by Elin Peer
“All right, there’s me and Charlotte, and then there’s Deshaun, Kate, Holly, Teri Lynn, Reva, and Tristan.” Samuel listed.
“You forgot Marita,” Charlotte reminded him.
Using the back of his hand to wipe his nose, Samuel shrugged. “Yeah, but that’s just because she’s so little.”
“She still counts,” Charlotte insisted.
“So that makes nine children,” Finn summed up.
Samuel counted on his fingers and we patiently waited for him to get to nine before he nodded his head in agreement. “But that’s just us kids, you know, we also have five parents living here.” With the help of Charlotte, he named all five parents living in the family unit. “Karina is the only one who stays home to watch us while the others go to work.”
“And is Karina your mom?” Finn asked.
“We’ve got four moms and Martin is our dad,” Charlotte said in a soft voice.
Finn gave a small whistle. “Four moms – wow, that’s a lot. You know, where I come from most of us don’t even have one mom and most of us don’t have sisters or brothers either.”
Samuel tilted his head. “Then who is in your family?”
Finn threw out his hands. “That’s just the thing; most of us don’t have families.”
“But then who sings to you?” Charlotte asked with a troubled look. “And who celebrates your birthday with you?”
Finn brushed his hair back and shook his head. “No one does. Why? What happens on your birthday?”
Samuel took it upon himself to explain the tradition of getting presents for your birthday.
“And you also get a cake with your name on it,” Charlotte added.
“No way!” Finn narrowed his eyes. “Now you two are just making up stories to make me jealous. No one gets both a cake and presents just because it’s the day they were born.”
“We do,” Charlotte and Samuel insisted with their heads bobbing to underline that they were telling the truth.
Finn turned to me. “Are they messing with me?”
“No, celebrating your birthday is very common here.”
“Huh, you guys come up with the craziest things.”
I laughed. “It’s not something we came up with, it’s an old tradition that runs back hundreds of years if not thousands. Surely you have heard about it.”
Finn looked to the side and rubbed his shoulder. “I might have seen something like that in old movies; it looked…” He thought about it. “It looked nice.”
“It is nice!” Samuel exclaimed and waved his hand in a come-along gesture. “I can show you some of the toys that Charlotte and I got for our last birthday.”
Finn, Hans, and I followed along when the two children ran back into the house, passing Karina, who was coming out at that moment.
“The twins want to show Finn their toys,” I explained to her when she gave me a questioning look. “You go ahead, I’ll stay here and talk to Karina,” I called after Hans and Finn.
“You could’ve warned me,” Karina said when they were out of sight. “I almost had a heart attack seeing that man in my kitchen. “
“Finn is the one who held me hostage in the Northlands,” I told her in a low voice. “He has come to apologize to me.”
“And you forgave him?” Karina asked.
“Wouldn’t you?”
Karina sucked in a deep breath and untangled Marita’s little hand from her curly hair. “Probably, but I’m not sure I would be as amicable around him as you are. Aren’t you mad at him?” Before I could answer, Karina sighed and added. “Don’t answer that. I already know you’re going to tell me that you don’t carry anger in your heart.”
I smiled.
“All I’m saying,” Karina breathed, “is that we can’t all be as enlightened as you are and that I admire you for being so gracious about the whole thing.”
“Finn has a lot to learn about empathy and I can’t explain why, but I feel like our paths are connected for a reason.”
“What do you mean? Are you talking about destiny?” she asked.
Karina had been one of the first friends I met when I moved to this area four years ago. Back then she had been pregnant with the twins, and a newcomer too. The old mill had been empty for more than fifteen years and all the locals had been excited that a new priestess was moving in.
Karina had been one of the most welcoming, and had helped me clean the mill and get me settled in. We have been best friends ever since.
“Destiny is a big word, but yes, I think there is a higher meaning in our paths crossing twice like this. I learned a lot about myself when I spent those five days with Finn.” I thought about it. “It was a hard lesson on patience, tolerance, acceptance, and forgiveness.”
“Yes, I’ll bet it was.” Karina gave me Marita and went back into the kitchen to find some treats for us. “What did he mean about seducing me?” she asked with a smile tugging at her lips.
I kissed Marita on the hair and went to sit down by the huge table in the kitchen. “Finn is just very interested in women and he’s right; you are beautiful.”
Karina snorted. “Ha, then he should’ve seen me before I had children. Now everything seems to be bigger and looser on my body.” She laughed and threw her hands up in the air.
With my elbow on the table, I rested my chin in my hand and pondered out loud. “Finn seems different than the other Nmen I know about; I wonder why that is.”
“Different how?” Karina said and took a big bite of a cookie.
“Well…” I tilted my head to the side and thought about what had until then been foggy thoughts in the back of my head. “Remember I told you that there was a woman in the Northlands that I spent some time with? Christina, the archaeologist who was also a Motlander?”
“Yes, I remember you talking about her.”
“According to Christina, the Nmen fight to the death in tournaments to be with one of the few women that grow up there.”
