Chapter 9: Summertime

School ended for Kara and Lake. They both got good grades so that they both earned the ability to move to the next grade.

At the party for the end of the year, they mingled with their friends and had a good time. Lena didn’t eat very much and Kara noticed.

“You ok?” she asked her friend during a quiet moment alone.

Lena shrugged her shoulders, “I’m fine. I was sick this morning. Mom said it is because of the baby. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I had no idea about being sick.” she said, taking a sip of a sweet tea she held in her hands. She sighed as she swallowed the drink and seemed to feel better as the warm liquid settled in her stomach.

“So how are you and your boyfriend?” Lena asked, now that she was feeling a little bit better.

Kara smiled and sighed happily. “We’re great. He is such a sweetheart. He is so cute and smart and we can talk about everything.” she smiled and sighed happily again.

“Well, I envy you and Lake. I wish I had a boyfriend to share this baby with. Like you and Lake are doing it. Boyfriend first, then baby.” she said with a troubled laugh hoping to make light of her disappointment.

“You’ll get one Lena. I’m sure of it. Just be open and available when someone shows up.” Kara said, putting a supportive arm around her friend.

Lake walked up with his friend Reed. Kara moved to put an arm around her boyfriend as Lake spoke to Lena. “Lena, this is my friend Reed. Reed, this is Kara’s friend Lena. I think you two should talk.”

“Hi Lena.” Reed said, holding out his hand.

Lena looked him over, he was about the same size as Lake, with dark brown hair, cut short on the sides but long enough on top to comb over. He had green eyes and a very pleasant smile. No dimples, but his face did have a very angular shape to it. Lena then looked down at his body, this is where things got interesting. He had a little bit of a pudgy middle, but his arms and legs were nicely shaped which showed her that he was healthy and worked out. She wondered if he had been the one to put a baby in her belly, but that thought was only momentary.

Lena took his hand and then moved into his personal space and put her hands on his arms, then moved them up to his neck, where she pulled him closer and kissed him. She snaked her tongue out into his mouth and tasted him completely. Reed also tasted Lena adding his tongue to the mis and they stood there, hands on each other’s bodies as they tasted each other as if they were at the festival and it was mating season.

Kara and Lake just watched them, slightly in awe of her boldness, kissing and tasting him like she was. When she broke the kiss, both touched their lips and watched each other closely. Neither pulled away, neither looked disgusted, both seemed very happy with the way the other person tasted.

“Reed, it is very good to meet you.” Lena said, then wrapped her arm around his and the two of them walked off to talk in a nearby lounge chair.

“Is he really your friend? Kara asked.

“Yes. I’ve known him, been friends with him, since we started school. Doesn’t hurt that he lives two doors down from me either. We pretty much grew up together.”

“Well good choice.” Kara said, then kissed his cheek before going off to see what else was going on at the party.

When the weather turned hot, Lake was busy so Kara was alone with Kyle and the two of them were tired of being inside. They headed out to go to the park but ended up on the hill overlooking the festival grounds.

“Hey Kara, come here, I want to show you something.” Kyle said, then put his hands out and started to walking like he was expecting to run into something. “Found it.” he said, then shouted to Kara, “Come here!”

“What is it?” Kara said, now very interested and curious about what her little brother found.

Kyle pulled something aside and disappeared. Kara gasped at the sight of her little brother just disappearing like that, and quickly moved to where he had been. He stuck his head out and then waved her forward.

“Come on.” he said.

Kara touched whatever he had touched and was suddenly inside of a building.

Kara was faced with an array of screens being manned by strange looking people but with ears on the top of their heads and fur on their arms and heads.

“Cool huh?” Kyle said.

Dr Grimling’s people had stopped what they were doing when Dr Grimling announced that Kyle and Kara had arrived. A camera was focused on the tent entrance once again so that when Kyle and Kara walked in, they were ready for sure.

Dr Grimling walked over, a shy smile on his face and held a translator strip out in each of his furred hands. Kyle took it, slapped it on his head immediately. Kara just stood there, her mouth hanging open, shocked at seeing aliens for the first time. Dr Grimling put the translator strip in both of his hands while looking at Kara in the face. He motioned with his hands, offering her the strip. She finally came out of her shock and took the strip from him. She recognized it right away and placed it on her forehead.

It dinged, didn’t speak to her, but announced it was complete.

