Brom shook his head. “It’s not something you learn to do, exactly. It just happens when you associate closely with someone, if the chemistry is right.”
“Chemistry?”
“In this context, it means that you are compatible and mutually attracted. It grows if nothing interferes.”
She considered. “When we stood close together, and you comforted me, was that love?”
“Not by itself. But it could be the beginning of a feeling that grows into love as time passes.”
“Please, comfort me again.”
“Oh, I do not mean to take advantage!”
She winced. “Offense given again?”
“No! Aliena, you never offended me. It’s just that with your sex appeal--” He broke off at her blank look.
“Appeal sex,” she said. “This is something I have? That I should not?”
Brom gathered his mental resources and spoke as clearly and accurately as he could manage. “There are different kinds of emotions. Love is when two people genuinely like and need each other. But for a man it can be simpler. A man would like to have sex with any attractive woman regardless of love. That is, to breed her. To mate with her.”
“To mate. That I know. To reproduce.”
“Exactly. You are, that is your human body is, a remarkably fetching thing, and when I get close to it I feel like—like mating. That is your sex appeal. So I am careful, because that is not appropriate. We don’t know each other well enough.”
“How well must we know each other to mate?”
He spread his hands. “That is something that must come out of the situation. My point is that normally a man wants to mate, while a woman is more careful, because she is the one who gets pregnant and bears the baby. So she prefers a firm commitment first.”
“What leads to such a commitment?”
“Well, normally the two form a couple. They do things together. They embrace and kiss. And if--”
“Kiss?”
“They put their mouths together and suck a bit,” he said bluntly, thinking that would turn her off.
“Please, I would like to experience this, so that I can try to understand it.”
Brom knew he should try to dissuade her, but suddenly the idea of kissing her was overwhelmingly appealing. “If you really want to know, I will show you.”
“Yes, please.”
“It starts with the, the comfort position.”
“Yes! I can do that.” She stood as he did, and approached him. Her hair, now brushed out, was long and lustrous, with a gentle curl. Beautiful? She was a knockout.
He took her in his arms. “Now lift your face, and I will lower mine, so that our mouths can touch.”
She lifted her face. He lowered his. Their mouths touched. Hers was mushy.
He drew back. “Firm your lips.” Then he tried again. This time she was firm.
He felt as if he were touching a little bit of heaven. He kissed her deeply, then drew back, surprised by the potency of what was supposed to be a demonstration.
“I felt it!” she said, amazed. “A warm rush of feeling!”
“That’s it,” he agreed. “You mind may not know it, but your body does, and it responded. That could be just a passing effect, or it could be the beginning of love.”
“The body,” she agreed. “It knows what I do not. That is surely an avenue.”
“An avenue,” he agreed.
“Please. Again?”
“I’m not sure that’s wise. We don’t want to get carried away by the moment.”
“Please. I want to learn love.”
“Aliena--”
He was cut off as she rose on tiptoes and caught his mouth with hers. This time she was firm from the start. She pressed herself against him so that he could feel her breasts at his chest. What a dream she was!
She let him go. “It was stronger. I am learning.”
“You certainly are,” he agreed, his pulses racing.
“The body I think is made for love. I yield to it and learn.”
“Enough! I am trying to treat you with proper respect. Don’t make me lose control.”
“If you lose control, what will you do?”
“Breed you,” he said succinctly. “And we might both regret it.”
“Mating. You said pregnant. What is that?”
“Let’s return to the chairs, and I’ll explain.”
They sat down again. This time she crossed her legs. The hem of the dress snagged, exposing too much of her thigh.
“Pull your dress down,” he said.
“It is wrong?”
“You are showing your leg almost up to your panty line. That is provocative.”
“Offense?”
“No. It’s another inducement for me to mate.”
She adjusted the hem. “I did not know. I apologize.”
“No need.” Then he plowed on. “When two human beings mate, and it takes, his seed is inside her. It meets with her egg, and it grows inside her.”
“Inside her!” she said, as if surprised.
“Yes. It grows for about nine months, until she births it. Then she has a baby. She suckles it—that it, it sucks on her breasts and they provide milk—and that is what feeds it. It is completely dependent on her. So unless she wants to have a baby, with the attendant responsibility, she is careful about mating.” He paused. “It is different in your culture?”
“Very different,” she agreed. “I agree, mating should be carefully considered. It is far more committing than I realized. Thank you for teaching me this.”
“Oh, you’re welcome,” he agreed bemused. What kind of culture kept girls ignorant of the mechanics and consequences of mating? This was over-protectiveness on steroids.
“The man is stimulated by the sight and proximity of the woman, and wishes to mate, and depart?”
“In essence, yes.”
“But the woman wishes the man to stay?”
“Yes, to help her take care of the child they make.”
“So she seeks commitment. What causes the man to commit?”
“Love.”
