The
Water's Edge
by Sterling The
men and boys are creatures of the land. They run and climb, feeling the
breeze and the sun. They see the wonders of the land, the flowers and
plants, the view from the hills. Women and girls are creatures of the
sea. They swim and dive. They see the wonders of the sea floor, the
intricate reefs, the complex life and beauty there.
Wet skin is uncomfortable for the males, and feeds primeval dread. Dry skin for the females prefigures the dust of death.
Tara
had had three periods, so she was now permitted to undergo the
initiation rite to leave girlhood behind and assume her rightful place
among the women. In her 19 years her body had finished growing, and she
knew the intricacies of women's work, particularly the crucial task of
finding shellfish. But now with sexual maturity she was ready to take
the final step.
First came the confessions. She had swum with
her mother and separately with each of two elders, and been encouraged
to share anything shameful she may have done in her life so far. They
reminded her that it would soon be known in any event.
As soon
as she was old enough to know right from wrong, she had been told that
as a woman she would have no secrets. She must be good and if she
strayed she must report any transgressions without delay. So at age 11
she had reported eating five succulent Right Clams she had found during
the famine instead of delivering them to the elders so they could be
given to those most in need. She had been so hungry! When the famine
was over and everyone returned to health, she had been forbidden to eat
for three days. At age 15 she and her friends had dumped a bucket of
water on two sleeping boys, and they had been punished by staying out
of the water for twenty minutes, and she shuddered remembering that,
experiencing roughly the discomfort the boys would have felt at her
prank. But mostly she had been good.
Now as she swam with her
mother all she could think to confess was a more private sin. She had
watched three young men laughing and joking as they sat on the shore
eating seafood. In this mild tropical climate none of them needed
clothes and would have been puzzled by the concept, so she had also
seen the strange tube between their legs and found it moved her in a
way it had not before. Seeing this her hand had drifted between her
legs and started a gentle rubbing. It had felt good, and she had had
trouble stopping once she started. Her mother had given a gentle smile
and said this was no shame, but another indication she was ready for
her initiation. She did know how reproduction worked, and had seen from
afar couples engaging in the reproductive act, but had not approached
them. When she was young she had had no desire at all to approach, and
in the past year or two she had kept her distance as custom required
despite a growing curiosity.
Her mother noted that with her
recent "sin" she had gotten a start on her next task. She was to rub
herself until she had that warm feeling, and then work at inserting a
finger into her vagina, then work gradually up to inserting four at
once. Her first sex would be tumultuous enough that discomfort between
her legs would be an unwelcome distraction.
She had seen love
boats, but as her time for using one approached, she studied them with
special interest. They allowed a man and woman to have sex while he
remained completely dry and she remained completely wet. The boats had
the general size and shape of a long rowboat, the wood cut and
painstakingly joined by men. At the back was a wooden platform where a
man could comfortably sit while waiting for his mate. The rest of the
bottom of the boat was made of several sheets of the skin shed by great
brown seaweed at the start of the rainy season. The skins had been
joined to form a transparent waterproof sheet like a thin clear plastic
and fastened carefully to the sides of the boat inside at water level.
It was waterproof but loosely attached. A man could easily take a fold
in his hand and lift it a foot in the air or plunge it a foot beneath
the water's surface. A man lying on it stayed dry. A woman could
position herself under the fabric, working her body into position so
she was supported by submerged boards that were part of the boat. With
a man's weight on her she would not sink deep into the water, but she
was still thoroughly and blessedly wet all over. She used a thick
hollow reed to breathe while keeping her head wet. She could easily
wriggle out between the boards and duck below, just as the man could
lift himself up. Both came to the union freely, and both could leave at
any time.
Tara and her mother had agreed on Tomas as her First
Time Lover. Her mother had had sex with him in a love boat and
confirmed that he was physically and mentally suitable.
