And Eternity (16 page)

“We shall surely regret this in the morning,” he said, his resistance crumbling.

Then they were kissing again, and merging, and Vita felt the thrust of his loin and the jet of his culmination, and she went into a feeling she had never had before in sex with a man, and clung to him and stretched to kiss him and touch his tongue with hers while the feeling spread through the rest of her body. “Oh, Roque! Oh, Roque!” she breathed, over and over.

“Oh, my darling,” he breathed back. “Though I go to Hell, it is worth it!”

“I’ll go there with you, my darling, my love!” she babbled, clinging to him, trying to keep the fading feeling, trying to hold him within her. But it was useless; they had to separate, lying beside each other.

“We have been quite crazy,” he remarked. “Yeah.” Then she realized something. “Hey, you never felt me up!”

She felt the shake of his laughter. “I fear it is late for that.”

“No, it isn’t! Here, do it now!” She grabbed for his hand and hauled it to her breast. “Squeeze!”

He squeezed, gently. “Do you know, it does give me pleasure, even at this moment when my sexual urgency has been sated.”

“So maybe you really do love me.”

“So maybe I do,” he echoed.

She caught his hand again, guiding it to her other breast. “Every one of my Johns, he was hot to kiss me and feel me before, but once he got his meat in, that was all, he just wanted to be outa there. How come it’s different now?”

“Because we did it for love.”

“Oh, Roque, can you say it now?”

“I think perhaps I can, foolish though I know it to be.”

“Say it! Oh, say it!”

“I love you. Vita,” he said.

“I love you, Roque.” She had thrilled to his presence, and to their dialogue, and to their culmination, but the thrill she felt now was deeper and finer than any of these. “Promise me you won’t change your mind in the morning!”

“You know I cannot promise that. Vita. In the morning the full realization of my folly will be upon me.”

“Well, it won’t be on me! I could stay here like this forever!”

“So could I, Vita. But morning will come despite us.”

Morning did come. Vita did not remember sleeping, just lying there holding his hand to her breasts, but now the light was filtering in past the cabin curtains. Roque was in his bathrobe, clean-shaven, his hair combed.

He saw her stirring. “Perhaps I should absent myself while you clean up and dress,” he said.

She felt her hair plastered to her face in sodden hanks. They had sweated last night! “I must be a sight!”

“You are beautiful.” He walked toward the door.

She scrambled up, heedless of her nakedness, and ran to him. “Don’t go, Roque! I’ve got this notion that if you do, you’ll never come back! You’ll realize it was all a terrible mistake, and you’ll resolve to never let it happen again and I’ll lose you forever!”

“Well-”

She caught him and tore open his robe, then plastered herself against him. “Please, please, please, Roque, this is all the time we have. I swear I’ll behave when we’re back in the city, let me be your nymphet now!”

“You are trying to seduce me!” he exclaimed with mock outrage.

“Anything you want, Roque! I’ve been waiting all my life for right now, and I’ll never have another time like this. I’ve got to make the most of it! I love you, I love you!”

“And I love you, even in the morning,” he said, and she knew she had won.

“Don’t forget to feel me,” she reminded him.

“You are amazing,” he said, running his hand over her buttocks.

Soon they were into sex again. She didn’t think of it as making love, because this entire experience was an unremitting making of love; the sex was only its most emphatic manifestation.

Jolie woke from the vision of the memory. “The whole vacation?” she asked, flabbergasted. “Solid sex? You were more than naughty!”

Solid love
, Orlene corrected
. I thought I was going to have a limited affair with him, for the benefit of Vita, but she wound up doing it herself
.

You liked it too!
Vita put in.

I liked it too
, Orlene agreed
. I stayed out of it, overtly, but really I did participate. We were wanton! That poor man hardly got any rest at all. Now we leave the pieces for you to pick up.

Jolie tried to be angry, but this vision was too fresh and strong, too full of the delight of abandon. She remembered her seduction of Parry when he was a friar. How sweet it had been, but with what a consequence!

