Chapter Two
Despite the distance between the city and his family’s farm, Gabriel decided to walk home from the testing center. It gave him time to think about what he was going to tell his fiancé, and what to tell his parents. Tell them how he had failed them, failed his family. He kicked a stone out of his way and turned down the long and winding dirt road, wondering just how much grief his brothers would give him. He had been the baby of the family, the youngest. His brothers had been annoyed at the pampered attention their mother had doted on him as a young boy. How will they treat me now? He wondered. Will they revile me?
His shoes kicked up a small cloud of dust with each step down the dirt-covered driveway to his family’s house, which was located atop a hill overlooking the small hamlet of Soldier’s Retreat. The lights were on in the kitchen, he noted as a small herd of deer-like ekus crossed in front of him and he paused as they ambled lazily across the road. He watched the leader, a large buck which stood nearly to his shoulder, lead the group into the large field south of the family barn to graze. The four-eyed creature turned and looked back at him once, its gaze measuring, before the buck started to forage for his dinner.
Any other time, Gabriel would have sprinted into the field to chase off the herd in an attempt to preserve the wheat harvest from total destruction. The ekus, while not very big, had voracious appetites and had taken to the humans’ crops like a bear to honey once the planet had been fully settled. With elongated rear limbs, quick reflexes and supple bodies, the ekus were impossible to keep out of crops and harder to shoot. Dogs, it turned out, were the best deterrent to the eku population problem; the deer-like creatures feared them and could only outrun them over a great distance.
Unfortunately for the wheat fields, the last golden retriever the family had raised died of old age the previous winter. Gabriel’s father had said he was going to get more bred, but had yet to follow up on his promise. His delay had allowed the eku herds to grow bolder over the months and move with impunity through the fields, and Gabriel knew it was only a matter of time before they began to completely destroy the crops. The generations of eku had yet to come to fully fear man, and only the loud barking of the golden retrievers seemed to deter them from devouring the fields.
Soldier’s Retreat was nearly silent as dusk slowly turned into night. His neighbors, almost all farmers like his family, were already inside eating dinner and preparing for the next day’s work. The only sound he heard was the nearby Cattleprod River splashing against the rocky banks behind his house. Somewhere along the river near the fields lay a make-shift dam he and his brothers had made long before, a game to ease their summertime boredom. They had merely wanted to create a small pond to swim in but instead had flooded the entire lower basin of the farm. Their father had not been amused.
“I can’t do it.”
The sound of his own voice startled him. He had not spoken since he had left the testing center hours before, nearly in tears as the doctor had laid out his options. Chemical sterilization was required by law for any Imperfect, lest they pollute the gene pool, though the doctor recommended against an immediate surgical procedure. A more thorough test of his genes would be done in a laboratory off-planet, though the final result would more than likely be the same. The disease he was marked with would be attached to his personnel file, and only then would the determination and scheduling for the sterilization surgery take place.
His older brother had been married for a while and Andrew was a government employee, so their genes were perfect like everyone else in the family. His mother had talked so often how much she would love to gather her three sons and all of their children at the family farm for Yuletide celebrations in the future. Will she change her mind? He wondered as he looked up to the darkening sky. I’m going to be that uncle, the one who is Imperfect.
Polymorphic neurofibromatosis, he thought back to what the doctor had told him. Extremely rare genetic disorder, may or may not contribute to neurological damage and tumors. What the hell does it morph into, anyways?
A slight brightening of the horizon drew his attention for a moment. Caballero, one of the two moons which orbited Belleza Sutil, slowly began to rise from its northern elliptical orbit. Duquesa, the second and slightly smaller moon, had yet to rise. Gabriel stared at the orange-tinted Caballero, the moon a seemingly ominous reminder of what it was like to not be a Perfect.
I failed my family.
