Blue: Has a talk with James

James, having by chance picked the correct way out, had run out of the front door, only to be brought up short by the inconvenient little fact that it was raining heavily. The front door veranda was sheltered, so he stayed there.

It ended up with James and Blue sitting on the veranda floor, facing each other, the rain rattling on the tin roof and causing a slight amount of moisture to drift in on them.

A couple of minutes silence. Finally

"Sorry, it looks like I ruined a perfectly fine dinner party, did it?" said James.

"That's all right. It looks like you're both in pain."

"Yeah. How on earth did you and Pink manage to get on so well in such a short period of time?"

"Hmm. Tell me, do you think that you and Rebecca are, in fact, compatible?"

Sigh. "Possibly. But it's so hard to get past my messed up childhood."

"I'll tell you what, let's read each other's souls. That will at least answer your question about me and Pink."

"Sorry? And why are your eyes are glowing blue... What!"

Blue found out what it took to betray a young not quite teenage boy:

It started with dad and mum having arguments about something. It did not seem to concern James directly, so he was able to ignore them, and ignore the increasingly strained relationship between his two parents.

But then things did start to affect him:

"Sorry James, I know your mother promised to watch you play in the match also, but she had to do something else." said dad. He may have looked somewhat out of sorts, but pre-teenager James did not notice.

And at another time:

"Sorry James, I can't help you with your arithmetic homework as I always do, I'm going out now." said mum.

Neither parent said anything to each other as mum left.

It started to get worse:

"Oh, James, I won't be attending your cousin's birthday party, dad will take you." said mum. In fact, she was out for the entire weekend.

By now, it was obvious to James that his parents were not getting along with each other.

"Dad, why doesn't mum like you any longer?"

"Ah, well, never mind, I'll talk about it later." said dad. Grinding his teeth and looking angry. Young James was reluctant to ask any further.

It all came to a head on his birthday, which was on a Friday:

"I'm really sorry, James, but I haven't managed to buy you your present yet. Let's go shopping tomorrow, and then I'll take you to see the movies!" said mum. Who then left the house for the evening. James and dad cut the birthday cake together and dad gave his son a big hug.

The next morning, bright and early, James was up and dressed and ready for his day out with mum.

She drove him to the local shopping centre.

"Ok, the plan is we browse the local hobby stores and find extra train carriages and engines for you train model set, then we have lunch, then we see the latest Action Man Plus adventure movie. That sound good?"

"Yes! Let's go to the first store." said James, getting excited at the thought of a whole day being indulged by his mum.

At this point, mum's phone range.

"Hello, Oh, hi! What? You have the day off after all? Sure, I can make it! See you soon!" She hung up.

"Sorry James, I've gotta go. I'll ring dad and he will pick you up soon. Here, sit at this bench.

James sat on the bench. He watched as his mother walked briskly down the shopping mall, her silhouette becoming smaller and disappearing in the distance.

He sat there for an hour, alone with his thoughts, no one keeping him company, before his mother remembered to ring his father, and his father was able to get out and pick him up.

After that, mum never came home again.

And James had a run down on Blue's life. Unlike Matha's case, Esmeralda decided that James did not need a full comprehensive soul reading to distract him from his current woes. So he received an abbreviated summary, just enough to make sure that he truly believed it, but allowing plenty of scope for him to find out the details directly from Blue, by talking.

The blue glow from Blue's eyes faded. James blinked his eyes and looked with wonder at what used to be a totally indistinctive member of his class.

Esmeralda, angels of death, Earth Watch Prime, Pink the robot, soul reading - with all of those wonders, guess which part immediately claimed this teenager boy's attention?

"You and Pink live together and sleep together, but you have absolutely no sex what so ever?" he said.

Blue spent the next hour filling James in on all the details. Not just about their relationship, but everything else as well.

Finally -

"Are you prepared to exchange soul readings with Rebecca? I think Esmeralda will go along." said Blue.

A minute's silence.

"Yes."

Pink: Has a talk with Rebecca

Pink had run after Rebecca, who had lost her sense of direction and blundered down several corridors and ended up in one of Pink's spare lounge rooms. In it was a single, second hand sofa. Rebecca, starting to cry, had sat down on the sofa and put her head in her hands. Pink sat beside her and gently patted her hand.