She
would be initiated at dawn, and at dusk the night before Tara and Tomas
had met at the water's edge and held hands for a minute. He had smiled
at her, and she tried to smile back but felt shy and embarrassed.
Now
as dawn approached she swam to the love boat with her mother. Her
mother would wait at a discreet distance in case Tara broke away
overwhelmed and needed help. They embraced for the last time as mother
and child, then Tara proceeded to the boat. She saw Tomas sitting on
the platform at the rear just before she dove to assume her position.
Tomas lowered himself onto her partway, and she thrilled to feel the
warmth of his body through the thin membrane. He used his hands to
slowly stroke her all over, touching shoulders, stomach, and thighs,
but paying special attention to her breasts -- it felt so good! He then
set his hand between her legs and by depressing the waterproof sheet
slightly he massaged her much as she had done, but he somehow knew what
to do to make it feel even better. She could feel the whole area
throbbing, engorged, warm as never before. She was scared but she was
ready. There was a small opening in the sheet that was sealed with the
gum of the date tree. As he slid his engorged penis through it the gum
kept the seal. Then he held the tip of his penis right at her opening
and pressed in a little, back and forth just a little. She wanted it
all the way in! Soon he obliged, surging into her several inches.
Tendrils from inside her vagina gently sought and adhered to the tip of
his penis, drawn like a magnet. Nerves touched nerves. Just as she was
thrilling to the sensation of being filled with a penis, her mind went
reeling.
Along with all her own feelings and memories she had
all of his. She felt his penis as her own, and wondered at the strange
sensation of hardness and the pleasure in flesh that extended out from
his body. She experienced his memory of lust watching her as she swam
up to the boat and appeared beneath it, how he found her breasts and
thighs so sexy, and especially her vulva. And she felt his overwhelming
urge to slide his penis into her, the pure pleasure as the tip of his
penis parted her vaginal tissues and slid in. Shifting mental focus
slightly, she felt his pleasure and mild amusement as he now felt her
amazement and excitement at sharing minds. But then she was lost in his
memories, of running on land, sleeping in a hammock in a hut. She
touched a memory of him pissing, feeling him point his penis, release,
and how the urine didn't come out instantly as hers did. She could feel
it flowing down the length of his penis before bursting forth as a
proud arcing stream. She felt his puzzlement in his boyhood memory
looking at the girls and women, bobbing in the water, swimming far out,
such strange creatures. His darkest secrets were taunting a younger
boy, putting a harmless but scary bug on his father as he slept, and
something that Tara understood all too well: During a famine he had
been out foraging and eaten some prime fruit instead of handing it in
to be shared. The two of them were inwardly amused at their parallel
sins. The amusement echoed back and forth between them, and then she
caught his passing thought that many of the villagers had done that at
one time or another when they were young. She caught his memory of his
own first time in a love boat when he had been initiated, his
nervousness lying his body on a woman under the sheet. Fresher in his
mind was his experience initiating another girl just a few months
before. His feeling of not just pleasure but pride at being chosen, of
conquest and possession, and then a touch of shame at those feelings.
Now she let herself feel thrilled at being possessed and they felt the
echoes of that between them. She began picking up a weaker version of
her mother's intimate thoughts as transferred to him during their
recent sex. Then Tara felt his thought that she shouldn't go too deep
into these memories, there would be plenty of time to discover more.
She would get the direct memories of other men and boys when she mated
with them and her vaginal tendrils affixed to their penises. She would
also get weaker experience of the mental lives of women as experienced
by her mates during previous sexual encounters.
