Alien Tongues (11 page)

"If I am any use as a bodyguard, I am at your disposal," he told her.

As they clinked glasses she said, "Well, I hope you don't think me too forward if I take that literally right now.  Suddenly I feel as tired as you look, and I just don't want to move right now.  Lie here and hold me for a little while, will you?"

As if to demonstrate, she turned her back to him, lay down and pulled his arm round her.  Séamus slumped down beside her.  Given her hold on his arm, the angle of least resistance was to cuddle up tight.  The perfume on the back of her neck smelled wonderful and he realized his nose was now touching her hairline.  Her buttocks felt very rounded against him.  He realized it was making him aroused and for certain she would be able to feel it.  She seemed to be snuggling against him tighter, but he couldn't be sure if she was just trying to get comfortable.  For a brief moment he remember what he guessed was the last time he had made love to Sheryl.  Then he felt overwhelmingly tired and his mind went blank.

He awoke facing the other direction, late winter dawn starting to lighten the room.  Alice's arm was around his chest.  He quickly noted that they were dressed just as they had been when sitting on the bed.  Then he realized he needed to urinate.  He gently unhooked her arm and trotted to the bathroom.  By the time he returned, she was sitting upright.

"I'm so sorry," she said.  "You must think I'm an awful slob."

"I'm the slob who fell asleep on you.  You were sweet enough not to wake me."  He walked into the kitchen area.  "Coffee?"

Alice accepted a cup of instant. "Could you let the girls know we'll start at 11 a.m. today?"  Séamus nodded.  She seemed to hesitate, then added, "Apart from those dickheads last night, I really enjoyed myself.  If you have nothing else on when each Saturday night rolls around, would it be OK if I booked you?"

"Perfect for lonely me," Séamus replied, "But I wouldn't go limiting yourself like that."

"Oh, believe me."  She pulled her shoes on.  "You're my protection here, for as long as this job lasts for us."

She refused his offer of breakfast, saying her mother would be expecting her.  When she left, he made himself a fry-up to help settle his stomach and clear his head.  He realized he had skipped dinner the night before and was ravenous.  Finally sated with eggs and bacon, he moved to his desk with fresh coffee and gazed at the frosted fields, shiny in early sunshine.  He was surprised how his dark mood the night before had lifted.  The problems had not changed and he had not even thought more about them, but their emotional impact was down to quite tolerable levels.  Sheryl?  Such a test was always needed.  As a Catholic, he could not escape the notion that marriage was for life, and he had to know Sheryl was sure.  Far better for her to have some fling with a banker and realize he was her best long-term bet, than to plan a wedding thinking there could be something more suitable out there.

And Tina?  Her and Chrissy's idea was bound to occur to one or more of the girls sooner or later.  The bizarre nature of their mission, and the extraordinary rewards offered them, made a scary possible downside almost inevitable, like Halloween before Christmas.  These girls with their amazing intuitive talents were perhaps more prone than most to imagine what lay in dark shadows.  He should try to draw more of their feelings out of them during the next few days, and continue to pledge his protection.

What a mystery, the human emotional gyroscope, he thought.  Knock it and it will appear to wobble dangerously, but some inexplicable life force pulls it back up again.  If Man is given the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, physical safety and decent company, is it essentially good just to be alive?  Is it we who make ourselves repeatedly upset by the complexities we build around ourselves?  Was Sheryl so vital to his life, especially if some other man tempted her?  If he was not prepared to change his job to save their relationship, what did that say?

And to be honest, was Tina's fright really upsetting him?  Or deep down did he secretly welcome the challenge, which was the only legitimate reason why he should be guarding these girls?  More fundamentally, did he welcome such danger
because
it was the only way he could get himself to put aside all of life's annoying and depressing duties and tasks and feel good about simply keeping himself and his charges alive?  Without that danger, he thought as he stared out of the windows, could he clear his mind enough to enjoy that shimmering dew as a weak sun finally pumped in enough latent energy to transform the frozen grass blades? 