"Sorry, sorry, I ruined the dinner for everyone."

"No worries. Tell me, do you think that James might be compatible with you, after all, if you could both get past certain issues..."

"Possibly..." said Rebecca. She was surprised to see Pink's eyes glowing blue, and even more surprised at what came with the glow.

Pink found out what Rebecca had been doing last year that culminated in her taking a month off because of illness:

It started gradually, imperceptibly. Rebecca would walk the family dog along their usual route, around the streets of her suburb and through the park. Sometimes Renee would come along, sometimes not. And she started to notice that an older man, late twenties maybe, would also be walking his dog in the park. He looked handsome and friendly, and he had a dog, so when one day he smiled at her and said hello, she saw no reason not to reply in kind.

"Hi there. Nice dog you have there, cocker spaniel with a bit of something else, I take it?" said the man.

"Ah, yes. One of his grandparents was an unknown who jumped the fence. But our dog is really nice." said Rebecca.

The next time, Rebecca complimented the man's dog. "Yours is a Labrador, isn't it?"

"That's right. He's not actually mine; I walk it for a neighbour."

So the potential new relationship was successfully started, they had both noticed each other.

The next time they met, the man was sitting on a park bench, fiddling with the collar of his dog.

"Oh, hi. The collar came off and I appear to be missing a clip that holds the leash to the collar..." he said.

"Ah! I see it; it's just on the ground next to the path!" Rebecca bent over, picked up the clip, and handed it to the man.

"Thanks, if you could just hold him, he's wiggling around trying to say hello to you..."

So Rebecca sat on the bench, next to the man, and patted his dog while he re-attached the leash.

They had a tiny discussion about the weather, and then they were both off.

The next time they passed, it was a perfectly natural thing for the man to sit down and say

"Whew, the sun's a bit warm today, isn't it?"

And a perfectly natural thing for Rebecca to sit next to him and agree.

"Oh, by the way, my name's Lex."

"And mine's Rebecca."

There were more little interactions, getting them used to each other. Of course, at this stage, Rebecca was still thinking of him as an older man, handsome, mind you, and likable, but still, an older man. Not on her radar yet, so far as the whole girlfriend/boyfriend business was concerned.

After a few weeks, Lex had gradually gotten to the touching stage. Nothing too strong, just lightly touching the tips of their fingers in greeting, slowing graduating into a momentarily handshake, or hand on arm.

Rebecca's subconscious feelings very gradually became influenced by his handsome good looks, his friendliness, his smiles. Without quite realising it, she began to think about him when he was not around. She was becoming aware of him as a man, and not just a dog-walking companion.

One day it started to rain. A light drizzle, then a steady shower, escalating to a full tropical downpour. The sort of weather that was becoming increasingly common in their area.

"You don't have an umbrella, do you?" said Lex.

So he ended up driving Rebecca, and her dog, back to her home in his car. The dogs, with much excitement, stayed in the back seat, and Rebecca sat in the front passenger seat. The car itself was an upmarket model, roomy and comfortable inside, with all of the extra little luxuries, but without overdoing it.

"Hello mum! It was raining, so Lex, who walks a Labrador, drove me home."

"Ah, thanks, err, Lex"

They introduced each other.

"Sorry, I hope I didn't overstep the mark there," said Lex, "but the rain really was heavy and you wouldn't want your daughter to catch a nasty cold or something, would you?"

Lex gave a big smile, and also managed to act deferentially towards Rebecca's mum.

"Oh, that's fine."

Rebecca's mum had just been appointed senior surgeon at a teaching hospital. So she was quite confident in dealing with people of all sorts, and making judgement calls on their nature. She decided that Lex, while a bit on the old side to be a friend of Rebecca's, was nonetheless a nice person.

So, Lex had successfully raised the stakes a little. Let us see him raise them a little bit more.

"There's a new dog park in the next suburb over. Why don't we take the dogs in my car to there for a change?"

"Ah, I'm don't know..."

