“But what?”
“But … I was stoned and I didn’t know what—”
“Wait,” she interrupted. “Did you just say you were stoned?”
He rubbed his hands across the leg of his pants. “Yes. At the time I was under the influence of a mood-altering drug, and I could not stop thinking that you were alone and had lost a child. I wanted to make it right for you. I couldn’t stop thinking about how you were alone.”
“You …” She closed her mouth and pursed her lips. “You are much too stupid to be intelligent enough to do what you did.” She turned and walked into the living room and out the front door.
Bilal’s head fell forlornly. He had been stupid, and he was sorry for the hurt that he had caused everyone.
But now there was a child and that was something that he could not feel sorry about.
~***~
Carmella shivered as she returned to the house an hour later carrying the last of the laundry. She had been too mad to return to the house to pick up a gun and shoot the … Bilal. Instead she collected some kerosene for the lanterns inside the house.
When she opened the door she saw that Bilal had folded the couch blankets and was standing at the bookcase reading. He closed the book when he saw her and hurried to her aid.
“Let me take that, Carmella.” He took the basket from her hands and carried it up the stairs while she returned to the porch for the kerosene.
When he returned to the main floor, he studied her eyes, noting that she was trying not to look at him. He felt bad about that but knew that he would have to allow her to work it out. He was happy. He was close to her and liked looking at her even if she hated him. Maybe she would stop hating him, and one day they could be friends.
He thought about Raj and Lawrence and felt a stab of regret. He was selfish and stupid, and he had a lot to learn about being a human before he could expect to be a good friend to one.
“Carmella, is there anything that I can do for you?”
She stared at him as if he was a roach.
He almost took a step back at the dislike in her expression. Well, he thought, I now know what the human expression “back to square one” means.
He returned to the lower level and lay down on the couch, not bothering with the pullout bed. The sofa was comfortable. His body was tired even though his brain couldn’t turn itself off, and he had a hard time processing all that had happened. Soon fatigue took over, and he fell asleep before realizing that it was happening.
Carmella refused to talk to Bilal for two full days.
Bilal refused to go outside because Wolf was out there waiting for him. He would stand at the window watching the animal in the same way that Carmella used to watch him.
Carmella went out and did the light chores like milking the cow and collecting the eggs while he dusted and swept the floors and kept the sink free of dishes.
One day she stormed into the house and stopped in front of Bilal, who stood at his normal spot at the window. “Okay, you stink!” she yelled.
“What?” he asked.
“You need to bathe!”
He looked down at himself, aware that he was dirty. His clothes had stains because sometimes the spoon spilled their contents down the front of his clothes even though he tried to be careful. Also he itched in places where it would be rude to scratch.
“Carmella, I’ve never had a bath.”
“Aliens don’t bathe?”
He scratched his greasy hair. “No. Why would we when we don’t have skin the way you do?” His cells multiplied so rapidly that he continued to renew himself. Dirt was turned inward and then expelled. Centaurians carried no true odor, and they had no hair or crevices that captured dirt. “I’ve never needed to bathe until I became human.”
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s get one thing straight, Bilal. You’re not human. Just because you have a human body doesn’t make you human!”
His eyes moved away from hers. “I know this. I know that I am not human.”
She felt a stab of guilt, but she swallowed it. “You do have a human … form,” she conceded.
He looked at her. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
“So it needs to be kept clean. Look, I can’t live in the same house with filth. I tried that before and it doesn’t work for me. You’re going to have to bathe.”
He nodded eagerly.
“Okay, so what we’re going to do is boil the water. You’ll have to carry it upstairs to the bathtub.”
“You want me to go outside—with the wolves?”
“They won’t hurt you. They’re well trained.”
“I’m not willing to take that chance.”
She blinked at him. “Are you planning to stay in the house forever?”
“No.” He looked out the window. The big wolf watched him. He always watched him. “I’m hoping that he will go away. And when he returns I will fire a gun the way I saw you do—up in the air … at first.”
“Well, I’m not sure that Wolf will leave as long as you’re here.” She was very aware of where he said he would place the first shot. If he thought a subsequent shot would go into her baby boy, then he would definitely find one in his own half-human brain! “Wolf and Girl have never stayed this long.” She rather liked it but realized that Bilal didn’t. For now, Bilal was needed, and the two—make that three—would have to get along. Although Girl mostly kept her distance, Carmella feared Girl. Wolf would do what Carmella wanted, but Girl might not.
“Let’s just do this.” She reached for the doorknob.
“Uh, I would like to have a gun.”
She shook her head. “No. You get no gun.”
His posture changed and his feet seemed to plant themselves in one spot.
Carmella rolled her eyes and looked around. “Okay, you can have … a big stick.” She moved to the kitchen for the broom. She thrust it into his hands.
He examined and handed it back to her. “No.”
She took it from him and slammed it against his head.
Bilal yelped and rubbed his sore head.