Unfortunately this, too, would have a consequence. Now Jolie remembered something she seemed to have forgotten. “I must tell you something I learned,” she subvocalized. “You must not repeat this to any mortal. We want to consider Judge Scott as a candidate to become an Incarnation. This means that I shall be observing him to decide to what degree he qualifies. But—”

Oh, no!
Orlene thought.
And we just caused him to sin!

“Gaea disagrees. She feels that natural, consenting love is no sin, and if it is to be considered such, then the definitions of sin need amending.”

Yes!
Orlene agreed.
He is a good man, he deserves an Office!

But if he should become an Incarnation, Vita asked,
what would become of him?

“He would step into an immortal plane and leave his ordinary mortal existence behind. He would no longer age, or be vulnerable to mortal mishap.”

So then he wouldn’t be interested in any nymphet.

Jolie saw her point. “You knew this could not be permanent, Vita. In fact, it could not extend beyond your one wild fling. So that wouldn’t make any difference to you.”

Yes, it would! I want to be near him always!

“However, if there should be any longer-term relationship, it is not unknown for Incarnations to retain them,” Jolie continued. “I maintain a relationship with an Incarnation, though I am a ghost, and Luna Kaftan maintains one with the Incarnation of Death.”

Maybe there’s a chance for me
. Vita thought, relieved.
Which Incarnation is he being considered for?

Here Jolie drew a blank. “
I-I
think it could be any one of them. But each is so important mat it is vital that no errors be made.”

Vita was dismayed.
We made him sin, and now he won’t qualify
? she asked.

He didn’t sin!
Orlene demurred.
Maybe we did, but he didn’t. He tried to do the decent thing all along, but in the end he was human, and I am glad of it
.

“The question is, how does he feel about it?” Jolie asked. “If he feels it was a sin, then there is evil on his soul, and it will hurt him.”

Perhaps you should ask him,
Orlene suggested.

Jolie sighed, knowing she would have to do it.

She broached the matter as they rode the carpet to the city. “I understand the girls were active during my absence,” she said.

“Exceedingly,” he admitted. “I am sure you are aware that my interaction was with the child, not the woman, despite expectations.”

He would not bend a bit to protect himself! “What are your intentions?”

“I shall report myself to the board of ethics, which I suspect will suspend me pending investigation and retire me thereafter.”

She had been afraid of this. “Roque, I left because I felt that what was contemplated was wrong. But now I see it otherwise. There was no force, no coercion, no promises founded or unfounded. There was only love between man and woman. A young woman, granted, but old enough in experience and in guidance to know her mind. I don’t believe that should be the concern of the board of ethics.”

“The law is clear, and I am charged with the upholding of it. When I transgress, I must pay the price.”

“When the board investigates, they will question the girl. She will testify that nothing untoward happened. What will then be the disposition of the case?”

“But that would be untrue!” he exclaimed.

“The girl is young and has a checkered history. She knows what would happen to you and to herself if she confirmed any intimacy between the two of you. Do you think she will indict you?”

He stared at her. “This is blackmail!”

“This is reason. In your heart you know that no crime was committed and that the lodging of the report you contemplate would only hurt each of you. What is your ultimate definition of justice?’’

“You speak like a creature from Hell!”

“I am the consort of the Master of Hell.”

He pondered. “The girl must leave my house. Only then may we be assured that the event was isolated.”

No!
Vita thought.

“She loves you, Roque.”

“And I love her. But it must be.”

Jolie sighed. “You are a good man. Judge Scott. You hold to higher standards than we do. We shall depart your residence at our earliest convenience.”

No! I can’t! I’ll die!

Quiet, you silly child! Orlene snapped.
She has something in mind.

“Thank you, Jolie,” the Judge said, looking miserable.

“You are not welcome, Roque.”

At that he had to smile. “I think it best that you not relinquish control until the departure is accomplished.”

Jolie nodded. He was indeed a good man.

Jolie took them to Luna’s office. She borrowed the Judge’s personal carpet; it would return to him on its own when she got off and dismissed it.

