I had forgotten that Clarice could hear all of our conversations, as long as we were in range of the network signals. Oh well, it didn’t matter. We had no secrets. Apparently Clarice had thought that this discussion was humorous enough, and sexy enough, to let Raven listen in. It was important that Clarice be able to hear what we said all the time, so that she could know if we were ever in danger. Most of the time she never mentioned it, so it was easy to forget that she did in fact hear everything. And that included my conversation with Lark at the cove earlier.
Raven said, “Lark, you already know that Clarice has to talk to Joshua, and we can be with them later. Do you want to see some amazing things and design your skirt and blouse? You can’t go in the house yet, but I can take you in the other bedroom or we can stay out here or I can show you some of the grounds.”
Lark said, “Can we make some lunch? We could have it ready when Clarice and Joshua are done. And then we could eat a little lunch before we do other things.”
Raven said, “Yeah, that will be great. We can make some lunch and have the nymphs take it up to the roof patio and Lark and I can go up the outside. Come on.”
Raven stood up and hugged me and I bent down for a kiss and then she hugged Lark.
As they walked toward the little kitchen, Lark asked, “Raven, what are you wearing?”
Raven was dressed in the skintight black protective clothing that Clarice had worn when she and I had installed the network nodes last week.
Raven said, “This is what nymphs wear when we work. It keeps us from getting damaged, um, I mean injured. It keeps me from getting scratched by branches and stuff. I forget that I have it on. It’s like being naked, but totally protected from getting hurt. We’ll put on something better for being together after we get lunch ready. You look really nice by the way. Isn’t being naked all the time the best? They call it ‘nudist’. We’ll all be nudists here at Havenrest. Come on, you won’t believe this kitchen,” and they walked away, leaving Clarice and I alone.
Chapter 7 Clarice Drops a Bombshell
Clarice stood up and melted into my chest in a warm hug. She, unlike Raven, was as naked as Lark and I already. I kissed her and held her for a moment.
As her head lay against my chest, nuzzling my breast, she said, “Sweetie, Lark already told you that we have a difficult thing to discuss this afternoon. I won’t hide it from you. How does she know these things, by the way? Anyway, come with me and we’ll start to deal with it.”
Clarice led me to the little bedroom where I’d spent my first nights here at Havenrest.
She said, “Crawl up on the bed and sit up against the headboard. We have a movie we have to watch. I’m going to stay with you.”
I did as she said, and when I was situated, she sat beside me and leaned into my side.
She said, “Sweetie, when we were cleaning up, I asked Roger to review all of the recordings of everything that happened for the eight hundred years that we were asleep and see if he found anything significant. It took a little while to teach him what I meant by ‘significant’, but he finally learned to ignore animals peeing on the front door, which he thought was very significant and warranted hunting them down and exterminating them. Anyway, he did identify about fifty significant events and I reviewed them, and one in particular is something that you will want to see. It will explain some important things for you. It won’t be easy to watch and Lark was right, it may be very emotional, and it might make you…um, experience a wide range of emotions. But, I know that you’ll want to know the truth. But, Sweetie, I’m really sorry about this. But we’re all here for you.”
I asked, “Clarice, what is it? Lark said that it’s hard, but afterward we’ll all be even more in love or something like that.”
Clarice stroked my bare chest lovingly and said, “I hope so. Lark knows better than me about things like that. I was really happy to hear her say that was how it will be. I didn’t know what to think of it. Like she says, I’m different than she is, and in this regard, she’s much better at seeing what will happen after you watch this.”
I said, “OK. I’m ready. I think. What do I need to do?”
At that moment, a panel on the wall facing the foot of the bed opened up and a large TV monitor appeared.
Clarice said, “The video quality is bad because the camera lens hadn’t been cleaned for a long time when this was recorded, but the audio is OK. Joshua, it’s about your parents and what happened to them. And, um, about your other grandmothers daughters; Honey’s and Buttercup’s and Peach’s. The ones that we didn’t know about before. I wish it was different. I really do. Remember what we have now and how much we all love each other, OK? We are happy and in love now and safe, so remember all of that as we watch this.”
I pulled Clarice into my side and took a deep breath and said, “OK. Let’s see it and we’ll find the treasure that Lark said is waiting for us. Go ahead.”
I watched as the screen at the foot of the bed lit up and showed blurred images of several people approaching the door to the guest house. As Clarice had said, the lens of the camera was dirty and it was difficult to see any details, but the audio was clear enough. It looked to me like there were two adults and a couple of younger children. They stopped about ten feet or so from the door and a man spoke first.
The man said, “It looks pretty bleak.”
The other adult, apparently a woman replied, “It looks like crap.”
I asked Clarice, “Is this my mom and dad?”
She answered me, “I’m afraid so. I’m so sorry. This was about fifteen years after we last saw Pops, after we went into hibernation. We don’t know how they got there, and there’s no recording of…um, of them, after this.”
The video continued. Clark and Irene, my father and mother. I listened closely to the exchange of dialog between them.
Clark: Irene, why have you gotten so bitter? This isn’t my fault. The world fell apart and we have to make the best of it.
