Chapter 2: Kármán Line

We woke up the next morning, a Saturday, still in the same position, more or less, and both still nude. Kam woke up first, actually, and her stirring atop me woke me up, too. The sun was poking through the blinds, making a pattern of light and shadow over Kam's dark, rich skin. I looked up groggily at her as she rolled off me and out of bed to answer the call of nature, and then I fell right back to sleep again, since I didn't actually have to be up.

I don't know how long I was asleep before I woke up again, but the sunlight had moved, and Kam was busy reading, and she was dressed already. When she saw me sit up in bed, she looked at me and said, "Good. Now you can hurry up. Dad is at work, Mom declared a 'fend for yourself' day, and so I've decided we're going to go get breakfast out."

"Okay, I said. Gimme a few minutes."

"Not too long, I hope; I'm hungry."

As I pulled myself out of bed and began my day, I gave her a rude gesture, and she chuckled. "Not til later, Rea."

When I was all done with my morning routine, and had myself dressed in a one-piece blue dress and ready to go, Kam and I left the house on foot to find a place to eat. Kam was wearing jeans shorts and a red tank top, her favorite look.

"Let's go to Brighton's," she said as we stepped out of the house, "they have the best breakfast food in town that I know of, and they aren't very far away."

"Kam, they're downtown."

"Yeah, I know. A quick bus ride and a trip down a Walkway or two, and we'll be there."

"Ugh, fine. Whatever. I guess wherever we go will be either a ways or super busy anyway. Or both."

We walked several blocks to the nearest Autobus stop. The Autobus system is a city-owned free bus system using AI-driven buses. In that respect, it was just like a normal car on Paxum, except the Autobuses were, well, bus sized. We got to the stop, and the notice e-board told us there was a bus coming in five minutes. This wasn't surprising, as Autobuses tend to run every 10 or 15 minutes, all hours of the day and night. Since the Autobuses - like the cars - all got their power from the solar-paneled roadways, sidewalks, and parking lots that were everywhere on Paxum, there was more than enough power to justify such frequent buses.

Sure enough, after five minutes, an Autobus pulled up, headed for downtown Lavernia. We stepped on, and as soon as we were seated, the Autobus pulled away. The trip was going to take about 15 minutes, so Kam and I started to look around at the other people. There was a woman of Indian descent sitting in front of us, with four daughters of various ages sitting next to her. I felt a familiar sensation in my stomach that told me I found them all attractive, their mother included, even though she was old enough to be my own mother, almost.

I leaned forward and said, "Your daughters are gorgeous. They must take after their mother."

The woman chuckled and puffed out her chest. "Why thank you, my husbands say the same thing. It is good to know I still got it."

"Oh you definitely still have it. Probably will well past the time I get to be your age."

The woman laughed delightedly again. "Oh stop it, you. I appreciate the compliments, but I'm afraid if you're trying to flirt with me, I'm strictly a teleiophile."

I turned to Kam with a sigh. "Days like this, I wish the Founders hadn't stretched out our adolescence. I'd have been physically an adult by now if I were Homo Sapiens Terrae."

Kam shrugged. "I'm sure there are compensations, though, for it. After all, you're much more of a paedophile than a teleiophile."

"Yeah, I have to admit I wish I had the guts to ask for contact info. I mean, I'm taken right now, but I could always use more friends."

"Just talk to them, silly."

"Easy for you to say, Kam."

"If you don't get over your shyness, Rea, you'll have a really hard time in life."

I shrugged.

"Okay, so you can compliment and flirt but you can't talk normally?"

"Well I don't know what to say. Flirting is easier, oddly. I have three-vee references for flirting."

"Then flirt!"

I nodded, and turned back to the woman and her daughters. "So where are you lovely ladies off to this beautiful day?"

"We're going to Brightons!" exclaimed the second youngest girl, who looked six. Kam nudged me in the ribs; I ignored her.

"Interesting coincidence, so are we," I said, still hiding behind my flirting mask. "I hope we see you all there, it would be wonderful to be able to have such a feast for our eyes as we feast at Brighton's." I sensed her about to gently protest again, so before she could say it, I said, "I'm a sucker for beautiful little girls, especially."

"Oh. So you weren't flirting with me earlier?"

"Oh, I was flirting with you, but I was also obliquely flirting with your little girls."

She smiled. "Well they are all quite lovely,, it's true. How old are you, young lady?"

"I'm 18."

"Oooh," said the six year old. "Are you in high school? What's it like? My name is Lalita, what's yours?"

The Autobus stopped at that point, which is lucky because we were at our stop. True to their words, the group of Indian girls and their mother got off at that stop, too, and since we were all going to the same place, we went together.

It was another block's walk from the Autobus stop to the nearest Walkway. If you've never heard of Automated Walkways before, they're basically foot-traffic fast lanes. Powered by the solar roadways, they are electric conveyor belts for people, making trips from one part of downtown to another a lot faster, and are especially useful for places the Autobuses don't go.

