David Larson - The Myth of the Anal Probe

Tawny pointed at Mike.

“This is my friend Mike,” she said.

“Hi Mike,” the boy said cheerfully. “How are you?”

Mike was taken a little aback by the small boy’s grown demeanor.

“I’m fine,” Mike said. “How are you?”

“I’m great,” he said.

“We just had a spelling test Tawny,” he added

“How’d you do buddy?” she asked.

“I got all of them right,” he said.

“That’s great Axel,” Tawny said as she mussed his hair.

Mike felt as though he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. The boy turned and ran back into the class room.

“Bye Mike,” he said over his shoulder.

“Is that your son?” Mike asked in dumbfounded amazement.

Tawny was a little surprised herself by Mike’s reaction.

“Yes, it is,” she said. “Isn’t he a cutie?”

This was it. Tawny had just introduced him to her son. What woman would introduce a man to her son unless she was certain that she wanted him to be a part of her life? This was the answer he was looking for. And when combined with what had happened the night before he was certain that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.

“He certainly is,” Mike agreed. “Does Bob ever come here to see him?”

“I have to assume he does,” Tawny said cautiously.

“You mean you don’t know,”

“We’ve never talked about it,” Tawny said. “Everyone comes here and spends as much time with the children as they can. I have to assume Bob has been here also. I can’t think of a reason he wouldn’t be.”

She was becoming a little more concerned as the conversation went on. But just like her earth-bound brethren, Tawny decided to let things go and see where they ended up before becoming too alarmed. Mike was a reasonable person. And she was sure that he was absorbing everything about the raising of children, just as he had absorbed other aspects of Haleian life that were much more complex.

But the one thing that she was not capable of understanding was the effect human physical relationships had on human actions. She and Mike had been intimate and it was possibly the most intensely gratifying sexual experience she had ever had. But that certainly couldn’t mean that it would somehow change the person that Mike had been up until then. There was no reason for that. Sexual relationships in her society were like anything else, completely logical, open and sharing. Having sexual relationships with more than one person, occasionally at the same time, were everyday events here.

Tawny instantly decided that she was simply being overly cautious. She had been involved so deeply in making sure that Mike being here didn’t negatively impact either society or Mike himself, that she had lost the ability to be subjective.

She decided to wait and see what happened before she sounded any undue alarm.

The tables in the common area had been moved to the edge of the floor and people were dancing. Mike sat with Bob, Brizio, Mia, and Kate near the entrance. A soft tropical breeze was wafting through the trees and flowers surrounding them, depositing the delicate aroma of tropical Hale gently on their senses.

Tawny had been sitting with them for a while until she saw someone across the room that she needed to speak with. The conversation going on around Mike was ancillary and muted. He watched Tawny glide across the floor and couldn’t stop thinking about the time they had spent together. He hated to see her go, but he loved watching her walk away.

“…don’t you think Mike? Bob was saying. “Ever?”

“Uh, what?” Mike said.

“Wow,” Bob said. “What planet were you just on?”

Bob was smiling broadly.

“Get it?” He said. “What planet… oh never mind.”

“I’m sorry,” Mike said. “I guess I was lost in thought.”

“Lost in something,” Mia said.

“I hear you went to the children’s center yesterday,” Brizio said.

“Yeah,” Mike said absently. “I did. Pretty fascinating.”

“Do you have schools like that on earth?” Kate asked.

“We have schools,” Mike said. He was still watching Tawny as she sat talking to a group of people. “But they certainly aren’t like they are here,” he said.

“Yeah,” Bob said. “They certainly aren’t.”

“How so?” Kate asked.

“Children start school around 6 years old first of all,” Mike said.

“What do they do before that?” Mia asked.

“They stay at home and grow up I guess,” Mike said. “But the biggest difference is the structure and curriculum. Everybody takes basically the same classes, until they get into the 9th or 10th grade. Even then, there isn’t a wide diversity offered.”

“Wait,” Brizio asked. “They have to be, what 16 or 17 years old then, right?”

“Yeah, that’s about right. People don’t go to specialized schools until they graduate. They’re 17 or 18 by then.”

“That’s…” Mia said.

“Screwed up?” Bob offered.

Tawny was sitting on a bench talking to the other people around her now. A man that Mike had never seen before was standing behind her, and he had his hand on Tawny’s shoulder. Mike wanted to get up, walk over there, break the guy’s arm off, and systematically beat him to death with it. There was another side of him that kept yelling into his subconscious that things were different here. But his lizard brain was punching the voice of reason into submission. He reached deep into his reasonable side and pulled himself back into the conversation.

“I met Axel yesterday,” He said to Bob.

The comment was men to be as innocent as it could possibly be. But if he were to take a minute to be self-aware Mike would have realized it was more of an indictment against Bob. His tone punctuated that idea around the table.

“Oh,” Bob said in a clipped way that was not characteristic of Bob’s quick wit.

“Yeah,” Mike said. “Cute kid.”

“Yeah, he sure is,” Bob said cautiously. “Smart as a whip too.”

“Do you ever go see him?” Mike asked.

Mia and Kate were sitting across from Mike and Bob. They both looked up at Mike. They were uncomfortable with where this conversation was going. Not because of anything that had been said, but more due to Mike’s sudden darkness. This was certainly something new to polite society on Hale.

“Sure,” Bob said. “Almost every day. But I go see all of the kids over there. We all do.”

“But do you spend special time with Axel?

“Things aren’t the same here,” Bob said. “I would imagine that phrase is getting a little redundant by now. But the children are the future of our society here. No one person takes ownership of any one child.”

Bob was sitting right next to Mike. Mike was hearing what Bob was saying but he kept looking across the room at Tawny.

“Look buddy,” Bob said. “We should probably have a little private conversation soon.”

It was way too obvious that Mike and Tawny had shared something personal together, and Bob was pretty sure what that thing was. He was also sure that each person in that pair perceived that action in completely different ways. Bob was horrified that Tawny would have taken a chance like that. She knew that giving into something as primal as that with someone that could barely understand the concept of a society with no money, let alone something as deep as personal relationships, was like tossing gas on a bonfire.

The man standing behind Tawny said something to the group. Tawny turned her face towards him and he kissed her… on the lips. Mike’s face flushed red and he jumped to his feet. Both his hands were balled into fists, and he stopped. Frozen there in that microsecond, caught between an irrational act and conscious control.