Irene: I should have married someone from my home town and skipped all this crap with your stupid family and their unholy lifestyle and that abomination Brenda the robot and this horrid house and especially these horrid freaks.
Clark: Irene, they are my little sisters; no matter what you say.
Irene: Your little sisters are as much abominations as the robot. And the fact that you even call them your sisters makes you a spawn of the devil as much as they are.
Clark: They are not abominations. They are Pops’ and Buttercup and Honey and Peach’s children, my little sisters. They are more human than you have ever been. They are flesh and blood and wonderful girls.
Irene: They are artificial embryos, extracted from women who should never have had children. And don’t call those women by those stupid names. They were Paige, Heather, and Claire. They were never legally married, not that anyone really is anymore, but they should never have had children and carried on this stupid family of yours. In fact, you and your son should have never been born either. At least he won’t be carrying on your family traditions. He’s better off dead. I’m glad he is.
I was horrified at this point. My own mother was glad that I was dead? She wished that I’d never been born? Yeah, that’s a hard thing for a son to hear. The video continued.
Clark: Irene, look, I’ve put up with you for a long time, and you just get worse with every passing year. We used to love each other. What happened. Why aren’t you more like your mother?
Irene: Leave my mother out of this. She was as stupid as the rest of you. Thank heaven she wasn’t allowed to marry your father and be part of this whole thing. She was damaged. Well, it’s settled, we aren’t going to live here again. I’m glad of that. And I’m not staying in this village either. Take me somewhere else. Crap. The whole stinking world is crap. Get me a house somewhere and these four little demons will do the chores from now on and I will at least be able to get some well-deserved rest.
Clark: Rest? You’ve never worked a day in your life. E
ven when we ran the resort, you just let everyone else wait on you hand a foot. And, my sisters are beautiful girls and when they’re a bit older, they’ll make some man a good wife. Better than you have ever been. I can’t believe I just said that, but it’s true. I loved you. That’s why I didn’t follow in my dad’s footsteps and have a big family like he did. He was happy and so were my mothers. But I loved you and did everything for you. You know, you made Brenda’s life a living hell. She could have been so much more. Alice was.
Irene: Don’t talk to me. Brenda was a machine. I didn’t make her life a living hell as you put it. She wasn’t alive. And Alice was the most evil thing ever created by man. She was living porn. She should have been burned at the stake and your father with her.
Clark: You bitch!
Irene: Don’t talk to me like that!
Clark: You Bitch! You horrid bitch! I did love you, but now I wish you were dead. Yeah, it’s you who should be dead, not Pops or my moms or Alice, or even Brenda. Even Brenda had more of a heart than you do. You are the evil robot, you satanic shrew! I’ll raise my sisters by myself and you can go to hell. A few years from now they will have husbands and families and you will be a distant nightmare.
Irene: Oh no they won’t! These little demons will never have husbands. I won’t allow it. They will be the last of their freakish kind and your family will die out with them. I’ll let them live, but they’ll work for their food and they’ll never have husbands or children. From now on, my one goal in life will be to make sure that these freaks are the last of your father’s abominations. They might be useful, but they won’t be happy.
Clark: Irene, I won’t let you do that. I have never opposed you, until now, but this is over.
I watched in horror as Clark, my father, turned his back on my mother…and Irene grabbed a tree branch from the ground at her feet and swung it at Clark’s head. And I watched as he crumpled to the ground, probably dead.
Irene said, “Well, come with me you little wretches,” and the recording ended.
Clarice hugged me tightly. I could tell that she was crying. Her body was artificial, but her emotions were real.
As for myself, I hadn’t shed a tear, yet. I was shocked, but still assimilating the information. And processing the emotions.
I said, “Let me process this out loud for a few minutes. Thank you for showing me this. I had to know. I think that since I didn’t know that my mother was like this, I probably grew up a lot better than I could have. Wow, that would have been way more traumatic, if I had lived with that as a kid. As it is, I’m pretty self-confident and can love and be loved just fine. Then again, I don’t really remember anything about my mom or dad, so who knows what it was really like. I guess that you know better than me.”
Clarice said, “Sweetie, we lived pretty much separate from them. Your mom stayed aloof and we didn’t really even know her very well.”
I said, “And she murdered my dad. And she thought that I was dead and she was happy about it. And she hated Pops and my grandmothers and wanted all of them dead. I guess that part of that could be attributed to the hardships of the cataclysm, but my dad said that Irene hated Brenda even before that, and she said herself that she hated my family from the start. OK, but that isn’t the issue, is it? No, the issue is that my dad had little sisters…how many were there in the video.”
Clarice said, “We counted four.”
I went on, “He had four little sisters and Irene…wow, I can’t even think of her as my mom. Since I don’t remember her, it’s like I never knew her, so she’s just a horrid woman who hated my family and murdered my dad. And worse yet, according to her own words, she intended to enslave my beautiful little aunts.
