Chapter 16

Thursday 28.12.2016

The next day the table tennis tournament went very well. In the semi-finals I played against Mayari and Ramona against Priya. We let the kids make the final, but our game for third place was remarkable. I had to mobilize all my power to win against Ramona. Priya won the final. Mayari played with great effort, but Priya was more experienced. After all, Priya challenged me to the competition. Despite all the trickery and sniping from me, she confidently won the first set. But she had a weakness that was her forehand side. I took advantage of her weak point in the second set: 1:1. Now a few remarkable serves and counters followed. Priya had adjusted to my counterattacks, but I also got along better and better. I really wanted to win. Priya should have one more goal, the goal of becoming better than me. I managed to win with a forehand smash. Although most of the spectators held to Priya, I got a decent applause as the winner in the insignificant game. Priya came beaming at me, “That was good. That was really fun.”

She was a fair loser. You couldn’t say that about every girl. We had already seen small outbursts of anger in individual games, which was actually unusual for our team. We four semi-finalists agreed to play once a week. Lenya, Babette, and Esther also wanted to practice with us so that they could do better next time. We promised to organize this, but you should use the tables yourself more often. “Only practice makes the masters.” Although this was a well-known phrase for me, the bystanders nodded quite seriously. At the moment, almost everyone was trying to understand and assimilate my words. That would not be the case in the long run, but we should take advantage of that. I decided to select English idioms or colloquial phrases from the dictionary and to use and explain them on occasion. In addition, I still lacked a lot of knowledge in this field.

At the award ceremony at the lunch table, I reminded everyone of the upcoming chess tournament in January. Most of the girls had forgotten that. Some didn’t even know the moves. Esther explained on her own initiative that all the children of her school in Hungary had chess as a subject of instruction. “After a short time, our school was also the best in mathematics in the whole country. Chess improves logical thinking.” Ramona and I immediately knocked approvingly, everyone followed.

“If you would like to know more about chess or want to play against the computer with easy or higher difficulties, Esther would be happy to have a chess program loaded onto your tablet. She likes to do that for you.” I announced, and earned evil looks from Esther, but also from Ramona. However, our Hungarian had already had the advantage of being able to use the chess program to this day. Now Fahsai should also get the same chance, I made that clear to Esther’s mentor.

****

Finally, I was able to dedicate myself to the last important event of the year, the New Year’s Eve celebration. It should be the next highlight in our life in seclusion. The end of the year didn’t play a big role for the people in the village, Carmen had told me. They celebrated the summer solstice in their own way on December 21. Yes, in the southern hemisphere, the astronomical summer began on this day, for the Incas the day when their ‘God of the Sun Inti’ was closest to them. Nevertheless, I agreed with Ramona to invite the entire valley population to the planned big New Year’s Eve party.

Carmen had come to our palazzo for an examination on the penultimate day of the year. She was finally feeling a little better again. Her extreme difficulties already from the third week of pregnancy were completely over. Today she beamed and hoped for the first ultrasound image of her baby. Although I was also interested in whether everything went well, but I couldn’t put myself into the feelings of a woman during a pregnancy anyway. Presumably, Carmen was waiting for new signals every day, which confirmed to her the pregnancy and the health of her embryo. She was also with Olivia every day, rejoicing with her about the clearly noticeable movements of the baby in the womb.

The day brought another surprise. Florence was pregnant. Ramona had fertilised her eggs on 13^th of December. A good two weeks later, the positive test proved the competence of our doctor. When she wanted to congratulate me on the additional paternity, I gave her an appreciative kiss. “Well done, Doctor. Was she pleased?”

“I’m not sure that she understood the principle of impregnation and the test. Maybe you’ll be brave and try again. Then at least she knows how it could have happened.” She was cynical, too, my dear Ramona, although the thought was not outlandish. Carmen just said Florence didn’t believe her. She wanted to feel for herself that she would have a child.

With the buggy I overtook the women who are quite well groomed and showered today. They had been well prepared by Olivia before the visit at the doctor. I sent Leonie to the village. Florence, I took with me to Olivia and Alejandra. Our brave little pregnant woman was talking to Florence. She showed her the sonogram, which was hanging over Olivia’s bed, because Florence could not or did not want to believe that a pregnancy could be detected with devices and tests. Olivia encouraged me to give Florence the feeling that she was a woman, despite the already proven pregnancy. “Room 13?” Olivia nodded in agreement and showed me her right thumb. She led Florence upstairs and whispered some things to her. When I followed them later, it occurred to me that for the first time I did not have Luisa’s consent for a non-partner intercourse. It was too late now. In the room, the Peruvian woman lay in bed undressed and covered with a sheet. Olivia had obviously explained and prepared it well. I quickly undressed too and joined the lady, some years older than me.

It was a stupid situation. Since I didn’t know how it was with the mountain dwellers in bed, I just lay down next to Florence. Nothing happened for minutes. Then I felt her hand searching, whether I was aroused enough. No, I wasn’t. Her sigh showed me her innermost need. I turned her away from me and pressed myself against her back. My hands found that she had hidden a taut, slender, well-trained body under her usual cloak. She didn’t flinch a bit when I touched her body and her breasts. Florence wanted it; she wanted a child with all the fibres of her body. Gradually, my masculinity rose. Soon the almost strange woman led my penis to the right place, without us changing the position to each other. I moved very slowly. She forcefully surrounded the intruder and began to massage him with her body, but things did not go so well. A little later, I traditionally lay on her and gave her a few nice minutes, as I hoped. Actually, I was used to the fact that the women closed their eyes during the intercourse. Florence looked at me fully during the act, as if she wanted to memorize my image. Her eyes shone beautifully. It was a different way she enjoyed the commonality, obviously the right one for her. Without any foreplay and without any exchange of caresses, her body signalled to me desire and lust. My efforts increased. Her body came to me more and more strongly. Before my redeeming gurgling began, her breathing showed me that she was ready for procreation. She finally got her pay. She gasped in delight. Florence received a kiss on the forehead, and I rolled away from her. The woman spoke some singing words in a completely foreign language. Now, apparently, her desire for pregnancy was accomplished for her. She stroked me with her rough hands. This was also not a pleasure but showed me that I had won a woman’s soul for me again. At first, I didn’t want that, but I had felt it intensely, this woman wanted a man, physically a father to her child. In her own way she seemed happy now. I didn’t like it as hard as I had initially imagined. We men have it much easier during sex than most women. So far, I have not known the case that I would not have come to a climax. “Hopefully, it will stay that way for a long time.” I whispered to myself. The Peruvian woman looked at me in amazement, she could not understand even one word.

