An adult stories – Loneliest Man Who Ever Lived Ch. 03 by GaryLMMartin,GaryLMMartin The Loneliest Man Who Ever Lived
by Gary L.M. Martin
[Note: This is a romance story with some erotic scenes. It is not a story with erotic scenes in every chapter. Some chapters have incredible sex scenes, but many others have none.]
Chapter 3: Tuesday
“Her name is Goldie MacPherson, and she is a personnel recruiter for The Foundation,” said Carl.
The Foundation. It didn’t take Harry long to recall the name. He yawned as he got out of bed. It was almost 9 AM. He had been in bed for nine hours, but had barely slept a wink.
The Foundation. They had made a number of calls to him over the past few months, all of which Harry had not responded to. They were some kind of bioresearch firm that Harry had absolutely no interest in.
So Goldie was a recruiter for them.
That made no sense at all.
Recruiters recruited people; they didn’t follow them for days and ask them out on dates. Goldie was making much, much more effort than any recruiter would. It’s true that Harry had a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, or would have, if he had completed the formal requirements. But he had no specific knowledge, or skillset, that could be considered vital.
What, then, did The Foundation want with him?
“So she’s not really interested in me, at least, not in the way I’d like,” said Harry.
“Well, wasn’t that obvious from the beginning?” Carl asked.
“Yes,” said Harry. But he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. “But what does she want from me?”
“Presumably, to recruit you.”
“That’s a lot of effort to recruit someone,” said Harry.
“I would imagine you have something they really want.”
Harry shook his head. “There are a thousand biochemists out there. I worked in the field for only a year. No, there’s something more behind this.”
“Are you still going to meet her?”
“Yes.” The answer was easy enough. Harry could either spend another day totally alone in his apartment, watching the stock market, or go out with a beautiful woman who flirted with him and pretended, at least, to find him attractive.
“Where are you going to go?”
“Where do women like to go?” Harry asked. “The ballet, Lincoln Center, Soho, the stores….” His frown grew deeper as he listed each option.
“No, Harry,” said Carl. “If you feel she’s just using you, and I think you’re right about that, by the way, then I think you should use her. Do the things you like to do. She’s volunteering to be your companion, for a day. That’s a rare gift. Use her, Harry. Use her to do the things you really like.”
Harry could think of one thing he’d really like to use her for. Goldie’s sparkling blue eyes and slender face and plush red lips were etched into his memory. She was so attractive. He would never get to use her in that way. But there were more socially acceptable ways he could use her that he would still enjoy. So why not? He nodded. “You’re right.”
********
Goldie gave Harry a radiant smile as she stepped into the lobby of the Hilton at precisely ten minutes after 12. It was good to let the man wait a bit. It established power and control.
“Harry,” she said, smiling broadly as she came up to him. She saw the uncertainty in his face. He didn’t know whether to nod or shake her hand or hug her or… something else.
So Goldie decided for him. She reached out and gave him a broad hug.
When she pulled back, Harry took a good look at her. She was wearing the same beige coat she was wearing the night before, but underneath she was wearing a light blue blouse and jeans. He looked at the curvature of her shirt. Goldie had really nice sized-
“I didn’t know how to dress because I didn’t know where you were taking me,” she said apologetically, noting his stare. “Where are we going, Harry?”
“The Museum of Natural History,” said Harry, watching her face intently, looking for any sign of dismay or disappointment.
Goldie’s face lit up. “I’d be delighted.” She took his arm. “You know, I’ve only see the dinosaurs there once, years ago.”
“We’re not going to see the dinosaurs,” said Harry.
“Oh?” said Goldie. “What else is there?”
“Wait and see,” said Harry.
********
For once, Harry was not wearing his spacesuit. Every time he walked outside, he was always wearing his silvery, metallic, spacesuit. But now, with beautiful, vibrant Goldie hanging onto his arm, he felt like he couldn’t be wearing it. So he was just wearing his black coat and hat.
She smiled at him constantly, as they waited for a cab; while they were in the cab, and even as they stood on line for tickets at the museum. Harry forgot what they talked about; he was focused on her face. She seemed so pleased to be with him. He knew it was fake; he knew it was pretense; and he knew it was very, very temporary; but he resolved to enjoy it for as long as it lasted.
When they got to the museum, they went inside to the entrance rotunda, where Harry bought their tickets. Goldie noticed that he paid for her, and she thanked him. “That’s very nice of you, Harry. Not all men will be kind enough to pay for their women, even on a second date.”
This was all news to Harry.
1) He wasn’t aware that their brief encounter last night, in the coffee shop, had been a date.
2) He wasn’t entirely clear that what they were doing now constituted a date. Harry was all too aware that Goldie was a recruiter, in all probability here to recruit him.
3) Goldie’s reference to herself as his “woman” made Harry nervous. They had barely just met, and now Goldie was already calling herself “his woman.”