The young girls delightedly jumped onto the Walkway, and the rest of us struggled to catch up; we were a full 10 feet behind them by the time we got on it ourselves, the Walkway went so fast, and so we had to walk along it to get closer. The world around us seemed to zip past as we went through downtown and into a little wooded park, within which was Brighton's. Only a minute after entering the park, we were stepping off the Walkway onto the regular sidewalk with its bumpy-surfaced glass protector plates for the solar panels underneath. And right there, a sneezing distance from the exit of the Walkway, was Brighton's.

It was a large restaurant, especially for being in the middle of a city park, as it took up several city blocks. But it was a popular place, and usually fairly busy, so the extra space gave them more room to be busy in.

We went in, and a white woman hostess greeted us. There wasn't any line at this point in the day, but that would change.

"Welcome to Brighton's of Lavernia, seat for how many?"

"Table for seven," the mother of the girls said before we could even open our mouths.

"Okay," the hostess said, checking an e-board. "We have just the place, then. Follow me please."

We followed her, and she looked back at all of us as she lead us. "All these yours?" the woman asked, as she began to put silverware and e-menus down on the table.

"Oh no, these two lovely girls," the mother said, indicating Kam and I, "are our guests for today."

"Well that's sweet. Can I get you anything to drink while you look over the menus?"

Kam spoke first, ordering a pair of coffees for her and I on our allowance account, a polite way of pre-declining an offer it seemed the Indian woman, whose name we didn't even know yet, looked to be making. I approved, because this way it showed I hadn't been flirting to freeload, so it was a way of showing that my interest was genuine. True, it was Kam who made the gesture, but the statement would still be the same.

We sat down and began to look at the menus. I decided what I wanted within a minute, and the mother of the girls was not far behind me. "So," I said to her, feeling a little more comfortable now we were somewhere together rather than being just random strangers on the bus, "it occurs to me I don't know your name yet. I'm Rianna."

"Oh yes. Glad to meet you, Rianna. I'm Indira."

"That means 'Beauty, ' right? Fitting name," I said, blushing a little.

Indira giggled like a schoolgirl and waved a hand at me. "Oh you, you flatter me so, Rianna."

"Okay mama I want the pancakes and scrambled eggs," Lalita, the six year old, blurted out. "And now we've decided that, you never answered my question, Rianna."

"Um ... refresh my memory?"

Lalita sighed. "Are you in high school, and what's it like?"

"Oh yeah, thanks. The bus interrupted us. Yes, I'm in my last year of high school, and it's okay. A lot like regular school, but more to learn, and more grown up kinds of things to learn and do. You get more responsibility, which I know sounds like a drag, but it means there are cooler things to play with. I know a boy who's going to build houses when he gets out of college, and he's getting a head start in things like carpentry, using power tools to make stuff out of wood. And he's learning how to work with wiring and how to install house AI's."

Lalita jumped to her knees in her seat. "Wow, power tools! Cool! I wanna build stuff with power tools! It would be awesome to build houses for people!"

The other kids told their mom what they wanted, and as they did, we learned their names as well. The eldest, at 11, was Sumati. Then at 8 was Kishori. And Lalita's younger sister was a three year old girl named Karishma. When they were done ordering, I suddenly remembered I hadn't ordered. Our drinks came then, which further distracted me, but as soon as the hostess-slash-drink server left, I was able to concentrate on ordering. I was the last one to put my order in.

"You know, Rea," whispered Kam, who had leaned up to my ear, "the name Lalita sounds an awful lot like-"

"I know what it sounds like, but it means 'Playful.'"

"Yes, that's true, but doesn't it also mean 'Desirable'?"

I blushed and couldn't answer. Kam, knowing me as she does, grinned impishly at me. I struggled to put my embarrassment aside, and started talking with Lalita some more about her school, hobbies, and so on. I was pleased to find out we shared some interests, including a love of reading. And her reading level, if the list of books she dictated to me was accurate, was mildly impressive. I had a thought, and asked her if she had read any nonfiction about, for instance, archeology. We got to talking a lot about that, and I had recommended some good titles for her by the time the food arrived.

We continued the talk all throughout the meal. Some of the other kids talked as well, and I tried to get conversation going with them as well, which went okay, but ... it was clear that Lalita was bright, intelligent, vivacious, and well, we shared some interests. Not that her siblings were stupid or anything, in fact all the kids were intelligent. Just ... I had a feeling this one was going to go farther than the rest. She was my type, the kind that with a little encouragement and some emotional support, maybe some tutoring as well, could do something really cool with her life. It's not like she would be the first kid I helped out that way. That boy I mentioned to her, he was just a year older than Kam, and had been kind of bored and listless before we met just a few years ago.

As the morning progressed and the meal disappeared into our bellies, I dreaded parting. There was something about Lalita, I just had to be her friend. I had to! I can't explain it, but some kids just ... well, most kids I have little patience for, even when they're attractive physically, but every so often I meet a kid I just click with, and it becomes a mutually beneficial friendship. I get to spend time with beautiful, talented, intelligent people, and they become more focused and driven from being friends with me. I just have that effect.

