Yootu looked at the door in front of him as his vision blurred. It was made of a material the Provenger had told him could not be broken. It was bent and bulged outward from his impact. In the center, there was a crack. He fell off his knees and to his back. The trauma to his head sent a searing pain down his spine. He struggled for breath as he stared vacantly at the ceiling. He thought only of his love, of Shainan, as his heart stopped and death took him.
Chapter 20
Shainan Visits Cortez
Rick found himself home again, but this time something was different. Held closely in his arms was Shainan. Back on the Provenger ship, before being shut in the room to wait, Rick had been guaranteed that Shainan would be vaccinated against all modern human diseases to which she would have no prior immunity. Synster had instructed Rick that to prevent the vaccines from adversely effecting her body, she should be kept on a strict diet of whole foods to include only meats and vegetables for at least the next month. Synthetic chemicals, refined carbohydrates, and especially the deleterious proteins found in all forms of wheat could, through various pathways, make the membranes of her body more permeable to the vaccines she’d been given and shock her immune system that was responding to them. A proper diet was critical to prevent potential autoimmune reactions.
Rick was told Shainan would be briefed regarding what was happening. She was to remain at Rick’s home until he allowed her to leave. She was to obey him and learn what was appropriate for her behavior. She had already been informed that she was thousands of seasons in the future and that she would not see anyone she knew from her tribe, nor would she see the area in which she had lived. She was told they were all dead and it was all gone. Her life would be very different, and she would have to relearn everything.
What no one knew, human nor Provenger, was that Synster had promised her that Yootu would be following some time afterward, as long as she obeyed the rules she was given. She was ready, she thought, as long as she had a hope that Yootu would be joining her soon. She had no way to fight them; she had learned that. She had only one option, and that was to cooperate and believe.
Rick tried to feel embarrassed and stupid about his crying so that he could stop. He couldn’t indulge himself in grief. He’d decided to dispense with all things that did not lead to the destruction of the Provenger. He must be single-minded.
Shainan let go of him, and her arms flopped to her sides. Barnes and Nobelle growled for a moment but then, seeing Rick’s calm, walked cautiously over to them both. Shainan hadn’t seen a dog in ten years. She’d had many that she’d called her own. She felt they were part of her family and had missed them as much.
On seeing them, she immediately knew she was no longer on the ship. The Provenger hated dogs, all pets, in fact. They didn’t understand them; they weren’t capable of loving them. Shainan ignored her immediate instinct to remain aloof from them, and she dropped to her knees and held her hands out to be sniffed, eager to greet them. The dogs were cautious at first, smelling the Provenger-made clothing she wore, but they sensed her genuine nature and in a moment moved in to lick her face as she scuffed their necks. She made a breathy panting sound with a heaving chest. She swayed her hips side to side as they moved about each other, playing with them as she had as a child. The dogs were immediately touched with love for her.
Rick wiped the last tear for Sarah from his cheek and stood there looking down on Shainan and his dogs with his mouth slightly open. This wasn’t exactly what he’d imagined when he considered the return of the Paleolithic woman. But after witnessing the joy beneath him, it made perfect sense. They both spoke the same language. It was an innate semantic, a language shared by two different species of the planet Earth, two species with a long and ancient history of living and working together. Perhaps she could tell the dogs how to use the toilet, Rick thought, if she even knew herself.
This love-fest between Shainan and his dogs came to an abrupt ending on Shainan’s terms. In a moment, she established her dominance over them as she decided their greeting was done. She stood and looked at Rick, directly in his eyes as if she wanted to remember his face forever. She then quickly looked around and spotted the sliding glass door and darted for it. It was evening now, and the subtle reflective glare showed her that the glass was in place. Rick thought she might run through it, but she put her hands out in front of her. They hit the glass as Rick followed up behind her. She began pleading, frantically. She obviously wanted to go outside. Rick could understand that. He reached down, unlatched, and slid the door away.
Shainan ran out into the yard, just past his patio of concrete pavers, and dropped to the ground. She ripped at the poorly kept sod with her hands and came up with fists of grass and soil which she put to her face while she drew in a deep breath. Rick followed her out, closed the door behind him so the dogs wouldn’t get out, and watched in amazement from the patio. Then, on her knees in a fetal position, she splayed out her arms as if to try to embrace the earth. She stretched out and rolled over twice, coming to a stop on her face. She was crying and laughing at the same time, and Rick thought it was a good thing he didn’t have any close neighbors. She remained that way for about five minutes as Rick let her have her reunion. It was about fifty degrees outside and dark now, and Rick began to grow concerned about her. Then all hell broke loose.