It made the farce Harry was participating in seem even less real than it already was. But Harry resolved to soldier on. When was the last time he had been on a date? When was the last time he had even talked to a girl, or had one touch his arm? Harry couldn’t remember.
And yet… as they stood in the entrance hall, Harry felt a thrill go down his spine. The museum was so elegant, with its tall ceilings, marble pillars, marble floors, sconces and chandeliers and elaborate wall carvings. To bring such a finely dressed elegant woman here excited Harry. Goldie, so beautiful and dressed impeccably, felt like she fit right in. One could take an image of her in the museum and she would seem to be a part of it; she was so graceful, so regal. And yet this graceful, beautiful being had come here, to Harry’s most special place, not to see the dinosaur bones, not to see the exhibits, but to be with him. In Harry’s mind, it was the highest class date he had ever been on in his entire life.
After they got their tickets, Goldie wanted to gallop all over the museum. But Harry dug in his heels and said, “Let’s start right here.”
“Here?” Goldie made a face. She looked beautiful even when frowning. “In the lobby?”
“Look around,” said Harry.
Goldie looked around. The Rotunda was big and expansive, four stories tall, with giant marble pillars at all ends. The marble floor was ornate. “Is there something I’m supposed to be seeing, Harry?”
Harry pointed to the walls. “Look.”
And then Goldie saw.
There were tapestries, huge ones, over all the walls. These tapestries had dozens, even hundreds of images sewn into them. There were animals of all kinds–lions, tigers, zebras, exotic birds, mammals, reptiles, more than Goldie could count. But there were also people. Not merely people, but examples of different cultures. There were ancient Egyptians, and Turkish Muslims with red caps on their heads. There were Japanese Samurai. There were kings, queens, and princes. There were scenes that were famous throughout history. And then there was one man, in a white safari hat, with a shotgun over his shoulder, who seemed to appear more than once.
“Who was that, Harry?”
“Teddy Roosevelt,” said Harry. “He started the museum.”
“I did not know that,” said Goldie, her eyes wandering. Now that she noticed it, she saw so many shapes, forms, colors.
“Do you like it?”
Goldie turned and gave him a broad smile. “Yes, Harry. Yes I do.” And when she said it, somehow Harry felt she wasn’t humoring him. Somehow he felt that she really meant it, and what’s more, she appreciated not just but him, his artistic eye, that noticed things that other people didn’t.
They went inside. As Harry promised, they didn’t go to see the dinosaurs. Instead, he took Goldie to see the dioramas.
The American Museum of Natural History was world famous not merely for dinosaur bones, but its impressive collection of dioramas. It had dioramas capturing not just animals, but habitats and vistas from all around the world.
Harry pointed to one, a grizzly bear standing on its hind legs.
“Impressive, Harry,” said Goldie, taking his arm.
“No, behind it,” said Harry.
Goldie looked, and saw a giant mural of snowcapped mountains. It was stunningly beautiful. It was so detailed she felt like she was looking at a real landscape. It took her breath away.
Harry took her from diorama to diorama. Sometimes he called attention to the animals, but mostly he pointed out the landscapes painted behind them. One particularly impressive one featured a sun setting on the African plains. There were shades of pink, yellow, and red all across the scene. Even the landscape and animals carried a yellowish tinge.
“How do they do that, Harry?” Goldie whispered.
“By using hidden colored lights to tint the actual objects in the setting,” said Harry.
“Oh.” Goldie had never seen anything quite like it. It was all so simple, so low tech, and yet still so amazing.
Harry showed her more dioramas. They saw monkeys in a densely forested jungle. They saw a cougar in its den, in front of an amazing landscape painting of the Grand Canyon. Another painting seemed to show a hill descending into a glacier valley, which seemed to rise up as an icy mountain behind it.
“It’s not just the quality of the paintings, but the sense of perspective,” said Goldie. “They make it look like mountains and hills that go on for miles and miles.” She turned to Harry. “You don’t come here for zoological study, do you Harry? This is your own personal art museum, isn’t it?”
Harry smiled, and Goldie saw something in him, something she hadn’t seen before. Harry had a keen sense of vision, an eye for beauty and excellence. He could see what was best in a place, and bring it out and show it to others.
“I sometimes view these as my portals,” Harry whispered. “I look at them, and imagine I’ve actually gone there.” He looked nervously at Goldie. He had never shared that with anyone before.
“Why not actually go to these places, Harry?” she asked.
Harry blinked. He hadn’t been prepared for that question. “It’s just… it’s no fun traveling alone.”
“Oh Harry,” said Goldie, taking his hand. She smiled up at him. He felt so embarrassed, but also, so very excited. For a moment, they stared into each other’s eyes.
And then the moment passed, and Goldie looked at her chrono. It was 2 o’clock. “I’m hungry, Harry. Are you?”
