Chapter 5

Five months into the project. A lot of the women are starting to show. We're right at 97%. I'm averaging one woman a day, which means just about 150 with 5 or so who didn't catch. I'm not sure of all the logistics. The women stay around for a week or so, then disappear. They get tested and are given the chance to try again if they aren't pregnant. For some reason 3% don't get pregnant. I've been told there's a research team investigating it. After pregnancy has been determined, they get sent to another town. There are about 15 towns in operation with another 50 or so in development. Each town is independent of the others and was fully set up for taking care of pregnant women and birthing babies. The Network keeps track of how far along each woman is and all of her medical stats. As time goes on, women will be moved around. The plan is to have a limited amount of women in each town with due dates spread over the spectrum. They could handle multiple births, but why have one town with all the women expecting in the next day or two and another with nobody due for over 8 months.

I'll tell you one thing. There won't be any such thing as daycare in any of these towns. There will be cooperation in caring for the children but every woman who has been allowed (that's right - allowed - women are fighting over the privilege to let me knock them up) to be with me has been thoroughly screened to make sure she wants to be a mother more than anything in life. No, they won't be chained to the baby for 18 years, but they won't spend 10 hours away from their children each day. One of the main reasons for the destruction of my society was the idea that anyone could raise a child. Another common misconception was that a child didn't need both a mother and a father. We discovered that men and women really are different. Women gestate a child for 9 months. Women nourish children at their breast for the first few months. A mother can settle down a crying baby nobody else can do anything with by just picking it up. But children do need to see the proper ways for males to behave. So, they don't need a dedicated, full time father, but they do need access to one. And the words father and sperm have little to do with one another.

Most of the production in these towns is done by men. The children will see men as people whose main function is to make life better for others. All women will be required to put in some time making meals each week. Not every meal, every day. But enough so they know they have contributed. Hell, look at a kid standing alone in the kitchen as Mom is sweeping the floor. He'll rock back and forth, suck on his thumb, he has to do something. Put a dustpan in his hand and he'll be kneeling down, holding the dustpan, saying "Here, Mommy" every 5 seconds so he can help. We all need to contribute, no matter who we are.

Something unexpected happened a few days ago. I met a woman. Not unusual in itself. I met a different woman every day. But this was a different different woman. I hadn't realized it since it had become a way of life, but ever since my wife left me in 1996, I've been lonely. That's over 10,000 years of being lonely.

Not alone. I dated and picked up women in the years before my death, but I never got close to anyone. And I've had a different woman in my bed almost every night for the past five months. Sex is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't replace love. I actually got a taste of what I'd been missing the first few months after my rebirth when Nurse was constantly around. If the timing had been right, something may have come of it. But she represented the transition from one life to another in my mind. I didn't admit it at the time, even to myself, but I was pretty shook up to find my known world gone and all I knew to be different.

Her name was Butterfly. The name matched her personality to a tee. She was interested in everything and seemed to flit around. I've never met a woman with so much energy. She showed up one day and I figured I would bed her that night and that would be the last I saw of her. That was pretty much the way things went these days.

It was late morning when she dropped by my place. I was immediately taken in by her smile. It was spontaneous and frequent. She had a bright laugh that accompanied it. She seemed to be delighted in everything.

I invited her to accompany me to lunch. There was a town cafeteria that reminded me of a buffet on a cruise ship. She laughed, shook her head and took off toward the edge of town, dragging me with her. "I know a much better place to eat."

We ran some but walked most of the time. She pointed out the different sights. Things I'd never even known to look for or forgotten since I was a child.

We checked out an anthill for over an hour. Butterfly was thrilled with the way each did his own job for the good of the hive. I didn't realize how many different types of weeds were in the area I now lived in.

She spotted a hawk soaring in the air and took off, dragging me with her. We were able to see it swoop down in the distance, then rise up again, holding on to something in it's talons.

We'd been in a hilly area for a while. Not anything we couldn't handle, but not flat so we could see for miles, either. Butterfly looked at me, said "You've got to see this," then dragged me around a corner.

There was a stream coming down from the north. It gathered into a lake about the size of a football field, just on the other side of the hill we'd come around. There was a smaller stream heading out from the south end of the lake. The far side had a big lawn area with bushes spotting the lawn. Clumps of trees were also spread over the open areas. It looked like a park you might find in an upscale area in my time.

Butterfly was taking off some necklaces she wore. They looked like acorns strung together. "Come on Old Man, you know how to swim, don't you?"

I shucked off the sandals on my feet. Both of us were now naked.

I gave Butterfly a shove on her left shoulder, pushing her off balance for a second. I used that second to take off for the lake, running out about 10 feet into the water, then diving forward. I'd forgotten how refreshing a swim is.

I didn't have long to luxuriate in the feeling. A laughing Butterfly came flying through the air, flopping down right next to me, splashing me with water.

Of course, this was war. We spent a good fifteen minutes dunking and splashing each other. There was also a good amount of touchy feely thrown in. We might have gone on for the rest of the afternoon if she hadn't grabbed me and kissed me as I came up sputtering. Just a quick kiss, but it caught my attention.

I stopped playing. I noticed that Butterfly was standing in front of me. No flitting around, no "have to be doing something." Her breathing had become shallow, not quite panting but rapid. Her hands were down at her sides. She had a slight smile on her face, but her eyes. Her eyes were shining. I would have been able to spot the love from the other side of the lake.

The kiss had been quick. Just a hint. But it felt like she touched my soul in that second or so. I walked up to Butterfly and wrapped my arms around her waist. She followed suit. We just stood there looking into each others' eyes for a week or so. She was leaning back a little. The top of her head came up to my nose, so we weren't quite eye to eye. I felt her heart beating in her chest. It wasn't all from the hard play we'd just been engaged in.

10,000 years of loneliness sloughed off me. As if I'd been covered in mud and walked under a waterfall. How do I put it into words? One second I was lonely, without anyone. The next I was fulfilled, totally content. I would have been happy to stand there forever, just soaking in the love she was exuding.

Butterfly looked at me. "Hey. Old Man. Kiss me while I can still breathe."

That snapped me out of my reverie. I leaned in to her and our lips met. No brief swipe like before, but not a mad, torrid kiss, either. Our lips met. Hers were moist and fit mine perfectly. I moved mine, she reciprocated. We melted into each other and became one entity. Our hearts were both rocketing but they blended together and also became as one. Somehow we were able to continue breathing through our noses.

I don't know how long we stayed there, water up to our waists. Butterfly finally eased back and looked in my eyes. "Come across with me. There's something I want to show you." She let go and started swimming across the lake.

I followed. Towards the middle I put my feet down and found I couldn't touch. I continued, my eyes on her kicking legs and the cheeks at the top of them as they would come out of the water.

Butterfly was waiting, one foot in front of the other, her right hand out to pull me out of the water. We ran to the closest clump of bushes. Close up, we could see they were full of raspberries. "Take some. This is your our lunch." We both picked berries. "Whoa. Don't fill up. There are others all around."

She turned, said "Come on," and started running to the next bushes. She was laughing, filled with joy about her adventure. I followed, eating raspberries as I ran. I'd never had fruit this sweet.