So what’s your plan?
Vita demanded.
You know it’s my body; you can’t keep me away from him forever!

“I can as long as I retain control,” Jolie said. “But fear not, I am on the side of romance, having been the route myself. The Judge had to do what he did; it was his compromise after I threatened him with your noncooperation. If he couldn’t pay the penalty for his deed, he had to make certain that no further abuse occurred. So he will not report the matter, and you are gone from his household. But that does not mean gone from his life. We shall be seeing him again soon enough, I’m sure.”

When? How?

“We are about to determine that. Meanwhile, Orlene, I think it is time we resumed your quest for your baby. You have recovered your equilibrium, and can now exist as a ghost without sinking to Hell.”

Oh, Jolie, of course I want to do that! But…
“But you are halfway in love with Roque yourself, and wish to leave him hardly more than Vita does.”

It is true. I have not forgotten Norton, nor do I wish to encroach on Vita’s interest, but…

It’s okay, Orlene! I feel so much better with you along. Without you I couldn’t have been with Roque on that vacation, and even when you let me do it with him, you were there, helping me not to make too much of a fool of myself. Without you I’d revert to H; I know you and Jolie are helping me get over the craving, and with three it’s much easier than alone. I really need you! I have no jealousy of you; you’re part of what Roque sees in me.

“So I believe that the three of us should remain together,” Jolie said. “Working to accomplish both your desires, and mine too.”

Yours too?

“I am highly impressed with Roque Scott, and not just because of the way you girls feel about him. I think he just might qualify to be an Incarnation, and I want to watch him closely with that in mind, so that I can make a full report when the time comes. So my job is compatible with yours: we can watch him, and sometimes be with him, and try to recover your baby, together. Of course we shall have to take some turns.”

Agreed,
Orlene thought, relieved
. I confess that when you said I could leave this host, I was afraid; I prefer residence in the living state to being a ghost, and I very much like Vita’s company.

You do? I thought you regarded me as an impulsive juvenile.

I do. You do things I would never unbend enough to do. The way you tore open Roque’s robe, but I loved being along for the ride. You lend excitement to my life, I mean,my death.

And you lend maturity to mine. Vita thought, pleased.
When you two came, I thought. What the hell is this, spooks messing up my life even worse than it was, keeping me from the H. But you’re better than H! You got me to Roque, and you’re teaching me so much, I really think I can be something when I grow up.

“So I think we are agreed,” Jolie said. “We shall work together, until it seems appropriate to separate, and perhaps we shall in time achieve all our desires.” The truth was that she, too, rather liked experiencing the living state again. She had never had enough of it, the first time, with Parry.

We are agreed
, Orlene thought.

Great!
Vita added.

The secretary in Luna’s office looked up. “May I help you?”

“I need to see Senator Kaftan,” Jolie said.

“The Senator is away from the city this week. Do you wish to make an appointment?”

That wouldn’t do; they needed a residence today
. Jolie, in her concern with moving them out of the Judge’s residence, had not anticipated this.

Maybe Mom . . .

Good notion! “Is Vera here?” The folk at Luna’s office were all first names, as was Luna herself, normally.

“Why yes, you may see her if you wish.”

“I will have to put you back in charge,” Jolie murmured.

They were shown into a back office piled with books and papers and video screens: the research department. There was a woman who looked a lot like Vita, thirty years older.

“Mom!”

The woman looked up, startled, and burst into tears. Vita went over and hugged her, crying herself.

Before long they were comparing brief notes. It seemed that Vera had gotten a notion of the problem in the family, but didn’t want to speak of it openly. She did not importune Vita to return home. Vita was at pains to explain that though something had caused her to leave, and that she had had some bad times, she was now much better off and perhaps even had a better life than she might have had.

“I’ve been staying with Judge Scott,” she concluded. “He has a housekeeper who’s nice, but you know he can’t keep a juvenile girl in his house forever, it would look wrong, so I have to move out. I’ve got a friend with me, a ghost, and when I need to do something adult, she takes over. We’re going to do some traveling, and we’re helping in your research, maybe.”