by Elin Peer
“Until I came back into your life, that is.”
I tightened my hold around her. “Just so you know, Brainy, that rule about me not being allowed to be possessive is off the table now. I’m not giving you up or letting other men near you. Do you understand?”
Shelly’s smile grew when I kissed her. “You don’t have to feel threatened. I’ve only ever wanted to be with you.”
“Then you’ll marry me?”
Her hands were nuzzling the hair in my nape. “I can’t.”
“Why not? We love each other and we’re starting a family. It’s a complete no-brainer. We are getting married.”
“I can’t marry you, Marco. I made a promise to my mom, remember?”
Pressing my head against her neck, I muttered in frustration. “I love that you want to honor a promise, but I won’t stop asking until you say yes.”
Shelly didn’t look fazed by it, but just pulled me in for another kiss.
CHAPTER 23
Reunion
Shelly
We left for the West Coast on Friday, only three days after I came back from the Motherlands.
Marco was frustrated with me. He wanted to tell everyone that we were together and that we were having a baby, but most of all he still insisted that we should marry.
I had gone so far as to tell him that I would consider it, but in reality, I still didn’t see the need.
Hunter and Willow picked us up around noon in the luxurious large drone that had been especially designed for Hunter.
“Where’s Storm and Tristan?” Marco asked. “I thought we were all flying together.”
“I changed my mind,” Hunter said. “In case Willow and I have to leave, you two can fly home with Tristan and Storm.”
“Nothing is going to happen,” Willow insisted. “Mila said that he hasn’t even responded to her invitation.”
I didn’t have to ask whom we were talking about; it was obvious that Hunter was nervous about Solo coming to the reunion.
“Do you want to talk about what happened between you and Solo?” I asked Willow, but Hunter shut us down by taking off with such speed that we were pressed back in our seats. Willow and I exchanged a glance and she mouthed a “later.”
It took a little over three hours to get to the island on the west coast where the school was located. It had grown with more buildings and a proper soccer field.
“I thought there weren’t supposed to be any students at the school?” Willow said when two handfuls of children stood ready to welcome us. “Oh, look at them – how cute.”
“They’re not students. At least not all of them. They look too young,” Marco pointed out and then the door swung open.
Marco had told me about Hunter’s fame, but it was something else to see how the kids surrounded him and screamed his name. A few of them were talking so fast that I couldn’t understand a thing.
“Finally, you are here.” Female voices made us look up to see Pearl, Laura, and Christina walking toward us.
“Kids, give Hunter some space. He just arrived,” Laura instructed.
“Will you play soccer with us?” a boy who looked to be around ten asked Hunter while pulling at his sleeve.
“You must be Indiana,” Hunter replied. “The last time I saw you, you were around six; do you remember?”
The boy shook his head before Christina hugged him from behind and gave Hunter an apologetic shrug. “Sorry about that. The kids have been waiting for hours for you to arrive.”
Laura laughed. “That’s right. You were supposed to be here three hours ago. I thought that drone of yours was one of the fastest in the country.”
“It is. Problem was that I had a mandatory practice session that I had to go to,” Hunter explained. “We came as fast as we could.
“So will you play with us?” a boy in front of Laura asked, and with his impressive height and his hair color being the same rich one as Laura’s, I figured he had to be her and Magni’s son.
“Patience, Mason.” Laura patted the boy’s shoulder. “Hunter can beat you in soccer later – right now I want you to help carry the luggage and show our guests to the campsite.”
Three of the boys argued about who should have the honor of carrying Hunter’s bag.
“Those two are mine too,” he said and pointed to Marco’s two bags. The problem was solved when the three children carried one bag each, with proud expressions on their faces.
Willow and I hugged all three women and walked with them up to the school.
“Our children have been allowed to stay for a few hours to meet you all,” Pearl explained to me and Willow as the three of us were walking behind the others. “I figured they would help ease some of Hunter’s tension about coming back here.” Pearl smiled a little and hooked her arm under Willow’s. “And yours too of course.”
“Thank you, the children are wonderful and sweet.”
Pearl chuckled. “Don’t let the boys hear that you called them sweet. Things haven’t changed that much up here in the Northlands.”
“Is Khan here too?” I asked.
“He and Magni will be here later.” Pearl placed her free hand around me. “Shelly, I’m so excited to catch up with you. Tristan told me that you have been a great inspiration for his public transportation project.”
I smiled back at her. “And here I thought he dismissed my ideas as crazy.”
Before we could talk further old friends started calling out to us, and Willow was picked up and twirled in the air by Raven, who had a large grin on her face. It looked funny because Raven was shorter than Willow.
“It’s about time you people showed up. We were starting to think that you had gotten cold feet.”
Willow grinned back at Raven “Of course not, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“That’s the spirit,” Raven exclaimed and turned to me. “Long time no see, Shelly Summers. Come get a big hug.”