“It’s so brutal,” Karina commented. “But go on.”
“The thing is that if it’s so highly prestigious for them to have a wife, and Christina made it sound like they were all focused on finding one woman, then why is Finn different?”
“I don’t know.” Karina picked up another cookie without taking her eyes off me. “What’s your theory?”
“My theory is that either Christina was wrong, or Finn is an anomaly,” I concluded. “He’s not interested in finding just one woman. I suspect that he wants to be with as many as he possibly can.”
“Are you saying that just because he called me beautiful?” Karina asked while chewing on her last bite of cookie. “Please tell me, this doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that he came on to me and not you?” she asked. “You shouldn’t take it personally. Maybe I’m just more his type then you are.”
I grinned. “I wish it was that simple, but he comes on to me plenty. If you and I wanted to have sex with him, I guarantee you that Finn wouldn’t care which one of us he had it with.”
Karina licked crumbs off her lips and leaned in. “I suppose his interest is kind of flattering, but it’s also strange that he thinks about us sexually. I mean who does that, and even worse – admits to it?”
I laughed. “Nmen are just different from us and they still have this old-fashioned idea that women and men should have sex together.”
“Why? Don’t they have sex-bots?”
“Yes, they do, but Finn explained to me that they only use them because they don’t have access to real women.”
Karina waved a dismissive hand. “That’s what he thinks, but you can just tell him that he’s wrong. I mean, if sex between men and women was better, people in the Motherlands would be having sex with each other, right?”
I frowned and nodded slowly. “I suppose so.”
“We have access to humans and we still prefer robots; that should tell you something.”
“True.” I nodded my head. “But do you know anyone who has actually had sex
with a man?”
A slow smile grew on Karina’s face. “Yes, and she wasn’t impressed. The man got tired of giving her oral sex and stopped before she gave him permission to.”
“Who was it?” I asked, but Karina wouldn’t tell.
“I swore I wouldn’t tell anyone. She’s embarrassed about it and doesn’t want people to think she’s some kind of naturephile. It was just a youthful experiment and we shouldn’t judge her for it.” Karina tilted her head. “Not that you would ever judge anyone, of course.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” I confirmed.
“The point is just that my friend didn’t enjoy it much and she said it was messy in the end.”
“Messy?”
“I think she used the words wet and slimy.”
I pulled my head back and frowned in confusion. “Why would it be wet and slimy?”
“I’m not sure. I should have asked for more details,” Karina said with a shrug. “But I’m confident that Finn is wrong if he thinks sex with a woman is better than with a sex-bot.”
I thought about bringing up the fact that Finn had spent some time in the Motherlands recently and been with five women. Apparently, there were still plenty of naturephiles who weren’t disgusted by the idea of sleeping with a human.
“I’d better go and check up on Finn and Hans,” I suggested.
“I hope you have time to stay. Tristan will be horribly disappointed if he doesn’t get to meet Finn. With all the stories on the news about the children from the Northlands, he’s very interested in them.
“What time will Tristan be back?”
Karina looked at her wristband and bit her lip. “He won’t be back until two-thirty, and it’s not even nine o’clock yet.” She lifted her head to meet my eyes. “How about you take Finn for an educational visit to the local school?”
I smiled. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea, but you’d better call the principal and prepare her. And don’t forget to mention that Finn is peaceful and escorted by a mediator and me, or she’ll just barricade the school.”
Karina shook her head. “Not at all. Hannah might be the new principal, but she’s always going on about famous people and the Nmen are the hottest things on the news now. She’ll be thrilled to meet Finn in person. They all will!”
When I walked in to fetch Finn and Hans, Finn sat on the floor surrounded by toys. The sight of the large Nman in the children’s room made me smile a little. His long hair was tied in a bun on his head and his beard was trimmed shorter than yesterday. Seeing him in this setting made it hard to understand why I’d been so afraid of him that first night.
Finn was a gentle giant with Charlotte and Samuel, attentively listening to them as they showed him their toys. A tingling sensation in my belly spread into warmth in my chest. I had felt the same buzzing feeling when Finn and I meditated earlier today. Normally when I did this kind of bonding meditation, I had no problem closing off from all bodily sensations to focus on the energy flow between me and my meditation partner. But with Finn it was like my body was reacting to him in a heightened alertness and every touch, stroke, or smile affected me in this new and mysterious way.
I told myself that it was my highly developed empathy that caused me to always look up when he was looking at me. But that didn’t explain why Finn also raised his eyes every time I was looking at him first. Maybe our five days together in the Northlands had linked us somehow, and maybe that explained why I had felt called to venture into another five days with him.
Despite the unusual situation, I was happier than I had been in a long time. And standing quietly in the doorway, I found pleasure in watching Finn and the children a while longer.
“How high can it go?” Finn asked Samuel and curiously turned a small model drone over in the air, investigating it closely.
Charlotte looked up at me. “Finn says that he never had a toy of his own. Isn’t that sad?”
