Dreams and Desires (71 page)

The priestess proceeded to fill her plate with a stack of flapjacks and lather it with a generous dollop of butter. As she poured a flood of maple syrup over it, she smiled at the dream man. “Help yourself. I'm starved. My daughters keep on telling me I should watch my weight, but I tell ‘em, ‘What for?’ I've had my share of strapping young bucks in my day. Not that I wouldn't enjoy a tumble now and again. But the guy I'd be lookin’ for would be built for comfort, not for speed."

Ramón had decided he liked the matronly Apache woman. She had a homey style to her speech and lacked pretensions. Her face was round and full and her smile expanded her mouth all across her face.

"Well, I'm famished,” Ramón told her, “so, if you'll pass the flapjacks, I'll join you."

The other worlder wolfed down two stacks of the delicious, round pancakes and then filled a small bowl with fruit salad. One of Blackthorne's enthralled women came in, a tall, lithesome, young woman with high cheekbones and widespread, warm, brown eyes. She was naked and Ramón took notice of her pert, firm breasts and her flat, smooth belly. She wore Blackthorne's demonic emblem tattooed on her loins, just above her long, hairless slit. Her blond hair was straight and long and fell down her back to just above her waist. Ramón thought he recognized her from the debauchery of the night before, but he wasn't sure. She smiled at him and poured him a cup of steaming hot coffee, brushing the tip of her breast on his arm as she did so. Ramón remembered her. He probed her mind and found she had a happy memory of their lustful encounter. His cock rose of its own will as his body relived the memory. He smiled back. “Maybe later...” he thought.

"Mary Ellen,” Barbara remonstrated with the young woman, “Ramón's got a busy day. Put your name on the list I started in the kitchen and we'll try and fit you in."

"Yes, Mrs. Cloud,” the girl said, gleefully. She left the pot on the table and quickly exited, but not before flashing the dream man another smile.

"You're gonna hafta ration your self, big boy,” Barbara said, laughing. “There's a dozen or so women down at the guest motel, fifteen or so over at the security barracks and ten down at the dream lab you need to take care of. And that's just for starters. I got about half of the house staff in last night. And then there's your girls. I imagine you'll want to spend some time with them."

"Adele...” Ramón thought out loud. “When do they get here?"

"Oh, they're here already. I had them wait until we started our little powwow together. I need to talk to you and once they hook up with you, you'll be tied up, I guess, for most of the day. They'll be upstairs in the bedroom when we get finished."

Ramón was pleased the women had arrived. He took a drink of the hot, strong coffee, which he liked taking black with a teaspoon of sugar.

"Okay,” he said after putting the cup down, “what do you want to talk about?"

"The future, obviously,” the priestess replied. She poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot which she diluted with a little milk and two heaping teaspoons of sugar.

"I don't have a future in this world,” Ramón answered her. “I have my duty. I can't stay."

"But who's going to fix this mess your friend made?” Barbara asked. “Are you going to leave all those women out there to live their lives as sex slaves? And what about us, if it gets out what Blackthorne did, there'll be hell to pay. You'll set us back a hundred years."

"Not me, I won't be setting you back. It's what you did. No one forced you to ally yourselves with Blackthorne."

"That's true. But you have to take the long view about these things. Blackthorne set things up pretty good. This is a perfect base of operations and he had amassed a huge fortune, had control of dozens of powerful companies. It'd be a shame to let that all go to waste."

"Maybe,” Ramón answered. “But that's not something I can get involved in."

Barbara paused. She looked directly at Ramón and took a deep breath.

"Let me put all my cards on the table, Ramón,” she said. “You have a unique opportunity to have an important influence on this tired old world of ours. Our civilization is sick, bent on self destruction. Only a dramatic change in the direction it's going can save us. And I think you're the one to do it."

"Me?"

"Yes, you,” Barbara answered.

"Tell me how,” Ramón demanded.

"Well, for one thing, that little trick you did with the fireball in your hand had a powerful influence on a lot of folks yesterday. I've been getting calls all morning asking when you're going to do it again. It made people feel pretty good."