So naturally, I got their contact information. Indira was quite glad to give it to me, in fact. Apparently Lalita - for all her energy - didn't have any real friends, just acquaintances and classmates, and in an hour or so she and I had become fast friends, so Indira was over the moon for Lalita's happiness. I wasn't sure yet, but if more evidence presented itself, I might have to tell Indira later to get Lalita tested for autism, as I suspected she had the Asperger's variety of autism.

But yes, they had somewhere else to be, and Kam had somewhere she wanted to take me that was in a different direction, so I was glad to get their contact info into my Omnus wrist device.

"So where is it you're taking us, Kam?"

"Oh you'll see. It's a surprise."

I wasn't so sure I wanted to know, but said nothing. We went back along the Walkway and once we exited it, she led me a different way to another bus line, one I didn't recognize offhand.

"Ah, here's our stop. Dang, we must've just missed one; 15 minutes til the next one."

"Damn, I should have brought a book to read. Or my e-board."

"You and your books. I like to read, too, but dang, can't we talk?"

"Yeah, I'm a little talked out at the moment."

We sat down, and Kam gave me a funny look. It looked almost like a knowing look, but was subtly different. "What's with you?"

"Oh, just I think I saw you talk more with that Lalita girl than I've seen you talk in weeks."

I shrugged. "Okay, whatever. I like kids. So?"

"Rea, you don't like kids, you like certain kinds of kids. Quite a lot of kids you can barely tolerate. It's the smart ones you like. I don't know how you pick em, but the ones you pick always seem to bring out the real you, the hidden you, that even I have a hard time dragging out."

"Intelligence isn't all or even the most important thing. I also like compassion, kindness, warmth of personality, and also, I'm attracted to certain children's energy. Like, a potential for real passion and drive at something they love. And not every kid has that combination of things. So it's no more untrue of me to say 'I like kids' when I don't like all or even most kids, than it would be for a teleiophile who liked men to say 'I like men' even if they thought most men were boring or worse."

"Fair point. But my point was that you may have yourself a girlfriend there."

I frowned slightly, and took Kam's hand. She raised an eyebrow at me. "You are my girlfriend, Kam. I'm not polyamorous. Lalita and I can be friends, that's what I want."

"Come now, Rea, you don't just want to be friends with her."

"Friendship is more important to me than romance, and romance is more important to me than sex. I can take or leave sex. Would it be nice? Yes. Am I going to fantasize about her later when I masturbate? Probably. But I'm not poly, and even if I were, I wouldn't be dating every person I had a connection with. 'Demisexual' means you can have sexual feelings for, and have sex with, someone you have an emotional connection with, not that you have to."

"Sheesh, I know okay? I've been with you long enough I ought to know that. How many years now we've been a couple, and only now we're having sex. And I know it wasn't you 'waiting patiently' or something like that. I understand it didn't really matter to you, even though I also know you masturbated thinking about me almost every night for years. Demisexuality is complicated, I understand, I really do."

I sighed. "I'm sorry if I went off on you. I just..."

She held me close to her. "I know, Rea, I know. It's just ... I'm your sister."

"If you're trying to suggest that our being related would mean it doesn't count as polyamorous if I date someone else as well, it doesn't work that way. Not with me, anyway, and I can't think of anyone for whom it does work that way."

"Okay fine, so Lalita will just be a friend. Whatever does it for you, I guess."

"Thank you."

We were still sitting there hugging each other when the Autobus pulled up. Kam and I scurried to get up and get on the bus, which of course wasn't really necessary since the AI would wait at least a couple minutes for us unless directed otherwise, and people were getting off the bus anyway, but we scurried all the same.

On the bus, I asked, "So Kam, you gonna tell me where we're going?"

"Nope. That would spoil the surprise."

I kept trying to cajole something out of her the whole way to wherever it was we were going, but it was pointless. Kam had decided not to tell, and she wasn't going to have her mind changed. But it passed the time to try it anyway.

The trip took longer than our trip downtown had, but not by much. I was just wondering how far we were going to go when Kam pulled the cord for one of the middle stops the Autobuses only stop at when someone either pulls the cord or when someone is standing at the stop, and she led me off the bus. From there, we went a short way, maybe a block or two, to a big shop called "Paxum Sexum," a truly horrible name in my opinion, for what looked like a lovely sex toy store.

There being no cultural need for an age of consent, since rape is rape no matter the age, all children are taught about consent from the time they're born, and masturbation being anything but a taboo subject, the sex toy shops on Paxum are open to people of all ages, though it's usually requested kids under 7 be accompanied by an adult because small children tend to mess with things they shouldn't, and put everything in their mouths. This store seemed to have had problems with young children in the past, enough that there was an age check-in at the door, in the form of a simple AI.

"Age verification necessary at this store," the AI said monotonously. "Your Omnuses, please." Shrugging, Kam and I put our Omnuses under the scanner and waited a few seconds. "Ages verified, you are old enough to be unaccompanied in this store. Please enjoy your stay.