“See? This can be a very effective weapon. And I didn’t even hit you as hard as I could have. Look, you can’t stay inside forever, and you can’t kill my wolves—or I’ll kill you. So you’ll have to try to get along with each other. Or else you’ll have to leave.”
He glanced out of the window. “Carmella,” he said without looking at her. “If I die then my people will come for you.” He looked at her. “And I don’t mean that they will come with the purpose of integrating you with others. They will come to experiment on you and the child. I am the only thing that is keeping that from happening. I am your protection from them just as you are my protection from those.” He gestured to the wolves with his head. He moved toward the door. “I’m ready.”
She absorbed Bilal’s words. She was not a stupid woman even though she might be a little crazy. So she decided to rethink her plan to introduce Bilal to the wolves. She had him wait in the living room while she dug through the closet to find a leash and a collar. She waved the leash in the air. “Wolf will hate this, but it’s probably the best way.”
She went outside and sat on the porch stairs. Wolf came up to her and plopped his head into her lap, waiting for a neck rub. Carmella indulged his wishes for a few minutes before slipping the collar and leash around him. “You need to be on your best behavior, boy. Do you hear me?”
Wolf watched her intently.
“You be good. Be a good boy!” She stood and led him into the house.
Girl watched from the yard, her ears perked.
Bilal had moved to stand behind the couch.
Carmella kept a tight grip on the leash, but Wolf wasn’t pulling at it though he did watch Bilal warily.
“Come over here, Bilal. Just move naturally but slowly. No need to be afraid. He can’t bite you while I’m holding him.”
Bilal resisted the urge to rub his shoulder. It still ached, and the wounds on his belly offered a nagging disco
mfort. But he did as Carmella requested until he was standing next to her.
“Hold out your hand slowly and let him smell you.”
Bilal did, moving as slowly as possible.
“Wolf, this is Bilal. Don’t hurt him. Do you understand? He helped you once, boy and he helped me. You be good to him.” Carmella continued to croon softly to the wolf, who sniffed at the offered fingers. He sat down and turned his head away as if he didn’t want any part of the alien.
Bilal waited, and with encouragement from Carmella, Wolf sniffed the fingers again. His ears moved forward and then back.
Bilal didn’t know what to make of it.
“Wolf,” he finally said. “Please do not bite me again. I never did anything to you. Wolf, we have to get along.” He spoke as if the animal could understand his words.
Carmella realized Wolf might be able to understand Bilal. If Bilal could communicate with the unborn baby, maybe he could be understood by Wolf, too.
“I’m going to let you go, Wolf, but you behave,” Carmella said, unhooking the leash and removing the collar.
Bilal could do nothing but stand there trusting that the wolf would do nothing more to harm him.
Wolf avoided Bilal and walked to the door, scratching it to be let out.
Carmella let the wolf out. “I guess he has no interest in you.”
Bilal didn’t believe that in the least, but he followed Carmella outside.
Wolf had joined Girl at the edge of the yard and watched without showing aggression.
Carmella went about making a fire in the large fire pit. A metal grate covered the hole, and she slid a huge pan over it.
She looked at Bilal. “Now start filling buckets with water from the pump and dump it into the pot.”
Bilal did as he was told, and when the water grew warm, he dunked the buckets into the simmering water and carried them upstairs, dumping them into the tub.
He yelped once when he burned himself with hot water that had splashed his legs, but that happened only once and he made sure it didn’t happen again. It took many trips to get the tub half full.
When it was filled to Carmella’s satisfaction, she handed him a fresh bar of soap, a wash cloth, a fluffy towel, and shampoo. She spent a few moments telling him how to use each, and he nodded in excitement about his first bath. As an afterthought she left the bathroom and returned with a toothbrush still in its wrapper and a brand new tube of toothpaste. She gave him instructions on how to brush his teeth and told him to do it every morning and every night for the rest of his life.
Bilal nodded solemnly.
Carmella left him alone to take care of his business and waited anxiously in her bedroom.
Fifteen minutes later Bilal came out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around his body.
She saw him standing in the hallway looking like a drowned rat. He had soap everywhere, and his hair stood straight up.
She suppressed a smile. “Are you finished?”
He frowned. “Why does it itch?”
“Okay, get back in the tub.”
He returned to the bathroom, dropped the towel on the floor, and climbed back into the tub. He wasn’t the least conscious of his nudity.
Carmella almost stumbled, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She focused on his face, but soon he was sitting in the tub.
He looked at her expectantly for further instructions.
She had seen him naked when he was unconscious, but now that he was conscious—and he looked good walking naked through her bathroom—she had to calm her nerves. She stuck her hand into the water. It was still warm. She picked up the last bucket of simmering water and poured it carefully into the tub.
Bilal shivered and seemed to enjoy the warmth.
“Close your eyes,” she said.
Bilal closed his eyes.
She filled the bucket with some of the bath water and carefully rinsed him from the top of his dark hair down to his toes.
He gasped and rubbed his eyes.
“You still smell like cheese,” she commented while picking up the shampoo. She poured a hefty portion into her hands and applied it to his hair, working up a good lather. When she was finished, she rinsed his hair with a bucket of water.