While showering, I asked myself the question whether it would not be better to try it directly with Leonie right away. I had to discuss this with Ramona. My dear doctor told me that she had two eggs from Leonie ready for fertilization. Ramona was then a little disappointed that I was very economical with my donation despite the best massage. But for the intended medical reasons, that’s enough for her. My dear Luisa was also pleased that I had slept with Florence once when I confessed this to her. “For us women, feeling is important. Thank you, my dear.”

Ramona had also done a health check for Esther today. Subsequently, Esther conducted the same examinations on Ramona. Our doctor was really proud of how professionally Esther would have taken her blood for the examinations and measured blood pressure, examined heart sounds, performed ultrasound scans and other things perfectly. Ramona only said that Esther had the makings of a good doctor, but that she would not be able to study medicine due to our insufficiently complex school education here in the valley. That would be a great pity for our dear Hungarian.

Subsequently, Ramona told me that all four pregnant women had excellent examination result. The first six girls had just as good results in the morning of the day. “Tomorrow at the last day of the year it will be the turn of the other six girls. And what about the boss? Will you be examined tomorrow?” Since I didn’t feel like it, I talked myself out of preparing for the New Year’s Eve celebration. “But we also have to check your blood, Michael. Sometimes I have the impression that you are at the limit.” She quickly measured the oxygen content of my blood: 99% - excellent. My blood pressure was 120:80, like a young man. She recorded a resting pulse of 55 beats. “Tomorrow, please come to the blood test, Michael. You are in a very good physical mood, say your values.” I was released with a kiss.

I quickly drove to the container warehouse. It had occurred to me that I had not yet protected the container with the projectiles and cannons from access. I also wanted to try out how the flare guns worked. I quickly loaded one of the pistols with a yellow cartridge without understanding the label. Since it was supposed to be a New Year’s surprise, I secretly wanted to try a shot here in the plant. For safety, I shot towards the farthest corner of the hall, where no damage could be done. It boomed tremendously, much louder than expected. The cartridge ignited, bounced back from the wall, and sailed down almost in the middle of the room on a parachute. Of course, I was unlucky that she fell into a box with stored used cardboard. Fortunately, a larger box lid was nearby, so that I could first suffocate the blazing fire. But the danger was not averted. The smouldering cardboard could quickly ignite the box. With the forklift I drove the large wooden box to the right wall, where there was a water connection for untreated water from the mountainside. Fortunately, the water was enough to extinguish the fire.

All of a sudden Olivia was in the hall. She had heard the shot echoing several times and had jumped on her scooter to look for the cause. At first, she wanted to trigger the siren at the guesthouse, but then, fortunately, it seemed to her that this was not suitable. Sometimes I was already a child’s head and did not think about some things sufficiently.

Olivia touched my heart for a moment and smiled at me with relief. She had seen that I had driven passing the casa in the direction of the container warehouse. That’s why she was afraid that something might have happened to me. She led my hand to her womb, where her baby let out the excitement on the mother. Today I felt the trampling of the little one more strongly. Tenderly caressing the body, I asked Olivia to keep the excitements as small as possible for her and for the child. She was in the last third of her pregnancy, so, excitement and anxiety was not good for our little Peruvian.

On the penultimate evening of the year, Luisa and Ramona were sitting with me on the terrace. The children had gone to rest for the night independently. I had opened a bottle of good red wine from the cellar, but both women did not want to drink alcohol during pregnancy anymore. I sipped my glass, but I would have preferred beer. Suddenly Ramona began to talk about how important it was that we would document the births and the births exactly. If she looked far into the future, maybe there could be ten or twenty children here, all except Olivia’s child from the same father. For genetic reasons, it would be irresponsible for my children to reproduce among themselves. “Maybe it will bring discord in the valley, because men like to argue, but we need at least a second man at some point.” Smiling, I told her that I was really happy because she was planning with me in the valley for many years to come. “Don’t be ridiculous, Michael. Why do you think I keep motivating the girls to keep working on the old road? I don’t want to leave here; it’s such a joy to be here. But the medicines and other things will have to be replenished at some point. We can’t stay here alone forever. I’ll just say salt, sugar, diesel, and spare parts as examples. For this we need a boy or a man, at least for some of the girls.”

I studied thoughtfully her beautiful face. She looked a little dissatisfied. For weeks she seemed to have been occupied with these thoughts, as I had heard from some minor remarks, but she had not yet brought it out so concretely.

Carefully, but determined I answered. “In my opinion, we need to focus on what is important and feasible. Our wind power plant is waiting for me in front of the road. When the rain clouds once again cover the sun for days, we no longer have enough electricity in the valley. Babette was worried that the fast-growing plants would destroy her hard work again. The two girlfriends already needed a lot of time to eliminate the new shoots.” Luisa and Ramona nodded.