“Can I get your attention?” Kya was standing on a chair and clapping her hands. Her dark curls, chocolate-colored eyes, and caramel skin made her look as pretty now as she had been ten years ago. Only now, she was even curvier, and Archer stood close to her with his hand on the small of her back, sending a not so subtle signal to his former male students, who were all grown men now, letting them know that Kya was still his woman.
“Thank you so much for coming. It’s so much fun to see you all back here to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Pearl Pilotti School of Inclusion.”
Half of the group began clapping but Kya continued. “I would like to give the floor to our founder, Pearl Pilotti.”
Pearl didn’t step up on the chair; instead she signaled for us to form a large half circle and addressed us with a soft smile.
“Lord Khan sends his greetings. He wanted to be here to officially welcome you all, but unfortunately something urgent has delayed him. He asked that I welcome you instead, and that I tell you that he and Magni are very much looking forward to joining us as soon as they can. Now, there are a few practical things that Lord Khan asked me to make clear to you.” Pearl held up a note in front of her and as her eyes ran over it, she tugged at her lip. “Maybe it’s easier if I read it out loud. That way you will know that the profanities are his and not mine.”
People laughed.
“Okay, here we go.” Pearl took a deep breath, which allowed for a pause. “Tell them that every woman attending the reunion is under my protection, and that any fucker who thinks he can touch them because they used to be friends will be dealt with swiftly.” Pearl lifted her gaze from the note and looked to us men. “In other words, the same rule applies here as it does everywhere else in the Northlands. You cannot touch a woman without her consent.”
“Understood,” Storm piped up.
Pearl read on. “Also tell my Nmen to collectively behave as protectors to all the women present. That means stepping in if they see any sort of troubling behavior from a peer. Other than that, just tell them to have fun and save some beer for me and
Magni.”
Marco leaned in and whispered in my ear. “If anyone misbehaves you’ll come to me.”
I dipped my head. “Of course.”
His eyes fell to my lips and he leaned in a little. It instinctively made me pull back. I wasn’t ready for everyone to know about us. Widening my eyes and moving my eyeballs toward the others, I told him without words that now wasn’t the right time or place to kiss.
Marco’s face tightened before he walked away to join the other Nmen, who seemed to have taken to heart the stern warning about not touching us women. They kept to themselves, drinking and laughing out loud.
“I thought this might happen,” Mila said, her eyes darting between the divided group of men and women. “But don’t worry. I planned all sorts of fun games for us.”
Looking on, I followed Mila’s failed attempt to organize a party game.
“Sorry, Mila, we promised to play soccer with the kids.” The men excused themselves and headed to the soccer field.
I mingled with the former students, Kya, Pearl, and Athena, whose two sons came complaining to her that there wasn’t room for them on Hunter’s team.
“It’s because all the grown-ups want to be on his team too,” the older one said, while the younger brother stood with his arms crossed and kicked at the ground with a pout on his face.
“Finn,” Athena called out. “The boys want to play with their idol.”
Finn just waved back, looking like a kid himself and shouted, “Me too.”
“Boys, go tell Dad and Tristan that they can play for ten minutes and then you’ll take their places,” Athena instructed her sons, who ran full speed back to the soccer field.
I waved to my sister, Rochelle, who looked to be in a passionate discussion with William; he had been the youngest boy when the school first started out.
“You don’t kill humans just because they can’t talk or answer academic questions. So why animals? They still have emotions, dreams, loyalty, and a right to a full life too,” she argued. “Killing animals is inhumane.”
William spread out his arms. “That’s the fucking point, isn’t it? It’s inhumane because they’re not human.”
I changed my course as I wasn’t in the mood to hear another argument on that subject. Killing animals for food was illegal in the Motherlands but here it was considered normal, and I didn’t see that changing anytime soon.
“Hey, Shelly.”
I recognized Nero right away. He had that same bead in his beard that I had seen so many men wearing when Tristan took me to the drone race. “Hi, Nero, how are you?”
“Good.”
“Why aren’t you playing soccer with the other men?”
He looked over to the soccer field. “I’ll play later, when there are no kids.”
“You don’t like kids?”
“Sure, but I get so competitive and I don’t want to hurt one of them by accident.”
“Raven doesn’t look like she’s holding anything back.”
We both took a second to look at the game, where Raven was the only woman playing with the men and the children.
“Did you talk to her yet?” I asked him. “You two were always fighting. Hopefully you can laugh about it now.”
“Nah, it was mostly in the beginning. It got better after you left.” He turned to face me. “I read some of your articles. The one about using fish to grow plants was very interesting.
“Yes, I’m very passionate about finding ways to grow food with a minimum amount of water waste. I’m in regular contact with some of my friends that I got to know while studying to be a biologist. One of them is working on a very interesting project down in the Yellow Zone.”
“One of the articles said that you did your dissertation on the subject of awkwardness. Is that true?”
“Yes, but not while studying to be a biologist. That was my psychology degree.”
Nero tucked his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I figured as much.”
“Right.” I smiled. “Awkwardness seemed like a fitting subject for me to dive into and understand better at the time.”
