We split up to cover the dozens of channels leading down into the falls area. The difference from Cambodia is already clear. Homes and farms crowd the banks of every tributary my cat goes up. We need to get as much filter coverage as possible here before we, and the river, merge back up. The work is unusually quiet, since Marc went with Chad’s boat, and Andrea and Louise are each leading one of the Geologists’ boats. It’s just Evan and me. There’s a lot of work to do, but I feel like we’re up to it. My cloud is still pretty bloated, and the filters are rolling off the deck like clockwork.

Other than getting the water clean, there’s not a whole lot the Laotians need from us along this stretch, at least not that we can do from the river. They already have plenty of power, mostly from the hydro generation that the dams provide, enough that they export more than they use. We’ll still pop some power poles for them, but that’s mostly to incentivize them to get more lines out to some of the rural populations along the river. Mostly, what they need is more and better roads, but that’s going to have to be another trip. Once we meet back up, it should be easy going from here to China. Where Lin is.

“So, you excited to see Lin again?” Evan asks.

“Is it that obvious?” I ask. “Or did you slip some secret mind-reading code into the implant?”

“It’s that obvious,” he says. “You get that look. Plus, I figure you didn’t spend all morning writing to Alan.”

“It wasn’t all morning,” I protest. “It was barely an hour.”

“Just an hour, huh?” He laughs.

“Shut up. You have your girlfriend right here, I have to write to mine. You know if we’d left Valerie behind, you’d be doing the same thing.”

“No way,” he smiles. “ I’d be writing at least two hours a day.”

“Yeah you would,” I say as we finish up the latest filter. I push it off the back of the cat and get the next one started.

“So, question for you,” I say. “And if you’re not comfortable talking about it, that’s OK. I won’t ask twice. But I have reason to believe that my very literary relationship is about to take a more physical turn in the near future.”

“I can’t give you sex advice, brother. I told you, Valerie and I are being mostly good.”

“Well, that’s kind of the thing,” I say. “I think I might want to be mostly good too. At least at first. I don’t want to move too fast and ruin everything. And from what I’ve read about Chinese culture, chances are good that Lin might want that too. I’m not exactly experienced. I never dated anyone before campus, other than going to a couple of school dances, and I’d hardly call those dates. I’ve never even kissed a girl other than Lin. From what she’s told me, she’s just as inexperienced as I am. And no matter how much we’ve written to each other and talked, we’ve only met in person that once. I don’t think we’re actually ready for a sexual relationship. But I want to have some fun with her, you know? Just not all the fun. Now we’re going to see each other in less than two weeks, and I don’t have any idea where to draw lines.”

He laughs again, the kind of big belly laugh that shakes his whole body. “You just described the main dilemma of my life since Valerie gave in to my charms and admitted that she wanted me.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“So what do you and Valerie do? I know you guys spend a good amount of time in her room alone. I don’t think that you’re in there reading poetry to each other.”

Evan gives me a little bit of a surprised look.

“Well, I appreciate that you’ve respected our privacy enough that you don’t know. I know you usually see everything going on around you.”

“Yeah, I trained my cloud to stop at bedroom doors back when I wanted to make sure I didn’t get an eye full of Father growing the family. Never changed it back.”

“Interesting,” he says. “That’s more complex than the code I have running. How do you know if it’s a bedroom door?”

“I actually do invade any space the first time I encounter it, just for a few seconds when I put together my spatial mapping for the index. I made a heuristic for scoring rooms for bedroominess based on furniture, closets, items, and other factors. I can share the code if you want.”

He gives me an eye-roll. “No, I’m good. You’re such a geek.”

“I admit it,” I agree. “I’m geeky even by Butler family standards. But with this, I’m a geek who can pretend that he can remember where the bathroom is. Anyway, I said I wasn’t going to ask twice about the physical relationship stuff, but I still think there’s a chance you want to answer.”

His smile tells me I’m right.

“I actually do, yeah. Sorry, I’m endlessly fascinated by your workarounds for your disability.”

“I am pretty fascinating, aren’t I?”

“You’re the most fascinating long-lost-then-found brother I’ve ever had.” He sits up and leans toward me a little. “So, to finally answer your question: after my first date with Valerie, we set up some ground rules. We talked about what we were both comfortable with and that’s where we drew our lines. Basically anything that leaves both of our boxers on is fair game. The rest we’ll get around to later. When we both feel comfortable and ready for it.”

“She wears boxers?”

He nods. “And if you tell her we talked about her underwear, you and I are going to have an even more uncomfortable conversation than this one. We clear?”

“Fair enough.”

A silence settles in. It stretches longer than I’d like. Evan shoves the now-complete filter off the deck and starts on the last one we need to build before dinner.

“It was a weird conversation for me at first,” Evan says, breaking the awkwardness. “The one with Val and me, I mean. On campus, we all grew up never talking about that kind of thing. Ever.”

“The Butler Institute is so weird. Never?”

“I mean, we got a basic and very clinical version of sex ed from the teachers as part of our coursework. But discussing sex in the context of relationships? Consent? Pleasure? No, never.”

I’m a little surprised that I can still find new ways that Father screwed up my siblings at this point. I stash one more thing I need to change about campus culture on my to-do list for when we get home.

“So you both keep your underwear on. What does that leave to do?”

Evan grins. “All sorts of things. Kissing, cuddling, backrubs, foot rubs, talking, just looking at each other and being in love. Occasionally a board game. You know, everything else.”

I laugh.

“You two are cute, you know that?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he says. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you and Lin will be cute too. Valerie and I already decided on it.”

“Thanks, man,” I tell him. “For everything. For not letting me die. For being my brother for real. For being my best friend.”

“Sure. Same for you. Except for the dying part. And you still owe me a lifesaving, so make sure that’s in your electric brain somewhere.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I say. “But you haven’t given me many opportunities so far. Maybe you should take up some riskier hobbies if you want that paid back.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking of trying skydiving. Parachutes optional, of course. You want to come?”

“Of course, brother,” I tell him. “How else would I be there when you need me?”