Chapter 13: Designing a House

It took three weeks before Alice could move down. She rented a trailer and pulled it behind her car. There was no easy way to get to North Haddon using planes, and I didn't want to drive up and down again. So I lied and told her that a friend driving north from Boston dropped me off.

We shared the long ride down. With a loaded trailer we had to keep the speed down and be gentle on the brakes and the curves. That, combined with road construction on seemingly every road, made the ride almost eight hours.

The time passed quickly with Alice in the car. We switched off driving every couple of hours. She wanted to know all about my job at the University. Then she wanted to know about plasm. I didn't want her to become distracted while driving, so I limited my demonstrations to when I was behind the wheel.

"Okay, so you told me you can move things with plasm. I've trying to figure out how, but I am still nowhere. When will you show me how to do it?"

She stared round-eyed when I lifted the water bottle to my lips with both hands on the wheel.

"Wow!" she said while I took several swallows. "I think I can see plasm form in sort of strands to grip the bottle. How did you make it do that?"

"Practice, practice," I grinned.

Alice growled softly.

"Sorry, couldn't resist. I am actually not the best teacher, being largely self-taught, and only over the last five months or so. Poli or Gensoniraet would be much better.

"But in summary, you have to visualize shaping plasm. There are basic exercises; first to learn to focus your mind, a type of meditation. There are breathing exercises and chants. There are even certain ways to control how you sleep which allows you to have shorter and, 'deeper' sleep. Eventually, you don't need any of this to focus — you just visualize the plasm in a certain pattern."

"It sounds like some sort of Eastern mysticism. Chants? Meditation? Is this an Indian tradition? What kind of name is Genson... ?"

"No, not Indian, although it is an ancient tradition. Gensoniraet, pronounced like Jenson-ee-rate, is the remaining member of our House. He is a cousin of Poli. Poli's full name is Polisaet, but she always uses Poli.

"Poli is fun. She likes to tease me — you will like her. Gensoniraet is a good guy, he just doesn't talk as much, and is more serious than Poli."

Somehow in all my descriptions I avoided to mention that my House-mates weren't human. I hoped to postpone that until I could actually introduce them.

Alice wanted to know everything about my friends and colleagues. I started talking about my department, but somehow ended up talking about Brenda and Jenny.

"A pity you can't have a student girlfriend. Jenny sounds pretty nice."

"Heh. If we'd got it on, I would have been attached by the time I met you."

"You still would have invited me because I can play with plasm. And eventually I would have seduced you, Jenny or no Jenny."

"You seduce me?! I had to seduce you, my young friend."

"I may be younger, but I have more experience. I've had a boyfriend and two girlfriends in the last four years. You only had one!"

"All of yours were in high school! They don't count."

"They certainly do! All right, and how many did you have in high school?"

"Well, that is, I was really focused on my studies in school. Didn't have time to chase girls."

"You mean you had no girlfriends. Right?"

"Well, I was sort of an ultimate geek. I was two-three years younger than any girl in my classes. But I had a girlfriend in college, so there!"

"I am still one up on you," giggled Alice. "You never had a boyfriend!"

We spent much of the trip teasing each other.

Alice moved in, compressing my closets and rearranging my furniture. It gave me a warm feeling to see her being so proprietary, that I had to hug her.

"Hey, let go. I still have to unpack my books!" I noticed she didn't try to get away, though. After a few kisses, she asked "what brought that on? Not that I object."

"I really like you treating this as your home. Until recently I never contemplated living with someone — not since my first year of college and a shared dorm room, anyway. I started thinking it would be really nice a few weeks ago, when you visited my room in North Haddon."

Alice now gave me a hug. "Didn't Caroline ever live with you?"

"No. She spent a few nights here; and I spent a few at her apartment. A couple of times I raised the question of moving in together, but we never got really serious about it."

"I am glad it's a first for you. It's a first for me as well — I've never lived away from home for more than a summer camp session. I might be homesick at times — I hope you won't mind."

"No, of course not." I hugged Alice. "And we may be able to organize some trips to visit your parents that will be easier than driving.

"Do you want to eat? I don't have a lot of food here, but I'd prefer to eat in, as I want to discuss some things that need privacy."

As we munched on sandwiches in my kitchen, I raised the issue of plasm travel.

"Alice, I've been pretty cagy about the plasm thing."

"I've noticed. Is there some sort of initiation ceremony? Do I need to pledge to learn the 'inner secrets'?"

"Well, there is no formal ceremony. You do need to pledge to the House, but while petty it's a pretty serious commitment, you can't know what you are committing to until I tell you some pretty unbelievable things. So, as a preliminary step, can I have your word that even if you decide not to join our House you will keep what I tell you confidential?"

"I trust you, Mitch. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here with all I own and no job. I promise."

"Okay. Let's start with the biggest thing. Very few men have the talent to see and manipulate plasm. The art, or craft, of doing so was developed by Nalu, a very time ago."

"So, are these Nalu women then?"

"I am not saying this well. The Nalu are not human. Or perhaps they are human, depending on your definition; they are just not homo sapiens."

Alice was clearly skeptical. "Assuming this is not some obscure joke, what are they? Aliens?"

"No. I called Poli a distant, distant cousin. They are a hominid species, basically we share a lot of ancestors, but they diverged about a million years ago."

"So, you are saying they are like Neanderthals? Who developed this plasm, and some of them are still around, but nobody has seen them except you?"

"Well, there are a couple of differences. Neanderthals were actually a pretty close relative of ours, probably the same species. Nalu are a more distant hominid.

"Another important difference, the Neanderthals disappeared a long time ago without having a chance to develop a sophisticated civilization. They actually made some remarkable advances, but there is some justification for the common portrayal of them as primitive.

"The Nalu developed a sophisticated civilization a very long time ago, and they never became extinct. I told you about the Grimoire that Pitt Colt copied. The original was actually printed, not hand-written, by the Nalu over two thousand years ago."

"I think you are serious, but I can't believe that. I find it incredible that no sign of their civilization was ever found. Or is there a vast conspiracy dedicated to keeping them a secret?"

"Well, the Nalu have deliberately kept their presence hidden. There are various reasons why it was actually not that hard — I will discuss them later. But in terms of humans who know about the Nalu and keep them secret? The conspiracy is not all that large. It contains one and a half persons," I grinned.

Alice looked relieved. Perhaps the seriousness of our discussion, combined with her disbelief, was a strain.

"Okay, I will bite. How do you count half of a person?"

"Simple. Only you and I know about the Nalu; and you don't quite believe, so you keeping it quiet is partly from the conspiracy, and partly from humoring me. So counting me, it's one and a half."

"Ha! I am glad you are keeping your sense of humor. But seriously, do you expect me to believe you?"

"Well, you must admit that the plasm stuff is pretty unbelievable." She nodded. "So it should make other unlikely phenomena more plausible."

Alice didn't look convinced, but I continued before she could raise arguments.

"But I think the best way to convince you is to introduce you to some Nalu."

Alice gulped. "But, they must be pretty well hidden. Do we have to travel..."

"No. I think you'll be more comfortable here, Poli will visit us here."

"When? I am not dressed!"