They ate in the museum cafeteria. Goldie expected the usual fare, but was surprised when Harry told her to order the chicken nuggets. Goldie asked why, but Harry told her to just do it, so she did.
Goldie cackled with surprise when her chicken nuggets arrived.
They were all shaped like dinosaurs! They were incredibly cute. She had never seen anything like it. She bit into a stegosaurus’s neck and smiled at the man she was with.
Harry was so excited. To be with a woman who could get pleasure out of a small thing… most women would take no notice of the shape of the breaded chicken pieces. Or, if he called them out, they would grunt, “Uh, yeah, nice.” But Goldie seemed to genuinely find it amusing! He was starting to like her, very much.
“So Harry, I hear you’re a genius,” she said, admiration in her eyes.
“I am?” said Harry.
“That’s what they say,” said Goldie. “Are you brilliant in everything?”
“Everything is rather expansive,” said Harry, eating a french fry.
“If I were a genius, do you know the first thing I’d be brilliant at?”
“What?”
“Sex.” Goldie, smiled, as she saw Harry redden.
Harry felt his pulse quicken. He tried to remain calm. “Does that really require brilliance?” Harry asked. “I would imagine a road map would suffice.”
Goldie laughed. “You’re funny, Harry. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“Possibly,” said Harry.
“Possibly,” she said, imitating his deep voice. “You never give an inch, do you, Harry?”
She glanced slyly down into his lap. What was she really talking about?
“I’d give more than an inch if I knew what we were doing here,” said Harry.
“We’re in a museum. Having a date, Harry,” said Goldie, as she ate a french fry, staring at him hypnotically.
“We both know this isn’t a date,” said Harry.
“Really? Why?” Goldie asked.
“Because there’s something else going on,” said Harry.
“Yes, there is,” said Goldie, waving a brontosaurus at him. She looked at it, then bit off its head. “Ummm…. dinosaurs taste so good. Who knew? Now, where was I? Yes, Harry, of course there’s more to this than it seems. But why can’t we be doing two things at once? Why can’t we be on a date, a genuinely fun date, I might add, while also pursuing a second agenda?”
“Because it seems to me that the second agenda trumps the first,” said Harry.
“Poor Harry,” said Goldie. “Everything with you has to be one thing or another. Black or white. Zero or one. This or that. Can’t it be that I find you genuinely attractive, while also wanting something else from you?”
“It could be… but you’re not,” said Harry.
“I could resent that, Harry,” said Goldie mildly. “What in life has caused you to be so suspicious?”
“Life itself,” said Harry. “Now are you ready to tell me why I’m here?”
“No,” said Goldie, wiping her lips with a napkin. “But I am ready to see more of this wonderful museum. You know, I was here once, years ago, with….”
“A boyfriend?”
She pointed a finger at him. “You caught me, Harry! You’re not the first man to have me. Yes, he was a boyfriend. A scientist type, like you. But he wasn’t nearly as interesting as you were. All he did was show me the bones. One bone, in particular, as I recall, although it wasn’t very impressive.” And she smiled, as she saw him shift uncomfortably.
********
After lunch, they went to the planetarium. Goldie gave a small groan.
“What?” Harry asked, as they looked for seats.
“I went to a planetarium when I was eight years old,” said Goldie. “It was kind of boring.”
“Well, it’s 15 years later,” said Harry. “And you should give it another try.”
Goldie gave him a peck on the cheek. “That’s sweet, Harry, slipping in a subtle compliment like that. But no, I’m older than 23.”
They sat down in their chairs.
“In fact, you know exactly how old I am, and my last name now, and quite a lot about me, don’t you, Harry?”
“Not as much as you know about me,” said Harry.
“Oh, don’t be so sure, Harry. I’ve just begun to explore your inner depths,” said Goldie. As they sat down, she snuggled against his arm. “You’re right. I like this already.”
Harry couldn’t help but to be moved. He knew that Goldie was here with a purpose, a business purpose. And yet… she was a very attractive, smart, vivacious woman. And she was cuddling against him, in one of his favorite places, the planetarium. Harry had never even thought to dream of fantasies such as this. Harry remembered the Rule of Gary and the Rule of Onnika. All relationships were temporary. No woman could ever be attracted to him.
And yet even as he repeated these things to himself, he could not stop himself from feeling a secret thrill. Here he was, seated in the planetarium, and a gorgeous woman was curled up against his arm. Never in his life did he even think to enjoy such a simple pleasure. Never in any of his fantasy dates did he even imagine doing this with one of his women.
The show began. First they were shown the night sky. They saw the brilliance of the stars. Then the lecture began. They were shown close flybys of the planets–fiery orange Mercury, cloudy green Venus, the blue and white Earth, and reddish Mars. But the presentation really hit its stride when they saw Jupiter and Saturn, in all their colors. The multicolored layers of Jupiter were amazing. The show’s perspective almost skimmed the surface of the giant red spot as it sped across the atmosphere of Jupiter. Then the perspective they were being shown appeared to fly between the rings of Saturn.
