7
Marjorie tapped on the armrest of the Asian-made light passenger jet as it made its approach to Lhasa airport. A small cup of complimentary flower tea in her left hand. She emerged into the thin Tibetan air. The sunshine was deceptively mild, belying the UV pouring out of the bright blue sky. She thought of Gracie and Saim -the only Asians she knew. Both bested her mentally. But here in Tibet, she would meet those more gentle and righteous in their simplicity. Down history, the more men tried to achieve, the more they offended one another.
He awoke in the embrace of the girl he found the night before. Reflex, he checked his damaged finger. Its ring spring was missing.
I was afraid it might scratch while we slept.
I’m most grateful, he replied as confidently as he could.
She handed it to him from off her study desk and he slipped it back on, relieved.
Why are men harder first thing in the morning? She toyed with him playfully. There was a lilt to her voice as to her linguistics. Soup in China was still soup, just served with porcelain spoons. Californian sunshine could be bought by the bottle at any winery. The chowmein takeout girl had a better complexion and bigger boobs but his freshman, her crackly black horsetail hair and skin like powdered sugar dried melon, after you licked off the sugar, she smelt of his Mom’s coat cabinet on a Summer’s day, pressed into his back and it felt like being hugged by left-out, half-eaten milk candy, He turned her puffy face, and their salve mingled, sweet as mallows.
In the nerve center of the inexact war machine, carved deep under an unspecified mountain, Frederick and Matthew were shown the e-bomb.
Nobody sees the bomb and leaves this base alive, warned the colonel, dead serious. Until we win this war.
We were told it was a mass emotion manipulating device.
That’s not a lie. What else do you know?
Frederick and Matthew shrugged, that’s all.
It really is a bomb, the colonel explained, but one that feeds on hearts. It destroys everything unholy -and we know many Chinese were / are greedy and unscrupulous. The moral superiority of the West will tip in our favor. That is the inexact Science of the weapon. It feeds on our hearts too.
It’s like balancing two elephants on a see saw, Frederick told Matthew. One of them gets nervous, then… kapow!
The colonel nodded.
Where’s the kid?
He’s in Kunming.
Already?
Well, it’s up to him to keep the inexact time. Frederick felt like they were rolling dice on the Chinese -the military top brass and political bigwigs. Dice with millions of sides while Seth, up-front flipped a coin -heads or tails. That they presumed to know the answer to. Reverse random prediction. Would their gamble pay off?
Her name was Ri (pronounced ‘Rherr’) and she studied guitar at Kunming University. Also the PiPa. Her group of musician friends treated him to black coffee and sweet bean-filled biscuits.
What’s the latest from the West?
They’re planning an attack and it was to be through me. I ran away. I’m not sure why.
It’s because of this, I reckon, one said, pointing out his finger spring. Tell us about it. It’s Asian-made is it not?
Seth related the sequence of events, how he was seemingly betrayed by Gracie, how she and Saim Ye left him to suffer -the American Asian trainers. Then how an Asian engineer repaired him with inexact physics.
We’re trying to avoid a confrontation too, Ri said.
But once the machines press behind me, I’m afraid it will be too late.
That must be why you are here.
Marjorie began to understand what Gracie and Saim had done. How they pushed Seth forward, gave him hard lessons and threw him off the deep end. Granted, he was fine aside from his still-healing finger which apparently was sprained when he saved her life. And he was wiser for it -she felt so. This threw wide open the war plans. Maybe it was safer that way. Maybe Asians truly only wanted peace, prosperity. Seth would do the right thing -he had self pride and that doesn’t go away overnight.
That afternoon, Seth bedded Ri. He removed his knuckle ring as it abraded her skin. There was no danger as the biogel adequately protected his torn joint from infections and sudden moves. But as he moved in her, he noticed the joint swelling. First the knuckle, then it pulsed slowly down his hand.
*Tear it off!*
He pulled at his finger in panic and it ripped off. Ri screamed as blood spattered her face. Seth stopped the wound with her cast aside tee-shirt. The torn digit fizzing on her belly. What had happened, he didn’t know. Most of the biogel oozed out and the swelling in his hand went away. The remnant of the chemical sealed his vessels, stopping the loss of blood. Had Honda betrayed him? Was this the Asians’ plan?
Nobody was laughing. He searched his heart.
It took a while for Ri to recover. In a way, it made him stronger, more accepting, when a weaker person also suffered along. They were still naked and unfulfilled. He felt a sense of closure, a weakness and a worry no longer attached parasitically to his heart, demanding attention of it all the time. He put his maimed hand over her waist and her hand moved to cover it, pushing it down between her spread, as they carried on where they left off.
Little did Seth suspect that the West had struck in his moment of panic. The eastern coast of China, from Hong Kong to Shanghai, a burning heap of rubble. Marjorie watched the carnage through her inexact scope, from atop the Tibetan highlands. She would face competition so it seemed.
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