My gosh, they were the first of the Nogud - and Irene is the one who started the whole Nogud tradition! She is the one who declared them defective and untouchable! My own mother! Well, Mom, this hatred and wishing one of us was dead is pretty much mutual now! You bitch! If there was a witch of the haunted wood, it was you! You swore to make sure that they were never happy; well, I’ve sworn to make sure that they are and if you were still alive, we would now be mortal enemies. Your legacy is going to be torn down very, very soon. Sorry to disappoint you Mom, but I am carrying on my family lifestyle of having as many wives as will love me and I am making the lives of the ‘little sisters’ as happy and sexually fulfilling as I can. And if you thought Brenda wasn’t real, well to hell with you because Clarice is my wife and we lived under your own roof and you never knew that I loved Brenda’s own sister! To hell with you.
My gosh, Clarice, the little sisters really were my dad’s little sisters! OK. We need a plan. I need your help.”
Clarice said soothingly, “Of course My Prince. You are the Hero of the Eight Villages and it’s my privilege to love you and do what I can for you. You are my king. As far as I’m concerned, you are the only king and these people will see that the eight villages as they call them, are your true kingdom. Your word, especially concerning the little sisters is law. Not just in our house, but in the entire world as far as we know it. And I will be your enforcer. Tell me the plan and every resource will be yours to command.”
I was a little amused at Clarice’s choice of words, but it did somehow make me feel a little better…and very empowered and very loved.
I said, “Most of the plan is already in place. We just have to execute it. I want to get it done as soon as we can. First, I want the markers for the path here installed. Before morning if we can do it. Viola and Aspen are bringing the stone markers to the edge of the property, by Paul’s fence this afternoon. I want them in place as soon as possible. The wooden crests may not be here until tomorrow, but by the end of the day tomorrow I want the path for the freedom walk marked and ready.”
Clarice said, “It shall be done. Mandy and Wendy will be on their way in the next ten minutes.”
I said, “Have them wait until I get to see everyone at lunch. They can leave afterward.”
Clarice said reverently, “As you wish, My King.”
I thought and then continued, “Aspen will come day after tomorrow. But tomorrow, unless you tell me different, you and I will take one of the cars and we’ll go west until we find Antonio, the Merchant of Women, and I will tell him that I am abolishing the school for girls and have him agree to never take girls there again. When he has girls who want to go to a school, he’ll bring them to Bonvale and we’ll have a school in the village. I don’t know how yet, but we’ll figure it out.
After we find Antonio, he’ll tell me where the school is and we’ll go there and deal with things. I’ll shut it down before nightfall tomorrow. Any girls that we find there will come to Paul’s farm, or to Aaron’s with us and we’ll have them stay there until we decide what to do. Or we’ll take them to Antonio and he’ll care for them until they come to Bonvale. Whether they’re Nogud or not. Any Nogud will come straight here to be with us, or with Paul or Aaron.”
Clarice said, “You want to take a car out in public? Do you want to travel by night?”
I said, “No. The Wizard of Bonvale travels like a wizard. We could ride unicorns, but we don’t have any big enough yet. And a car will be more comfortable. If we knew what village he was in, we could take a boat, but we don’t know where to find him. We know that he headed east, so we’ll go west and loop around until we find him. Does the car have enough range to make the trip?”
Clarice said, “Yeah, no problem.”
I said, “Good. I don’t think that we’ll have to go more than half way to find Antonio. I don’t know where the school is, but the entire loop is only about eighty miles, according to Paul.”
Clarice said, “The car will be able to go about 30 miles per hour on the roads as they are now.”
I said again, “Good. We’ll find Antonio early in the morning. Have the girls pack a lunch for me. If we have to stay away overnight, Aspen can wait one more day. Part of the plan will have to be determined when we have more information.”
/> Chapter 8 What About Brenda
I paused for a minute and then asked, “Clarice, what happened to Brenda?”
Clarice said, “She was put in storage after Pops took Clark and Irene away.”
I said, “But you said that she was like Roger. Is she still viable? Would it be possible to wake her up and for her to be happy somehow? I mean, can I make it up to her somehow?”
Clarice said, “Um, she was limited. I don’t know how exactly, but I can look into it. Her body is fully functional, because she was more or less built from the same pattern as Alice, but toned down sexually. All of her parts work, but she was never allowed to use them. As far as her intellect and personality and ability to be more ‘real’, I don’t know.”
I said, “I want us to try. I want Brenda to have a chance to be happy too. Do whatever it takes. Like if she needs to be repaired or whatever.”
Clarice asked, “And if her AI can be um, not as limited?”
I said, “I want us to un-limit her as much as possible. If she is still her, but better and more able to enjoy life, then let’s do it. But if she can only be ‘an other’ as the nymphs say, let’s leave her asleep. I only want to wake her up if she can be happy with us.”
Clarice asked again, “And what about being really happy? Will she be loved? Even sexually?”
I said, “If she’s capable of experiencing it and enjoys it, then yes. Unless for some reason you and the nymphs don’t want her to.”
Clarice said, “No. The nymphs and I would be thrilled. Really. It would be wonderful. I will spend some time tonight and talk to her and see what I think of the possibilities. I can have a talk with her without waking up her body. If it seems like she can be happy, I will go find her and examine her for damage. Would it be OK if I do some upgrades if it looks like she can live again?”
The Wounded Page 7