He choked back a sudden urge to laugh maniacally and cry hysterically at the same time. There it was, the horrible truth which would bring about his family’s fall. They would be known as the family with the Imperfect, the failure. Ostracized, they would be shunned from other activities by the farmers in the valley. Their taxes would be raised to compensate for the curse of having an Imperfect son, one who could no longer breed or support a family with a reliable and steady job. He would be forced to work in the dregs of society, working in public venues with little pay and less security. He would be a second-class citizen at best, a dreg, a burden in society.
I’m never going to get to be with Sophie.
Somewhere in the forest near the river, a bird screeched in triumph as it caught its dinner. The sound startled him, so out of place with his silent grieving. Gabriel turned his head back towards the main house and was surprised to see a familiar, lithe shadow standing out on the front lawn. He recognized the silhouette easily enough, as his hands had caressed every square inch and his eyes had tracked every familiar curve over the past eight years.
She will always have my heart.
Bird forgotten, Gabriel began to walk slowly towards the figure, each step uncertain and fearful. The shadow waited for him patiently, sensing his need to gather his thoughts and emotions. To corral his strength for the coming trials and tribulations. It’s odd, he thought as he drew closer to the shadow, how well she knows my mind. How well she knows me, period.
A light from the house fell across her face, a quick stab of light which allowed him to see her face. The eyes, wide open and caring, holding nothing back from him. Her soft smile, both teasing and reassuring to him. Her delicate chin. It was too much for him. He stopped ten feet away, his head hung in shame. Tears began to form in his eyes as he struggled to regain his self-control. Just as quickly, the light from the house was gone.
“I, uh, yeah,” he stammered, uncertain how to begin. She stepped out of the shadows and into the pale light offered by Caballero. He sucked in his breath as he saw her fully, the light reflecting off of her pale, creamy skin. Her blue eyes were bright. “Eight years...you still take my breath away.”
“Funny,” Sophie whispered as she wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed tightly, resting her cheek on his broad chest. “I was just telling your mother how you steal my heart every day.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered and kissed the top of her head. He buried his face into the blonde hair and closed his eyes, wishing the moment could last forever.
“It’s okay to steal my heart,” she murmured back as she held him tightly. Gabriel coughed slightly and shook his head. He kept his eyes shut tightly as he continued to just enjoy her presence, the feeling of her in his arms. “Just make sure I can still use it for blood circulation. I don’t want to use a machine to keep going.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he corrected with a soft sigh. He lifted his face from her hair and looked at the house behind her. He could see someone peeking out from behind one of the curtains in the living room window. He looked away, ashamed; his mother, more than likely. How do I explain to them how I have failed them?
“I know,” she surprised him, her voice comforting.
“Do they know?” Gabriel asked, looking back at the silhouette in the window.
“Not yet,” Sophie answered.
“I think–”
“Hush, beloved,” she said as she raised a finger to his lips. Her eyes sparkled and Gabriel realized that she had been crying as well. She sniffed and smiled at him. “I don’t care what you think right now. Just let me be with you.”
Gabriel swallowed back a comment and simply reveled at Sophie’s touch. The doubts he had left him one by one, in time with her strong heartbeat. Every concern melted away under her touch, every pained fear evaporating as he met her eyes. His fears and doubts were gone, replaced only by a slight feeling of regret.
“So what’re we going to do?” he asked, his voice filling the silence minutes later. He looked away and focused instead on the quickly rising Caballero. “I can’t marry you.”
“Death can’t stop true love,” she quoted. “Nothing can stop us from being together. So we can’t get married according to the law. Big deal. Can’t have kids? More time for ourselves. More money, too.”
“But the law says–” he tried to protest but a pair of full and eager lips silenced his, paralyzing him with their sweet taste.
“The law can be worked around,” she murmured after pulling away from the kiss. “And there are more lenient worlds out in the Empire, you know. I can think of two or three right off the top of my head that allow a Perfect and Imperfect to cohabitate.”
“But not marry,” Gabriel muttered bitterly. Sophie looked at him curiously.
“What is marriage?” she prodded. “What does it mean to you?”