Shainan stopped her sobbing and jumped from the ground, whimpering and talking, obviously nothing of which Rick could understand. Then she began screaming and pulling at her clothes. She tore off her shirt, by pieces, directly from her body, not over her head, and tried to do the same with her shorts, but the fabric was too strong. She fell to the ground as she lowered them down and over her legs. No sooner did she have them in front of her, she began looking around for something, still ranting.
Shainan spotted the concrete pavers lining the patio and leapt for one. She picked it up with a single hand like she was grabbing a small stone, then turned on her clothing with murderous intentions. She knelt in front of her garments, apparently cursing in her language, epithets not spoken on Earth for perhaps ten millennium, and repeatedly plunged the heavy brick into the clothing until it turned into a shallow hole in the ground. Despite the cold, she worked up a sweat.
Rick continued to leave her to it. He realized she might have some issues to work out, but he was beginning to become alarmed. He had an absolutely beautiful naked woman in his back yard, pummeling her clothing into a hole with a large paver, uttering swears in a dead language with all the passion she could muster. Rick found himself glad to be on the sidelines during such an aggressive outburst.
For the second time, he found himself a little fearful of this ancient woman. He wasn’t quite sure how the evening would be resolved, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be normal. And then there was Carson. What would he tell Carson?
Rick turned toward his house, and there was Carson, standing behind the sliding glass doors with his hands in the pockets of his blue jacket and his mouth hanging open. He was staring at a beautiful naked woman in his back yard using a patio paver to hammer a hole into the ground.
Carson had been out to the movies with his friends. Nothing special was going on afterwards, and despite numerous suggestions and invitations, he decided he’d just get home and go to bed. He wasn’t feeling that well, and he was tired. As he walked to the front door, he heard something in the back yard and thought it might be the dogs. He went inside expecting to see his dad at the computer working on his blog while ignoring the dogs who wanted to get in. Carson walked through the kitchen, into the living room, turned left and up to the sliding glass doors to find the dogs on the inside looking out, whining with the occasional bark. He looked past his father to see what he was watching. It was quite a spectacle.
Sometimes his dad surprised him. It was typical of him to have innovative ideas, eccentric interests, and unconventional projects going on. But this time, Carson thought, he really had to hand it to him. He never doubted that his dad had th
ings under control; he just couldn’t imagine what the explanation would be. So he stood quietly watching, waiting for it. He thought for a second he might turn and walk away, give him time to straighten things up. But then he thought he’d stick around to see what happened. Besides, whoever this woman was, she was pretty hot.
Carson watched his dad put his head in his hands and slowly massage his temples. He walked slowly to the door and looked up at Carson who asked through the double paned glass, “Should I let the dogs out?”
Rick looked in and threw his hands in the air. “Why not?” Carson slid the door open and gave the command to go through; “Go ahead.” They bolted out and surrounded Shainan. She collapsed in exhaustion and grief, lying on the grass. The shepherds huddled near her, plowing their shoulders to the ground and running themselves into her, their way of sharing her pain. Rick and Carson took one last look.
“This might be a stupid question, but is everything okay?” Carson asked. Then added, “Should we leave them out there?”
“Yeah, they’ll be fine for a while,” responded Rick as he walked in and closed the door. “It’s only a two dog night.”
Rick walked over to the kitchen, opened the door of the fridge, and took out a bottle of wine. He grabbed a juice glass from the drying rack next to the sink. He poured it to the top and beckoned Carson to have a seat. “Do you want something?”
“I’ll have what you’re having,” Carson replied, joking with a smile.
“Okay, but let’s not make a habit of it,” Rick replied, much to Carson’s surprise. “You’re gonna need it.”
Rick poured his sixteen-year-old a glass of wine, and they both sat down at the kitchen table. Rick didn’t speak for a while. The only sounds were the humming of the refrigerator and the muffled crying female and whining dogs emanating from the back yard.
Rick was wondering how he should start, and he was trying out the order in his head. I’m a spy for aliens. Your mother is dead. We’ve adopted a cave woman. Humanity is a feed lot. Hmmmm. Maybe start with feed lot; that will put everything else in perspective. Or should I use ‘good news, bad news’? What’s the good news? It might be the cave woman part, but so far, it didn’t appear to be panning out that way.
Rick and Carson talked for a little over an hour, a remarkably short period considering the subjects covered. When it was all over, and Rick had told Carson everything, almost, he couldn’t even remember the order in which it came out.
He didn’t tell Carson about his mother yet. He thought that would be too much for him. Carson was in disbelief throughout the chat. The two were so absorbed that halfway through their conversation, they finally became aware of a tapping on the sliding glass door and looked up to find a very naked and cold young woman and two dogs who wanted in. Rick brought her in and wrapped her in a bison hide he had over his couch.
Large, luxurious animal skins draped around the house were one of the benefits of being an avid hunter in Colorado. And it seemed especially appropriate for her. She seemed to appreciate it. He told the dogs to lie down in front of the wood stove and motioned for her to take the couch, giving her a few pillows. She seemed more than happy to comply, and she was asleep in minutes.
