The fat intern said, “Psst. Come to my tent. I want to show you something.”
The Asian intern got up and followed the fat intern to his tent. Inside the fat intern’s tent, he opened his pack and said, “Look at this!”
The Asian intern’s mouth opened in shock. She said, “Are those… are those firecrackers?”
The fat intern said, “Yeah. I want to set them off sometime when nobody else is around.”
The Asian intern said, “If Mr. Dare caught you, you’d be in huge trouble.”
The fat intern frowned and said, “I thought you’d be impressed.”
The Asian intern smiled and said, “I am impressed. I like a man who isn’t afraid of a little danger.”
Then fat intern said, “Want to see something else that’s cool?”
The Asian intern said, “OK.”
So, the fat intern unzipped his pants and pulled out his dick.
Chapter 11
In a cavern that was a part of the twisting network of caves that ran beneath the island of Flores, Martin lay naked on a bed of leaves next to the ebu gogo leader, whose name he now knew to be Lua. They had just made love, and both were exhausted. Martin ran his hand through the hair on the ebu gogo’s head and said, “Meh yamma tooh, Lua.”
The ebu gogo smiled and said, “Tooh yamma mi coo-coo.”
“Ne. Meh yamma tooh.”
Lua gave him a very serious look and said, “Meh sta ahada.”
Over the last week Martin had gotten very good at speaking and understanding the ebu gogo language. It was a simple language, and easy to learn. But, he had never before heard the word “Ahada.” So, he told the ebu gogo lying at his side that he didn’t know what the word meant.
With both hands she took his wrist and lifted his gigantic hand that was combing its fingers through her hair from her head, and placed it on her little belly. At first Martin thought Lua wanted him to rub and caress the soft fur on her belly, as he often did. So, he let his hand sink into her fur and let it curl around his fingers. A content smile came to his face as the fur worked its familiar magic on his fingers and hand, but then the smile on his face dropped when his hand felt a bulge in Lua’s belly that hadn’t been there before. He pressed his hand down on her belly. It was hard, where previously it had been soft. The smile lines around his eyes disappeared as they widened in disbelief. Then, his disbelief turned to horror. He removed his now shaking hand, stared at her belly, and said, “Ahada?”
The ebu gogo smiled up at him and said dreamily, “Ya. Ahada.”
Martin leapt to his feet, but he immediately became lightheaded and had to lean against the rock wall of the cavern for support. He hyperventilated and grew dizzy as the room spun around him. Then, forgetting to speak the ebu gogo language, he muttered in English, “Oh my God. I have to go take a walk in the jungle,” and ran out of the room, leaving Lua alone where she was.
Martin walked through the jungle, lost in thought, wearing nothing but the boots and pith helmet which he always wore. It had been a long time since he had missed his clothes, but he suddenly felt exposed and longed for something to cover himself up with. It was as if the trees were staring at him, along with all of the insects, birds, and animals as well.
Was it really possible that he had gotten Lua pregnant? She was an ebu gogo, and he was a human being. Wasn’t it more likely that she had gotten pregnant by a male ebu gogo? But where were the male ebu gogo? He had never seen one, and all of his questions regarding them had gone unanswered, until finally he had given up asking about them, and accepted that he was the only male that the ebu gogo knew, and that he belonged to Lua, the ebu gogo leader.
But of course there had to be males. Was it realistic that all of these females existed, but there were no males? Where had the females come from, without males? But then again, even if there were ebu gogo males somewhere, he had been constantly by Lua’s side all this time. When would she have had the time to sneak away to get impregnated by a male ebu gogo?
OK then, so the child was his. But how was it possible? He thought back to what he knew about early human evolution. Our human ancestors interbred with other species in the genus of Homo all the time, and produced hybrid offspring as a result of this interbreeding. Early modern humans interbred with the Neanderthal in Europe, and with Denisovan man in Asia. In fact, the average European’s DNA is three percent Neanderthal from interbreeding, and the average Asian has five percent Denisovan man DNA.
These ebu gogo, they were a close relative to man. That much was certain. They were in the genus of Homo, just as modern man is, and just as all of the extinct species were that early modern man interbred with. Therefore, why wouldn’t it be possible for a man and an ebu gogo to produce offspring together? Hybrid offspring… the thought made Martin sick. But it also made him curious. What would such offspring look like?
Walking through the wild jungle lost in thought had a calming effect on Martin’s nerves. But now, for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime but was in reality just a week, he had a strong desire to talk to somebody. Not to an ebu gogo, but to a fellow human being.
But the only human beings he knew of were Amber, Christa, and Linda, and they hated him. Oh why could they not understand that he was a complicated person with complicated needs? They called him all sorts of names, and persecuted him solely on the basis of who he loved. But he had to talk to a human being, and they were the only human beings available. Perhaps he could make them understand.
Martin went through the entrance to the caves and walked the now-familiar maze of passageways lit by phosphorescent slugs.
The three women were no longer in the tiny room where they had first been held. They had been moved into a deep round pit within a remote cavern in the network of caves. The pit had bamboo grating covering it so that even if the women could climb to the top, which was doubtful, they still would not have been able to make an exit. But just to be on the safe side, Lua had placed four guards around the mouth of the pit. They held spears with the butts resting on the ground and the tips pointing upwards towards the ceiling of the cavern where many phosphorescent slugs crawled, giving off their dark purple light that enabled sight in this strange land beneath the island of Flores.
Martin walked up to the pit and told the four guards to leave. They were accustomed to obeying him due to his close relationship with Lua, so they exited the cavern and left him alone with the women. This was unnecessary on Martin’s part, given that the ebu gogo would not have been able to understand what Martin and the women said to each other anyway, but Martin was a little ashamed that he wanted to talk with the furless human females and as a result of his own embarrassment he didn’t want the furry ebu gogo women to be present.
Martin looked down at the three nude women through the bamboo grating at the top of the pit, sheepishly waved hello, smiled toothlessly, and said, “Hi, Amber. Hi, Christa. Hi, Linda.”
The three women looked up at him spitefully. The redhead Amber said, with venom in her voice, “Hi, Martin. How’s your girlfriend?”
Then the brunette Christa shouted, “Traitor to humanity!”
Martin fumed and stomped his foot a few times on the hard stone floor as he shouted, “Stop making fun of me! Why do you girls always make fun of me? This is serious. I need to talk.”
The blonde, more mature Linda shouted up, “We have nothing to talk about, Martin. Now leave.”
Martin shouted down, “You know that I am the only reason you have been kept alive, right? It’s because I told the ebu gogo not to kill you. And this is the gratitude I get? Perhaps I should stop protecting you. Then you’ll wish you had been more grateful.”