Chapter 7

I was a little early and went to homeroom anyway so I could check messages.

Bang-ja:

>Hi, Ash,

Can you, Becky and I talk at lunch time? <3 <3 <3 -bangjaoh

>Hi, Bang-ja -

I have a ... thing ... at lunch already - would right after school work? I am free 1530 - 1630 and then I have another thing.

On Saturday our fam will have a picnic on the Square, will your household join us? There’s also a woodwind quintet playing at 1400, clock tower, I promised to go. <3 <3 <3 -Achille

>Hi, Beck-oo,

Serge is aboard with the bento boxes for Saturday. Given the feeding frenzy we saw Sunday morning we can probably promise a dainty hors d’œuvre or two to the Vikings - maybe we should feed them hunks of beef first so we know they will taste it. Lovely weekend, Beck, and I have ... stored feelings ... that keep reminding me of you, but I bet you knew that. <3 <3 <3 -Achille

I noted the parental consent agreement for the BDSM class had been received.

Mr. Mesrobian chose that moment to walk to his lectern. “Gentlefolk, the last two weeks of the school calendar lie before us. Make them count. Impending graduates are aware of the need to fulfill their potential, so their matrics are fulfilled. It is a good attitude. There are opportunities for each of you to excel. I urge you to seize and feast on each and every one.”

“I will briefly descant on Friday’s events.

“The administration - or at least the part that sees the sun occasionally - reminds students that Collective traditions are the way our society works. When someone contravenes those traditions, a few things happen. The Friday instance appears to have been, at least from what evidence I’ve seen, an assault. The victim of the assault neutralized the aggressor, for which I am, and you should be, grateful. Infringement of the rights of one is infringement of the rights of all and there is very limited leeway or grey area when such a thing happens.

“This is the second instance of an assault I have been informed about since my parents brought me to San Hip. Events did not go well for the transgressor in the first case and I suspect they won’t this time, either.

“People fought to establish San Hip and the Redwood Temporary Collective. There is a strong streak of independence here and there is another, equally strong streak of our society demanding of its members goodwill, honesty and respect for others. This society will not survive if those demands are not met by all. Therefore, please take a few minutes now and then to consider whether you are respecting others in the letter and spirit of that principle.

“Societies fail. Millions have done so. As long as our society does not succumb to weakness in our resolve to respect one another it will probably survive. Once that resolve is lost, unless strenuous effort is marshaled, the society will proceed by inertia to its dissolution. This has played out innumerable times within recorded history.

“Collective Social Engagement announces new movement classes for the Litha break: Croatian dance, fencing and squash. Please consult your student account to learn more.

“Anything for the record, comments or questions?”

Silence.

“May we all grow ... firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer.”

I headed to Mr. Moss’ class and it was a good thing I’d read ‘Tristram Shandy’ because I had a bunch of guns loaded if he asked the right question. I was betting at least Hal and Paul would be right there with me.

“Gentlefolk, who has at least cracked the covers?” All the hands. “Why is Uncle Toby featured so prominently? Ah. Mr. Hunter, please?” “Because, for one reason, he sets a model for Tristram: keep on doing what you wish, even through adversity. Be determined even in what someone else might think a foolish pastime.” “Well stated, sir.”

“Mx. Fanning?” “Because he is the counterpoise to Tristram’s father, who is generally opposed to whatever someone else wants to do.” “Yes, thank you, Mx. Fanning.”

“Gentlefolk, why the emphasis on the HOBBY-HORSE?” My hand shot up. Huh. No one else. “Mr. Boakye. Shall I sit down?” “Yes, sir.” “Please proceed.”

