~ Amaryllis ~

by

Tricia McGill

 “Tell me about your partner, this Chris I resemble,” he urged as they ate.

Her eyes grew troubled as she reached for her glass of graw juice. “Chris was a hard worker, a diligent cop. That’s a law enforcement officer, in case you don’t know what the word means. He was working undercover. It means he was pretending to be something other than a police officer. He and Pete were onto this drug baron.”

“I know all this. You explained as much before. Tell me more of the man himself. I wish to know personal details. What was he like to live with?” Changing feelings ran across her face. This was so unique. No Amaryllisan ever allowed their innermost emotions to show. Perhaps because they could read each other’s thought patterns so easily, the ability had been erased from their characters long ago.

She began to nibble on her bottom lip again and then she licked it. His body reacted instantly, and he quelled the rampant desire to reach across and repeat the kissing experiment. Crossing his legs he concealed his aroused state from her soft eyes as she put her glass down and gazed across the space separating them with a look he could swear matched the heat searing him.

“Chris wanted to protect me from all the bad things in life.” Her shoulders hunched, as her eyes grew sad. “Which was really silly. It was impossible. He thought by wrapping me in cotton wool, I would be safe.”

“Cotton wool?”

“Mmm, this means coddling. Sort of putting a protective shield about me,” she explained. “I was alone in the world when I met him. Had been out there on my own since running away from the last foster home. You remember I told you about the awful man who wanted to interfere with me.”

Reve nodded, not interrupting her flow of speech now she had begun to tell him all the facts.

“Now I come to think about it, although I feel like a traitor for saying it, I married Chris more to escape the loneliness in my life than anything else. Not that I didn’t think him a wonderful person. Now I’m alone again.” Tears collected at the corners of her eyes and she wiped them away with her fingers.

“You are not alone. You have me,” he said quietly and the look she sent him was filled with a kind of sadness he couldn’t define. It was as if she wanted something with desperation, but knew it was just out of her reach.

“That’s kind of you to say so, Reve, but when I return home, I’ll be alone again.”

Her words sounded so final and a feeling he had no recollection of experiencing before attacked him. For a moment he considered telling her he had no intention of allowing her to return to Earth any time in the near future. But he quelled the idea.

Picking up the plate of food, she began to eat. She hesitated for a while. “Chris was gentle and kind, and I miss him terribly. He’s the only person I ever loved.”

“This love plays an important part in life on Earth, does it not?” Reve felt a distinct pang of something he didn’t fully recognize. Something he didn’t like at all. For an instant he felt murderous towards a man who was dead. Immature!

“Tell me what this emotion is exactly.”

“Explain love? You have to be joking.” Her head went to one side and he saw the tears had dried.

“I do not joke. It is out of my scope of understanding. I can desire a woman, want her as my partner in life, even impregnate her with the one child I am allowed to give her in my lifetime, but this emotion you speak of is out of my comprehension.”

“One child in a lifetime?” She ignored the rest of his speech and focused on the one item that seemed to intrigue her.

“Yes. If we had many children as you obviously do on Earth our planet would be seriously over populated within a megnum. We can choose the sex of the child, but we must have a balance. If too many males are born within any one set period of what you would call a year, then the female must accept a female child.”

“My goodness! How do you manage to pick whether you have a boy or a girl?” Her voice elevated with interest.

“It is a simple matter of injecting a substance called…let me see. I’m sorry I cannot translate this in any shape you would understand. Suffice it to say, this is put into the womb a few hours after conception.”

“Oh my, and how do you know for sure the woman has conceived?”

“We are an advanced society. We know.” He didn’t wish to go into details of how the tips of the woman’s breast glands changed color and became larger.

He could see she yearned to inquire further, but her mind told her to retreat as they were getting into what she considered dangerous territory. He stifled a smile.