"It should,” Ramón replied. “It was the essence of the Whole. If Jnthrn hadn't been mad, it would have blessed the lives of those he had touched as well."

"You see what I mean?” Barbara insisted.

"I can't go around zapping people wherever I go. Besides, unless reinforced, it's just temporary."

"True enough,” Barbara answered. “But it's a start. And there's something you can do that would be more permanent."

"And what would that be?” Ramón asked, impatiently.

"You've heard of Genghis Kahn, haven't you?"

"Of course. But are you suggesting I conquer the world? That was Jnthrn's madness. It can lead only to destruction, even if it could be done."

"Jnthrn, as you call him, had the right idea. He just went about it wrong. You see, somewhere along the line human beings took a wrong turn. There's a sickness inside us, and that sickness causes most of the world's misery. If you want to change the world, you have to change man. And that's something you can do."

"Change man? How can I change man?” Ramón asked.

"Did you know Genghis Kahn is said to have had 20,000 children?"

"No, I didn't know that. That's a lot of kids. He must have fucked all day long, every day of the week."

"Just like someone we know,” Barbara rejoined, laughing.

Ramón was beginning to see where the priestess was going. 20,000 kids? That would make for a very expensive Christmas, what with all those toys to buy, he thought. The idea of it made him smile.

"They say one out every twelve Asian men carry DNA from the Mongol invaders,” Barbara added.

"You're telling me you want me to have 20,000 kids to spread around my DNA? Is that what you're getting at?"

"20,000 would be a good start."

"You're out of your mind,” Ramón responded. He tried to imagine it. Where would he put them all?

"No, I'm not.” Barbara answered. She sat staring at the dark haired dream man. There was a long pause between them.

Ramón considered it. This planet was headed to hell in a handbasket. He could see that even in the short time he had been here. And he had seen the basic goodness in most people, people who had not been corrupted or who weren't mad like Jnthrn. But could it be done? How long would it take?

Staying beyond the completion of his task would make him a renegade. But wasn't this what the Whole was all about? Wasn't harmony and peace the purpose of his culture? What good did it do to study other cultures and not give something to them? No one knew how long the Whole had been in existence. It went back beyond any recorded memory. Should this race have to last millions of years before it saw the benefits of loving one another?

Humans could not be converted to the culture of the Whole in all respects. They would not tolerate the loss of self it required. But that did not mean they couldn't be nudged a little closer. It would be like planting thousands of seeds across the earth and letting them bloom.

Ramón had been staring at his plate. He looked back up at the expectant priestess. “And how would the Apaches fit into all this?” he asked, suspiciously.

"You've studied Indian culture, I'm sure. Our religions all teach communion with the earth and the world around us. Peace is at the heart of all Indian faiths. If you united us, we could be a beacon to the world. While you were changing bodies, we could be changing minds. It has been a long tradition for Apaches and other Indians to adopt other peoples into their tribes. We would be adopting the whole world."

"And Blackthorne's financial empire?"

"Most of that is still in Dolores's name. Blackthorne wanted to make sure if the government ever really challenged him the stocks and properties would be securely tied to a real person. It wouldn't be difficult to keep that together. You'll need it."

"Just tell me this.” Ramón demanded, leaning over, his eyes studying Barbara's face for an honest answer. “If you knew Blackthorne was so evil, why didn't you get rid of him? He was just a man. One bullet, the slip of a blade, that was all it would have taken. Why didn't you just kill him and put an end to his madness?"

Barbra paused before answering. “Do you remember what I told you earlier up on the balcony to your room? It's an ill wind that does not blow some good. Everything happens for a purpose. If we had gotten rid of Blackthorne, then you wouldn't be sitting here today. It's as simple as that."

Kelly put down the telephone and smiled. Ramón would be here by 5 o'clock. It had been two months since she had seen him and five years since the dramatic events at the Fortress on the Chiracahua Reservation back in New Mexico. A lot had happened since then.