“Well, we can be together forever,” he answered, racking his brain for the right answers. “We can have children, have a family. We can own property, and I can support us.”
“Please,” she snorted with disdain. “We’ll be together as long as we want, even if we don’t marry. The only thing that defines our marriage is a scrap of paper and a digital license back in Marigold City. Children? That never came up before this, you know. I didn’t know you were serious about that ‘spawning’ thing. I can own property still, and you know as a reserve officer in the Dominion Navy I make ten times the amount you would have made even before this. Plus, with the money my father left me when he died...” Her voice trailed off as she pinched his cheek with her fingers.
Gabriel thought about her reasoning and as it sunk in he began to nod. She had a point, though one major obstacle tripped up her logic slightly.
“They have laws preventing you from living with me if you’re an officer in the Navy,” he reminded her. Sophie looked at him, her face incredulous as she stared into his eyes.
“You think I won’t resign my commission so I can be with you?” she asked, her voice rising slightly. Gabriel flushed, embarrassed.
“But you said...” he protested weakly.
“Of course, the job thing,” she nodded as she realized where he was going with the argument. She ran a finger across his chin and smiled. “I’ve been saving up my money for the past few years, genius. Unlike some of us, I prefer to save my money. I’ve got enough to live the rest of my life on. Our life. Trust me on this one. We can start a new life, comfortably, somewhere.”
Gabriel was mute. Every single argument he could think of she had countered with ease. He was at a loss for words. He told her so.
“That’s because you worry about the limitations of things you don’t already have,” she said as she disengaged her body from his. She motioned for him to follow her to the house. “I worry about what I can do with what I have.” She eyed him as one would look at a prime piece of meat at the store before she turned and started towards his house. “And I have a lot to do still. Don’t I?”
Gabriel stared at her back, dumbfounded. How was she so amazingly perfect, he wondered as he slowly followed Sophie to the house. He looked back up at Caballero, mildly amused. He shook his head at the stark realization he had made. She was Perfect, he thought, and perfect as well.
Despite everything, he knew he was still the luckiest man in the Dominion.
* * *
The talk with his parents did not fare nearly as well as he could have hoped.
“How could this happen?” His mother moaned as she clutched a small pillow from the couch. Seated on the cushioning, she looked across the table which separated Gabriel and Sophie from his parents. She looked at him with despair. “How? You can’t be a...one of them!”
“Rona,” Gabriel’s father warned, his voice low. Rona Espinoza ignored her husband of thirty years and plowed onwards, her agony and anxiety ruling the moment.
“Was it my side of the family? Oh, I knew it! I knew it!” she wailed and cried into the pillow she held. Gabriel’s father shook his head at Gabriel as he rubbed her shoulders. She sniffled and looked up at her husband. “Was it me, Joel? Did I bring this onto us? Did I bring this pox upon our household? Oh God, why? Why?”
Joel Espinoza sighed as he continued to rub his wife’s shoulders, his eyes rolling up into his head at his wife’s theatrics. He cast a look at his son that Rona could not see before he leaned close to his wife. He spoke gently into her ear.
“It’s nobody’s fault, Rona,” he said comfortingly. “These things just happen.”
“What will the neighbors think?” she asked hysterically, glancing towards the large bay windows across the room, her eyes wide in panic. She clutched the pillow tighter against her chest. In the distance, a faint light from their closest neighbor could be seen. Her eyes went skyward as she fell to her knees. “Oh God, why have you done this to me?”
“Mom!” Gabriel snapped. Sophie touched his arm gently, calming him. Gabriel closed his eyes and took a deep, relaxing breath. When he felt ready, he opened them. “I’m not dead. I don’t care what the neighbors think. Lie if you want.”
“Rona, the boy’s smart,” Joel said, placating his near-hysterical wife. “He’s a grown man now, and it’s not like we wanted any more kids anyways. The neighbors can go to hell if it suits them. This is our family, and whether our son is a Perfect or not, he’s still our son.”