“Dr Grimling?” she said, looking at the tall older man standing in front of her.

He held his hand out to her, his finger curled under, making his hand look like a fist. Kyle immediately balled up his hand and touched his hand to Dr Grimling’s greeting him as an old friend.

“Hi Kara.” Dr Grimling said gently.

She reached out her hand to him, moving past his hand and reaching for his face. He didn’t move, but stayed still allowing her to touch his face, then run her finger down his neck, over his shirt to his arm where she got to feel the fur that covered his body.

“You’re real.” she said, still amazed by what she was seeing and feeling.

“Yes I am.” Dr Grimling said, taking her hand in his while he stood there looking at each other.

“I had tried to tell myself that Lake and I had imagined the whole thing. That what we heard from you wasn’t real, that we had made it up. But you’re real.”

“Yes I am, and it was very hard to not greet you when you and Lake were here. I feel like I know all about you and your family. Like you are my family.” he said, still holding her hand.

“How long have you been here? Sitting in this building watching us?”

“For a long while Kara. We arrived over a year ago, studied the plants in this world then when we met your people we didn’t think anything of it. Just another bipedal animal, like the thousands of us all over the galaxy. But when we followed your people, we discovered your mating habits and found that fascinating. So, we followed your family during the birthing season, then when the festival started, we were right there following, learning and documenting what happened.”

“What information did you take note of?” Kyle asked, still standing by his big sister’s side as they talked to the aliens.

“We documented the way mating takes place, the number of partners each person had and the biological response to the change in season.”

“Number of partners?” Kara asked, a little shocked by the idea of knowing how many people she had been with at the festival.

“Yes Kara. It is part of the information we collect. Why? Would you like to know how many mates you took at your first Bloom Festival of Origins?” Dr Grimling said, seemingly anxious to give her the information.

Kara looked around the room and noticed that almost all of the other people were watching her and Kyle.

“I suppose that might be interesting.” she said slowly, hesitant to know but sort of curious about it.

Dr. Grimling clapped his hands, “Good. Right this way then.” he said, then led the two over to his command chair. He tapped away at the controls on the arms and pulled up a jumbled bunch of numbers that didn’t look like anything to Kara and Kyle. He then tapped some more and the jumbled mess became understandable to both of them. Dr Grimling then searched the numbers until Kara’s face appeared on the screen. Then numbers and words appeared under her face and one of the numbers was labeled as ‘MATES.’ Kara saw her number.

“146?!” she said, a little too loudly for such a small space.

“Wow sis, I had no idea you were so popular.” Kyle said, teasing her.

“Actually, she isn’t that popular. She is very average.” Dr Grimling said to Kyle. He then tapped away at his controls and brought up the math for her community. “See, we recorded all of this data, and on average, everyone had roughly 100 plug mates. Everyone, from the first year woman like Kara, to the oldest of the breeding females. Everyone has that many mates while in season.”

Kyle whittled his amazement. “I can’t wait until I’m old enough. That is going to be so much fun.” he said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

“It isn’t that much fun bro. I didn’t remember much of it and it was only Lake that I actually remembered being with.” she said to Kyle, then looked back at the screen and the myriad of numbers in front of her. She then looked to Dr Grimling, “Why don’t I remember the festival? I remember waking up that morning, getting ready, but when I arrived at the festival it all just sort of faded away.”

Dr Grimling pulled up a scan of her brain and then pointed to a specific portion of her brain. “I don’t know if you recognize this, but here is why you don’t remember your mating time at the festival.” he said, then zoomed in on a small gland located at the base of her brain near the limbic system. “We have not found any reference to it in your science books, but we are calling it your ‘Eupheron Gland.’”

“No, I don’t know anything about that. I haven’t heard that term either while in school. What does it do?’ Kara asked, looking closely at the picture.

“It helps drive your need to mate when you come of age. The other thing is that it also happens to block your ability to form memories. Which is why you didn’t remember anything that happened at the festival.”

“But why did I remember Lake? I remember him distinctively, I remember talking to him and even tasting him then mating with him.” she said.

“I don’t know for sure, but it could be a timing thing. You and Lake woke up next to each other, had a chance to talk first thing in the morning, before eating then moving to the chairs. That could be it, but we would need many years of data to make sure. I just don’t know for sure, sorry.” he said, with his hands up, shrugging his shoulders.