‘Mnnnn… I can smell the butter starting to burn.’
He doesn’t move away, simply grins and snatches the pan away from the fire ring.
I stand on my tiptoes and kiss the tip of his nose. ‘Why don’t you go out into the garden with Sorab and I’ll make breakfast?’
He strokes my throat, his eyes passionate and fierce. ‘Until I met you I never knew anybody who was…pure. You will never understand what would have happened to me, what I would have become if we had not met that night, because you are too good…too pure to understand. And even if I try to tell you, you will not believe me.’
‘But we did meet,’ I tell him with a smile.
Outside the sun is shining brightly.
“Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”
Vernor Vinge, Technological Singularity.
Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature
—Georgia Guidestones,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
Bonus Material
POV
Blake Law Barrington
I knew something was wrong. I knew the way you know someone behind you is staring at you. A prickling. I began to sprint towards the marquee, faster and faster. Even before I got to the entrance I heard Victoria’s voice: she was screaming hysterically. Some slow moving part of my brain—but she’s not invited. Through the crowd, I saw Lana, standing with her hands held loosely by the sides of her ruined dress. And her face… Oh God, her face: white, slack about the mouth, beaten.
Utterly devastated.
I felt like a man who was coming out of a thirty-year coma. Disassociated from my frozen body, but aware of the crash of my heart, the roar of my blood in my ears, and the demon sucking at my belly.
I had only been gone for a few minutes. It was breathtaking how effectively and easily all my careful planning had been laid to waste. Lana’s disgrace could not have been more complete. How happy she had been only a few minutes ago.
My immediate and instinctive reaction was to run to her and spirit her away from the mess that was our wedding, away from the eyes of all those mean-eyed, cut-glass accented parasites gathered around her, all whom I know were secretly happy to see her humiliated.
I hated them ferociously, then.
But the cold part of me, the one my father had ruthlessly nurtured, told me that that was not the Barrington way. Here, in the scene after the bullet had struck, and the deer had sprinted its last stumbling yard and collapsed with the final hush of all things, I had to put my hand into the hat, and pull out, not the crows that took flight at the sound of the gunshot, but the deer before it jumped, froze with terror, and ran, while mortally wounded. I had to restore my love to her earlier brilliance.
I took a deep breath and walked into the situation. I willed my legs not to, but they quickened anyway. I couldn’t stop them striding to get to her faster. I saw Quinn put a protective arm around her shoulder. She did not respond to his touch.
She was looking with wide, unseeing eyes into the crowd. She was looking for me! Tears came into my eyes. Because of me she has been hurt her again. My head felt like it was underwater, but I was breathing fire. I bit down on my guilt.
I’ll make it right again, I promised.
Finally, I stood before her.
Quinn took his hand away, and the gawking horde of self-satisfied simpers dissolved into inconsequential shadows. She raised her shocked gaze up to me. We locked eyes. She was mortally wounded, but still breathing—still breathing. I saw clearly her shame, her desire to slink away and hide. She was begging me to hurry her away from her disgrace. But there would be no running and no hiding for us. My wife would stand taller than them.
‘She’ll never stop, will she?’ she gasped. Her eyes were huge, like those of a child who’s been slapped when it has done no wrong—wounded, confused and frightened by the world around it.
‘No harm can befall a single hair on your head while I am alive.’ My voice did not come out choked with the anger and horror I felt. It was a show of power and impregnability. That encouraged me. I took her hands in mine and metaphysically let the strength inside me flow into her.
Tears filled her eyes and shimmered precariously at the rims. ‘My dress—’ she whispered hoarsely.
‘Can be recreated to the last stitch. Remember…’ I reminded tenderly. Then I simply gazed deeply into her eyes with all the love I felt for her. You’re my heart, my life and my whole world, my eyes said. Can’t you see that all of this is nothing? None of it matters. There is only you and me and our love. I’m besotted with you. All these people could disappear tomorrow and we would still be happy. Who cares what they think?
She stared at me. Did the layers of impressions press through? Maybe. The color was coming back to her face. She blinked, and the tears that were brimming in her eyes, spilled over. With one finger I gently wiped first one cheek and then the other.
‘Thank God for waterproof mascara,’ I said.
She sniffed and offered up a ghost of a smile.
‘That’s my baby,’ I said, and raised my hand. It was the cue the organizers understood. Instantly, all the lights cut out except for the twinkling lights in the black ceiling. Two spotlights come on, and, searching the room, found us.
She looked surprised. The dance was not due till later, but now was the perfect time. I smiled at her.
Into the darkness came the disembodied voice of Barry White, ‘We got it together, didn’t we?’ At the sound of his low smooth guffaw, Lana smiled at me. Her beautiful forgiving eyes twinkled. And suddenly I was exhilarated. I loved her so much I felt my chest expand.
‘Love you,’ she mouthed.
When the vibrating haunting sound came, she moved her feet into position. The keys of a piano tinkled and Rihanna’s unmistakable, silky voice cut through the dark, ‘Shine bright like a diamond.’
Inside the spotlights, I curled one hand around her delicate little one while my other went to rest lightly on the small of her back. Then I was whirling her away and we were dancing our first dance. Our movements were so perfectly matched that the place became still. Not one person moved.
I knew we looked good together, but under the spotlights perhaps we looked special. I looked into Lana’s eyes and got into the spirit of the dance, and the rest of the world dissolved. This is you and me, girl. Just us. She twisted her hips quickly from side to side, once, twice, thrice, then allowed her body to fall towards me.
I caught her and raising her high into the air held her aloft. Our eyes locked. The moment became magic. The notes held, shimmered. I returned her to the ground and we executed the large graceful circles we had practiced under the tutelage of Plazaola. I held her hand high above her head and twirled her fast as if she was a long corkscrew. While she was still spinning I caught her and wrapping my arms around her kissed her. It was long and deep and full of something that had never been there before. Then the music was over, and as if released, the spectators came alive and broke into applause. Even they could not deny the beauty of the moment.