“But what about his brothers?” Rona practically screamed. Joel rolled his eyes again and looked at her, the first hint of annoyance showing on the corners of his mouth. Rona buried her face back into the small pillow and cried some more as her husband hushed her as he stroked her head.
“Kevin and his wife already have children, Rona,” Joel told her patiently. “They’ve tested fine so far, so they can have more. Andrew isn’t married and they’ll just test him again. That’s the law. We can’t have any more kids, but so what? We hadn’t even talked about more kids. We both agreed that three was more than enough. It’s as simple as that.”
Gently pulling her arm, Joel helped his wife stand. He glanced at his son and Sophie, who had watched the explosion in mute and stubborn silence.
“Let me help your mother to bed,” he told his son as he moved Rona towards the staircase. “I’ll be back down in a few minutes and we can talk some more.”
Gabriel watched silently as his father paused at the liquor cabinet in the living room for a moment. Joel stared thoughtfully at the glass and wood cabinet before nodding, an internal decision made. Reaching inside, Joel grabbed a large bottle of amberlicor and an empty tumbler before he continued to assist his wife up the stairs to their bedroom, Rona still clutching the small pillow against her chest. Gabriel stood and headed to the liquor cabinet. He sighed softly as he opened the glass door of the cabinet. He knew he was going to need something stronger than the honey-based alcohol for the coming talk with his father, one that frightened him more than his mother’s explosion.
“She loves you, you know,” Sophie told him softly, speaking for the first time since Gabriel had broken the news to his parents. Gabriel gave a small grunt and looked at a tumbler for a moment, measuring, before filling the glass to the top with one of his father’s cheapest spirits, something more useful for starting a fire than being drunk. Gabriel glanced back at Sophie and cocked an eyebrow.
“I know she loves me,” he said bitterly and took a large swallow. He coughed slightly as the fiery liquid went down his throat and into his belly. His eyes watered as the overpowering fumes of rye-based alcohol reached them. He coughed again and rubbed his chest, his expression pained. “But she hates what I’ve become.”
“You had no control over it!” Sophie protested, her voice rising. Gabriel shrugged and took two more quick gulps from the glass before he set the nearly empty drink on a shelf inside the cabinet. His breath came out explosively as he exhaled, the potent alcohol fumes burning his nostrils. He glanced back at Sophie.
“That doesn’t matter, does it?” Gabriel muttered, disgusted. “To her, to everyone, I’m just one of them. I’m not a Perfect and I’ll wear that fucking label the rest of my life. Imperfect. Scum. Worthless.”
“Nobody’s truly a Perfect,” Sophie protested weakly.
“That’s a load of crap and you know it,” Gabriel spat bitterly. He reached for the last bit of drink and downed it in one quick, angry swallow. He set the empty tumbler back inside the cabinet and stalked over to the couch. He sat and turned slightly to face Sophie, who sighed tiredly as she moved behind the chair he had vacated minutes before.
“The whole ‘Perfect’ and ‘Imperfect’ thing is a load of crap,” Sophie said crossly, her eyes locked onto Gabriel’s as he leaned back on the couch. “When David the Magnificent created the Dominion, I seriously doubt this is what he had in mind. I mean, come off it, Gabe; we’re the Dominion! We have technology none of the other kingdoms of men have. We’ve colonized eleven planets, more if you want to count the ones we’ve taken from the Abassi during this damned war. Who’s next, the Domai Republic? They have three rocks they try to label as planets. The Caliphate? We beat them once; we can do it again. We are the power in this end of the universe, Abassi be damned. We can’t be limited by arcane laws that Emperor David did not pass until, on his deathbed, he allowed the Parliament to control the people. We can’t let something like a potentially genetic non-contagious disease to divide our people!”