Then she became
aware of him starting to move his penis in and out, slowly at first and
then faster. She felt the amazing warmth and pleasure in her vagina,
the rightness of his hard member inside her, and felt the echo of him
feeling it too. From his mind she felt the pure pleasure of vaginal
walls smoothly caressing him, the lust for more, for deeper
penetration. His and her physical desires perfectly complemented one
another. As her warmth and pleasure built she felt his echoes of it and
his open, supportive desire for her to luxuriate in it. After a
delicious, tantalizing buildup she felt her own immediate convulsions
of ecstasy, and she felt his experience of her pleasure provide the
final trigger for his pleasure breaking into ecstasy, which in turn
washed back to her. He was thrusting in as fast and deep as he could
go, and their ecstasies intertwined. And with it all the strange
stirrings inside his body, a sort of tickling, and the convulsion as
the semen shot down the length of his penis in one pulse, then two
pulses, then a third.
He stayed pressed in as she processed the
sensations of afterglow, of penis starting to shrink, of his memory of
confusion during his first time when his woman had pulled away from him
-- but also his assurance to her now that it would be OK. So having
shared with her exactly when he was going to do it, he withdrew, and
the penis pulled away from the tendrils within her, and suddenly she
was left with only her own feelings and sensations. She slipped out
beneath the boat and swam to her beaming mother and they hugged, both
women now.
She truly understood now why she could have no
secrets, and the peculiar intimacy of feeling Tomas's secrets, even the
ones he would rather not have shared.
She craved the pleasure of
sex and the deep-down feeling of rightness, of its alignment with her
nature as a woman. She and Tomas took their positions in the love boat
and joined again every day at dawn for five days.
She was
fascinated by the melding of minds and gradually learned to handle it
without any trace of panic. One aspect was the small embarrassing
thoughts that womenfolk would never mention among themselves. She
caught his thought that her nose was long and unattractive and felt
shame that he found her wanting, and also a little anger that he had
told her that. But of course he hadn't told her, it was just in his
mind and he could not hide it from her. She felt reassurance from his
memories of women's noticing features of his they found unattractive,
such as his prominent brow. On the other hand she found that brow and
every other feature of Tomas entirely perfect in every way. She also
caught how he had found his First Time Lover to be flawless, and how
that was due partly to the great pleasure she had initiated him to, and
how it had lessened with time.
He had flaws. He was not so good
at climbing tall trees for fruit, and she felt his shame as he knew
that, and how the other men also knew that and his status was lower as
a result. She felt compassion for him. She on the other hand was an
excellent diver and could go deeper and stay longer than many of the
women.
They felt in each other's childhood similar feelings of
embarrassment at not knowing what the older kids did, of feeling
inadequate, of being unsure of their place in the world, whether
seeming friends were true friends.
So the revelations went,
seemingly without end. The world of melding minds lent itself to all
warts being uncovered. It also led to the knowledge that positive
feelings were genuine. There were no white lies.
Men
foraged far and wide for fruit and wild grains, and shared them with
the women at the water's edge. The women shared the shellfish they
gathered. The fruit and wild grains were the main source of calories,
while the shellfish were the main source of protein and minerals. When
fruit was scarce the women worked harder to find shellfish to
compensate in part, and when the shellfish was in short supply the men
climbed higher and ranged farther afield to find what they could.
Each
gender had a spoken language that was totally incomprehensible to the
other. Aside from some primitive sign language, sex was the only way
the two genders could communicate.
Women could not get pregnant
unless they wanted to, which solved the contraception problem. Infants
were raised at the water's edge. They nursed in the water with their
mothers, but slept a short distance up the beach snuggled against their
fathers. Up there was air to breathe without complication. Babies were
tolerant of both water and dryness, but the gender preference soon
emerged. Loving mothers came out of the water for minutes at a time to
let their boy babies nurse, and the boys weaned themselves earlier.
Girl babies came ashore only to sleep, and loving fathers doused their
sleeping daughters with water periodically. But before long the girls
learned to sleep at sea, in what we would call a dead man's float,
instinctively lifting their heads every five minutes or so for a deep
breath. Once his daughter was out to sea a father's work was done, as
was a mother's once the boy was weaned.