Lex smiled a friendly smile "I'm sure the dogs would like a change"

"Ah, yes, I'm sure too. Ok"

And as they wandered around the new park and let the dogs splash round in the water fountain, they had a conversation about minor every day things. Actually it was more like Lex subtly guiding Rebecca into talking about her everyday life, and Lex listened attentively, without giving all that much in return.

Thus he had now progressed to the mutual exploration of each other's personalities, histories, wishes and hopes for the future. Initially at a very light level, of course.

"I'm hoping to major in economics. I was thinking of doing medicine, but I’ve sadly come to the conclusion that I’m not good at the intensive study required to become a doctor." said Rebecca.

"I got a degree in business management, and I do consulting work with several of the big retail companies." said Lex.

"That sounds very impressive. You must work with the top level people in the companies."

"Yes, that's right. Sometimes the high powered negotiations gets a bit much, it's nice to relax and walk the dog and talk..."

They gradually moved into topics of greater depth and seriousness.

"I've tried having some girlfriends before, but they never went past the talking stage. They never seemed to have that extra spark, that feeling of rapport that should be between two soul mates. I tried my best, but they always seemed to be lacking."

"Sounds like you must have had some bad luck in picking the right lady."

"Yes, but I don't let it get me down. Have you had a boyfriend yet?"

A bit of laughter. "No, hardly. I'm only sixteen, after all. One boy once pinched a kiss from me, and I pushed him back and his friends had to catch him before he fell. They all laughed at him. But that's about it."

Rebecca felt relaxed and safe in his company. She especially enjoyed their calm, agreeable conversations. She was not much of a fan of arguing or disagreements between people. She also liked how his values and interests matched hers; there were no clashes in beliefs or core values.

So, no disagreements or clashes? In perfect harmonisation, were they? That is a big warning sign right there. No one is ever completely on your side, completely compatible. But Rebecca at her tender young age had no way of knowing this.

Next on the agenda was meeting the parents. Lex had already met the mother, and by carefully listening to Rebecca's chatting, had worked out that her parents worked shifts with constantly changing hours. But they managed to generally have one parent at home each afternoon and evening to greet the two girls as they came home from school. Meeting one parent at a time? Ideal, it allowed him to concentrate all of his charming on that parent without having to worry about the other.

Rebecca's father drove his car home and discovered Rebecca and Lex just arriving from walking the dogs.

"Oh, hello, you're Lex, aren't you?" said father, with just a hint of distrust showing in his voice. He had heard about him, of course. His wife appeared to approve of him, but, well, Lex was almost twice Rebecca's age after all...

Lex welcomed the challenge. He took control of the conversation right from the very start.

"Pleased to meet you sir. Congratulations on your recent promotion to medical director at your hospital."

Starting with a bit of flattery.

"Ah, thanks, I, err, gather you have been walking the dogs with Rebecca for..."

"Yes, it's always important to make sure that one’s dogs get sufficient exercise, isn't it?"

"Certainly, ah"

"And it must be a bit of a minefield navigating the administrative politics at the hospital as you go about setting up your directorship."

Steering the conversation.

"Yes, it sure is. Now, about Rebecca..."

"Well, yes, I realise that I am older than her. So that's why I'm hoping to get to know her parents, and let you get to know me, as I'm sure you want to know more about me."

Meeting the doubts head on, and adding a question at the end which he can only answer ‘yes’ to.

"Ah, yes, that is so."

"Sort of like at your work, you want to meet the people that you will now be in charge of, get to know them and all of that."

"Yes, I suppose it is a bit like that..."

"And I appreciate how difficult it can be, I do something similar in my line of work."

"Do you indeed? Well..."

It was not long before Lex had completely captured the topic of conversation. It moved from work place politics to general politics.

"So, you're not in favour of this separationist talk, are you?" said Lex.

"Of course not! We're one country with countless connections..."

Sometime later.

"Well, thanks for that talk," said Lex. "You've certainly cleared up a few niggling little questions I had."

"Yes, I'm sure any reasonable person would say that what I've said is the only possible way out of this mess."

"Well, I must be off. Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to invite Rebecca out to a restaurant, but I wanted to clear it with her parents first." said Lex. "I firmly believe that you should have a say in such matters."