“Are you admitting that you’re a perfect research subject yourself?” There was humor in his voice.
I kept my face straight. “No, but back then I came straight from the Northlands and had been with enough of you Nmen to know awkward behavior.”
His brow rose and he pointed to his chest. “Are you saying we’re the awkward ones?”
“Some of you more than others.”
Nero looked a bit confused and it was hard not to laugh at my own joke, but his next question made me tingle with excitement. “And what did you find out? Is there a formula for awkwardness?”
“Well, I discovered that every society has a set of rules and limitations that we operate within. First there are laws of science and biology that tell us basic things like we can’t go without sleep, we can’t spread our arms and fly, or jump back in time to correct a mistake. You get the point, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then there are human-made laws that we submit to, and those vary between the Motherlands and the Northlands, of course. In some cases, what is legal here is illegal there and vice versa.”
Nero nodded. “Like hunting.”
“Exactly. And after the criminal laws comes etiquette, and that’s a different beast since it’s not written down per se. It requires training and social awareness to read a situation and know what is expected of you. What makes it even more tricky is that etiquette varies across the world. Breaking the etiquette could get you shunned or ostracized socially, which is a high price to pay because it means isolation and loneliness.”
“So what? A little isolation can be nice. I have a cabin that I sometimes go to when I need some peace and quiet.”
“Sure, but long-term loneliness affects your immune system and can cause depression, which makes it a big deal, Nero,” I emphasized and continued my little lecture. “Of course, breaking etiquette can vary depending on who judges. It takes a lot more to be rude here than in the Motherlands but generally speaking we’re dealing with categories from rudeness, to mean and disgusting behavior, followed by the subtlest of all, which is awkwardness.” My voice was a bit eager because it always gave me a buzz when someone showed an interest in something I was passionate about.
“I find this so interesting,” I continued, “because awkwardness is connected to awareness and is used to adjust the finer details of social behavior that etiquette doesn't define. It's not a violation of the laws of physics to laugh too loud, over-share personal information, or congratulate someone on being pregnant when they’re not. There’s no law against it either. It’s just very awkward.”
“True,” Nero agreed. “You know what else is awkward? Coming back to see your old classmates and realizing that the girls that you used to make fun of have turned into beautiful women and now you wish you’d been nicer to them.” He laughed.
“Anyone specific?”
“It goes for all the women. You included.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you’re very beautiful, Shelly.”
I looked down. “Thank you.”
“We need people on the food team!” Kya shouted from the doorway to the school.
Raising my hand, I offered my help. “I’m happy to give a hand.”
“Have you learned how to cook?” Nero asked with a skeptical expression on his face.
“I wouldn’t say it’s my biggest strength, but I can peel and cut some vegetables if that’s what you mean.”
“It’s okay, Shelly, I got it,” my sister Rochelle called out.
Kya placed her hands on her hips and smiled. “That’s great, Rochelle, but I need two more people.”
“I’ll do it,” Nero declared and smiled at Nicki when he walked past her. “You wanna help out?”
When Nicki hesitated, Nero added, “Shelly is threatening to go into the kitchen, so we could really use your help.”
Nicki’s eyes flew to me and then back to him. “Sure, I’ll help.”
“I’m not that bad of a cook,” I defended myself.
Nero grinned back at me over his shoulder. “Why don’t you invent time traveling while we go make dinner? I think those physical laws you talked about only apply to us normal people. I’m sure you could find a way around them if you wanted to.”
With Nero and the others inside, I walked over to watch the soccer game. Mila and some of the others were sitting on the grass cheering so I joined them.
“This is just like old times,” Mila said and smiled at me while at the same time helping two little girls braid a crown of flowers.
I was staring at Marco, who had a small girl on his shoulders with his hands wrapped around her ankles to hold her in place.
“That’s Dina,” Mila explained. “She’s my youngest sister and she was crying just now because she couldn’t play with the others.”
“How old is she?”
“Three.” She tilted her head. “It was so sweet of Marco to include her.”
“Yeah, it was, but he loves children. I’m sure he doesn’t think it’s a big deal.”
Mila tilted her head watching him. “Marco is going to be the best dad ever.”
I widened my eyes, wondering if Mila somehow knew about the baby.
“I offered to marry him.” She said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“You did what?”
“I said that I would pick him as my champion next year when I have my tournament.”
I wanted to talk to her about the tournament but for now I was just stunned that Marco hadn’t told me about this.
“And what did Marco say to your offer?” I asked, trying not to reveal how much my heart was beating at this moment.
“That’s it, Mason, nice goal,” Mila cheered and pointed to one of the boys that we had seen when we first arrived. “You’re making your sister proud.”
I clapped my hands to show my support while repeating my question to Mila. “What did Marco say to your offer?”
“Oh, he said it was nice of me, but he wouldn’t fight in my tournament.” She sighed. “It’s a shame, because he would have made a wonderful father and I really like him.”