I walked slowly on my way to the apartment at a loss to
fully understand the situation. I was still lost in my thoughts as I wandered
up the stairs, down the hall and into the gallery.
I released Tina as she pouted at the thought of imagined
rejection. When she was free of the bed, I pulled her to me, and groped her
body roughly as I said:
"Your not free of me Tina, but I need you to bring
the books from the attic to the library so I can start reading them. I need
some answers."
When I let her go she was happy again as she trailed
ropes behind her, on the way to do my bidding. I watched her go, then found
Flow, indicated I wanted a pot of coffee brought to the library, then went
there. I arrived just as Tina brought in the first load of books from the
attic.
*** *** *** *** ***
First, I wanted to know about this tower, and how it was
built, and maybe even it's purpose. I was still puzzled over what I calculated
to be about twenty feet of apparently missing hall. I had other questions too,
but as I browsed through the books I decided not to worry about anything beyond
the bounds of my small territory for now. Finally I selected a volume which
seemed to deal with the towers more than the others and sat down to read.
I don't know what I expected to find in that book, but
what I did find was a set of documents written as a chronicle of the towers
building. Most of the information may have been of interest if I were a student
of engineering, but was of no value to me.
I got up in disgust, threw the book down on the large
central table, poured myself a cup of coffee from the pot Flow had just brought
in, then went out into the hall and gazed out a window at the city below.
Wishing I knew enough to figure out the reason everything seemed upside down,
sort of blurry, out of focus.
*** *** *** *** ***
Tina returned to the attic after leaving the last arm
load of books in the library. Geof had been lost in his own thoughts by the
library door and didn't seem aware of her when she tried to tell him all the
books were on the table, so she'd left him there and wandered back to the
attic.
*** *** *** *** ***
Flow had left the coffee in the library, then retired to
the kitchen. She liked it there were she could be close to her long time friend
and associate, Naomi, and keep up on any gossip. Flow didn't gossip much, she
couldn't, but she found it helpful if she stayed up on what the help was
saying. Having learned that nearly all gossip is at least based in some sort of
truth, and Naomi always had some sort of secret to share with Flow.
From Naomi's point of view, Flow was the perfect person
to pour herself out to, since Flow could be counted on to keep her own counsel,
and never passed anything on she was told.
Flow and Naomi were together in the kitchen sharing
gossip over coffee when they were summoned to the women's living room. Their
eyes met as they were told to come immediately, the women were having a meeting
and had some questions for Flow.
"Now what?" was the silent communication.
*** *** *** *** ***
Lana, Debbie, Toni, Lavern, and Cindy had all met at
breakfast in the dining room that morning. Their meal was finished and the table
cleared when Lana told the others the time ad come for some action to be taken.
Lana began:
"The Counsel is trying to take credit for our
achievements. If we do not act very soon they will be able to take our success
and publicly take credit for it. It was our group, not the Counsel who proposed
the idea of enlisting male cooperation as a necessary part of
propagation."
"At the onset, the Council opposed our plan for
various reasons, but mostly because they don't want to return to a world where
men have any hold over a woman at all. While we all know we wouldn't want to be
subjugated the way history shows women were in the past, there is one very
serious flaw with total separation of men and women. The human propagation rate
may as well be zero."
"We are among the youngest women in this city, and
all of us are over twenty five. True there are a few women younger than we are,
but only a scattered few. What all this means is that if we don't reproduce
within the next five years, there will be almost no hope of our species
survival."
"The Counsel knows this too. For this reason they
grudgingly allowed us to select a man and try our theory of willing cooperation
on the part of the male. It appears we have found the answer to the problems
that have plagued all the Counsels attempts to solve the propagation problem,
but if we allow them to take credit, as they are, and control the mating
process, even superficially, it will be a failure."
"The reason lies within the men, not women. We have
proved that if the male wants to cooperate, reproduction is assured. The
Counsels methods have repeatedly proved that, without the cooperation of the
male, mating is futile at best. We don't know why this is, but it is, and since
it is, then we are doomed to failure, if we don't recognize the problem and
remove the obstacle."
There was a period of silence while the four others let
what Lana had been saying, time to sink in. In general all of them were aware
of the situation. During the discussion that followed, it became clear the
problem had been defined but, none of them had any workable idea of how to
surmount the problem. By the end of their discussion they had agreed on the
following points.
It was unanimous that if the Counsel were to be allowed
any control, failure was assured. The Counsel had proven over the years that
they could not change their attitude towards men. It was the Counsels attitude
that had brought the world to the brink of disaster, more than any other one
thing.