"Why, yes, of course." said father.

"Thanks!" said Lex. He turned to Rebecca. "Is that all right with you?"

"Ah, certainly." said Rebecca.

"Then I shall pick you up tomorrow at 6:00pm." and with that Lex made his departure.

Rebecca had not quite realised that Lex wanted to ask her to a restaurant - but her father agreed, didn't he? And it was what she wanted, anyway?

Her father felt a vague sense of something just a little off. Did he agree to the restaurant date? Or was he agreeing to that fact that he should have a say in such matters?

It is an extremely useful talent to be able to recognise when one is feeling confused. To hear that little voice at the back of your mind, waving its hand around and saying "Hey, are you sure there isn't something a little wrong here?". Unfortunately we are all human, well apart from Pink that is, and thus not completely rational. And Pink's brain was modelled on the human design, so she could be just as irrational as the rest of us. Earth Watch Prime could have told all of them a thing or two about human irrationality.

Rebecca forgot her doubts as she got excited at the thought of being invited out to a posh restaurant.

Her father said to himself "Well, I approved of the outing, didn't I? So it must be all right."

Yep, human irrationality at its finest. Even highly intelligent people, competent at dealing with other people, can fare just as poorly as anybody else.

Let us skip over the intervening steps. Suffice to say that, once Lex managed to get Rebecca to the stage of regarding him as a romantic partner, the rest was straightforward. In due course Lex managed to get Rebecca into his bed, with her full cooperation.

The morning after, they sat side by side on his lounge.

"This is so wonderful, my dear" said Rebecca, "although we do need to plan our future."

"I agree. For a start, you should finish your schooling. And, at least for the time being, you should continue to live at your parents. After all, they love you and would like more of your company."

"You don't mind?"

"No, I can wait. We have the rest of our lives together, so I can afford to be patient and do it properly. By the way, going by what you were saying, no one else will be at your home at lunchtime today, will they be?"

"No, that's right."

"How about I stop by, I have a little gift to give to my sweetheart."

"That would be lovely, my dear."

Lunchtime arrived, and Rebecca ran to the front door when the doorbell had chimed, in excitement at seeing her lover again. He walked to the lounge room and plonked himself on the sofa.

"What's my gift?" said Rebecca, almost jumping in her anticipation.

"Gift? Ha. I'm here to tell you that this is the end. I got what I wanted."

Rebecca went completely still. "Err, what?"

"I wanted to see how easy it was to seduce a virginal sixteen year old girl, and even get her parent's approval. Well, it wasn't all that hard, after all."

"Ah"

"It wasn't even all that worthwhile. I mean, your body is nice, but really, you don't know anything at all about being in bed, do you. Some of the prostitutes I've visited lately might be older, but they really know their stuff."

Rebecca looked as if she was gagging on something.

Lex was enjoying himself. He spent another five minutes in the same vein, emphasising his little 'gift'. By the time he had finished, Rebecca's face was white and she was trembling.

"Well, must push off. Probably hire another prostitute for a bit of excitement. You're damaged goods, you know? No decent boy will ever want you now!"

He left, content with his performance.

Her father was meant to be at an important hospital finance planning meeting right now. But the finance planner had phoned in to say that his plane connection was cancelled at the last possible moment and he was still in another city. So her father was going to eat his lunch and do his rounds early; but he realised he had left his lunch at home. No problems, after all he had purchased a yearlong subscription to the hospital canteen. But for some reason he really felt like eating the lunch that Rebecca had prepared him. So for the first time ever, he decided to leave work just to pick up his lunch, and return.

Ten minutes after Lex had left, Rebecca's father walked into his lounge and found Rebecca sprawled out on the floor, unconscious. On the table were several packets of medicine, now empty, from the bathroom cabinet, and an almost empty glass. He was a doctor, a general practitioner. A very good one. So his heart might have been screaming in pain, but his hands were steady has he pulled out his phone and dialled the emergency number. His voice was calm and steady as he requested an ambulance, while simultaneously giving his daughter first aid.