“But it’s the law,” Gabriel said as he buried his face into his hands. “And we follow the law, because we live in the Dominion and laws make us civilized. The law clearly states–”
“Fuck the law!” Sophie exploded loudly, smacking an open palm down onto the back of the chair she stood behind. Gabriel’s head snapped up in surprise and shock. Sophie stared at him intently, her eyes smoldering. Gabriel had never seen her angry before, nor this determined. Sophie continued heatedly. “The law is wrong! There are brilliant people who get tossed to the dogs every day because some gene marker inside their body says one day, this person might have cancer. That’s curable! We had the technology two hundred years ago, Gabe! What makes being born with the possibility of having cancer so damned different than being born without? Can you tell me, Gabe?”
“No,” Gabriel admitted, his voice soft in the face of Sophie’s onslaught.
“Then tell me why we are assisting our ‘loyal’ Parliament with genetic cleansing?” she demanded. Gabriel looked away, ashamed. “Eight hundred years ago, Adolf Hitler tried to exterminate the children of Israel because of their ethnicity and genetics. Before that, one of the greater, civilized nations – the United States – practiced a barbaric intellectual cleansing program called eugenics, just so they could weed out who they termed as being uncivilized. Five hundred years ago, Ali al-Tikriti managed to religiously cleanse Old Earth and turn it into Mecca Prime to better suit his followers and religious perversities. What is so damned different between them and our Parliament, Gabe? Can you answer that?”
A soft creak of the wooden floorboards at the top of the stairs interrupted their argument. They both looked up towards the second-floor landing and spotted Gabriel’s father. Joel, holding the small pillow Rona had taken upstairs with her minutes before, blushed slightly at his perceived intrusion and started slowly walking down the stairs. His gaze shifted from his son to Sophie, his face losing the mask of embarrassment he had shown moments before.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Joel said softly as he tossed Gabriel the small arm pillow for the couch. The younger Espinoza caught it easily and set it on the seat cushion next to him. Joel reached the bottom of the stairs and sat down on the last step, his knees at his chest. He locked his fingers in front of them and gazed at his son. Gabriel waited expectantly.
“Sophie has a valid point, Gabriel,” Joel commented after a brief pause. He gave Sophie a courteous nod of approval before he continued. “Our laws are designed to prevent an Imperfect from making anything with their life. But could you imagine just where we would be if someone like Sir Stephen Hawking had been cast out because of him having ALS? We wouldn’t have the gate drives without his theory of quantum gravity. But if he were alive today, he’d have been put down before he turned twelve.”
“But he’s not here today,” Gabriel countered, his voice bitter and cold. “And he was the exception to the rule. Imperfects can’t do anything, and it’s been proven time and time again by scientists. The Shun Lao rule, remember?”
“Gabe, you’re an idiot,” Sophie said through clenched teeth. “Queen Sarah was born an Imperfect. What did she do? Only wrote the Twelve Laws, that’s all. No big deal, other than creating the foundation of life on the planets of the Dominion, one of which your stubborn ass is parked on right now.”
“Royalty are exempt from the Imperfect rule due to the inherent line of succession laws,” Gabriel recited from memory. He looked at Sophie, his eyes dark. “I’m not royalty, not a scientist. I’m a farmer’s son who now can’t own any land or farm it. I have a job which requires me to travel between worlds, but am restricted to non-Core worlds due to being tainted. What the hell can I possibly do?”
“You can live, you stubborn jackass,” Sophie stated as she stood up angrily, blue eyes flashing. She pointed a finger accusingly at Gabriel, her lip quivering slightly as her eyes began to fill with tears of anger and frustration. “I’m going home. If you want to try to live, call me tomorrow.” She turned to Gabriel’s father. “I’m sorry I yelled, Mr. Espinoza. I hope your wife feels better in the morning.”
“The hangover is going to be murder,” Joel acknowledged and shrugged. With a quick glance back at Gabriel, Sophie walked out the front door. The screen slammed shut noisily behind her. Father and son sat in the silent living room for many minutes after Sophie’s abrupt departure, each measuring their next words carefully. Gabriel broke the tension when he spoke.