And then, after showing Uranus, Neptune, and belatedly Pluto, their perspective shifted again, and they were shown images of different constellations, constellations in all different colors–red, blue, green yellow, violet, and orange.
“Amazing,” Goldie breathed. “Harry… are they really these colors? Or do scientists color them to get people interested?”
“They are really these colors,” Harry chuckled. “I could explain why-”
“Later,” said Goldie, grabbing his hand. “I just want to take them all in.”
When the show as over, and the light level slowly rose, Goldie turned to Harry. “I don’t remember ever seeing anything like that. That was truly amazing, Harry.”
Harry smiled at her. It was nice to be with someone who could appreciate the same things he did.
Goldie was hungry again, so Harry took her for dinner at Tavern on the Green, one of the most expensive restaurants in New York. “Order anything you like,” said Harry graciously.
“That’s right,” said Goldie. “You’re independently wealthy, aren’t you, Harry? So why isn’t a handsome, wealthy 31 year old man like you married?”
“I could ask the same question about a gorgeous 28 year old like you,” said Harry.
Goldie visibly shivered. “That’s the first time you’ve said something nice to me, Harry. Or paid me a compliment of any kind. I was beginning to wonder if you liked me.”
“I want to like you,” said Harry.
“But…” said Goldie.
“But I also want to know why I’m here,” said Harry.
“That would be so boring, Harry,” said Goldie. “How would it have been, the first night we met, if I walked up to you and said, “Harry, excuse me, sorry to interrupt your nightly suicide, but I was wondering if I could have x, y, and z from you.”
“It would have been more efficient,” said Harry, wincing at the mention of suicide.
“But not nearly as fun,” said Goldie. “If I had done that, we wouldn’t have had that glorious afternoon at the Museum, would we? And we wouldn’t be here, dining on $70 steaks, would we?”
Harry had to admit that they wouldn’t. “But when am I going to find out what this is all about?”
Goldie raised a finger. “When the time is right, Harry. Shouldn’t that be obvious by now?” She looked at him, teasingly.
After they ordered food, Goldie said, “You know, I just realized something.” She checked her chrono. “Now is almost the time when you go out to kill yourself every day. Am I getting in the way yet again?”
Harry shook his head, feeling embarrassed. But he realized that it was true. This was the first time in a long time when he wasn’t on the wharf, contemplating ending it all. But for once he felt no urgent need to be there. Right now he had something more compelling to do, a very attractive someone to be with.
“Are you sure? You could leave, decide whether to kill yourself, and then come back to finish dinner, assuming you don’t do it. I’d be willing to wait,” said Goldie, giving him a mocking smile.
“You raise that subject frequently. I suspect you’re trying to unnerve me,” said Harry.
“Oh, poor Harry, no, I don’t, I’m just teasing you,” said Goldie. “I always tease people I’m attracted to.”
She’s attracted to me. It hit Harry with a jolt.
“You claim to be attracted to me?” Harry asked, as their food arrived.
Goldie grabbed his hand, and for a moment, time seemed to stop. She looked up at him. “Harry, I’m not claiming anything.”
He looked into her eyes, which were crystal blue. A shudder of pure excitement went through his body.
And then time speeded up again, and the waiter asked if their food was all right. Harry cautiously cut a piece of steak and bit into it. “Excellent,” he said. He looked at Goldie. He watched as she cut her own piece and put it between her lips. Slowly. He watched the piece of beef slowly disappear between her lips. As she chewed, he saw her lush, red lips moving, back and forth, back and forth. Harry took a sudden deep breath as he saw/heard her swallow, with a small gulp. There was something inexplicably erotic about all of it.
Goldie grew a smile which only became broader and broader as she chewed, staring intently into Harry’s eyes. “Juicy. Tender,” she said. Then she looked up at the waiter, and the spell was broken. “Just the way I like it.”
They ate in silence for a moment. Harry felt like the luckiest man in the world, having a gorgeous woman sitting there, eating food he paid for, acting like she was attracted to him. And yet, he knew it was an act. Even as he enjoyed the sensation, he couldn’t let go of that part of it.
“You claim to be attracted to me,” said Harry.
“Harry!” said Goldie, giving him a warning look.
“All right. You are attracted to me,” said Harry.
“Better.” He loved her smile!
“But I have to wonder, how can you be attracted to a man who tries to kill himself every day?” Harry asked.
“Well, if you’ve been trying every day, Harry, you’re obviously not very good at it,” said Goldie. “Have you ever thought of reading a How-To book?”
“You know what I mean,” said Harry. “No woman in their right mind would be attracted to a man with suicidal tendencies.”
“But do you have suicidal tendencies, Harry?” Goldie asked, squinting at him in a cute way as she pointed a fork in his direction. “I would submit to you that you don’t. I don’t think you’re really suicidal at all. I just think you have intellectual angst.”