When the talk continued, so did Carson’s skepticism. He suspected some sort of game. Rick’s only two proofs were his tag and the woman. The tag looked to Carson like a watch. Rick challenged him to try to get it off his wrist. He couldn’t. He had Shainan as proof, but, as Carson pointed out, you could get one of those most anywhere.
“Not one that has hair on her legs and under her arms,” Rick replied.
“So she’s European. You picked up a tourist at Mesa Verde today, and she’s a nudist who loves dogs and hates lawns,” Carson quipped. “It’s not my birthday,” Carson joked again, “so I don’t think there is any kind of a themed surprise party.” Whatever it was, his dad seemed sincere.
Carson would take him at his word for now but really believed deep down that this whole charade would morph into something realistic in a matter of time. In the end, he expected the whole thing to clear itself up, probably by morning. Carson was growing tired of considering the possibilities and told his dad that he didn’t feel well. He wanted to go to bed.
After Carson had gone to his room for the night, Rick woke Shainan, who had fallen fast asleep in the large wooly hide. She was slightly panicked at first but quickly calmed and seemed very happy. Rick tried to take her to the guest bedroom, but she wouldn’t leave him. He tried numerous times to explain to her that this would be her room, but she kept talking and appeared to be getting worried.
At some point in their interaction, Shainan smelled the wine on his breath. She saw the glasses on the table and insisted on having some. When Rick produced the bottle to pour a glass, she took it from him with a smile, and holding it in her fist began to drink. Rick stopped her.
“No, no, that’s enough.” He tried to take it from her, but she wouldn’t let go. Rick figured she was just thirsty, but when he offered her water, she declined it, letting him know that she clearly preferred the wine. Rick then realized it was the alcohol that she wanted.
She continued to press him for something. He finally understood that she wanted to know where Carson was. Rick went to his room, woke him, and brought him in. To both their surprise, while holding the bottle in one hand, Shainan parted the enormous bison hide surrounding her and gave Carson a big frontal nudity, engulfing, embrace. Carson, initially annoyed at being woken, was groggy but now thrilled.
Through sign language and pantomime, she communicated that she felt they all needed to sleep together. After dealing with her for about fifteen minutes, Rick could see that Carson was tired, and he acquiesced. After Rick had gotten Shainan into some pajamas, all of them slept the night together in Rick’s room. Bison hide wrapped Shainan, Rick, Carson, and Barnes and Nobelle all slept on Rick’s king size bed. Best purchase he ever made. The entire night comprised a cacophony of snorting, scratching, and grumbling. The dogs made a little noise, too, but thankfully no sleepwalking.
Chapter 21
BrothEr DavE
At six a.m., the phone started ringing. Rick didn’t get up. The answering machine picked up, but no one left a message. The calls continued. Rick was tired and wanted to sleep in. Between all three of them crowding the bed, he hadn’t gotten much sleep. He knew Shainan would be adjusting and didn’t want to be too hard on her the first night. He let her have her way. But from this point on, he would have to lead. He knew that.
At around six thirty, the dogs were up and had to go out. Rick was surprised but glad they’d slept so late. He dragged himself out of bed. He didn’t feel well. Something about his whole life turning upside-down the last few days had unsettled the normalcy he’d wanted for the last ten years of his life. He had a headache.
Rick watched his dogs run around the back yard, and he started to calm. All this stress had made him remember he was a dead man any way things went. He had completely lost control over his destiny, and it seemed to free him. He could do just about anything right now, and it wouldn’t matter. Planning for retirement, not an issue anymore. His own health issues, not an issue. Custody of Carson, not an issue. Carson. Actually his health was still an issue. Regardless of what happened to Rick, Carson must live on. He would have to. Rick wouldn’t have it any other way.
While Rick was contemplating his vision of the future, Ryvil was planning it. On board the Provenger ship, he had reported to his station for the day and then slipped away. He had obtained temporary use of a Provenger battle gauntlet, a weapon not normally available to the average Provenger. His plan was to transport to Rick’s house.
It had taken him days to access the file regarding the location and layout of the home. It was still early in the day on Earth, and he hoped to catch Rick by surprise. He would have to eliminate anyone who saw him. He couldn’t risk discovery.
He was running late. Ryvil knew that Rick had been through a lot lately and would be tired.
He guessed that he would still be in bed. Ryvil had to keep his presence in Rick’s house at under two minutes; otherwise, the Provenger scans would notice, so he had to work fast. He would arrive cloaked, even though he knew Rick might have his tag on him and the cloak might not work. Ryvil knew he might be discovered, but he needed to act now. He was desperate and was running out of time.
Primal Estate: The Candidate Species Page 21