“I think she wants to run away somewhere, a wilder planet with less law,” he said as he scratched a fingernail across his chin. He desperately needed to shave again. He looked at his father. “What do you think?”
“I think she has a good idea,” Joel said after a moment. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his son seriously. “There are laws, and then there is the Law. I prefer you break minor ones on a faraway planet then follow the bad ones here, where everything around you will be a constant reminder.”
Gabriel stared at his father, surprised. “I thought you obeyed the laws? You always told us to obey the laws of the Emperor and of the Dominion without question!”
“I follow them, sure,” Joel chuckled as he cast a quick glance back towards his upstairs bedroom. “But that doesn’t mean I always like them. You’re my son, Gabriel, whether the law says you’re good enough to be or not. Nothing can change that.”
“So you think I should go to another planet? One like Ptolemy?” Gabriel pressed. Joel pursed his lips thoughtfully as he began to nod his head slowly in agreement.
“Ptolemy is actually an ideal world,” Joel murmured, his gaze distant as he dredged though his memory for information about the planet. “Low population, lots of land that needs management and even more colonists. It’s also one of the furthest planets from the throne world, and not exactly close to the Abassi. Laws are relaxed there because it’s still being colonized and the pecking order hasn’t been fully established yet. Ptolemy could work.”
Dad,” Gabriel began, his voice serious. “If I do this, I can never return. Sophie will lose everything she ever worked for. Her family will be hounded, and questions will be asked if we leave together. Our family will be questioned. The Deebs will come daily, harassing you and mom. She can’t handle that, there’s no way.”
“So a ‘heart-broken’ Sophie resigns her commission, leaves Belleza Sutil and goes to resettle on Ptolemy,” Joel countered quickly with a curt nod. “Two, three months later you leave here for destination unknown. If they ask, we have no idea. The Bureau knows me, of our reputation. The Deebs will believe my story. Plus, your brother could add a little push if needed...no, we’ll leave him out of this for now. You just up and...left the planet, no word about where you’re going. Join up with Sophie on Ptolemy, live as her ‘indentured servant’ while she runs her land. Live together, but not together. There’s ways, and then there are means.”
Gabriel stared at his father in amazement. The same man who had chastised him as a teenager for lying to his teachers about homework was now giving him instructions on how to defeat the Dominion Intelligence Agency and the law. Gabriel was torn between pride and a small amount of anger at his father. He stopped and shook his head, angry not at his father but at himself; angry at his earlier reaction, and slightly ashamed. His opinion and respect for his father went up more than a few notches.
The plan could possibly work, he thought as he mulled the idea over more. They think I’m still here while she publicly leaves for Ptolemy. I could join up months later. It’s not like we’ll be apart for too long. Hell, we were apart for even longer when she was at the Naval Academy.
“It could work,” Gabriel commented, his voice low and thoughtful, “so long as the DIB doesn’t know where I am, and since I’m a nobody anyways with no job, I’m beneath their view. I could use their prejudices against them. The Deebs will be looking for the subtle, when I’ll give them the obvious.”
Joel stood and walked over to his son. He rested a heavy, calloused hand on his youngest child’s shoulder with a smile. Gabriel looked up at his father and saw a warmth in his eyes he usually reserved for moments when he was proud of something. Gabriel wondered for an instant when was the last time he had earned such high and silent praise from his father.
“I’m sure you two will decide to do what is best for all,” Joel intoned as he looked down at his seated son. “In the meantime, I have an angry, hurt and confused woman upstairs. I have to ensure doesn’t want to kill me in the morn.”
“Hey Dad?” Gabriel called out as his father began to ascend the staircase. Joel paused and looked back at him.
“Yes?”
“What’d you do in the military, before you bought the farm?” Gabriel asked him. Joel offered him a small, wistful smile before he turned his back on Gabriel.
“Just sat in a room looking at digital graphs all day,” Joel said dismissively with a casual roll of the shoulders. “It’s a matter of public record, I think. Nothing big. But it did make me feel like I was doing my part, most days. Keep in mind, Gabe, we all have a part to play; you just haven’t played yours yet.”