She pondered, working it out. “If I wish to be a part of this culture, and not to be alone, I must obtain the love of a man.”
“That’s a vast oversimplification, but in essence, yes.”
“But the mechanism of love seems similar to the mechanism for mating. How can they be separated?”
“Ideally, they go together.”
“But if the male and female preferences differ, how can they?”
Brom smiled. “This is the age-old problem, perhaps the basis for the so-called war between men and women. They have to find way to compromise.”
“Compromise?”
“Each gives somewhat, and obtains somewhat. They try to find a middle ground where they can interact that satisfies them both. It’s called dating.”
“This middle ground—where is it?”
Now he laughed, feeling more comfortable. “It is not a place but a convention. They agree to meet and do things together, like eating out or seeing a movie. They may hold hands and kiss, but mostly they talk about mutual interests.”
“Not mating?”
“Not mating but with the chance that it could occur. That is the lure that holds the man.”
“I would like to do these things, learning love. May I date with you?”
“At the moment, with the power outage, the movies and restaurants won’t be operating. But at such time as they are, I will be glad to do it, Aliena.”
“Still we can talk, and hold hands, and kiss.”
She was single-minded, plainly unaware of the suggestive nature of the process. Aliena was amazingly innocent. He was beginning to appreciate why Martha had kept her secluded. Yet the temptation to interact with this lovely creature was compelling. “We can do these things,” he agreed.
Now she gave him a straight look. “I have enormous things to learn of this body and this culture. You are generous in teachin
g me. I do know this much: a person should not take without giving something equivalent. How may I repay you for the burden I am to you?”
“I think we have discussed this before, Aliena. You are not a burden. This storm and power failure prevent me from working, and I am highly intrigued by you. I truly have nothing better to do today than be with you, and I am enjoying your company.”
“Because this body is esthetic and you would like to mate with it?”
Yet again Brom schooled himself to be literal. “That is true. I am a man and I react like a man. But also it is that the loss of Lucy left a void in my life, and you are filling it for the moment.”
“Lucy, your girlfriend whom you loved. Whose clothing I am wearing.”
“Yes.”
“Whom you mated with.”
“Yes, though we did not have children. There are ways to do it without generating babies, so sex can become part of the interaction.”
She pounced on it. “If I utilize a way to prevent pregnancy, then I can mate with you without consequence and that will repay you for your kindness.”
Again, the temptation was becoming overwhelming. “That would abate the physical consequence but not the emotional consequence.”
“Love.”
“Love,” he agreed. “I know little about your background, Aliena, but I suspect that you are destined for greater things than having an affair with the likes of me. I’m just your neighbor, of no consequence. You don’t want to love me.”
She focused on him again with that disturbing intensity. “I am taking advantage of your kindness. You must be fully candid with me. Do you wish to avoid love with me?”
She was supremely ignorant but also intelligent and motivated. He had to make her understand. “Aliena, love is a joy to both parties. But when it ends it can be such pain as to cause a person to—to want to die. As Lucy did. I do not want to inflict that on you, or suffer it myself. I am afraid that your destiny does not include me, and I do not wish to compromise it. I am helping you now because you need help, knowing that our relationship is likely to end when your friends return. It’s nice associating with you, and I would like to have it continue on a personal basis, but love is no necessary part of it, nice as it might be.”
Her expression firmed. She was getting better at showing feelings. “If I learn love from you, I will not allow it to be broken. I will not do to you what Lucy did. The people I work with will not oppose it once I make my preference clear.” She paused briefly. “But when you know me better, you may not wish to have it. I am not the pretty girl you see. I am a foreign person you may not like. Then I will let you go, and I will suffer. But I understand the risk, and wish to take it. Please, do you wish to avoid it?”
What could he say? “No. I know you are foreign, from far away. What I am coming to know is your mind in this body. Both appeal to me.” He took a breath. “Strongly. I doubt that further revelations of your nature will change my mind. So I may be foolish, knowing so little about you, but I think I would like to love you, if you loved me in return.”
She smiled. “Then we can date. Hold me. Kiss me.”
Brom opened his mouth to protest, but was unable. This was crazy, but he wanted it. He stood, and she stood. They came together. He hugged her and kissed her, and she hugged and kissed him back. Her whole body was heavenly, and her enthusiasm was infectious. It did feel like dawning love.
“I am feeling more,” she said. “We must do this often, and I think I will get there. But I will give you sex now if you wish.”
“Not yet,” he said quickly. “No until you are sure you want it.”
“I am as yet unsure,” she agreed. “But I believe I will want it before long.”
“When it is your choice, I will be ready.”
“I do have emotions. They do not connect well with the expressions of the body, but I am trying to align them. Love is new to me; I must learn that whole. I think that with you that is possible.”