After notifying the girls of the new start time, he got to work with the aid of endless coffee refills.  Later he escorted the girls to the lab and returned to call Sheryl.   The conversation seemed to go well enough, without being particularly reassuring.  She listened largely in silence to his always-vague account of his job, in which he provided almost no concrete details but instead his feelings and sense of progress.  Did she ever really hear what he was saying in such speeches?  She described her job and social activities in great factual detail but with little reference to her feelings.  She didn't describe where she had been the prior night, and he did not ask.  If she missed him, it was not evident in what she said.  He wanted to say he missed her, but was afraid the words would not sound genuine.  When he hung up, it felt he had completed one of the day's tasks.  He tried not to dwell further on his relationship with Sheryl and instead focus on his work.  An email or text message each day would be sufficient, and he could call again the following weekend. 

The new week progressed in a similar fashion to the previous one.  The girls would finish in the middle of the afternoon, after which he would spend time with each of them until the evening.  After his dinner and work-out, he would pay them a final call.  The time with each one varied from day to day, depending upon how keen they were to talk or undertake an activity.  Each day he would walk with Jenny and Chrissy, sometimes for up to an hour.  Tina and Phyllis both went out once when the temperature rose, but still felt it was too cold for them.  They both started regular exercise in the gym, and usually he would work-out with them.

Tina seemed to have recovered from the Saturday.  When asked, she told him that she still felt a sense of danger, but she realized it was impossible to measure.  Maybe the girls' knowledge would be useless on its own; maybe they would have some ongoing usefulness.  Perhaps she was in no greater danger than when she was an escort in Bangkok.  Maybe it was as bad to run across a busy road. Fear was just a feeling, like sensing a ghost.  And anyway she didn't fear dying, provided she knew she was loved…

"You think I'm crazy the way I talk about love?" she asked him, almost playfully, one day while sitting in her kitchen over tea.

"Of course not," he answered. "We all have some goal we want to stay alive for.  Love is one of the better ones."

"The other girls don't agree."  Tina looked into space dreamily.  "Chrissy says a man who loves you is just lonely, and you are just filling a hole in his life.  Jenny said I don't need a man, and that she can love me if I want, because she thinks I'm so beautiful and sexy."  She laughed.  "You know, Jenny is so good at making me feel better with the things she says.  I also think, if a tiny girl like her is not scared, I should be braver.  I think she's good at holding all of us together."

"Yes, I get that impression.  What about Phyllis?" 

"Phyllis says you just can't trust a man's love – well, I think that's what she's saying with this sign language – because he's designed to be tempted by others."  She turned back to look at Séamus.  "Is that true, Mr FitzGerald?  Are you designed to be tempted away from the woman you think you love?"

He thought of his evening with Alice.  "Yes, I think all men are tempted to stray when it comes to pure sex.  But don't you think that, if they don't give in to that temptation, it's a sign of love?"

"Do you love someone right now, Séamus?"

"I have a girlfriend in London whom I was living with before coming here. We talked about getting married, though we're not sure.  I believe I love her, but recently I've felt a little doubt."

Tina rose from her chair and stood in front of him.  "Do you think I'm sexy?"

She was wearing a dress of stretch-material which showed every curve.  Her body was truly extraordinary. "Yes, extremely sexy."

Tina sat on his knees, facing him, her thighs either side of his stomach, her dress now rising up so her underwear was visible.  She ran her hands through his hair.  "Now let's forget your job is to protect me.  We can have a night of wild, crazy love-making.  I want to do anything you want to do.  Do you want me?"

He frowned.  "The idea of doing it is wonderful.  I might even convince myself that my girlfriend will never find out and it's OK just this once.  But then I wonder, why are you making me this offer?  I don't think it can be just pure lust, not for you.  So you're looking for something that I probably won't be able to give you.  In the end I will disappoint you."

She continued to run her hands gently around his head, but her look now became distant as if in deep thought.  "But even though you refuse me, you still want me.  You even care about my feelings.  That's so comforting for me but it's hell if I am your girlfriend.  It's really true that loving a man is a recipe for pain.  And being loved is something you can never rely upon.  Oh, but Séimi, I still want that experience!  Make sure you don't let me die without it!"

