. But it may make you uncomfortable to talk about it. Keep hugging me like this. It’ll make it easier to chat.”
He could feel Max respond to his words and physically relax again. James loved the way Max confessed vulnerability as it occurred.
“Well, you’d better tell me then, because I’m intrigued now.”
James took a deep breath. “Why did you lie to the inspector the other day and tell him no one had ever run from the farm?”
James waited in the space he’d created between them. He knew he’d broken an unwritten rule by approaching this territory, but he also knew it stood between them more if he couldn’t talk about it. Even now, he had to be patient and give Max the space he needed for this.
He felt Max sigh -- an indication he’d be willing to talk openly about it. They’d have a chance to bridge this gap now.
“I don’t like to admit that it ever happened. She’s gone, and we lost the bloodline. That’s all there is to say.”
James rolled over to face Max, temporarily pulling away from him.
“I know this is hard to hear, but I don’t think that is all there is to say. I think you should talk to me about what that means to you. It causes you a lot of heartache.”
“It was the only time my family behaved dishonourably. I am ashamed of that decision. When she ran away, she took a part of my family’s dignity with her. My family should have treated her differently.”
Relief flooded through James. They were about to talk. It was so important, and it would mean so much to their future once he revealed his new idea to Max. He had to tread carefully though.
“Tell me what happened?”
“Haven’t you heard? We know that all the other families talk about this sadness that sits over us. You must have heard the story from your parents.”
“All I know is a young woman fell pregnant at a party and then ran away so she could have an abortion.”
Max looked very troubled. James lifted his arm and placed it over Max so that he could gain courage from his touch.
“She was probably the most gifted person we’d ever had here. She was a genius. No one could compare to her brilliance. She painted well beyond her years in skill and talent. She also played the violin and studied chemistry. These were her profound skill sets. Most of us have one; few of us have two. But she had three, as well as being a natural at the loom.
“I can still remember my father telling me what his mother had told him about her. Her voice lilted like a lyrebird’s. The family thought she was almost a nymph, or some sort of otherworldly creature, such was the profound nature of her talents.”
Max looked lost to James, but he let him alone, so that he could feel the depths of the pain he’d avoided for his family’s sake for so long.
When he seemed ready, he continued. “The family took her to a party at Norman Lindsay’s. He was having another orgy and called on us here because he’d invited overseas guests and wanted to make it a spectacular time for art. So they all went together. They did have magnificent orgies” -- here Max smiled a cheeky smile at James -- “the likes of which we will never be able to replicate. And she fell pregnant to one of the guests.”
The pause went a little too long, and James needed to know.
“Who was the father?”
“Davy Lawrence.”
James’s face went white. Suddenly he understood the entire problem for Max’s family. They hadn’t just lost their star pupil, but they’d lost her unborn child. For a family that prized genetics and had devoted their lives to this experiment, nothing could be more significant than this child fathered by D.H. Lawrence.
“Wasn’t he married to Frieda Weekley then?”
“Yes, but brilliance never obeys convention, you know that, regardless of place in history. He was there with Frieda, Katherine Mansfield, and John Murray. All of them took lovers when their partners allowed it.”
James nestled into Max again. “As many genius do”
Max gave James a smile that warmed him to the core. “When the young girl found out she was pregnant, she wanted an abortion. He was long gone by that time, and it never occurred to anyone that he would be tracked down about a baby. But my grandfather couldn’t imagine living without this child. He saw it as potentially the greatest opportunity for producing an almost-perfect human being.”
James, very pleased with the conversation, encouraged Max to continue.
“This is the big mistake. My grandfather fought with her. She didn’t want to have a child at eighteen years old. When she said she would march out and get an abortion, my grandfather held her against her will. She was detained in cottage three. Then one day, they took her food, and she was gone. The cottage was still locked from the outside. No one knew how
she got out; only that she’d gone to have that abortion.”
“I don’t condone it, but I can see where your grandfather was coming from.”
