The words died in her mouth as she stared at what he was holding.
Vorn felt his face go hot.
“I can explain—” he began.
“Down. Put it down right now!” Jodi’s own cheeks were flushed too and her eyes were narrowed in anger and embarrassment.
“I will—of course I will! I didn’t mean to grab the damn thing in the first place,” Vorn growled.
Hastily, he started to put the phallus back. He still had his shirt in the other hand so he fumbled a bit with it. But he must have somehow pressed some hidden switch because the purple phallus suddenly came to life in his hand.
“What the actual fuck?” Vorn growled as the damn thing began to vibrate and then rotate around and around like it had a life of its own.
For a long moment he and Jodi both watched it twisting and writhing in his hand like a crazy snake desperate to escape. Then Jodi’s face went completely red and she shouted,
“Oh my God, what is wrong with you? Drop it—just drop it!”
Reflexively, Vorn did as she said. The purple phallus fell to the wooden floor with a sharp crack and was abruptly still.
“Well fuck,” Vorn muttered. “I killed it.”
Jodi looked down at the phallus, her face first red, then white with rage. Two little white dents appeared at the sides of her nostrils and her jaw clenched with fury. At last she pointed a finger at Vorn and said two words.
“Get. Out.”
Then she turned and stormed out of the room, leaving him stunned, with the purple phallus lying broken on the floor.
Ten
“So you said you would show me some of your social media,” Liosh reminded Melinda after they had finished eating and the remains of the food was stored in the small cold unit in her food prep area. Not that he wanted to see pictures of emaciated females, but he had heard a lot about the Earth’s Internet and was interested to try it for himself.
“Oh, of course. Here—hand me my laptop, please.” Melinda pointed to the small computing device and Liosh got it and settled beside her on the small couch in the living area which she had called a “loveseat.”
You would certainly need to love someone to sit in it with them, Liosh thought. It was extremely cramped and small. He couldn’t even settle into it comfortably without crushing Melinda beside him.
Not that she seemed to mind. She snuggled in beside him, flipped open the laptop and started typing.
“Okay,” she said. “First thing we’ll do is set you up with an email account so you can send and receive emails.” She looked up at him. “Do you know about that?”
Liosh shrugged. “I guess. Is it a way of sending communication directly to another person?”
“Uh-huh.” Melinda nodded.
“But…why not just use a Think-me?” Liosh asked, confused.
“A what?” Melinda looked up at him, frowning.
“A device that lets you speak directly into another person’s mind. Look—I’ll show you.”
He got up again and when he came back, he was holding the thin circular wire that enabled thought-transference.
“What’s that?’ Melinda eyed it in apparent confusion.
“A Think-me. It works like this—watch. Or maybe I should say listen.”
Liosh adjusted the thin gold wire around his temples like a kind of crown and thought at her,
“Hello, my Lady Melinda.”
“Oh!” Melinda nearly jumped off the loveseat. She put a hand to her temple. “Oh, my goodness! Was that you speaking inside my head?”
“Yes, it was,” Liosh thought at her. “Do you like it?”
“I’m not sure…” She looked at the thin wire wonderingly. “It’s certainly a lot faster and more convenient than texting or email. Can I try it? I mean, would it work for me?”
“Of course. Here.”
Liosh took the Think-me off his own head and adjusted it on Melinda’s temples instead. The thin wire shrunk automatically to fit her and soon it was snugly in place.
“Now what?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Now just…think at me,” Liosh told her. “Concentrate on me and send your thoughts into my head. It’s called be-speaking,” he added. “Sending your thoughts to someone, I mean.”
“Be-speaking,” she murmured. Then she closed her eyes and appeared to concentrate.
After a moment Liosh got the strong feeling that someone was trying to communicate with him. He opened up to the communication and heard Melinda say,
“Hi, Liosh—can you hear me?”
Her mental voice was as soft and shy as her physical one and he liked the intimacy of hearing it in his head.
“Yes, I can,” he said softly, knowing she could hear his words both in her mind and with her ears since the Think-me enabled thought transference in both directions. “Think something else at me,” he urged.
“Oh, what should I think?” he heard Melinda thinking to herself. She was new to thought communication so she hadn’t learned to clear her mind and concentrate on only the things she wanted to say.