Chapter 53

Aina time: 4:09 PM, day 241 of 1450 (25 days after the Red Bird Festival)

Earth time: 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, Wednesday, March 16, 2044

The group of ten women and three men reached their goal in mid afternoon, the edge of the ledge before it dipped below the water. The group consisted of Jennifer and a reunion of the 1410 marriage class, all twelve members that Mark and Kara had chaperoned into the canyon maze so many years ago. The killer ivy grew lush and vibrant a short distance away, just across the swiftly flowing river. Kapono smiled at Mayoni as he started setting up for the experiment. Jennifer was talking with some other members of the group a short distance away.

"Want to stop by for a look at Lake Mayoni on the way back, show it to your mom?" Kapono asked Mayoni.

"Oh, that place is such a tourist trap now. Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

"Huh? Oh! Ha! Ha! Ha! That was wonderful!"

"I can't take the credit," said Mayoni. "There was a baseball player on Earth once, by the name of Yogi Berra... Seriously, I'd like to show my mom the lake very much..." Mayoni was busy on her own, preparing a series of vials with different extracts from the numerous bulbs of the green pepper bush. "Kiana, all set with the video?"

"Sure! My part's easy!"

Kapono handed Mayoni an arrow, which she smeared with the extract from her first vial. She handed the arrow back with a smile. "You may fire when ready."

"Indeed..." Kapono pulled the arrow in his longbow, sighted for just a second and fired. The arrow skimmed through the ivy, and was immediately and viciously attacked. After a few seconds of attempted carnage, the ivy decided to ignore it.

"Recording when just fine," called Kiana. "Nice shot Kapono."

"Yeah. I haven't lost my touch. I had forgotten how much fun this is. I should get back into practicing again..."

And so it went, one extract trial after another. There were 36 vials in all, and after the 30'th arrow was viciously attacked, the group began to lose hope. Soon they were down to their last vial.

Kapono sighted the last arrow in his bow. "What do you think Mayoni? Did we save the best for last?"

Mayoni shrugged her shoulders and frowned. "Ah, the odds are against us. Just shoot."

A moment later the group let out a sigh of disappointment.

"The last arrow was attacked just as viciously as the others," one of the women commented.

"Yes, but perhaps not all the arrows were attacked with the same speed," said Kapono.

"What?!" said Mayoni.

"Mayoni, let me try vial number five again. You still recording Kiana?"

"Of course."

Kapono shot his last arrow. "Yes! Did you see? A split second hesitation to attack! It was not there with any of the other vials."

"You think so?" asked Mayoni. "I was watching as hard as I could. It all looked about the same to me."

"The difference was very small. But I think it's there. We'll see for sure when we look at the video."

Mayoni nodded. "Oh yeah. Thank you Kapono, for all your excellent shooting."

The group picked up their camping gear and began their return trip. After two hours of hiking, the group came to modest clearing inside the maze canyon and prepared to camp for the night. Sunset would be shortly after 7 PM, and they had dinner and sang songs together until after the sun set. They then retired for the night.

Mayoni and Jennifer were sharing a small two-person tent. They chatted into the night. Eventually Mayoni's curiosity got the better of her and she asked her mother how her honeymoon went.

"It was dreamlike! An entire month camping with Mark! Our only contact with the outside world was when Mark radioed for a report of the Northern Plateau. Word came back of several sightings of hexaped tigers near the pass. We decided not to risk it. Ha! It was also a lot sexier than I thought it would be. A lot! I felt like a teenager again... We got back just in time for me to make this trip. I haven't done this much camping since... well, the wars. But all this camping is so much nicer..." Jennifer sighed. "I wondered a bit, near the end of the honeymoon, if my other wives would mind me monopolizing Mark for a month... but there was no jealousy at all... Mayoni? Can I ask you a really delicate question? Something maybe a mother can ask her daughter?"

"Mom, I am your daughter, your real daughter, now and forever. Go ahead."

"Did you ever struggle with polygamy issues?"

"Personally? No... Not in the way I think you're asking the question. I had some, well, peculiar things happen to me in my 1410 marriage class. I'll tell you sometime. But to answer your question, no. Keona and I have always been very happy being monogamous. Mom... It was a big adjustment for Mark and Kara to make, when they first married. I was there, I saw it all. Va'an joined their marriage very quickly, just a few days later after Mark and Kara married, and then Amy was born a few months after that. It was tough on Kara, Mark too..."

Jennifer nodded. "I find it... not tough. I'm more surprised than anything, about how not tough it is."

Mayoni moved over the Jennifer and kissed her, and started stroking her mother's head. "Things were different back then. There was a tremendous surplus of unmarried women. Nowadays, only 20% of the new marriages are polygamous."

"I know. Ha! I have three wives! Who would have thought?! And two daughters and two sons... I've noticed only a few marriages get up to four wives..."

"Oh yeah. Before the Paleo war, three was the traditional limit, four wives was very rare. But men were so scarce for a while, the girls in the marriage class weren't getting enough selections... All the four-wife marriages I know of are doing okay... It seems to work..." Mayoni bent over and kissed her mother.

Jennifer sighed. "I saw Lynda, briefly, when we got back. Her wife Halia had her baby during my honeymoon. Lynda is thrilled to be a mother, especially a mother to a newborn. She even mentioned to me that's she's breastfeeding. Not just Halia, Lynda too. That I didn't understand."

"Oh, I saw Va'an do that with Kara, when Amy was born. And then with Anuhea too. Va'an would squeeze milk from herself, or sometimes Mark would help her. Then they'd put the milk in a bladder with a pinhole in a nipple part. Kara and Anuhea would let Amy nuzzle against their breasts for awhile, and then slip the bladder nipple in, their own nipple just to the side. The infant quickly becomes happy to nuzzle at each of its mothers' breasts. It's a Hopewell tradition, of sharing full motherhood within the marriage..."

Jennifer nodded, her eyes closed and soothed by her daughter's gentle caresses. They were both soon asleep.

Aina time: 8:15 AM, day 247 of 1450

Earth time: 11:54 AM Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday, March 22, 2044

"Want me to run it again?" asked Kiana. She and Mayoni were in working in a digital processing laboratory in Sparta, reviewing the video of the arrow shots.

"Yes, please... Wow! What a good eye Kapono had. It's so clear in slow motion."

"Yes. The reason the delay is so difficult to see in real time is that the ivy approach always starts at the same time. It's only in the middle phase, where both the arrow and the back coils of the ivy are still moving, that the delay occurs in the strike itself."

"What's the measurement?"

"Ah, the first arrow with extract five... the delay was 237 milliseconds, and the last arrow, uh, 228 milliseconds. Pretty close. In hindsight, maybe we should have run the series-five extract test a few more times."