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Subject: {ASSM} "First Impressions" by Gary (ScFi no-sex)
Date: Sat,  5 May 2001 20:10:05 -0400
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Disclaimer:  Not 18?  Go away.  No sex in this one, anyway.

"First Impressions" by Gary (ScFi no-sex)

As I printed the order confirmation from Amazon.com, I 
was greatful once again for the relative silence of my 
old Canon ink-jet printer.  The last thing I wanted 
right now was to disturb the two sleeping lumps nestled
inside my shirt.  At a few days old, they didn't do much 
besides eat and sleep, and feeding them kept me quite 
busy, while sleeping meant sharing my personal space and 
body heat.  I'd taken leave from the plant this week and 
next because there was simply no way I could take them 
to work and no way I could leave them for more than 
minutes.

I double checked the order.  "Dragon Singer", Dragon 
Drums" and "Dragon Song" by Anne McCaffrey - 
replacements for books long since loaned out and never 
returned.  I'd enjoyed them years ago.  Now I needed 
them for research.  One of the lumps twisted fitfully, 
tickling my ribs and making me smile.  I couldn't help 
but reflect back...

------------------------------------------------------

It was the second day of May.  I'd just returned from a 
trip I'd taken to participate in a Ceremony out of town.
Quite a ceremony, and I still wore a blissful expression
on my face - but that's a whole 'nother story.  My 
daughter, just recently turned "sweet sixteen" had 
managed to get herself up and to school, but had left 
me a note welcoming me home and asking me to pick up 
a few things from the grocery store and to check on her 
egg.

I checked on the egg first, even before storing my 
purple robes.  She'd brought it home a couple of weeks 
before, saying it was for some kind of school project.  
Details were a little sketchy - I guess I assumed that 
it was one of those home-ec things where you pretend an 
egg is your baby or something.  Eggzavier, as I thought 
of it (or him) had started off a bit soft, but had  
firmed up to a brittle hardness recently.  I always
thought they assigned regular hen's eggs for these 
projects, but Eggzavier must have been an ostrich egg 
or something - he was enormous compared to any grade A 
large I'd ever seen.  Little did I know.

Once I was unpacked, I looked over her shopping list.  
Most peculiar, the list was heavy on inexpensive cuts 
of meat, like round steaks and flank steak, hamburger 
and chicken.  Was my daughter planning a lot of 
barbeques?  The other part of the list was skin 
products,  moisturizers and creams.  No snacks, no diet 
soft drinks (an addiction we share), no side dishes made 
the list.  As I said, most peculiar.  Well, the budget 
could certainly afford everything she asked for, and if 
she were planning a little outdoor cooking, I'd discuss 
niceties like potato salad and chips when she got home 
from school.

I checked Eggzavier again on the way out.  When I 
rotated him in his bed of heated kitty litter (my 
personal coffee cup warmer providing the heat), I swear 
I felt him shiver.  I positioned him a little deaper in 
his "bed" anyway, and gave him a little pat.

I was home again in under an hour.  The clock by the 
front door indicated 4:20, but it's set five minutes 
fast anyway.  My daughter would be home in another ten 
minutes, nearly last off the bus, unless she stopped to 
visit with friends.  I hung my car keys under the clock 
and headed for the kitchen to put up the nearly 20 
pounds of meat I'd brought in.  I never made it.

Little Eggzavier was rocking around in his bed on the 
coffee table so hard, it looked like he'd roll out and 

end up on the floor.  I quickly set down the plastic 
grocery bags and reached for him.  No sooner did my 
fingers make contact than a crack split the shell nearly 
in two.  More cracks appeared as I steadied the shell 
and I thought I was in imminent danger of having a baby 
ostrich or emu or some such in my hands.

What *did* emerge, moments later, was nothing I'd ever 
dreamed possible.  In place of some avian oddity, two 
identical green-skinned creatures with swirling eyes and 
tiny claws came creeling with hunger from the shell.  
There was no doubt about the hunger - I felt it in an 
overwhelming surge of sensation as though it was me and 
not they.  With one hand, I reached into a grocery bag 
and extracted a round steak, used my teeth to rip off 
the plastic wrap, then again to rip off a strip of meat 
to place in their ravenous beaks.

We kept this up through two steaks, until they were 
sated, me talking softly to my new dependents whenever 
my teeth weren't busy ripping meat.  Their eyes went 
from a swirling red to green, before both fell asleep.  
When at last I could look away, I was startled to find 
my daughter standing in the open doorway, tears running 
down her cheeks.  Having figured out what was going on 
(I have read all of the Pern novels), I could only look 
an apology into her blue eyes (my legacy).  I could tell 
she knew as well as I that what was done could not be 
undone.

I had impressed two green "fire lizards".  They were 
meant for her, but once impression occurs, an 
irrevocable bond is formed.  While we three lived, that 
bond would bind us together in a kind of telepathic, or 
at least telempathic symbiosys.  I couldn't give her 
either of my charges, even if I wanted to.  And now, 
while they slept, I needed information.

"Honey," I asked softly, "where did you get that egg?"

"I can't tell you that, Dad.  We're sworn to secrecy. I 
gave my word of honor I wouldn't tell."  She wiped her 
eyes and sat on the floor next to me, reaching out to 
stroke supple skin.

"All right, I can respect that." For now, anyway, I 

thought. "Who's 'we'?"

"Me and nine of my friends.  We each got an egg.  I got 
first choice and picked the biggest.  I was sorta hoping 
for a queen.  You know, a gold?" She didn't look at me, 
her gaze was only for the fire lizards.

"Looks like we got twins, instead."  I had to smile at 
my green ladies.  "Who are the nine friends?"

She listed them for me, all girlfriends who had been to 
the house for visits or sleep-overs at one time or 
another.  That figured.  I was vaguely pleased that no 
boys were on the list, until that thought caused the 
hair on my neck to stand up.  Inadvertantly, there *was* 
one "boy" on the list, now.  My thoughts were 
interrupted by the ringing of the phone.  As I was in no 
position to answer it (and calls between 4:30 and 10:00 
P.M. were never for me, anyway), my daughter answered 
for us.

The calls were steady for the next 20 minutes, with call 
waiting getting a workout.  The tally was three bronzes 
and six blues.  All males (the fire lizards, that is).  
My two were the only females.  I don't know if any of 
the girls realized the implications.  I wondered if all 
the eggs were from the same clutch, and whether fire 
lizards cared one whit about consanguinity.

Nine nubile fifteen or sixteen year olds, each with a 
male fire lizard, and one old widower with twin female 
fire lizards.  I worked at the Power Plant of a prison, 
outside the fence.  I had no desire to visit the other 
side.  How long until Pat and Julie rose to mate?  Would 
my first indication be a brightening of there green 
hides?  I needed to do some research.

------------------------------------------------------

That was days ago.  I knew I had some time, but I was 
praying fervently that Amazon would not have any 
"shipping delays", as I had heard rumored.  I'd been a 
widower for over three years, and I wasn't sure I could 
lock myself away when the time came.  The image of nine 
teenagers surrounding me with dragon lizards perched on 
their shoulders, eyes swirling, while Pat and/or Julie 
blooded some poor squirrel in preparation for flight...

------------------------------------------------------

Special thanks to Denny for pointing me to alt.callahans 
and a particular set of posts.  It's all his fault.

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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