“Intellectual angst?”
“You worry about your place in the world. Are you making the most of your life? That sort of thing. Am I right, Harry?” She peered at his face for clues. “Frankly, I think that makes you more interesting. I prefer it to a man who’s perfectly content with his life, like a horse tethered to a carriage with blinders on who is all too happy to go wherever his master leads him.”
She had a way of saying things, of arguing, that Harry found so pleasing… and yet so frustrating. “So it’s just a coincidence that you are attracted to me, and at the same time want something from me.”
“A coincidence? Not in the slightest! If you hadn’t been assigned to me, I’d never have known you existed, Harry! I will always be honest with you Harry. Always.” She chewed in a very cute way for a while, before resuming their discussion. “You seem to treat my other purpose as something nefarious. Is it really, Harry? Think of all the husbands who met their wives, and wives who met their husbands while working in sales, soliciting a client. Did that make them monsters? Or happy beneficiaries of random chance?”
“So it’s just random chance that you’re… attracted to me.”
“Yeah…” said Goldie, staring at him in a way that made Harry a little uncomfortable. “There’s just something about you… something I can’t quite put my finger on… something I just…. like.”
Harry looked away, and reddened.
“Oh, have I made you blush, Harry? I’m so sorry. Or am I?” Goldie said.
“I’d just feel better if I knew what you wanted,” said Harry.
“All in good time, Harry. Everything in its proper time.”
“I’m not going to work for The Foundation,” said Harry. He waited for her reaction.
Goldie smiled. “And that’s a good thing, because I’m not offering you a job with The Foundation.” She enjoyed his obvious confusion. “You had your little AI run a search on me, didn’t you, Harry? You think you know all my little secrets. You may know my bra and panty size, Harry, but don’t think you know everything. Not yet you don’t.”
She sat back, and relaxed, and put a hand to her chest. “That was good, Harry. Really good. There’s nothing better than eating warm animal flesh, full of juice, savoring the taste of it in your mouth, is there, Harry? You liked it too, didn’t you, Harry?”
Harry nodded. He was starting to get excited again, but wasn’t sure why.
“And now it’s getting late. Will you escort me back to my hotel, sweet prince?”
********
They took a cab back. Harry escorted her into the hotel lobby.
Goldie smiled and faced him. “Thank you, Harry. I had a wonderful time today. The best I’ve had in a long time.” She looked at him for a moment. “A bold man would invite himself up to my room. Are you a bold man, Harry?”
Harry shook his head, though he was breathing heavily.
“I didn’t think so. Your file said you weren’t bold, not in that way,” said Goldie. She came close and put her arms around him. He felt a shiver go down his spine. “But what about a kiss, Harry? Surely a goodnight kiss is permitted under your byzantine rules, is it not?” She looked into his eyes. “Maybe not. Maybe you’re going to let this one pass you by. Maybe I’ll just be one of those many, many ships in the night who passed by, desperate for a kiss.”
Harry looked at her, at her blue eyes, her perfect face, her red lips. He wanted to kiss her. He really did. But then he remembered the Rule of Onnika. If he kissed her, it would end, all of it. And he didn’t want it to end.
Goldie watching the struggle within him, sensed the moment had passed, and she shrugged, and pulled back a bit. Instead, she handed him a data chip.
“What is this?” Harry asked.
“Your first homework assignment, Harry,” said Goldie.
“Homework assignment?”
“A small math problem. Hardly worthy of your talent,” said Goldie.
Harry frowned. “What do I get if I do this?”
“Why, another date with me,” said Goldie. “My comm code is encoded in the chip. Send me the answer, the correct answer, by 11 o’clock tomorrow morning, and I’ll be here at noon, ready to go for another day on the town with you.”
“And if I don’t do the assignment, or if I get it wrong?”
“Well, Harry, then… it was nice meeting you,” said Goldie. She smiled, and walked off. He watched her hips wiggle with such femininity as she made her way to the elevator.
And then she was gone.
********
“A little complex,” said Carl.
“Not very complex,” said Harry, staring at the equation. “I should have this solved in an hour. Maybe two.”
Harry overestimated the time he needed, as he always did. He had the equation solved in just under 50 minutes.
“And now, what does it mean?” Harry asked.
“I have compared the equation to all scientific databases,” said Carl. “The closest match would be in the area of astrophysics, concerning the decay rate of a star-”
“Decay rate of a star? Why would a biomedical company need to know that?” Harry asked. “The answer: they wouldn’t. No, I think they knew the answer to this question before they asked.”
“Then what was the purpose of giving it to you?”
“To see if I could solve it,” said Harry. “They’re testing my intelligence. They want to see if I’m smart enough.”
“Smart enough for what?”
“That’s the question,” said Harry. “Anything more on Goldie, or The Foundation?”
