“What a waste. Not everybody who…” he hesitated a moment. “Who bonds, does it to procreate.”
“Then what purpose would there be?” Jane asked curiously.
It had always been taboo to discuss this with someone of the opposite sex. For that matter, it was forbidden to discuss this subject with anyone, and she wondered why now.
“The joy of it,” Bobby said, shrugging his shoulders while looking away nervously.
“Joy?”
“Pleasure. From what I hear, it’s a most pleasant experience.”
“And why then have you not experienced it?” Jane asked. It puzzled her. That Bobby talked about it as being a pleasant experience yet he had not experienced that pleasure yet.
Bobby rolled his eyes. This conversation was more than he wanted to get into with someone of the opposite sex, but for some reason, Jane just would not give it up. Bobby was not a prude when it came to sex, and having Misty for a mother gave him a lot of insight into the opposite sex, that and her four marriages. He hadn’t enough experience in dealing with the opposite sex to his advantage. For some reason, he found it difficult to use this knowledge to his benefit now.
“For one thing, you have to have a willing participant.”
“Any you have not found a willing participant to bond with you, to experience this pleasure?”
“You have to love someone enough to want to do it with.”
“Do what?” Jane asked, not giving up on what Bobby was saying.
“Have sex. I mean, make love.”
“You are confusing me. Our elders decided frutons ago that it was unnatural for the bonding process to take place. If we are to work and cohabitate, we must not bond.”
“I think your elders took the fun out of life,” Bobby argued.
“Fun?” Jane asked. The more they talked, the more confused she was becoming.
“You don’t know what that is, either?
John walked out onto the porch. He watched Bobby and Jane walking toward him. Jane accidentally tripped, and the blanket dropped to the ground. John just stared at Jane and became somewhat aroused. It didn’t go unnoticed by Bobby.
Bobby laughed and turned to Jane. “I think John has some human in him.”
Jane picked up the blanket and wrapped it around herself again. She turned to Bobby. “Explain.”
Bobby just shook his head as he walked past John, who was staring at Jane as if seeing her for the first time.
“I’ve got to get your spacecraft before the Army finds it.”
Bobby hurried into the house, leaving John staring with his mouth open at Jane as she followed Bobby inside. Jane just purposely ignored him.
CHAPTER 8
Bobby had three hours before school started to get the spacecraft and make it back to the first period. Luckily he had been able to pick up the tow truck last evening after Chet’s gas station closed for the night. It made leaving early that morning much easier. And after his conversation with Jane that morning he could hardly wait to be away from her, for fear she would ask more questions about the pleasures of sex and his lack of experience in that field.
Getting the spacecraft was going to be an easy task. The hard part was concealing it from view while transporting it. The tarps Bobby brought did the trick, somewhat. The one factor in his favor and he was thankful for it was that the Star Trek Convention had everyone’s minds on people arriving for the convention. And with that, there was an assortment of weird-looking individuals and objects in the area. He only hoped anyone who saw him would think he was transporting a prop for the Convention Center.
As Bobby drove down Highway 375 listening to hard rock, his heart sank seeing the convoy of white Jeeps coming in his direction. He almost choked, thinking they were finally traveling in the right direction but too late to find the craft he was towing. Bobby glanced at the clock on the dash. There was an hour and fifteen minutes to get the spacecraft to the ranch and make it to school for the first period. It was cutting it close, but after yesterday, he knew Jenny would not accept another excuse for him missing or even being tardy today. Least of all picking up a marooned spacecraft from the desert as a pretext. That was almost as bad as the excuse of Spot eating his homework!
Bobby slunk down in the seat as the convoy lead by Colonel Crimshaw drove past him without event.
The Cammo dude next to the Colonel stared at the tow truck as it passed. He turned to the Colonel with a puzzled look on his face.
“Isn’t that the kid from yesterday?”
“Don’t be silly. He was driving a convertible,” the Colonel snapped in a way that belittled the man sitting next to him.
“I know what he was driving yesterday. But it looked like the same kid.”
The Colonel turned to the Cammo dude and shook his head. He was tired of the way this little punk always reminded him of things and felt the need to call him on it. Besides, what difference did it make if it was the same kid?
Unseen by the Colonel in the rearview mirror was that one of the pieces of canvas tarp had flown off the craft, revealing it for all to see.
Bobby quickly pulled into the ranch. He maneuvered the truck in front of the machine shed, then got out and opened the machine-shed doors. Jenny walked out of the house just then, but the alien craft behind the large tow truck was out of her view. Jenny waved to Bobby.
“Don’t forget school,” she said, pointing her finger at Bobby.
Bobby waved back. “I won’t.”
Bobby quickly got in the tow truck and backed the alien craft into the machine shed. As he unhooked the craft from the truck, a helicopter flew overhead. Bobby rushed to the door and looked up. The men hanging out of the chopper were not even looking in his direction. Instead, they were searching the backyard for another glimpse of Jane.
Colonel Crimshaw glanced at his map and then pulled off to the side of the road. He was a couple of hundred yards off the highway when he looked at the GPS in his hand and stopped near the rock that Bobby was sitting by the day earlier.
In the distance, the imprint of where the alien craft slid along the desert floor could be seen. There was a large crater of twenty feet in front of the rock that the Colonel stood looking at. The Colonel walked down the long path and saw the feeble attempt at hiding it with sage bushes that were scattered about. He just shook his head, wondering where it could have gone. He angrily kicked at the desert dirt when one of the Cammo dudes hurried over to where he was standing.
“We found tracks in the sand.”
“So,” the Colonel snapped.
“Someone tried to hide the fact it was anywhere near that hole, but we’re certain it was a large truck.”
The young Cammo dude who shared the Colonel’s Jeep stepped forward with a snide look on his face.
“Like maybe a tow truck,” he said, watching the Colonel to see his reaction.
“Well, yeah, I guess.”
The Colonel stomped past both men without saying a word. He jumped in the Jeep and sped off without waiting for the Cammo dude to get into the passenger seat. The Cammo dude turned to his comrade and snickered snidely as his friend asked,
“What’s the matter with him?”
“He doesn’t like being told, ‘I told you so,’” the young Cammo dude mocked.
Both men turned and looked down the long path the spacecraft had taken before landing in the crater in front of the rock they were standing near. The young Cammo dude looked down and saw a discarded joint. He just shook his head and laughed.