“Yes. But it was wicked. He looked past the human being to a science experiment. He should never have behaved that way nor treated her like that. And he paid the greatest price. He lost not only that child, but the beautiful woman as well.”
James saw emotion rock Max as tears rolled down his cheeks. As the sun rose over the valley, James held his lover, hugging all the sadness and mistakes and bitterness away. James looked down at Max, nestled into him, silently crying, hurting for mistakes he’d never made.
“I think I know how to fix this pain for you, so you never have to feel it again.”
Chapter Seven
Lying on the bed, their bellies full of dinner and fine red wine, James and Max watched a DVD documentary on the philosopher Jacques Derrida.
It had been three days since Max confessed the details of their lost commune member, and James spent them watching Max cautiously. When Max had goaded James, wanting details of how they were going to fix the problem, James had resisted all attempts to neutralise the intensity of the situation. He knew Max had to sit with the pain for a little while, and he knew Max would try a variety of tricks to get out of it.
But James loved Max. More than he’d ever loved anyone in the world. He’d do whatever it took to ease the sadness in his lover’s heart.
James lay in Max’s lap as they watched, Max’s penis resting against his cheek. The intimacy hadn’t dropped since Max’s confession. In fact, the honesty had been good for them. Their lovemaking had increased, and the heat level rose.
James’s parents were still alive and lived in one of the cottages with his brother and his sister. However, both Max’s parents had died very young, leaving Max alone and running the farm in his late twenties. It was before his time, but he took it all on willingly, not wanting to lose the world they’d all created or the livelihood for the families. It made Max a very serious young man, old for his years.
It also meant Max was in the perfect position to get some things changed.
The documentary rolled to a halt, and James moved his head to the side and kissed Max’s penis. It twitched ever-so-slightly in response. James pulled back.
“Mmm… A little more of that please.”
James wanted to fuck, but he wanted to talk as well.
“Did you like the film? I’d like to debrief for a moment before we get into it.”
Max smiled. “Certainly, sir! Yes, I did like the film, but then you know I’m a sucker for deconstruction.”
James climbed onto his knees. “That is what this farm needs, some deconstruction.”
Max stared at James blankly. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about making some intrinsic changes on the farm. A few key things that will add an element of authenticity and let the farm evolve around that.”
James could see Max had no idea what he was talking about, so he decided to go on.
“I think the farm still suffers under the weight of the woman who ran away. That legacy, that guilt, doesn’t just live in you; it lives in the entire project. We’re all happy; no one wants to leave, but we also have no avenues for change. We have no social projects, outside of the genetics project, which is -- as you well know -- linked inextricably to the guilt that the farm suffers.”
“We can make any changes that you like. Just bring them up at the meetings, and if we all vote in agreement, then we bring in the change.”
“I’m talking about something deeper. I am talking about a structural change that will impact the whole project. In a lot of ways the farm is trapped in an old world.”
“Well, what did you have in mind?”
James took a deep breath. “Okay, so hear me out. I know that this is dangerous territory. Have you ever thought about having a child?”
“Of course I have. Genetics is our primary scientific study. And I decided it wouldn’t happen through me. I want you, and you don’t make babies. I don’t want any of the women from the farm, or who I met in college, and I would never consider another woman to mate with, so that is that. I intend to school the most gifted child from our generation to take over after me.”
“And then your bloodline with be severed.”
“Well, that’s the sacrifice.”
“Perhaps subliminally you don’t want your family to live on because of what they did. You’re playing out the punishment you think is fair. You are stealing the genes from your family.”
Max looked confused. “How does any of this relate to the running of the farm?”
“I think you need to bring a woman in from outside, and I think you need to have her running some projects. And not necessarily a genius either. She should simply be bright enough to add her own special kind of cleverness in the running of the farm. Her fresh voice will stamp out the male-dominated history and bring unsullied blood.”
Max stared at James so hard, he had difficulty reading his lover. At least he’s thinking. He’s taking it seriously. James decided to go on.