Gabriel sat silent in the living room for another hour after his father went upstairs, thinking about the future and the past before he went to bed. After tossing and turning he finally managed to drift off to sleep. His dreams, while not exactly comforting, were still dreams of a man and a woman together, forever.
* * *
Gabriel lay in the hammock, his eyes locked onto the wheeling constellations overhead as he shifted under the warm fleece blanket. He breathed deeply and watched as the orbital station moved rapidly across the horizon, the reflection of light on the metal surface easily seen from the planet. He watched it for as long as he could, tracking it with his eyes as it finally disappeared behind the mountain range to the south. He sighed and pulled the blanket up to his chin to fight against the chill.
While the previous month had been horrendous to bear, he was certain he had made the proper decision. He had ensured none of the other farmers in the small valley knew of his new status, and his parents had been equally discrete when speaking to his brothers. His father in particular had been a rather strong voice in the matter, reminding them all of the family motto: Sobre todo, la familia permanece.
Above all else, family remains.
Gabriel’s oldest brother had accepted the news calmly, his attitude matching that of their father’s. Gabriel had always had an odd relationship with the eldest Espinoza child, and Kevin’s easy acceptance of his youngest brother as an Imperfect confused Gabriel. Kevin’s wife, though, was not as understanding and was more than annoyed when her two children had been forced to undergo yet another gene scan. Both had been clean. Of the middle child, Andrew, who was working as a clerk somewhere near the military lynchpin planet of Anvil, came only a single-worded reply:
Interesting.
Gabriel shivered again at the memory of his mother going ballistic that first night and tugged at a corner of the fuzzy blanket. The blanket was soft and the velvety surface chased away both the emotional and physical chills. It had been hard, asking his brother’s wife to lie to everyone or hide the truth, but despite their differences both the Espinoza boys obeyed their father. It had been harder on Gabriel, though, when his friends stopped talking to him after they heard the news.
Friends from primary school stopped returning his calls almost the moment they had found out, their absence in his life a sudden and unwelcome event. University pals, brothers in name if not blood, suddenly were too busy to come by the house like they used to. Even Sophie’s friends eased off of their friendship with the couple. Being ostracized by society was painful, Gabriel came to realize. It wasn’t fair.
Life isn’t supposed to be fair, he recalled his father saying on multiple occasions. If it were, we wouldn’t be human.
“Blanket thief,” Sophie whispered into his ear, sending chills which had nothing to do with the cold weather up and down his spine as she shifted slightly against his side. She rested her cheek on his shoulder and snuggled closer to him, her arm draped across his chest. Gabriel smiled and kissed the top of her head gently, the turmoil in his heart easing for a moment.
“Turning me in at last?” he teased her tenderly as he moved the blanket slightly. Sophie wrapped it around herself tightly and pressed her body against his.
“They’re on their way now, you hardened criminal you,” she informed him and closed her eyes, the two lovers enjoying one another’s company. Gabriel grinned and turned onto his side to face her, an impressive feat to accomplish while laying on the hammock. The makeshift bed swung slightly with Gabriel’s movement but did not dump the two of them onto the grass below.
“Have I ever told you how much I loved you?” Gabriel asked as he traced her face with his fingertips. “Or how perfect you are for me?”
“Yeah,” Sophie said, eyes remaining shut. The corner of her mouth tilted upwards slightly in remembrance. “Tell me again?”
Gabriel chuckled and looked back upwards at the stars, a contented sigh escaping through his lips. He felt a small, delicate finger prod his ribcage, tickling him. He glanced back at Sophie, who smiled sleepily at him.
“What’re you thinking?” she asked him. He stared at her silently for a moment before he figured out what he wanted to say. Gabriel looked back at the heavens above, his voice soft and distant when he finally spoke.
