Aaron Walters had it all; lived very comfortably in an expansive luxury penthouse atop one of those desirable downtown glitzy condo towers, possessed the right education credentials to get to know influential people who willingly opened those invisi...
For a moment I returned my attention to the percolator, because it had been off a while and my waiting coffee was probably only lukewarm at best. Rather than start over, I turned on the gas burner to reheat the cooling brew almost to a boil. While waiting I leaned back against the counter and stared at Tina on that facing pair of chairs in front of the wood stove, wondering what to do next.
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Just because she'd refused to allow me to move her didn't mean she couldn't hear me if I merely talked away to her. Like it or not she was about to become my captive audience again, nonetheless choosing how to respond to my pending chatter would be entirely up to her.
Minutes later with my mug of hot coffee in hand, I pulled another chair away from the table, dragged it across the floor and then sat facing her. She lifted her head enough to watch what I was doing but didn't say a word.
I smiled at her and then announced, "I won't disturb you but let's have a talk... about something else though."
She gazed back at me but her pretty face was devoid of expression. Maybe that was her way of letting me know that my talking away was going to disturb her.
"What I meant by disturb is that I'm not going to move you or do anything to force you to move." to be sure she understood this much.
She didn't respond.
While returning her stare, my attention shifted to that oversized bulge near her midpoint. Her appearance reminded me of a lesson I'd learned with my bicycle when I was a kid. That particular time I was using an air pump at a gas station to inflate the tires and suddenly the inner tube in the front wheel tore through the tire wall and instantly appeared this large balloon-like bubble. Of course back then I didn't have a clue why that happened because I didn't know anything about air pressure and PSI. Anyway, I felt like I'd been thrust into a parallel situation, but this time I understood my ignorance concerned everything about her.
Wondering if how Tina might be feeling had any bearing on on what she looked like, I asked, "Are you feeling any better now?"
She gave me a puzzled look and then answered, "I'm not ill."
"Aren't you uncomfortable?" because of her altered appearance that I thought looked rather grotesque.
"No." she confirmed and then audibly passed some gas.
She did that without a shred of embarrassment but I'm the one who felt awkward, and then I understood. By every human definition Tina was coarse, crude and completely ignorant, but she wasn't human and she'd never received any rudimentary education in any form whatsoever. In spite of that lack I was just as quickly discovering that she's extremely intelligent, capable of reasoning and learns incredibly fast. Tina picked up on my reaction but didn't say anything.
"Where did you come from?" thinking this question was broad enough for her to interpret in any way she wished to choose.
I was also hoping that maybe she'd be open to revealing more about herself, but aside from her tiny busy tongue flicking in and out from between her lips she didn't respond at all.