Men and women both loved
sex. Love boats were great but a scarce commodity, so much of the sex
happened on land or in the water or halfway between. The man shared the
woman's distaste at being exposed to the air, and the woman shared the
man's discomfort with wetness. It was still well worth it to them,
though the encounters tended to be briefer. The man felt the woman's
itch and craving for his penis to thrust within her, and the
satisfaction of having her vagina filled and the sheer pleasure of the
sexual motion relayed to her clitoris. The woman felt in turn the man's
fundamental hunger to penetrate, and the exquisite pleasure as the tip
of his penis felt the warm wet friction while sliding between her
vaginal walls. All of this pleasure and desire echoed back and forth
between them, blending and multiplying. Simultaneous orgasms were the
rule, not the exception.
In such a world monogamy was the
exception and promiscuity the rule. A monogamous man could learn only
what his partner's senses perceived and would therefore miss the direct
experiences of all the other women. The faithful woman would learn only
of the meadows and hills one man had climbed, instead of the land
traversed by all of the village's males. Women could use language to
describe what they had seen, but the way to get a direct picture was to
have sex in turn with the same man. The youth could describe the
mysterious flower to the elder most accurately by way of a shared mate
to echo the image. Sensations and memories bounced back and forth
between men and women as sexual partners changed.
Naturally a
person would more often choose a partner with interesting experiences
to share. So men sought out the most beautiful trees and flowers and
the most magnificent vistas from the hills. Sharp memories of fields of
wildflowers would earn them a greater variety of vaginas to surge
inside. Women swam great distances to look at the most colorful reefs
and fish. A giant school of red fish swimming as one organism could
earn them ecstasy from the intrusions of many different penises. At
times the desire for interesting memories conflicted with the more
mundane task of gathering food.
There was one other important
fact of life. After puberty both men and women needed sex. If they went
months at a time without it they started feeling listless, nauseous,
and depressed, and eventually they died. Since men and women loved sex
so much it was rarely an issue. But when it was, it was serious.
Frank
was 22. Like all boys, he had masturbated as puberty stirred his loins.
Three months ago, puberty had nudged him a step further along his path.
Gobs of sticky fluid came out when he had an orgasm. It was time for
him to be initiated into the society of men.
Three times Frank
had put off his confessional walk with his father Jake. Finally he was
ready. They walked in silence for miles. In misery he admitted that
several years before he and his buddy Carl had walked far along the
coast to the west, and while there had done something wrong. They had
lured a young girl to the edge of the water with a luscious piece of
fruit and had grabbed her and pulled her out. She struggled a little as
they tried to look between her legs because they were mightily curious
as to what girls had down there, then they let her go. Frank was
relieved to have it off his conscience, but he knew that confession was
not the end of matter. It was a serious offense, and Jake was furious
with him. All boys learned from an early age that they must never, ever
try to make a female do anything she didn't want to do. The same
applied to everyone, of course, but a special emphasis was needed for
the opposite sex because it wasn't always apparent to a boy what a girl
wouldn't like. It was more serious because Frank had waited until his
confession to reveal it. Carl had died a year before falling from a
tree, so he could not be punished.
After this revelation Jake
walked up to his chest in the water for a rendezvous with Anna, one of
the women elders. He was the supplicating party so this union would be
almost entirely underwater. Nonetheless his penis was hard for the
mating to come. He slid it into the vagina centered in the luscious
rear end of Anna, one of the women elders, to discuss an appropriate
punishment while fulfilling their longing for sexual union. After some
negotiation they reached an agreement and sealed it by a strong mutual
orgasm. The plan made Jake shudder.
Frank waded alone into the
disgusting water where Anna was waiting. She grabbed him by the penis
and pulled him out farther until he could not touch bottom, paddling
his arms madly to keep his head above the water. From below him she
then pulled down on his penis, and inexorably Frank felt the water
closing over his head despite his thrashing. He tried to hold his
breath but in his panic ended up spluttering and choking. When he was
breathing again he was merely disgusted by the water that felt like
worms crawling in and out of his skin. But twice more Anna pulled him
below the waves. The last time he started swallowing water and after
some unforgettable terror he lost consciousness. Anna swam him to shore
where Jake dragged him out. But after a few days of nightmares he had
recovered, and was ready for his initiation.