She kissed his forehead, her lips feeling large and soft.  Then she climbed down from him, straightened her dress and grinned.  "Do you feel we use you like a toy, Séamus?  But I can't tell you how much it helps to have you here."

He smiled back.  "You don't hear me complaining, do you?"

Indeed, their comfort with sharing their private thoughts was a big part of his sustained morale.  He wanted to learn the others' reactions to Chrissy's remark and also have her talk more about it, but had been worried about making things worse.  As it turned out, each girl volunteered to share their thoughts.

"You know, we talked about how they might dispose of us after this job," Jenny said suddenly as the two of them walked down to a local stream.  "Chrissy raised the topic and it seemed to worry Tina a lot.  But it would look awfully suspicious, wouldn't it?  I mean, all four of us disappearing."

Not if they manage to keep your presence here a secret, he thought, but replied that her point was a strong one.  "And I hope you know that, if I get the slightest hint anything like that could happen, my first priority is you girls' safety.  I mean that.  Above any orders I might be given."

Jenny put her arms round his waist and did a circular dance around him.  "That's what I said to the others, and they all believe that too!  It's funny, isn't it?  I mean, we know you're dedicated to your job.  But if it comes down to a choice between us and your boss, we believe you will side with us, even risk your own life for us.  Are we being naive and stupid, do you think?"

She laughed at her last words and sped up her circling until she became dizzy and just grabbed his waist as her legs gave way.  Then she slid down his legs to the ground, laughing more.  Séamus could not stop himself laughing at her behavior.  "Yes," he said, "You girls are so naive and stupid, someone's got to pledge themselves to protect you."  Jenny sat down where she landed and he decided to sit beside her.  There was a very pretty view there of the stream below.

"If and when it comes to that, I know that Phyllis will protect us, too," Jenny added, as if to herself.

"I think Phyllis sees the whole of life as a battle."

"I think to her, it has been.  Séamus, I'm learning so much here.  Even if something very bad happens, I can't regret coming.  I had really no direction before.  Seeing my parents' mistakes, I thought I would end up destroying my own life in the same way.  Now everything has a meaning, finally." She took in a deep, noisy breath of the country air.  "I told you we were like a family, and we are.  But now we're also like some special military unit.  I think I should start training in the gym, don't you?"

As good as her word, Jenny then started working-out occasionally with him, though her athletic ability was far below that of Tina and Phyllis.  Spending now so much more time in the gym himself, Séamus steadily increased his own fitness level.  Maybe I am going to need it, he thought.

Even Chrissy started light jogs with Séamus through the fields.  Though she had never trained before, Séamus encouraged it, telling her she had a big advantage with her athletic build.  Her improvement was rapid, but he noticed she sweated profusely, even when it was cold.  Her pale face would turn pink, and she would peel off her sweatshirt to reveal a soaked tee-shirt.  He pointed out the water vapor rising from her, and she laughed.  "Like a racehorse?  I've been watching them on TV.  I love them, you know.  They're kind of held captive, yet they show such an independent dignity.  So I'm proud to be a racehorse!"

After one such jog where she pushed herself further than before, Chrissy invited him back to her room, immediately pulled off the wet tee-shirt and lay on the bed.  Her upper chest was pink like her face, and her bra was dark with sweat.  Moisture ran down a flat, white stomach.  As usual, he was ordered to sit next to her on the bed.

"Are you secretly angry with me?" she asked.

He looked down at her. "At this moment, how would that be possible?"

Chrissy grinned.  "Who knows?  Maybe you're already getting bored with Asian ladies' bodies."

"I had this topic with Tina earlier in the week.  Life would be much less complicated if men
did
get bored that way.  But the appetite is unfortunately similar to eating.  One night you may imagine you can never face another bite ever again.  The next day you're hungry – or perhaps just greedy."

She dried her chest with a small towel.  "I know I upset Tina with my talk about how expendable we are."

"Well, it's not such an original thought as you might imagine."  He walked to the kitchen to get glasses of water for them.  "In some ways, it's an obvious observation.  It's bound to disturb us at some point.  But then we think it through.  During most of our lives we are quite expendable anyway. And in this case, we're as likely to have some important future use which our governments want to keep us for."