“Like one of the encrypted quotes games in the newspaper,” he said. “Every letter is false, but with insight and patience you can find the pattern and correct the alignments. As for love, it is new to everyone, the first time. I’m not sure it even is an emotion by itself; it’s more like a combination of emotions, with the whole being more than the sum of its parts.”
“I do not know this game, but it may be a suitable analogy. Please, show it to me.”
Brom fetched the day’s newspaper and opened it to the games page. “This is a sentence, but as you can see it is garbled.”
“I do not see. These marks are significant?”
He glanced at her, surprised. “You can’t read?”
“I have not yet been taught that. I am still learning language and other things.”
He was taken aback, but it did make sense. First she had to learn to speak and understand English, then how to translate it into the written word. “Then it is a bad analogy. I did not mean to embarrass you.”
“Please, teach me reading.”
“Aliena, that is a long, slow, difficult process that takes years to master.”
“I am a fast learner.”
He would have to show her. “I will read this headline aloud while I point out the words.” He spread the newspaper flat and pointed with his forefinger. “HURRICANE BLOWS TOWARD CITY. SCHOOLS CLOSED. POWER OUTAGES EXPECTED.”
Aliena smiled. “Marvelous! Speech is recorded in symbols. I must learn this. Please read more.”
He read the full article to her, and she followed his moving finger raptly. Then when he stopped, she looked at another article, and read out those words that duplicated the ones in the first. She was getting it!
“Aliena, I am amazed! I identify a given word once, and you have it.”
“Is this not how it is learned?”
He laughed. “It took me years to learn, and then it was by a different system. Instant sight recognition is something else.”
“Read me more.”
They went through several pages together, and soon she was able to read most of new articles by herself. Overwhelmed by her instant proficiency, he leaned close and kissed her on the cheek. In this respect, she was a genius!
“This is favor?” she asked.
“Yes. I am pleased by your progress and just had to express myself.”
“I like this expression.”
Brom got up and went to the door again. The winds remained high, and there was no sign of the return of anyone next door. “It seems it’s a long haul. We had better eat something.”
“Eat,” she agreed. “I was distracted. Now I know I feel hunger.”
He rummaged in the defunct refrigerator. “We can have milk, and bread and jam. And there’s some ice cream that’s melting; we had better eat that first. It’s not much, but without power we have to scramble.”
“I prefer to do this with you than to have an elaborate meal by myself.”
“I echo the sentiment,” he said, gratified. They smiled at each other, and hers seemed increasingly genuine.
“I am curious,” he said as they ate. “Your language syntax obviously differs from mine. When you get disturbed, you revert to it. I am not objecting; I think it’s cute. But I wonder: how would you say something like ‘Honey I shrunk the kids’?”
“Flying insect vomit, self diminished the young goats,” she said immediately.
Brom laughed so hard he spewed jam on the table. “I love it!” he gasped.
“It does not annoy you?”
“Not at all. It’s you. But I agree that you should speak like us ordinarily, so as not to attract attention.”
“I will do that,” she agreed.
“Your toothbrush is locked in your house,” he said as they finished. “I think Lucy had a clean one.”
“I will use that.”
“And there’s another problem. With no running water, we also have no drainage. We can’t use the sink or the toilets. We will have to use buckets for natural functions, a
nd dump them in the garden out back. Do you understand?”
“Can I sit on a bucket?”
“Maybe we can frame it with a toilet seat. Will that do?”
“Show me.”
“Um, suppose I pantomime it in my clothing?”
“Seeing me do this would disturb you?”
“Yes. It would be a phenomenal violation of your personal privacy. As a general rule, men can do such things in the company of men, and women with women. But only long-married couples do them together, and many don’t then.”
“Pantomime,” she agreed.
He fetched a bucket, set his spare toilet seat on it, and carefully sat on it in his pants. “Bare your ass. Shit and piss as in a toilet.”
“Ass? Shit and piss?”
“Your posterior portion. Defecate and urinate. I used vulgar terms that people do in private. I thought they would be clearer.”
“I will learn vulgar terms.”
“I will tell you all of them. But do not use them to others.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
“Now I will set up my own bucket in another room, and leave you to yours.”
In due course they accomplished their missions, and Brom dug a hole in the garden and buried the deposits. The winds remained fierce, buttressed by fits of rain, and he was glad to get back inside.
“You are wet,” Aliena said solicitously. “May I dry you?”
Brom discovered that he was soaked through, and cold. “You really don’t need to. I can strip down, dry off and put on new clothing on my own.”
“You have done much for me. I would like to do things for you.”
She meant well, and he did not want to reject her. “Here is the problem: if I were to strip naked in your presence, I would suffer the masculine reaction, embarrassing us both.”
“I do not understand.”
“I would show my readiness to mate with you.”
“But I am not yet ready to mate.”
“Exactly. Naturally I would not force you, but you would not want to see my state of arousal.”
“Please, I want to see. I do not know this state.”
What the hell. “I fear I am doing the wrong thing, but I will show you.”