Myra was his First
Time Mate. She knew of his transgression and was chosen in part because
she had a greater level of comfort with this kind of sin than many of
the women. She assumed her position beneath the love boat. Frank
fondled her a bit awkwardly through the flexible sheet, and she in turn
fondled him. He slid his penis through the tight hole in the sheet and
felt it seal tightly around him. Myra's vaginal opening was waiting,
engorged, pulsing, and hungry. He positioned himself and slid in. The
warmth of her tissues felt great as he parted them. Then he was
staggered by the confusion of double thoughts, feelings, and
sensations. Within a few seconds it suddenly stopped. Myra had pulled
away. He heard her shouting and weeping as she swam off. Sorting out
his confused memories of the brief experience, he saw what he
reluctantly concluded must be something he got from her thoughts: a
vivid picture of what had actually happened with the girl he and Carl
had captured, a picture he did not want to remember. A picture he had
hoped would stay hidden or at least vague and murky.
He and his
friend Carl were on a long hike along the shore and got to arguing
about whether girls had a vagina from birth or whether it only appeared
at puberty. He had joked that they ought to find out for themselves.
Why not catch a girl and see? Carl thought he was being more serious
than he was, and told him he couldn't catch a girl if his life depended
on it. Frank thought he would see if maybe he could. It would do little
harm to grab her hand briefly as she lay in the water, then let her go.
With fifteen minutes' exploration he had found some excellent fruit and
carried it with him as they strolled along the shore. They found a girl
perhaps six years of age swimming offshore with no one else around. At
the water's edge he had waved to her and shown her the fruit. She had
trustingly swum up to accept the treat. As she took it he grabbed her
wrist; she was a little perplexed but not alarmed. He had won his bet!
As he turned to Carl in triumph, Carl said that wasn't what it meant to
catch a girl. Carl had promptly grabbed the girl's other hand, pulled
her up out of the water and put his other arm around her waist. The
girl started jabbering at them and tried to break free, and as Carl
continued to hold her she became more frantic. Carl told him he should
find out whether she had a vagina or not. Frank was uneasy but didn't
want to lose face in front of his friend. He bent down in front of her
and started putting his hands on her labia, preparing to explore
gently. But the girl in her panic kicked out with surprising force and
sent him flying, and after stumbling he landed hard on his back. Carl
started laughing and as he did let the girl go. She promptly bolted for
the water, but Frank in his anger and humiliation lunged and caught her
leg, so she in turn fell hard. He dragged her up the rocky beach by her
foot. He told Carl to help him out, but now Carl was the one who was
uneasy, and tentatively said it was time to let her go. Now Frank
called him a chicken. So Carl helped hold the struggling girl down.
Frank then forced her legs apart and pinned each with a knee to see
what was in the mysterious spot where her legs joined. Spreading her
labia he really couldn't tell what he was seeing, and he was a little
scared of actually sticking his fingers in there. So he broke off a
stick from a piece of driftwood he found within reach and started
poking. He couldn't tell much, so he poked harder and it started
bleeding. He poked somewhere a little different and the stick started
going up inside her a little. The girl was screaming. He pressed harder
and a couple inches of the stick went up inside her, and then she
started bleeding from there too. Suddenly he realized that he would
have to confess this some day and he panicked. He stopped and let go of
her, and Carl was only too happy to let go too. The girl raced to the
water, dove in, and swam away frantically. Carl and Frank were both
frightened, and covered the miles quickly as they headed back to their
own village, staying shy of people as they went.
Watching
Frank's love boat from a distance, Jake saw that Myra had pulled away
quickly and heard her distress, but when he asked Frank what had
happened his questions went unanswered. Frank's eyes were glazed over
and he looked utterly defeated.
