Chapter 2

JAY & J. PROP.

Somehow, Jay was able to conceal the fact he had a 'J' form in his possession. While the other men were more or less servants, Jay had a different purpose. He was a maker.

Besides the basic Gunsmith repairs to tourist mistakes, Jay constructed identical copies of commercial guns ... minus serial numbers and company markings. Jay worked with his hands.

The simple series of steps necessary to build something had released certain things in his mind: Jay could think. He had the ability to see the finished product and work the steps back to raw material.

He worked hard to convey thinking to Jezebel. She had been unfinished.

Where the other 'J' forms had been finished in a controlled and oppressive environment, Jezebel was solidified and quickened by massive forces of nature.

Not lightning struck but electrically activated, she was drowning. Her very first action, reaction was to stand and clear her lungs.

She 'lived.' Frankenstein would have declared, "It's Alive!"

Her second action was to recognize she was hungry.

Her reaction was to grab a fish and eat it.

She was in water in a storm, she got out.

She was wet and cold, she sought shelter.

Quick thinking for a 'form' only seconds alive.

The other girl forms came with a basic knowledge of language, a reasonable decorum, a clothing sense, and an insatiable desire to sexually please men.

Jezebels' forming was lost through the crack in the mold.

Jezebels' forming stopped with language. She could walk, talk and eat when she slipped in Jay's door, Jay had to teach her the rest.

Jezebel was a wild creature. As she learned the simple tasks of a newborn, Jezebels' brain absorbed the idea and not just the lesson.

Jezebel became a person as she learned to shit and wipe, burp and apologize, bump and damage. She learned to be 'careful.'

She had the best teacher in the area ... Jay could think.

Jezebel was 'curious.'

She learned how to clean the machines and how to be careful with the ways the milling heads traveled on. Then she learned how the machines worked. Jezebel was fascinated.

Jay noticed. He described, pointing at this and that. Next she worked the machines. Jay had an apprentice. Jezebel was the best of apprentices, she had no preconceived ideas. Jay said, this way ... once was enough. She never said why, she never had to: Jay had explained why. She never said, this way would be better. She knew no other way.

She learned how to do the dishes, cook the foods Jay liked, categorize and catalog the huge collection of genuine junk Jay had inherited when the old smith died.