Chapter 2: Australia

Davis and I moved to Melbourne, Australia, in February of the following year. February is typically the hottest and most humid month in Australia, and I couldn’t believe how much it knocked me around. I’m South African, for goodness’ sake! It’s not like it isn’t hot and humid there. But I guess I’ve gotten used to Europe’s much colder climate. I don’t know how I would have coped if it wasn’t for the modern wonder of air conditioning.

The best part of moving to Australia was that I could slip into relative anonymity. Aussies are laconic, with few airs or graces. So even if they recognised me, they tended to leave me alone. However, occasionally a young woman or a mother with a young child would approach me asking for an autograph. I’d always oblige and politely listen as they gushed their praise and admiration of me and how I danced. If asked, I’d advise them on who to see or what to do to improve, but Ina is a much better teacher than me, so I didn’t have much to offer.

Davis secured a small grant from the CSIRO to explore his technology. This money, plus the money earned from his psychology practice, meant money was the least of our problems. Davis spent from 10.00 until 2.00 every day with his patients as I worked in our small lab trying to perfect our nanobots. Then, after the last appointment, Davis joined me in the laboratory.

Things progressed well. Later, because we could show that the mice injected with our bots showed no ill effects, we were given permission to move our experiments to higher forms of animals. Davis sent me to meet with representatives from Victoria’s RSPCA. After many tiring discussions, Davis and I were able to arrange for some abandoned older dogs to be delivered for our experiments. The selected dogs were all in severe pain or suffering from a debilitating disease.

Davis and I invited representatives from the RSPCA to sit in as we trialled the first nanobots. It was a risk because there was a chance the dog would react adversely. But we thought the risk was small enough to take. If the RSPCA officer witnessed that no dog was hurt or some dogs were helped, they’d be keen to send more animals for treatment.

Initially, our experiments gave null results. Although no dogs suffered an adverse reaction, none seemed any better either. It wasn’t until I took some blood and tested the bots that I worked out the problem. The bots were inert. Deep inside the animal, the nanobots weren’t receiving their activation signal strong enough to function.

Davis and I needed to either up the signal strength, which is possibly dangerous because it’s a radio emittance and might cause cancerous growths in the animal. Or increase the sensitivity of our bots to the signal. So, of course, Davis turned to me.

I should have been proud that Davis trusted me to get this done, but something had changed since we came to Australia. I still loved my husband, but I was no longer sure I trusted him. I suspected that he and his psychology practice’s secretary, Isabella, were fucking. I imagined they’d been fucking from before we were married.

Isabella is a gorgeous Mediterranean woman from Malta. She’s tall, nearly six foot (183 cm), I’d guess. Being buxom with a solid, big bottom, Isabella filled out a dress, if you know what I mean, so I could see the temptation.

Plus, Davis’ behaviour became more controlling. He didn’t want me to leave our house alone. Davis even suggested I needed a security guard to protect me at the lab when he wasn’t there.

“Who would want to assault me at our lab?” I wondered. “We’re helping abandoned animals. Why would anyone have a problem with that?

Frowning darkly, Davis said, “I don’t like you being where other men can ogle and fantasise about you.”

“Davis! You said you loved that millions of men fantasised about me. What the hay, dude?”

“That was before you were my wife,” Davis snapped. “It’s not right that you display yourself so blatantly. You should dress more appropriately for a married woman.”

Well, reader, I wasn’t putting up with that!

I exploded, “I dress entirely appropriately for a woman my age and with my build. I’m a beautiful young woman with some generous attributes. And I will show those attributes to their best advantage whenever and wherever I want. I’m your wife, not your collared dog on a leash! Besides, who do you think got those male RSPCA advocates to agree to give us dogs? You?” I cupped and lifted my 28GG chest. “Or these puppies?”

To my absolute shock, Davis backhanded me to the floor. Lying on the floor, holding my hand to my bloodied lip, I stared in disbelief up at my husband.

Davis was apologetic and on his knees, hugging me in a flash, “Oh my Gawd, Ona. What did I do? I’m so sorry! I don’t know what happened. I just blanked out! Did I hit you? Oh, fuck, what a heel I am! I’m so sorry, my love. I’ll never do it again!”

Deep in my heart, I knew this was wrong because I’d seen and spoken to spousal abuse victims. I knew the violence and abuse would only escalate from here and that it wouldn’t get better. But I’d admired this man for so many years. Davis is why I pursued my career in nanobot technology. His papers and essays showed a man of startling intellect, compassion, and wisdom. I couldn’t reconcile the man in those papers with the man that had just knocked me to the ground.

Then there was Ina. When I’d taken Davis to meet my family, she’d warned he was no good, “Call the wedding off, Ona. This man, he is no good for you. Besides, he is old, he won’t be able to keep his peepee hard and satisfy you.”

I didn’t want to admit to my older sister that she was right. I didn’t want to go home with my tail between my legs and have to beg dance shows to hire me again so I could have money to live. Plus, the work Davis and I were doing was cutting edge, and we had almost got it working. I didn’t want to walk away when we were so close to success.

With all these thoughts slithering through my brain, I shut my ears to that little voice of warning and chose to forgive my husband.

Fortunately, we hadn’t started a family yet. Davis had asked many times, but I’d always replied, “We’re so close to perfecting this, Davis. Once we have the technology working as we know it can, then there’ll be time for children. Lots of them, I hope.”