Chapter 9

Charles led Connie through his house and out into his backyard. Connie followed silently. They ignored Caroline Ralston as they went by her. She was busy peeling carrots at the kitchen sink. She ignored them as well.

"Sorry," apologized Charles once more, still looking a little awkward.

"It's okay Charles," Connie said, giving Charles a smile. "I understand. It must feel weird talking about this in front of your sister."

"Yeah, it is," agreed Charles, nodding his head as he replied, "and it's embarrassing as well. You see ... my mom isn't the only one to screw me this morning. I came upon Melissa and my dad as they were finishing up. Melissa spotted me and went for it. I tried to escape but I tripped and ... well she mounted me and then rode me till we both came. Now all I can visualize is my sister's naked body as she orgasmed."

"Okay..." Connie said slowly in response, looking both embarrassed and irritated. "I can see where that would freak you out, but we need to talk about this. I mean ... come on Charles ... the world is fucked up and we need to sort it out. Now if I can focus on this then so can you ... I mean this hasn't just happened to you."

Charles' mouth opened and then it closed. He looked at Connie and she looked back, angrily. Charles looked down at his feet and felt awkward again. Then he looked up and noticed a tear running down Connie's cheek. He felt like a heel. Connie brushed the tear away with the sleeve of his 'hoodie'.

"Sorry, again," Charles said softly. "I forgot about you and what you must have gone through. I'm really sorry!"

"Forget it," Connie answered, brushing Charles words aside with a look that told him she wasn't ready to talk about this. "Let's just get this over with, okay."

"Yeah..." Charles said slowly with a nod, realizing that he had really fucked things up with Connie. Unfortunately now wasn't the time to fix it. Maybe later he thought to himself as he turned his mind to the issue at hand and resumed their conversation. "Well, I think we can get the world back up on its feet. I know that my mother is not back to being normal. In fact, she's far from normal but that's fine. What's important is that she is functioning as a person."

"Yeah a person on autopilot!" interrupted Connie, giving Charles an angry look as she did. "We need more than that. We need people who can think independently and function without us telling them what is right and what is wrong, and going 'Yes Master' every time we ask somebody to do something."

"I know we do," Charles replied, nodding his head in acknowledgement, "but for now functioning is good. It will get the world back to work for today and for the next little while. It will allow people to do the work they're supposed to be doing, thus keeping us safe and alive while we figure out how to break this slave thing."

"And what if we can't free them?" Connie asked bluntly. "What if we're stuck babysitting the world for the rest of our lives? What do we do then?"

"Connie," Charles said his voice filled with frustration. "I'm just as worried about this as you are. So our first try wasn't a resounding success. Well, I'm not ready to give up and play puppet master. I say we try this first. Then we start experimenting. Hopefully, we will be able to break Clyde's 'Master of Earth' programming and hopefully, it will not take the rest of our lives to do it. I know it appears impossible, but I'm not ready to give up yet, so the question is ... are you ready to help me out?"

Connie looked at Charles for a minute and then started pacing back and forth about his backyard. Every once and a while, Connie stopped and looked at Charles. Charles stayed silent and let her think. Finally, Connie stopped in front of Charles and stared him in the eye.

"When you say experiment," Connie said firmly, "do you mean that we're going to manipulate people?"

"Maybe," Charles replied, returning her stare, "if we need to and only if we need to do it. I'm not thrilled with the whole control thing you know, but if all else fails and we can't free everyone ... well, maybe with some tweaking we can make people behave as close to normal as possible."