“No,” said Carl. “Goldie appears to be exactly what she seems. A 28 year old woman with a college education. She graduated with a degree in art history from Wesleyan University. She worked in a series of minor jobs before going to work for The Foundation. As for The Foundation, they specialize in biomedical cure for diseases. Their last major patent was on a drug which could cause cells to reproduce more rapidly. It’s found to have application in healing wounds.”
“Then what in the world do they want with me?” Harry asked. He lay back in his desk chair and put his hands behind his head.
“What do you think of her?” Carl asked.
“She’s nice,” said Harry. “Really nice. Puts on a great performance. Acts really interested in me. It’s very convincing.”
“You’re enjoying yourself?”
“Of course,” said Harry. “I just wonder how long it will go on for.”
“How long do you want it to go on for?”
“Every day is a priceless gift,” said Harry. “If I can get one more day with Goldie, I figure I’m way ahead.” He looked up at the wall. He had an electric frame which now displayed the second image he took of Goldie. The one where she was smiling at him as she sat in the Cove with him, that first night they had drinks together. He looked up at it and sighed.
For a long moment, he considered whether to call up Veronika. He certainly felt agitated. But then he looked up at the electroimage of Goldie, smiling at him, and simply shook his head and sighed. He couldn’t do it. Not in front of her.
********
[THE PAST]
“We’ll be friends forever,” Gary predicted.
Harry and Gary were sitting on a boulder in Riverside Park. They were both outcasts in the seventh grade, but at least now they were outcasts together.
“Harry and Gary, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” the kids would chant. But neither Harry nor Gary were homosexual. What attracted them to each other, to use the term loosely, was the fact that they were both outcasts.
Harry had been tested and recently learned he was a Fourther. His IQ wasn’t just up there; it was off the charts.
His sister Rachel, who was by now in high school, treated Harry like he was an alien from another planet. Not that she ever displayed much interest in him. But as she grew older, the differences between them became more and more obvious. She treated him like a space alien, and mostly avoided him. She spent her free time trying to attract the attention of boys.
Harry’s mother assured him that the test meant nothing. He was smart, yes, she had always known that. But that didn’t mean he was different from other people.
It was his father, though, who looked at Harry with sad eyes. His father knew. He had always known. When they were in private, he had said, “Harry, you will always have a life different from other people.”
“I don’t want such a life, Papa,” said Harry.
“It does not matter what we want,” said his father. “It is what life deals us. You must be strong Harry. You must be strong, even if you are alone.”
Harry remembered those words. He remembered those words, six months later, when his father died of a sudden heart attack. Gone was the only person who understood Harry. At the graveside, Harry looked at his mother, and sister, and cousins, and realized he was totally alone. He was like a spaceship, in a fleet which had been ambushed. All the other ships had been destroyed. His was the last surviving starship.
From then on, Harry always walked around in his spacesuit. Always.
In school, they evolved from calling him Harry the Rat to Hairy Dick. The kids started to beat him up.
Harry realized that as the last starship, it was his duty to survive on his own. No one would help him. So he nagged his mother until she agreed to let him take karate classes.
“I don’t know, Harry,” she had said. “You hitting people with fists and kicks? It doesn’t sound civilized to me.”
But Harry had nagged her until she relented. And so Harry started intensive training. He was a skinny 12 year old boy. He would never be a prize fighter. But he learned how to absorb a punch, and, more importantly, how to throw one.
“Look, it’s Hairy Dick!” cried Kevin Ortega. He and Rolph Swenson and Tony Dola circled around Harry, who was getting books from his locker.
Harry looked around. There were no adults. Only other kids. The other kids wouldn’t involve themselves to help him, of course. Some of them would even cheer if he received a good beating.
What usually happened is that Kevin, or one of the other boys, humiliated Harry, and pushed him around a bit. But today, two months after starting karate training, things would end a little differently.
“Hey Harry! Want to suck my dick?” said Kevin. Some of the other kids tittered.
Harry just kept pulling books from his locker.
Kevin smacked him on the head. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”
Shields up!
Harry took a series of deep breaths. He was trembling.
“What’s the matter, Harry? Eager to suck my cock?”
Phasers, locking on target.
The other boys laughed. Harry clenched his textbook, a heavy one, tightly.
Phasers, locked on target.
“Drop the book and suck it, Harry. You know you want to,” said Kevin, with his hand over his groin. He turned and laughed with the others.
Fire!
Harry slammed the text book into the side of Kevin’s head. Kevin recoiled in shock.
Fire!
Harry landed a fist in Kevin’s stomach. Kevin blinked, and started to raise his arms. Harry threw his other fist in Kevin’s face. Kevin screamed as his nose was bloodied. With a snarl, he launched himself at Harry.
In moments they were rolling on the floor. Harry knew he had to end this quickly, and decisively. His arms were locked with Kevin’s.
Pho-ton torpedoes… away!
Kevin screamed as Harry’s knee caught him in the groin.