Next she picked up the washcloth and rubbed soap into it until it foamed, and then she ran the cloth over his neck, back, and shoulders taking care around his stitches. She wrung out the washcloth and scrubbed his face and ears. Bilal sat there without comment, but she could tell that he enjoyed it. She washed his arms and his pits, scrubbed his back, and ran the cloth lightly over his torso. When she met his eyes, she noticed his look of pleasure.
“It is nice to be clean,” he said.
She smiled and nodded. With a slow swallow she told him to stand. “One of the most important places to wash are your genitals.”
He stood, and Carmella handed him the soap and washcloth. He mimicked the motion of sudsing up the cloth and ran it down his pelvis.
Carmella looked down quickly and then away.
Dear God, she thought. She felt her body vibrate as if a chord had been struck inside of her. Her skin felt alive, her breasts seemed to fill, and her nipples ached.
And the space between her thighs seemed to come to life.
Bilal was concentrating on his penis and testicles. He ran the soapy cloth over them and realized something that he had never experienced before. He could become aroused. Bilal had not thought of sex. It was the least of his thoughts. Centaurians did not have a sexual nature. Procreation did not create a pleasurable sexual sensation. It was only a means to create life. Sex for pleasure rarely occurred, and he likened it to being tickled—it was nice but not something he strived for. Bilal had enjoyed the feeling of wrapping his tentacles around friends and loved ones more than he had ever enjoyed sex.
He’d seen humans and other animals engage in sex. It did not arouse him, but it did intrigue him. He had never thought to do it. Humans almost seemed ridiculous when it came to their sexual desires. It seemed that they chased every small pleasure.
But the sensation that was engulfing his penis was surprisingly pleasant and different from anything he had experienced so far. He watched his penis thicken and lengthen as he rubbed the soapy cloth over it.
Carmella coughed.
Bilal looked at her and noticed her skin looked strange. A blush of red showed through her brown skin. He liked that look on her face—her eyes big and her lips parted.
Carmella abruptly turned and headed toward the bathroom door.
“I think you can handle it from here,” she said. “And don’t forget to wash your ass!”
Chapter 17
~These Strange Feelings~
Bilal wanted to call after Carmella and explain that he wasn’t pleasuring himself. Though he was not human, he had grown into adulthood around them. He knew that men did such things but only when they were in private—unless pornographic movie was playing. Then it might be acceptable to do so in front of others. At least Lawrence had seemed to think this way, though Raj—who surely became aroused, too—frowned on the practice of self-pleasuring around others.
Bilal felt a bit confused on the protocol, but he knew he would never do that in front of Carmella. He was, however, certain he would explore the sensations his penis caused him later. It had been one of the things he had planned to test out but had been sidetracked by being sick and staying warm.
After Carmella closed the bathroom door soundly behind her, Bilal looked down at the wilting penis resting in his hand. He wondered what it would be like to place the penis into Carmella the way that men did in movies. Suddenly it began to rise again. He shivered and focused on washing the rest of his body.
When he felt and smelled clean, he stepped out of the bathtub and brushed his teeth. Now his mouth felt clean, and that strange bad taste had disappeared. He watched the blackened water run down the drain in satisfaction.
Bilal left the bathroom with the large towel wrapped arou
nd his wet body, the door leading to Carmella’s bedroom closed, the hall empty. He went down into the basement and found clothes to wear. After slipping on his own shoes, he looked down at himself, pleased he had taken his first bath.
~***~
Carmella paced back and forth in her bedroom. What had possessed her to allow this man to live in her house? Yes, he was an alien, but he was a man, too.
He wasn’t dangerous.
Carmella stopped pacing. Either kick him out or deal with it. But stop this. Stop it!
She opened the door to her bedroom and went downstairs. “Bilal!” she called from the top of the basement stairs.
“Yes, Carmella?” He appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
He cleans up nice, Carmella thought. “Look. We’re going to have to get some things straight if you’re going to live here.”
He walked up the stairs. “Okay.”
She backed up to allow him space—or at least that is what she told herself. She clenched her teeth then steeled her resolve as she led him into the kitchen where they held most of their conversations. It seemed she was most talkative when they ate.
Bilal sat down in his usual chair, and Carmella sat in hers, frowning and narrowing her eyes.
She is angry, Bilal thought. He was used to it, though, and didn’t think it was because he had done something wrong. Carmella was just an angry person.
“I need to know what your intentions are,” Carmella said.
“I intend to take care of you and the child.”
Carmella’s eyes popped. “Take care of us?”
“You’ll have an infant because of my actions. There is much that you will not be able to do. I will do it for you. You will have to tell me what to do to help you.”
She took in the man with the strange pink glow to his skin. “Are you going to take this baby when you leave?”
“No. Not unless you want me to do that. I meant for you to have the child.”
“Are you going to force me to go with you when you leave?”
“No. I won’t force you. Carmella, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll never do a thing to hurt you.”