Both parents ended up sitting by Rebecca's bedside for the next 24 hours, in the hospital where they normally worked. A senior surgeon and the medical director, now playing the role of two grief stricken visitors waiting for their loved one to recover. A very useful experience to have. But, of course, only to be appreciated after enough time had elapsed.

Pink shuddered and slumped back into the sofa as the full weight of this soul reading hit her.

Oh, bloody hell.

Esmeralda certainly did an excellent job of presenting all of that me.

Of course, I now hate Lex. Even more than before.

Stolen novel; please report.

And Rebecca received roughly the same information about Pink as James had received about Blue. She jumped and clapped her hand to her mouth.

"What was all of that?!"

And, of course, her first question to Pink was-

"You mean, you sleep with Blue all the time, but he never, ever, bothers you?"

There was a long discussion, about this and everything else. At the end, Rebecca said

"Yes, I'll try exchanging readings with James."

Martha: Wonders if Earth Watch Prime has a super powered laser cannon

Prime was in no way aware of these soul readings as they occurred. But as soon as they became part of Pink's and Blue's memories, he could read them.

"Well," said the image of Horatio, speaking to Martha, "It's more or less as we expected."

He rapidly filled her in on the details, mostly by direct memory transfer, but with some discussion to fill in the finer details.

Martha clenched her fists.

"Can't you use one of your science fiction laser cannons, or whatever, and vaporise Lex into a big heap of tiny fragments of steaming charcoal the next time he takes a walk outside?"

"Well now, for a start a laser won't be too much good, there's the little matter of a hundred kilometres of atmosphere. An antimatter beam would be a better choice, although it would make a tremendous racket. Not to mention all of that ionising radiation. But, unfortunately, it is kind of against my ethics. And Esmeralda might have a few things to say about the matter also. I really think we are going to have to leave this to Esmeralda and hope she does something about him as soon as possible."

"Damn! What a pity." said Martha.

At Pink's request, Blue took James and moved to where Pink and Rebecca were. Martha also turned up.

"Now, just sit on the sofa, and hold hands" said Pink.

Actually, the hand holding part was purely optional, after all Blue had read Earth Watch Prime's soul in spite there being no possible way of holding hands with him. But it just felt like a nice thing to do.

"Then we will place a request with Esmeralda. Assuming she grants it, we'll leave the room, and Martha will sit in a chair outside and wait for you, and you two can talk together as long as you like."

Rebecca and James read each other's soul, courtesy of Esmeralda. They hugged and cried and talked for a long time, before finally getting up and following Martha back to the dining room. They sat next to each, holding hands. As were Pink and Blue, of course.

"What now?" said James.

"Well, I've just asked Horatio, and he says that the current bad weather and rain is going to get worse and will continue until tomorrow. So why don't you ring your respective parents and say you're having a sleep over?" said Martha. "You can always hand the phone to me and say that Pink's adopted mother is on hand as a chaperone."

So it was arranged. There was the little matter of the sleeping arrangements. After their extreme bonding experience, both Rebecca and James wanted to be together. But Rebecca especially, and to a lesser extent James, did not want there to be any possibility of any funny business.

"Fine, then," said Martha, "I can fix that. We put three mattresses on the floor in a row, and I sleep on the middle one. I believe there is nothing more dampening to amorous feelings than to have a middle aged disapproving matron between two sweethearts."

Blue and Pink both laughed at this. Rebecca and James were content.

"You're going to have to sleep in your clothes. I do have spare pyjamas, but they are all my size and won't fit you." said Pink.

"Ok"

Rebecca's Parents:

Rebecca's mother put the phone down after talking to Rebecca.

"So, she really must be getting along with James. And Pink and Blue seem to be nice, although a little odd. And I don't quite get how Martha belongs to Pink, but at least she appears to be a responsible adult..."

She hugged her husband tightly.

"Perhaps she will finally find some happiness" he said.

And James' Father:

James' father was thinking the same thing.

James and Rebecca:

The following morning, Pink and Blue knocked and entered the communal bedroom.

"Hi, time to get up!" said Blue.

"Hmm, ugh, it's so early." said James. Then he got a good look at Blue's pyjamas. "Pink coloured pyjamas with angels?"