“As a child,” Finn quickly added with a quick glance at me. “Now as an adult, I have everything I need.” He held up the mini drone. “In fact, I have a toy like this, only it’s much bigger and incredibly fast compared to your drones.”
“Why didn’t you have a toy when you were a child?” I asked.
He shrugged. “The school had toys, but obviously with so many children, it was hard to get your hands on the most popular things.”
Charlotte quietly went over to a shelf, picking up a fist-sized device that was oval-shaped. “I want you to have this,” she said and brought it back to Finn.
He looks stunned as she showed him her favorite toy. “When you press here, it opens up.” Quickly turning off the light, Charlotte demonstrated how the small device would light up the walls and ceiling, creating the illusion of being out in space. “Look, you can zoom in on the part of the Milky Way you want to visit, and it plays really nice music too.”
“No wonder this is your favorite toy,” Finn said, impressed. “But I can’t take this, Charlotte.”
“Maybe you can bring it to the Northlands and give it to a child who doesn’t have his own toy,” Charlotte said with a serious expression. “And if you do, will you tell him that it was me who gave it to you?”
Finn sat up on his knees holding the device between himself and Charlotte. “If you are sure about this, then I will be honored to bring this to the Northlands and tell everyone about your generosity.”
Her small chin lifted and she looked up at me.
“That was very nice of you, Charlotte,” I said and smiled at her.
“You can have one of my toys too,” Samuel chimed in and after rummaging through a box of toys, he pulled out a small unicorn.
“Thank you,” Finn said and looked a bit unsure when he took the multicolored unicorn from the boy.
Charlotte placed her hands on her hips, and scolded her brother. “You never liked that, and the horn is broken off.”
“I know, that’s why I’m giving it to him,” Samuel said without shame.
Finn got up from the floor and tousled the boy’s hair. “I shall cherish your gifts dearly.” Turning to Hans he said, “And I’ll give you the honor of carrying this fine purple horse for me.”
Hans took the toy that was handed to him. “It’s not a horse, it’s a unicorn.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Finn said seriously and walked out of the room. “We don’t have them in the Northlands.”
CHAPTER 10
Tristan
Finn
When I agreed to Athena’s terms of being in her control for five days, I had envisioned them being as boring as the five days we had spent together in the Northlands.
This day, however, was turning out to be interesting and when we walked into the school building, I took it all in: the colorful paintings on the walls, the smells, and the sound of children singing that grew in volume as we walked closer to the source.
I stared when we turned a corner and saw at least fifty students standing up, swaying from side to side, clapping and singing. I was confused by the lyrics until I understood that it was math.
As if that wasn’t strange enough, the students seemed to be of different age and most of them were females.
I’d been part of the experimental school program that was unfolding in the Northlands, so this wasn’t my first time seeing girls. I’d just never seen that many at once and it was a glorious sight.
The principal, a short woman who had met us outside the school, smiled at me and said, “This is our KA group.”
“Your what group?”
“We test all children before they start school and group them according to learning style. KA stands for kinesthetic and audio.”
“So you don’t put them in classes according to age?”
She shook her head. “No, children mature and learn in different stages, and age is a poor indicator for what level they are at. Much of their learning is driven by their interest in a certain area.” She signaled for us to continue. “Tristan is in our VST group.�
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“What does VST stand for?”
“Visual, Scribble, Teach,” the woman said. “VST kids benefit from seeing something, writing it down, and then explaining what they have learned. Tristan is one of our brightest students.”
“How old is Tristan?” I asked Athena.
“He celebrated his fifteenth birthday last weekend,” Athena said. “It was a very nice party.”
“Oh yeah? And did you give him a present?”
“Of course. I gave him a bonsai tree.”
I scrunched up my face. “What kind of gift is that?”
“It was on his wish list,” Athena defended herself.
Shaking my head, I mumbled, “He sounds like a really weird kid.”
“What was that?” The principal stopped in front of a door and turned to me. “Did you say something?” she asked and tilted her head with a sugar-sweet smile.
“No, I was just making a comment that all you women here in the Motherlands are beautiful.”
The little woman, who was no beauty at all, flushed cherry red and flicked her hair back with a soft “thank you.”
Athena elbowed me and shot me a warning look just before the door opened and we were in front of around forty students.
“May peace surround you all,” the principal said to the students. “As you may have heard on the news, five Nmen are visiting from the Northlands at the moment and lo and behold, one of them has chosen to visit our school today.” The principal looked like she was about to burst from excitement and pride.
I didn’t tell them it was Athena’s choice and not mine. There was no need to advertise that she had me in a chokehold because of that stupid curse.
My eyes scanned the room and when I saw a boy greet Athena with a subtle wave, I almost took a step back. It was like seeing myself at that age. His dark hair and those long eyelashes that I’d hated because they made me too pretty for a boy.
“I’m here to see Tristan,” I said and heard the collective gasp that went through the students.
Tristan sat up straighter, his eyes growing big as he pointed to himself. “Me?”