The elder Nancy appeared by the
shore a few hours later, and Jake once again immersed himself
thoroughly as he joined her for their communication. She presented her
rear to him and wriggled it seductively to firm up his erection. It
would have been more seductive if it wasn't a foot under the water, but
such was his situation. As his penis slid in her vaginal tendrils
attached to it and their minds met. It took less than a minute to
convey all that needed conveying, which was good because his erection
was rapidly failing.
Myra had been shaken by her brief union
with Frank, but when she recovered she had told Nancy what she had
found in Frank's past. It was only a verbal description, but that was
enough. If the girl's kinsmen had caught him he would have been
tortured and killed. Nancy had indicated that death might be an
appropriate penalty now as well, but the women's council was debating
the matter. She didn't need to tell him that no woman in the village
would ever have sex with Frank, which was in itself a slow death
sentence. When Frank saw Jake wading out of the water he knew he was in
trouble. He stood with head bowed. For the first time in his life, Jake
slugged his son and Frank sprawled on the beach. Jake then kicked him
in the stomach, the boy whimpering and trying to apologize.
The
edge off his rage, Jake beheld his quivering son and considered his
options. From Frank to Myra to Nancy to Jake had come the word, treated
almost incidentally, that Frank deeply regretted his action. If he
hadn't, a death sentence would have been a foregone conclusion and Jake
would mourn but understand that such a monstrosity could not be allowed
to live. Even with profound remorse the crime was grave. He could
disown his son and leave him to his fate. That was what the village law
called for. Jake would still bear a measure of Frank's disgrace for the
rest of his life. Frank might be executed or he might just be tortured
and allowed to live until he died of sexual starvation.
However,
Jake loved his son, and in any event he did not relish the disgraced
status he would hold in this village. There was really only one way
Frank could live, and it was a slim chance. He needed to find a woman
who was in the same position, a serious crime which left her without
men willing to mate with her. Jake decided that he and Frank would
leave the village that very night, telling no one. Neither could ever
return.
As
they walked they had plenty of time to talk. Jake specifically told
Frank not to tell him any more details of his crime, since whatever
Jake knew would be shared with any of his future mates. Jake recalled
that around the time of the incident Frank had suddenly become more
serious and better behaved, a model boy. He also recalled that Frank
had asked questions about girls and women. Did they really think and
feel just like men? They weren't just a sort of fish that lived in
symbiosis with the men? Frank knew the answers, but hoped he had
somehow misunderstood before.
After many days of walking they
heard a rumor of a girl several miles further to the east who refused
to even start her initiation. They finally found the village. At age
20, a year past puberty, Zoe was getting sicker. Whatever her secret
was, it looked like she was willing to die rather than share it. Jake
told the men of the village that he had heard of Zoe, and that his son
Frank might be a suitable mate. Anne, the girl's mother, walked high up
on the beach and lay on her back on the sand to receive the penis of
the male elder. Her tendrils completed the connection inside her body.
Her vagina received the elder's semen as they consummated their sexual
desire in the same act as communication. She agreed to receive Jake in
turn to hear his proposal in more detail, so a few minutes later her
vagina received additional squirts from the member of the stranger
Jake. Although strangers were often viewed with suspicion, these two
adults shared one great bond: they both had children they loved very
much and whose lives were in danger. Anne was naturally disgusted by
Frank's crime and reluctant to tell her daughter about it without some
time to digest it and view it in perspective. She thought her daughter
was just mentally unstable and imagining that her transgression was
more serious than it was. But she had to admit she couldn't rule out
that her daughter was guilty of a similar or worse crime.