“Just thinking how perfect this is,” Gabriel replied. He pulled his arm from beneath the blanket and waved vaguely at the farmland around the two, causing the hammock to swing slightly. “This is all I want from life. This...feeling. Comfortable? I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. Just this sense of peace.”
“Are you sorry I resigned my commission?” she asked him suddenly. Gabriel thought for a moment before shaking his head.
“No,” he answered truthfully. “I’ve thought about it a lot over the past month, and you’re right. I went along with it at first because I thought you were right. Now I know you’re right.”
“See, I’m always right,” she teased him. “Next time you’ll believe me when I say I saw a bandersnatch attacking a bird.”
A bright flash lit the far eastern horizon for an instant, brightening the sky momentarily. Gabriel and Sophie both watched silently as a shuttle from Marigold City rocketed into the sky, the brilliant flames from the rocket boosters creating a dazzling array of lights which trailed behind it. The light dimmed slightly as the rocket clawed through the atmosphere towards its destination, the orbital station far overhead.
His hand idly touched hers, and he played with the heart-shaped diamond ring he had put on her finger more than six months before. Despite his failed gene test, Sophie had not taken off the ring. It was comforting to know that even though they could never be legally married, she still considered herself to be his. I will always be hers, he swore silently under the moonlit night sky. Forever and ever.
Gabriel’s eyes followed the rocket until the glow finally disappeared, the arcing orbit of the launch taking the shuttle out of view and beyond the mountains. He shivered slightly at the thought of Sophie leaving him the next day for Ptolemy.
“I wish you could travel with me tomorrow,” she said, unknowingly putting a voice to his thoughts. Gabriel nodded.
“I’d love to go with you,” he agreed with her, his voice sad. “I’d like to be with you when you hit the jump gates, together for our first steps onto a new world.”
“You’re being a cheesy romantic,” Sophie teased him. She pulled his face towards hers with her free hand. “Don’t stop.”
“We’ve got less than twelve hours left until you lift,” Gabriel said and leaned forward, kissing Sophie’s nose. She squirmed under the ticklish kiss, smiling as she traced Gabriel’s ribs with her fingertips.
“Twelve full hours,” she agreed and poked him. “Until we’re separated for a few months.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel whispered, his throat constricting. Sophie ran her hand down his chest and tickled his stomach.
“If we’re going to be apart for a few months,” she said as her hand began to slide back up to his chest and caress his skin. “We should at least say goodbye properly.”
“You have something in mind?” he asked her, feigning innocence. She dug a fingernail into his skin.
“If your pants aren’t off in five seconds, I’ll have something else in mind,” she promised as she sat up in the hammock and whipped her shirt off. The hammock swung dangerously to the side, and for a moment Gabriel was convinced Sophie would dump them onto the ground. She paused in her undressing and eyed him carefully, her body leaning slightly against his as the swaying of the hammock diminished. “And it won’t involve you or any sort of happy-touchy time, mister.”
Gabriel stared at her, shocked, before he struggled to squirm out of his pants. The hammock swayed and once more Gabriel thought that the two of them were destined for bruises and grass stains. He managed to get his pants off without causing a major hammock catastrophe, and Sophie climbed on top of him, her eyes locked onto his. He sighed as he felt her body melt against his, her feverishly hot skin touching him.
“Are you sure?” he asked her carefully. She cocked her head and looked at him oddly.
“Gabriel Espinoza, I’ve been sure since the day I fell in love with you,” she replied passionately as she mashed her lips against his. He pulled back after a moment and smiled.
“Five years, eh?” He teased. She shook her head.
“Fifth grade,” she responded. “You shared your lunch with me, and I knew from then on out that you were the one. Just took me a few years to actually admit it to you.”
“Uh...”
“I’m straddling you while half-naked,” she answered simply as she covered his mouth with her hand. She ground her hips against him urgently and closed her eyes. Her voice came out in a husky whisper as she placed her hands upon his chest, her head tilting back. “Less talk, more do.”
No talk and more do is even better, he thought as the hammock swayed gently throughout the night.
* * * * *