The girls had all been ecstatic to see him when he came into the upstairs bedroom of the hacienda. Adele had cried as she hugged him. They spent the next twenty four hours in a celebration of his victory. When he told them of Barbara Feather's plan, they had all agreed, happy he had decided to stay, and that Kelly should be first. Ramón was able to convince her mind to cause her to ovulate and the next day, having made his sperm motile, impregnated her. Adele insisted she be next, followed by Melissa and Felicity. Only Jackie opted out, for the time being. She came back to the Fortress a year later and he gave her a child too.

The Apache ceremony had been a grand affair. The whole tribe had assembled. Diane and Kelly agreed to spend the day in preparation absorbing the essence of The Whole during dreams induced by Ramón's potion which Adele had taken with her just in case. There was dancing and singing and, when darkness came, Nanteeka performed the ceremony of the light with his metallic feather and the marble like orb while his two familiars discharged the mists they had gathered while bound and hooded throughout the day. The glow from Nanteeka's hand lit up the night and sent waves of warmth and peace to the whole crowd. There were no doubters after that.

All the girls went back to Virginia the next day except for Kelly, Natalie and Cindy. The two young women insisted on staying with Ramón, flashing the tattoos on their bellies and declaring they, “belonged to him.” Ramón still needed Kelly, although Diane, who recovered quickly from her ordeal, supplemented her efforts.

Dr. Morton had been right about Alison. The dream experiments continued at Barbara's insistence, although Dr. Morton's methods were reigned in and, in the future, it was understood he would work only with volunteers. Ramón had removed the fears and pain being suffered by the young women and replaced them with his strong messages of affection and caring. To Dr. Morton's surprise, the results improved dramatically. It was Diane who led Alison the way through the dimensional divide to the Whole. After that, there were breakthroughs with three other women.

It had saddened Kelly, in a way, to give up her role as the sole source of sustenance for the dream man. On the other hand, now that she was not spending her days entranced, she was anxious to get back to her lab and work on her project. Ramón had made much progress on it based on Kelly's earlier research. In fact, the final formula was based on the potion he had concocted for Kelly, but in a much modified form. He had been supplying the modified formula to his other servants and Kelly found it had made dramatic improvements to their immune systems. The best thing of all was that the final product did not have to be licensed as a drug. It was being marketed now as a health drink for women called Mother's Milk, and was a resounding success. The profits made from it in the States were used to subsidize its availability in the Third World.

Kelly cried when she left for Virginia. Her intense, physical need for the presence of her captor had subsided, but they had been through so much together and she loved him so much that it was difficult to part. She knew Ramón had much work to do and comforted herself that it was all for the better. Ramón promised to come and see her as soon as he could, and his visits over the years were long, frequent and welcome. When the first baby was born, a boy they called Adam, for obvious reasons, Kelly had the baby in the Fortress infirmary and spent the first three months of the baby's life nursing him at the hacienda. Sad at being parted again from Ramón, she went back to Virginia and to her work.

The fact that all of the women who worked at Kelly's lab had become pregnant at the same time had been the talk of Jacksonville. But people soon got over it. Melissa and Felicity had gone back to school and obtained certificates in child care and ran a day care center in town. They lived together as lovers with their four children by Ramón. Chandra had changed her major to study fashion and Ramón had set her up with a major fabric design company in Los Angeles. She had named her daughter Kelly and she now lived with her husband and her son by him outside L.A. The dream man had kept his promise to Nadine and had gone to Omaha to finish the cure he had started. She and Diane still lived at the Fortress with their babies. Nadine had had two, a boy and a girl and Diane was expecting again and due in a few months. Cindy and Natalie still lived there too, but came East often to visit with Hannah and Natalie's dad and show them his grandchildren.

Adele had returned to the lab and continued to live and work with Kelly for about two years. She had given birth to a delightful baby boy. The women continued to be passionate lovers, although Adele had moved to Richmond to get a business degree. In June, she would be graduating and planned to move out to New Mexico to work with Ramón and have a “passel” of babies with him.

Poor, brave Lucy Douglas had been killed in a car accident out on Route 256 a year after she gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy. They had been adopted by Hannah and Phil Hardings. Ramón had attended the funeral and it was the only time Kelly had ever seen him cry.