“She will be the new voice that genuinely replaces the one that we lost.”
“But why not a genius?”
“I’m just saying not necessarily. It narrows our field a great deal to restrict ourselves to geniuses, and besides, we know just about every truly brilliant woman in the world.”
“And you want me to have a baby with this female?”
“Only because you made it sound so romantic,” James chided playfully. “You don’t have to love her, but you can if that works. We should both fall in love with her. Bring her into our world.”
“Into our world? Our little world? I’m not sure about that. What would a woman do to us?”
“Open our minds and speak to our hearts. Max, it’s just an idea. Can we see if there are any women who take our fancy?”
Max seemed to be thinking and then suddenly looked very sad. “Do you want a woman?”
James smiled and moved toward his big, strong, vulnerable man. “You know that you are all I ever want or need. But I do want this, for you.”
Chapter Eight
At home that night, Chloe felt sick. The only person in the world trying to help her had turned out to be a total psycho.
Chloe knew deep down, further than her shattered self-esteem, that she didn’t want to date Gary because she wasn’t attracted to him. But she did come home every night alone, build her world out of virtually nothing, and then sit in it till all hours. It did consume her. This made Chloe feel guilty as though she used her art to hide her from the world, rather than get it out there like her great-grandmother, her grandmother, and her mother. Her behaviour prevented her from a normal sort of life, as a normal sort of woman.
Was it healthy? Was her home life her mask? She’d always supposed she wore her mask in the real world, and she buried the artist away so that the artist couldn’t harm her as it had the other women in her lineage. But what if the artist masked something as well? What if Gary and Electricity Australia represented her real world and her home, and the art the lie?
Too horrible to contemplate!
I’ll go mad if that is all that I have in my world. I’ll go mad like my mother did.
For a moment, Chloe allowed the longing for an artist to take her over, a man who understood her at her deepest level, who could communicate with that side of her. She thought for a moment. Or even a man who could see and recognise a gap in the world and the way it all worked. Perhaps he could see a space between reality and the imagination and tell her that imagination wasn’t always wrong.
After tossing her bag on the hall floor, she walked into her bedroom, distracted for the first time ever from the beautiful surroundings. Chloe couldn’t revel in the blue underwater hallway or the red-embroidered bedroom. She flopped onto the bed and had a cry. She cried the cry of the confused warrior who was not sure what war she fought anymore.
> Soon the tears subsided, and Chloe was left, eyes swelling, on the bed, wondering about what to do next. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the day and embrace what might be possible for her instead. Purely out of obligation, she tried to think of Gary. At least give it a go. She imagined him tender, naked, and leaning over her.
Ugh.
That was never going to work.
Letting her thoughts wander, she tried to just let it all flow over her. Floating over hills, past the clump of trees, drifting through rivers and clear blue skies to bring a little peace to her world.
Soon Chloe found herself in a semidream state. A place like the virtual world. Full of sunshine, trees, grass, and blue sky. Unlike the virtual world, she wandered alone there.
Chloe let go, forgetting the troubles of the day and the drama they caused. Breezes trickled across her skin. Her meditation included a gurgling stream and birdsong. The beauty of the place washed over her, immersing her in the pleasures of a warm spring day, and with no one around to tell her what to do, Chloe felt completely at home.
In her dream, a male hand rose up out of the earth and gently cupped her breast. Chloe didn’t move. She lay on her bed feeling the masculine hand fondle her from under the earth. Another hand came up and cupped her other breast. Chloe lay there, still as the morning, feeling the harsh, callused hand smooth its way over the soft skin buried beneath her clothes.
When another pair of hands rose up from the earth, stroking and moving over her upper thighs, Chloe had the feeling of sinking freely into the earth, folding in on the two men loving her there.
The hands smoothed their way all over her, gently arousing her, bringing her to a state of bliss. Chloe felt each hand as it trickled over her skin, causing light goose bumps to tighten and energise her flesh. The sensuality swarmed over her as if a thousand little bees worked her veins for honey.