The cooperation of men was essential.
Since the men, as a group were un-approachable, there was
only one person who may have any hope of success convincing the numbers of men
needed to be sure of continued human existence. That person was Geof. His
cooperation was needed desperately.
Toni, "I suggest we ask him straight out, and tell
him we need his help."
The silence was complete.
*** *** *** *** ***
The small noises were the first to creep back into the
women's living room. The sound of breathing, a small cough, the tinkle of ice
on a glass, the swish of robes as someone moved, footsteps.
Cindy broke the silence, "You mean trust a
man?"
Tony, "Yes."
Lavern, "It might work, but I don't know."
Tony, "We have one chance, his name is Geof. I don't
want to blow it."
Cindy, "But to trust him with to be reasonable, do
we dare chance it?"
Lana, "Do we have a choice?"
The questions, mostly unanswerable, continued for some
time, finally coming full circle. Lana asked the last question before the group
came to a decision.
"If we need men's cooperation, then we need their
help. Can we expect any help from someone we don't trust?"
Slowly, one by one, the women came to the same point.
There was no choice, they must trust Geof. He was the only choice. There were
no others to choose from.
*** *** *** *** ***
Flow and Naomi came into the women's living room and were
greeted by a very sober, serious attitude. Whatever these women wanted, it was
no joke to them; and it was clear to Flow and Naomi, they intended to get it.
The attitude visibly disturbed Naomi. Flow already knew
what they wanted, and smiled inwardly, then thought to Naomi, "Relax, you
are only here as interpreter, it's me they want to ask their questions of, not
you."
As if on cue, Lana started relating the story of the
women's meeting to Naomi, who in turn signed it to Flow. When the whole
situation had been related to Flow through Naomi, Lana finally asked the
questions she, and the others, wanted answers to.
Flow signed reply to the women was not exactly what they
wanted to hear: "What you are asking is not possible for me to tell you. I
am not a fortune teller. I can however share with you my opinion of the
situation and how Geof will respond to certain approaches."
Flow paused, and Lana couched through Naomi, "Go on."
"Your first question is whether or not Geof can be
trusted. In a word, yes, he can be trusted to react as a man would react. No
more, no less."
Lana. "What does that mean?"
Flow. "He will respond to your attitude toward him,
making his decisions and guiding his acts more in reaction to his perception of
your purpose than to your spoken word of intent."
"Why?" it was Cindy who asked.
"It's ironic that you should be the one to ask why.
Wasn't it you that told him you had no desire to hurt him, then plowed his back
with you nails? Aren't you the only one among this group he has any real cause
to doubt? Didn't you injure him while he was in your bed and arms?"
Cindy sat down, suddenly unable to stand, this was the
first she had heard of her injuring Geof. She didn't remember doing anything
like that, but she did remember his words as he'd told her she would be the
furthest thing from gentle when she came to know the passion of release. She
also remembered her reply as she denied she could ever be anything but gentle.
How had he known?
Cindy finally replied, "I have no memory of doing
any such things. The charges you make against me are serious. Can you support
them?"
"Yes." was Flows one word reply.
Lana interrupted, "I'll support Flow in this,"
she announced, "I'd planned to speak with you about this privately, but
it's come out now, and it's just as well it did. I didn't know how to bring it
up. After we're done with this discussion I want you to come see me about that
subject."
Cindy sat quietly, deep in thought about what she'd just
learned about herself, trying to remember doing what she'd been told she'd
done, and feeling more than slightly embarrassed.
Lana continued the questioning of Flow, "If it were
up to you, how would you go about gaining his cooperation with us?"
Flow thought for just a moment before she answered,
"Honesty, sincerity and respect. Those three words sum up how he will
respond to the way you treat him. That's my opinion."
"Thank You." was the collective response of the
concubines.
*** *** *** *** ***
Tina was still in the attic discovering what the contents
of the dressers, chests, buffets and crates was, when Flow found her. The
meeting in the women's living room had broken up a short time before, and Flow
was here to deliver a message to Tina from the five Concubines.
Actually what Flow had been asked to deliver to Tina was
more of a request than a message. The five women wanted to hear what Tina had
to say about Geof, they wanted Tina's opinion. They wanted as much information
as they could get about Geof, more than that, they needed it. They needed
Geof's willing cooperation and participation in the venture they were planning
to undertake.
Without Geof, there was little hope of success.
The Concubines waited anxiously, Flow delivered the
request solemnly, and Geof read on desperately.
Copyright © 1992
All Rights Reserved
Chapter 36 | Chapter 38
Index | Title Page
| Credits | Preamble | TOC