Harrison looked over at me and smiled. Doctor Goodwin unstrapped him from his chair and led him into a back waiting room. He brought out Pike who was dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans. He’d been given fresh clothes, the one decent thing our people had done for him since their arrival.
He looked at me, then over at the chair. The doctor strapped him in and I sat down on the arm of the couch, next to the girls, and listened intently. I wanted to know his secrets.
“Please state your name, full name,” Dr. Goodwin said.
Pike hesitated then took a deep breath.
“Darryl Randall Pike,” he said. “The second.”
“Good. Please state the color of your eyes.”
Pike looked at me as if to say, “What the fuck is the matter with this guy?
Then he returned his gaze to the doctor. “Hazel.
”
“Where were you before you came to our community?”
“In the forest.”
He was being a smartass and that wasn’t a good idea right now. Not if he wanted to stay.
“Mr. Pike…” the doctor started.
“Just Pike, please.”
“Pike, sarcasm isn’t going to get you anywhere. Just answer the questions truthfully so we can get through this and you can either get the hell out of our town or become a part of it. The tough guy routine isn’t going to win anyone over.”
I loved hearing the doctor straighten people out. He’d been one of the first fellows of the community, one of the builders of the town, and he didn’t appreciate anyone making jokes about our progress. He lived and breathed the Daughters of Venus.
“You can get up from this chair and leave right now if you wish,” the doctor continued. “Or we can continue. Which will it be?”
“Sorry. I’ll be more serious,” Pike promised. “Before coming here I was in a motorcycle gang called the Brotherhood of Carnage. Based in California.”
“And why here? Why did you come here?”
“The truth? I heard a maintenance guy talking at a bar. He’d been stationed out here in Boulder and mentioned how he’d seen this crazy community where women ruled everything. I guess he did some work for you guys. Harrison and I didn’t think it sounded so crazy. It sounded…well it sounded really good. So we followed his directions and left our gang.”
“You left your gang? All on the hopes that we existed and you’d be accepted here?”
“Yes.”
“And what do you hope to find here?”
Pike looked down at his lap then turned his head and looked over at me again.
“I want to feel normal again. I don’t want to be alone anymore. I want to find a woman I can please and take care of her. Men are cruel…for the most part…and I’ve been surrounded by too many of them all my life. I want to be in a warmer environment. I want to love and be loved.”
Wow. This tough as nails biker Viking suddenly seemed like a charming bachelor.
“And you understand we do all that we can for our Doves and that they typically take up to three fellows, or I’m sorry, husbands. We call them fellows.”
“Yes.”
“Yes you understand or yes you agree?”
“Yes to both.”