"Oops, I never got around to buying some for myself. I hope you will keep this a little secret from the other students."

"I think I can manage that." said James.

They all laughed.

After breakfast, there was a discussion.

"We talked about this last night. Martha has a radio implant, also, doesn't she?" said James.

"That's right." said Martha. "It's so nice to know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that I can trust Pink and Blue, whenever I talk to them over the link."

"Well, we want one too." said Rebecca. "Is Prime, or Horatio or whatever, willing?"

Prime, not to mention Blue and Pink, were willing.

"But there is one little extra detail I'm interested in..." said Rebecca.

"Ah, and me too." said James.

"Yes?" said Horatio, talking via a phone.

"You know how Pink and Blue don't even think about, ah, you know, sex and stuff?" said Rebecca, "Well I want the same for us two, at least for a start."

James nodded his head. "Rebecca wants this, and I'm willing to go along with it."

A moment's silence from Horatio.

"Let me see... I'm wary of making any changes that would have major impact on your personalities, and turning you into asexual teenagers is certainly a major change... But on the other hand, if this is what you want, then I can provide a switch which you can consciously decide to turn on or off, as you choose. And I'll add the little refinement; when one of you flicks this switch over, the other receives a notification. So you can trust that the other is not doing anything behind your back."

"Ok, that sound's sufficient." said Rebecca.

"Conscious control, with notifications. Right, I can live with that." said James.

"How about you think about it over night, just to make sure?" said Horatio. "You really need to go back to your parent's place, but tomorrow will be fine."

Earth Watch Prime:

Earth Watch Prime immediately started the construction of another radio implanting unit. It took three hours and, since he still had some time left, he decided to make a spare, just in case. There was no way that any human could visit him, so he decided to deliver both to Pink's house, and not keep the spare up there in orbit. He will get to regret that decision. Anyway, in the early hours of the morning, Earth Watch Prime's delivery rocket touched down in the middle of the yard. The articulated robot carried out the two radio link implanting units, and quietly let itself into the house and placed one next to the original one on the bed, and put the spare under the bed. Without disturbing anyone, it left the house, climbed back into the rocket, and disappeared back into the black and cloudy sky.

James and Rebecca:

Rebecca and James, holding hands, looked at the two pillow like objects on the bed. They were both slightly red in the face.

"Ah, well, you see, this would, in effect, be lying together in the same bed, you know?" said Rebecca.

"Don't worry! This middle aged matron will keep a close watch on James and stifle any funny business!" said Martha.

"Right, Ok." said James.

Two hours later, they were all sitting around the kitchen table, Horatio included, having a long discussion about Lex and his actions.

In total silence.

Pink and Blue: Gaining two more friends

Talking about such a topic can be likened to huddling on a blasted landscape, with a strong wind driving rain and ice into your face, skies gray with dark clouds, shivering with cold. After a while, they couldn't stand it anymore. So Pink decided to turn the wind into a gentle breeze, banish the rain and ice, lighten the sky and add a few pretty pink and blue flowers around them.

She got up, walked around to James, and hugged his shoulders from behind.

[At last, I can confess, and not be misunderstood. I've always admired James and wanted to be his friend. And now I've got the chance! And nobody can misunderstand me, since you all know what I'm thinking!]

James smiled, put his hands on hers. [That's fine, I'll be your friend.]

And across the radio emotional link, the others could tell he was being honest. They could also tell he was a bit nervous of this whole friendship thing with a humanoid robot, somewhat anxious about being a platonic friend when he also had Rebecca, and insecure about how, exactly, did a cross sex friend work anyway, since he never had had one before.

Horatio leant back in his chair, smiled, and softly vanished when no one was looking.

Martha giggled, said she had to do a few chores, and quietly left.

Blue took this chance to say that he felt similarly for Rebecca.

The four teenagers had another long discussion about friendships between opposite sex people, and friendships between two couples.

Discreetly in the background, Earth Watch Prime, as always, observed all of this and used it to increase his knowledge of humans. Well, of nice humans. He was forgetting, just slightly, that he actually did not have all that much intimate knowledge of not-so-nice humans.