Anne
found Zoe and explained the situation. The young man Frank who they
could see on shore had captured a girl, held her captive out of the
water and had abused her genitals, perhaps even damaged them
permanently. Could she absorb that memory and share her own? Anne
watched Zoe's reaction carefully, but it was hard to read. She looked
repulsed, but not as much as Anne might have expected. She still
refused to have sex. After coital consultation with Anne, Jake
discussed the matter with Frank and they decided to wait. So Frank
stood on the shore simply looking across the water at Zoe when she was
at all close to land. She refused to have sex, but she didn't swim far
out to sea to lose him. Partly it was her ambivalence -- she wanted to
live! -- but partly she was having a bout of the no-sex sickness,
nausea and lethargy. One day she swam toward the beach. They eyed each
other for a long time, then she stood in the water briefly so he could
see her body. She was attractive. Zoe saw his penis start lengthening.
He fondled it to help it along. Zoe briefly knelt in the water and
presented her rear end to Frank, but as he started into the water she
lost her nerve and swam away. After a sleepless night of nausea, the
next day she approached the shore again, and stopped almost completely
in the water with just her rear end above the waves. Frank approached,
haunted by memories of the near drowning he had suffered as part of his
punishment, but he still had his erection. Zoe was shaking, but did not
object when he grasped her rear end and slid his penis into her. At
last he could be saved, if only she could accept his memory. His penis
slid in and the tendrils completed the connection.
Seconds later Frank pulled out of her, splashed up to the beach and vomited on the sand. Zoe wailed before swimming out to sea.
Frank
vaguely saw the background of a little sister Sammy following Zoe
everywhere she went and clinging to her feet as a joke, and Zoe telling
her over and over to get lost. They were at a reef twenty feet below
the surface. All the women knew that the spines sticking out from the
grand sea star contained a deadly poison. The rage in Zoe's mind lasted
only a few seconds, but Frank could also see that she knew she had a
choice. Her choice was to deliberately shove Sammy against the deadly
spine. Zoe's memory was sharpest of the expression on Sammy's face as
she died: agony from the poison, but more horrifying in a way the
unbearable sorrow of love and trust betrayed. Zoe had been instantly
horrified and gripped with remorse. In her panic she had found
superhuman strength to swim in a great circle to approach the village
from the other direction, and in this manner no one thought she could
possibly have had any role in Sammy's death. It was obviously an
unfortunate accident.
Jake had been waiting at a discreet
distance but now ran to his son. Frank knew he could say nothing of
what he had experienced, and he said that after a night's rest they
ought to move along farther east on their quest.
But father with
son and mother with daughter, the elder asked the younger for patience,
asked for reconsideration, asked to compare the crime newly experienced
in the other with the crime held within.
The next day Zoe came
up onto the beach. They stared at each other. Frank's erection was not
rising too fast, so Zoe gently caressed him until he was hard. Sexual
hunger won over the horror of the memory. Frank inserted himself into
her once again. They stayed together for maybe ten seconds before Zoe
pulled away. Both wept. Frank vomited again, as did Zoe once she was
immersed again in her native water.
They kept trying as the days
passed. Sometimes Zoe was on the beach implicitly begging Frank to
forgive her, to try again. Sometimes Frank was in the water, trying to
get Zoe to accept him once again.
Up on the beach, as Frank
reluctantly agreed to try yet once more, Zoe relayed a new thought:
"We're both devils, OK? But I want to live! Just do it!" She hated him
and he hated her and they both hated themselves, but they were still
going to help each other. She magnified the pleasure in his penis. He
kept the memory of her crime at bay, felt her doing the same with his.
In just a few seconds he came inside this she-devil. Ejaculated, deep
and hard, the seed of Satan. The second spurt had barely shot into her
before Sammy's terrified face appeared before him and he withdrew.
But
his body had ejaculated, and the mixed fluids helped her biochemistry
almost immediately. Zoe didn't swim far away, and Frank didn't go far
up the beach. An hour later they did it again.
At dusk they
coupled again at the water's edge on their sides, Zoe's body wet a bit
more than it was dry, Frank's a bit more dry than it was wet, and
neither pulled away. They stayed that way for a full two hours. Frank's
penis shrank at times but the tendrils stayed connected.