Harry was suspended for two days, but it was worth it. They continued to call him Hairy Dick, but never, ever within arm’s length of him.
From them on, Harry was in his spaceship, when he was in combat mode; but at other times, at all other times, he wore his spacesuit, everywhere he went on the planet surface.
********
Harry was bored by his classes. He had pressed his mother to let him skip a year, but she refused. If his father had been alive, Harry felt sure he would have allowed it.
So instead he daydreamed.
And he watched the human children.
The intelligence test he had taken had only confirmed what he already knew, what he had always known, on some level; that he wasn’t the same species as the others. Technically, genetically, perhaps, he was partially human; but Harry knew that he was a genetic mutation, that his genes differed somehow, however fractionally, enough to make him a member of a completely different species. Harry might look human, and eat and sleep and go to the bathroom like humans, but he thought nothing like them. He was a stranger in their midst.
In his mind, when he was wearing his spacesuit, he looked at the others with alien eyes. They were the humans. Not him. He could pass for them, in appearance, if he didn’t speak, but the minute he opened his mouth, then the differences became painfully apparent.
Harry noticed young males starting to show interest in the females. They, like him, had entered puberty, and were starting to feel that natural attraction. Harry felt it too. He sometimes wondered what it would be like to be with Susie McCormick from his gym class. Susie McCormick had long, thin legs, and was beginning to develop breasts. Harry could always tell when the girls had made the change, even before they grew breasts. He could tell by the way they walked. After the change, they walked more like a cat. And they looked at boys like cats too. It was so obvious to him he wondered why everyone else couldn’t notice it.
But whenever a girl would smile at Harry, he would just redden and look away. He hadn’t the first idea what to say to a girl or how to interact with them. The only girl he knew was his older sister Rachel, who barely spoke to him. In the brief years they overlapped in school Rachel tried to pretend that she didn’t know him and that they were unrelated. He even overheard her tell a girlfriend, “Harry Crater? Really? There’s someone else named Crater at the school? Sorry, don’t know him.”
Harry always related more to his teachers than he did the other students. He sensed he would someday become even smarter, even more knowledgeable than them, but for the moment they were the closest thing to sentient life. He totally failed to relate at all to the other children, or the humans, as he thought of them. What he thought of himself he was increasingly unsure. As he sat in the lunchroom or the play field he would often look about himself, wearing his silvery space suit, and feeling more isolated, and alone than ever. Whenever he went outside he referred to it as going on “the planet surface” to “study the natives”.
During careers day, Harry told his teacher that he wanted to be a “logician” when he grew up, which attracted titters. Not that there was any such thing as a logician; rather, Gary was expressing his disgust with the sheer irrationality of the other humans around him. Why couldn’t they be thoughtful, dispassionate, and clear thinking… like he was?
His parents noticed this alienation, or some elements of it, and they decided to send him to sleep away camp for the summer break. Harry was appalled. He had reason to be. The children in his barracks, once they learned his true nature, terrorized him. He wrote and called his parents and begged to come home. His mother, laughing, refused, saying it was good for him and he’d learn to enjoy it. The kids harassed Harry every day, calling him “Hairy Dickless” or “Mr. Smarts” and jeering at the different way he saw things. He refused to play sports with them, and his self imposed isolation only made him stand out more. A bully tried to beat Harry up, but Harry showed him the sting of his forward phaser array, and he was left alone–physically, at least. Finally, when his parents arrived midsummer and saw how unhappy he was, his father relented. After that, Harry spent his summers at home.
Harry did have a friend, though, for a time, in the seventh grade. His name was Gary. Harry was an outcast because he was so smart. Gary was an outcast because he wasn’t any good at kickball. Each had their own failings, and they bonded together, in their outcast status. Gary would come over to Harry’s house and play computer football with him. They would talk about what they would do when they grew up and escaped the world of juveniles. They spent many hours together.
“We’ll be friends forever,” Gary had assured him.
And they were friends, up until the beginning of the eighth grade. Then, during gym class, Gary miraculously kicked the kickball for once, sending it flying.
It was no fluke. On successive days, he hit the ball again and again. He began to be invited to play kickball with the other kids during recess. They began to open up and be friendly towards him. Once Gary got new friends, however, they looked down on his continued association with Harry.
“Why are you spending time with Crater Bomb?” Robert Jelagni sneered. Gary looked at Harry, standing alone as he waited for the school bus after school had ended, and he looked at his new friends, and knew he couldn’t have both. So he stopped talking to Harry.
“Friends forever,” Harry muttered to himself, watching Gary laugh and joke with the others. It became a rule, one of many that Harry would learn. This one he would call the Rule of Gary. That friendships never, ever lasted.
********
When Goldie turned 13, the differences between her and her older sister Claire become much more apparent. They teased each other and fought more. Claire had been tested, and found to be something called a “Fourther”. That meant that she was a genius or something. Naturally that meant that Goldie was a disappointment by comparison.