“The HOBBY-HORSE is something someone wants to do - one of Uncle Toby’s HOBBY-HORSES is his re-creation of fortifications. In the text and paraphrasing, Tristram asks ‘if someone is riding his HOBBY-HORSE quietly and doesn’t insist anyone join him, why would you, or I, be involved at all?’ Taken with Voltaire’s comment ‘what you say offends me, but I will fight for your right to say it’ and Mill’s rejection of government doing anything other than preventing one person from impeding another’s HOBBY-HORSE - and particularly Mill invented the term ‘victimless crimes’, saying governments shouldn’t engage in their prosecution because no impediment to anyone’s HOBBY-HORSE is alleged. The Wiccan pronouncement ‘An it harm none, do as thou wilt’ brings these ideas together: do as you wish, but do no harm to others. And that’s the foundation of the Collective. We respect others and ourselves unless and until one interferes with someone else’s forwarding of their own HOBBY-HORSE.”

“In short, then, Mr. Boakye?” “Fight for principle. You and your HOBBY-HORSE have the duties and privileges of theirs, and fighting for their rights is equivalent to fighting for your own.”

“Thank you, Mr. Boakye.”

I sat.

“Next, why is Tristram’s father so disagreeable?”

And so on.

Bang-ja and I met at the door of Dr. Green’s class. “We really need to talk with you!” “I know, I’m doing what I can. I made a promise.” She nodded. “1530, then, you, me, Beck, at the fountain?” “Yes.” She touched my hand, air-kissed me.

Naturally, listening to Dr. Green was a waste, so I mulled. ‘Beck and Bang-ja, again? I smell a Plan.’

Bang-ja and I left the class together. She touched my hand. I air-kissed her this time and looked for Danni, who was maybe fifteen seconds behind me in arriving. She touched my hand too. She was bouncy and about to burst and I looked again at her. Practically quivering, she was. “I see the news is good.” “Oh, yes. Not here, though. Out in the glades. Eat fast.” “Ah, please, Danni, if the food’s good I would like to enjoy it.” Her face fell. “OK, I will compress a little what I have to tell you, and the rest will have to wait for tonight.” I touched her upper arm. “I hope the pot doesn’t boil over.” She laughed and said “ok, I get it, yet I can’t wait to tell you.”

The food was, of all things on a Monday, shrimp-stuffed artichokes with butter and aïoli. A favorite. I would want to eat everything and if Danni didn’t want her artichoke heart she’d have to give me that.

We got plain water and ate, and as fizzy as she was she managed not to rush me, she ate everything and we were companionable as we walked out to the glades. We sat.

“I can do stuff!” “I have no doubt.” “Yabbut I can do stuff you can do!” I looked at her. “Breathe, walk,...?”

“No. I can ripple my cunt like you can. Mom and Dad were off playing with ... er, their new boyfriend and I hooked up with a guy. We played. I pulled his cock inside me, and made him stay there and then I made him cum and then I wouldn’t let him stop. It’s wild, Ash!” “I wonder how that happened.”

“Um. I have a theory”, she said. “I think you fucked it into me.”

“There are things like science that say you can fuck babies into those who are properly equipped, but you can’t fuck ideas or abilities into people, else there wouldn’t be so many stupid people.”

“I am going to show you tonight. THEN we will talk about it. It’s fun and exciting and I’ve never felt like this!” “Wonderful, Danni, I look forward to play whether or not you have a new ability, I find you so very appealing.”

She leaned over and put her head on my shoulder. “I know. I feel it, it’s like everything’s right between us. But you can’t imagine what happens when ... you find yourself doing things you thought were fiction a week ago, and that’s where I am.”

“I can easily imagine it, it’s happening to me every day.” “Really?” “Yup.” “Well, who’s fucking it into you?” I burst out laughing. “I can’t imagine, but if your theory holds, how would anyone know? Maybe you fucked something into me. It’s a strange idea, but we’d need tests and controls and placebo groups and I’m ... simply not into it.” She laughed. Very non-PDA-safe stroke of my cock, and I said “whoa, girl, we’re not together tonight if we get busted.” “Prunecake.”

We got up, she wasn’t talking so fast now, but tonight would be pretty wild if what she said was true. I ‘helped’ her up, not as though a magnificent creature like Danni ever needed helping up, but she put her arms around me and told me she loved me and I melted. “Oh, Danni...”