They
teased the hatred apart and found it was anger, fear, disgust, and
betrayal, but also they found sympathy and forgiveness starting to
creep in. The mixing of their fluids worked to strengthen each body, to
give a background of physical healing conducive to the difficult
emotional mending to be done. Mind to mind, penis deep in vagina, they
decided many things. Zoe's secret would forever remain between the two
of them. They would never have sex with anyone else as long as they
lived. They would remain in this village. They would never have
children. As penance, they would volunteer for the most dangerous and
unpleasant tasks.
They made a long pilgrimage to the west over
the course of several weeks. Zoe swam surprisingly fast, but even so
Frank had to move in leisurely fashion so as not to outpace her. Frank
moved stealthily and only at night in the vicinity of his home village.
Further west Zoe made inquiries and found the girl that Frank had
abused so horribly. Her name was Sally, and she was of course not
mature yet, so her secrets and memories were still her own. Zoe and
Frank were relieved to learn that Sally's body had healed and suffered
no lasting physical harm. Zoe brought her to a remote beach where Frank
was tied up in the water. His posture of abject apology was
unmistakable. Sally did only one thing to Frank, as she had agreed with
Zoe in advance. As Zoe held him she stuck a barbed spine up inside his
rectum and screamed at him. Frank's face contorted in pain as he knelt
in the water. But for the next hour Zoe comforted Sally, not Frank.
Eventually Sally forgave him. His anus bled and itched for days.
On
their long journey back, they rendezvoused every day at the water's
edge for a long leisurely bout of mating. "I'm the lucky one" came the
thought from Frank, once again. Zoe knew exactly what he was talking
about, of course. Sammy was not alive to vent her rage at Zoe and
perhaps eventually forgive her. And then Frank had a new thought. "Why
not just assume that Sammy forgives you?" Zoe cried and pulled away,
but after a few hours Frank convinced her to mate again. Zoe seemed to
be sobbing for days, then on and off for months. Frank felt every bit
of her agony relayed through her tendrils to his penis and he did not
flinch or withdraw. They felt it together. Gradually more forgiveness
and peace mixed in, and eventually the guilt and remorse faded to a
manageable size and shape.
Back in her village they walked and
swam among their own kind, but they were also apart. Neither could
share in the sexually-transmitted gossip and pool of memories that kept
the village alive. Unlike the rest of them, these two had secrets. The
outline of Frank's crime was known, though Zoe's never came to light.
Yet despite their isolation they were respected for all they did. Zoe
dove deeper than anyone to scout for food sources and suffered for days
as her lungs recovered from those deep dives. Frank traveled farther
inland than anyone had before, crossing the desert to see if there was
fruit beyond, returning exhausted after nearly perishing on the
journey. Eventually Frank died falling from a cliff face where he was
collecting a little fruit no one else would dare to reach, and Zoe died
shortly thereafter harvesting prime seafood just a bit too close to the
den of a poisonous fish.
Village
life continued all along the shores. Crimes like Zoe's and Frank's were
few because there were no secrets among the adults. The men ran and
climbed, while the women swam and dove. Each suffered briefly the
discomfort of the wet or the dry in order to mate. They shared the most
complex and refined thoughts and experiences by way of the animal
organs of vaginal tendrils and penis. The union also provided physical
pleasure, clitoris massaged and tugged just right by the strong, deep
thrusts of the intrusive penis, gliding in the velvet sea of the
vagina. The penises disgorged their semen over and over, always ready
to father a child. And now and then a woman would let the sperm do
their job and she would grow a baby. Maybe a girl, to replenish the
ranks of the swimmers and divers, or a boy, to replace the walkers and
runners.
If there was one holy symbol, it was the love boat, the
one place the two genders could meet and merge thoughts without having
to suffer the insult of the substance that was vital to the skin of the
other.