Her parents didn’t say anything, but Goldie saw how Claire suddenly got all the attention in the family. Look how brilliant Claire was! Look, another A+ in math! Claire is amazing! Claire is really going places!
No one ever said that to Goldie. She felt neglected. Claire, who was 15, with brilliant blonde hair and budding breasts, was starting to attract the attention of the boys. Goldie, who was flat chested, didn’t merit a second glance.
Goldie craved experiences. She would take buses to the shopping center, or to other towns, or to anywhere, really, just to explore new places. But every time she went to a new place, she rarely returned a second time. Once she had seen it once, she had no need to see it again.
Schoolwork continued to bore her. Her grades reflected her indifference. There had to be more to life than this.
Goldie made friends, and lost them just as easily. When she played card games with other girls, she was always changing the rules. Why, she was asked?
“Because it’s boring to play the same way every time,” said Goldie, rapidly dealing the cards. “All right, now 2’s, 7’s, and 9’s are wild… and 10’s, if they’re diamonds.”
Girls bored her. Boys, on the other hand, were starting to become more interesting.
But Goldie’s development was twisted by a unique experience she had three years earlier, at the age of 10. She developed a severe fever. Antibiotics could not treat it. For a time, there was a possibility that she might die. Her mother sat by her side day and night. Goldie remembered the worried look on her face.
“If anything happens, you always have Claire. Claire is the important one.”
“No, you are,” said Goldie’s mother, touching her cheek.
“What am I brilliant at?”
“Lots of things,” her mother said.
“Name one,” said Goldie.
“You’ll see,” her mother promised.
Goldie recovered from the fever after two weeks, but she noticed the worried way her parents looked at her afterwards. They had a long talk with her doctor, a private talk. He told them something, something important, she could sense it. But they wouldn’t tell her what it was.
And then in the sixth grade, when girls started to go through puberty, there were whispers about girls bleeding in their panties. Goldie knew what that was all about. Goldie knew everything. One by one, all of Goldie’s friends whispered excitedly that they had received their “bloody wound” in their panties. Goldie waited day after day for hers, but it never arrived.
Her parents noticed. Every week her mother asked if it happened, and Goldie shook her head. Finally, by the time she was 12, they took her to the doctor for tests, and he confirmed what her parents already knew.
“It’s Grimwave Syndrome,” said Doctor Tainey gently, sitting down next to Goldie on the examination table.
“What’s that?” Goldie asked.
“Remember a few years ago, when you had that terrible fever?”
Goldie nodded.
“You were experiencing a rare genetic defect. It happens when the body decides to attack part of itself.”
“Why does the body do that?”
“No one knows,” said Doctor Tainey. “The important thing to know is that in Grimwave’s Syndrome, when it happens to girls, the body attacks the ovaries.”
“What… what does that mean?”
Tainey looked up at Goldie’s parents. “It means… you’ll never have kids of your own. I’m so sorry, Goldie.”
Goldie cried and cried all night. Her mother tried to console her.
“Everything good happens to Claire!” Goldie cried. “She has the genius mind! She has the body that can make kids! I have nothing!”
“That’s not true,” said her mother.
“I’m going to be a flat chested freak,” said Goldie.
“Also not true,” said her mother. “Doctor Tainey said you’ll continue to grow breasts like normal girls.” At least, they hoped so. Over 90% of Grimwave cases grew breasts, at least.
“And I’ll never have kids!”
“And you’ll also never have a bloody mess in your panties,” said her mother. She smiled. “When you get old enough to attract boys, you’ll be able to have fun with them every day. You’ll be the only girl on the planet who can say that.”
“Yeah, they can fuck me full time. They’ll call me, Goldie, the sterile girl,” said Goldie, weeping.
The discovery of her condition changed her. She became more impulsive. She stayed out with her friends long after curfew. She would run up to a boy and kiss him, just for the fun of it. Just to feel what it was like. Her wild nature more often than not got her into trouble.
She channeled her energy into ice skating. There was a local rink in town, and Goldie skated there after school every day. She found it was a great way to work out her nervous tension. At first her mother wasn’t sure it was a good idea, after Goldie suffered one skinned knee after another. But soon enough Goldie became good in her own right, and her heart leapt when her parents watched her perform one Sunday morning. They all clapped, even Claire.
********
That night Goldie smiled as she checked her Pad and saw the message from Harry. She ran his results through the comparison program. It matched. She called Mr. Slattery to tell him the good news.
“He passed the first test.”
“As we thought,” said Slattery. “The second problem is where it starts to get tougher, however.”
“He’ll pass them all. He’s brilliant,” said Goldie.
“Are you starting to like him, Goldie?” Slattery asked.
“He’s… interesting,” said Goldie, giving a small smile.
“Good. Keep me informed of your progress,” said Slattery.