I got to Mr. Simmons’ class two minutes before the bell, and had the chance to check my messages:

Paul Anniston:

“Hiya, Ash,

Yup, BDSM for minors was my thought, so if you are in it already I will see you there; then my request will be that we pair off for one of the practica. -PAnnis_faber

>Hi, Paul,

Certainly. I understand part of the dynamic in class is that we don’t hang just with close friends, we do our best to engage our whole cohort. You definitely are part of my cohort and I’m glad to know you, so I think your idea has legs. -Achille

Comp. geom. and Drama passed mostly unremarkably except for Cat Jones asking me to hang out “with Manzanita” - it turns out Cat’s in a triad, and he thought maybe I’d play with them but three seemed wild and four, impossible. “Thanks, Cat, I am still finding my feet with binary groupings and I think it would be overwhelming for me.”

I met Beck and Bang-ja in the courtyard after Cat and I parted with a little squeeze and we walked, hand-in-hand-in-hand, toward Beck’s place and mine, and away from Bang-ja’s. We turned uphill off Riemann at a trailhead and five minutes later we were sitting at an empty picnic bench in a stand of redwoods.

“So, what’s up?” “We thought you’d get together with Ali.”

“We have to transition to hypotheticals.” I nodded. “Beck and I, and both of us, have a partner. That partner is ... reticent with males.” “And that may be them being them. It isn’t my business, and should I feel reticence in someone it is like any feeling: it’s theirs; I’m bound to respect it.”

Beck and Bang-ja looked like deflating balloons. “We thought he’d be caught up in the moment.” “I couldn’t go there, it isn’t up to me to convince, only to allow, or not, and accept the results.”

“Would you play with our friend?” “Of course, assuming they were willing; but not if I had to exert any influence to change their mind.” Beck said “Data.”

“I believe Beck has the need to know facts about me and you”, said Bang-ja. “I believe Beck has that need to know”, I said. Beck and I repeated the commitment to Bang-ja; and finally they committed to each other.

“Ash, we have, singularly and together, been with Ali.” “And all that’s lacking is Ali’s commitment that his data be shared.”

There was nowhere to go.

“Uh, look”, I said. “I get what you are saying hypothetically. That is someplace from which I feel debarred and I won’t challenge it though I’d earnestly allow it. While I sympathize, emotionally for myself if that adds to the discussion, I will neither interfere nor use any influence to change it.”

“What about the time we said that is part of our being, spirit-given?” asked Beck. Bang-ja looked at her with a question. “Bang-ja, you know I have a ... an ability to get play into a certain path, right?” She smiled, nodded. “I’d never met anyone else who had that until Ash and I started playing, and we ... seem to be developing it further, in both of us.” “I felt it too, Ash sends ... ideas ... and my body reacts before I can think them over.”

“Yup. And as long as I’m simply allowing people to react, trying this and that and observing, I think it’s OK. The idea of trying to push someone to do what they don’t want to feels monstrous and I won’t, even if I can.”

“This slides away, doesn’t it, into a security problem?”

Beck and I were surprised. “I guess it’s always good clean fun until three-letter agencies find out and they ... yes, I’d call it a security problem, all right.” “Fæces,” I said. “What do we do next?” “Who shall we talk to?” Auntie came to mind, and Beck said “John and Iain.” “My mom is OK but I am not quite sure of Diana, so I think maybe I’d rather go along without them.” “Perhaps we can talk with John, Iain and my Auntie Sumi? Tonight is a busy one for me, if I go talk to Auntie right away perhaps we can get together tomorrow.” “John and Iain won’t be home for a while. Let’s coordinate tomorrow morning before school?”

It was a glum group that left the clearing. I’d have to be careful with Danni in case she had this sensory sharing thing developing as well, and Beck, Bang-ja and I had a bunch of retrospective homework to do. One thing we decided is we could share it freely among us but we’d have to be careful with it with others until we developed a covering set of ‘normal’ abilities to explain it, and last night with me and Beck made me wonder, as she’d done last night, how deep this might go.