Return Encounters

Isabelle clapped her hands and nodded. "Magic! I knew it was magic!" Carlotta just looked at me thoughtfully.

"Well," I said, "Kind of. Quantum magic, magic for real. Not the potions and spells kind. That's just fun make-believe stories."

"Oh, I know," said Isabelle, rising up on her toes and trying to talk in the deeper voice of an adult. I couldn't help but smile. She wouldn't be six until October. "Will you teach me?"

I gulped. "About quantum magic? Well... We could try. It would take a lot of time."

Isabelle stared at me, a deep offer of friendship in her eyes. "I don't mind."

We stopped by a café for a light dinner, and then I drove them back to their home. It was an older house in a middle class neighborhood. Isabelle told me she lived there with her mom and aunt and uncle, three teenage cousins, and both her aunt's parents. I nodded. The house looked small for nine people, but Isabelle seemed quite happy to be home. It was time to say our goodbyes at the doorstep. I could tell Carlotta was quite willing for me to kiss her, if we could get a bit of privacy, but Isabelle didn't want to leave.

Finally Isabelle's aunt Amata came out and introduced herself. An older woman, I gather Carlotta's brother Emilio is at least ten years older than Carlotta. Amata was very pleasant. We chatted for a moment, and then she pulled Isabelle inside.

Carlotta turned to me and smiled. "Ah, alone at last..." She came up and stood very near. "Thank you Gary, for a perfect day."

I nodded. We looked in each other's eyes for a moment, and then I leaned over. Carlotta closed her eyes and tilted her head up. We shared our first kiss. Carlotta took a deep breath and sighed. "I'll call you soon?"

I nodded and smiled and we said goodbye. As I walked off I turned around and saw Isabelle winking at me from a window.

Chapter 5.

I never intended to live my life as a workaholic, but the financial rewards were so fantastic I sort of slid into it. My time became filled, even my weekends, working for both New York and Santiago, with occasional chats with Carlotta on the phone in the evenings. Managing large amounts of money is a huge amount of work. And if you try to push too much money through a model, the market will turn back on you with an alligator bite. I was working in my hotel room, hunched over my laptop at 3 AM on a Saturday morning on the sixth of September, staring at over $200M of fund investments. I was just thinking about how to tell New York to freeze new investments for a while, when I heard a voice call out behind me, "Hi Gary!"

I jumped! I turned around and tried to smile. "Oh, Hi! I didn't hear you jump in!"

A'moth giggled. "How have you been?"

"Super busy. It's nice to see you. How about you?"

"Busy too..." She looked at me thoughtfully.

"I'm surprised you didn't come sooner."

A'moth nodded. "I tried a few times, in the evenings. You were always on the phone. And then I saw you with Carlotta and Isabelle. I didn't want to interfere..."

"Oh..." I blushed after a moment. "It's a confusing situation, isn't it?"

"Yeah, just a bit..." A'moth walked over to a couch by my desk, sitting down and watching me.

She was simply dressed, a plain jacket and jeans, her hair was in nice braids, her fingernails and lips a natural human color. My empathy was picking up great calm, with just a hint of sadness. She smiled at me. "How have you been Gary, really?"

I came and sat down on the small couch beside her. There was just enough room for us not to press into each other. "I've been okay. More than okay really. Work is fabulous." I sighed. "A black hole for time too. Remember me telling you about the hedge fund I'm managing?"

"Sure."

"Well, it made 17% this quarter. After taxes, New York deposited my fee today. I've been staring at it all evening, getting goose bumps. I still can't get over it." I turned my laptop on the desk for A'moth to see and popped up a window. It showed a deposit of $838,440.06, bringing my balance up within a thousand dollars of $1.2M.

"A chunk of change, Gary," said A'moth smiling in approval. "And what are you going to do with all that money?"

"Oh, buy a house, and a car I guess... A nice house, a nice car... The Santiago branch is footing my hotel and car rentals bills for six months, as part of my relocation package. But I really should be thinking of moving out of here..."

A'moth nodded at me. I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. She gave me a small smile back and lightly ran her hand through my hair. It looked as if she were about to say something, but then changed her mind. I had never seen her this quiet.

"A'moth?"

"Uh huh..."

"Are you upset with me, about Carlotta?"

A'moth reached back and stroked my head for a while, the strokes slowly turning into caresses on my cheek. She finally shrugged. "I have no right to be. In five thousand years, I've never taken a lover. I don't know what I was expecting. Gary, we won't age together. In seventy years, you'll be very old or dead, and I'll still be just like this. Think about it."

I gulped and nodded. "I have thought about it. How old will you live?"

"From what my mom told me, it's really open ended. The Chungierans have been modifying their own genes for millions of years. They eliminated the aging process. That's what makes the interstellar flights possible. I could still get killed of course."

I shook my head in bewilderment. "There's still so much I don't understand. Could you tell me more about the prison ships?"

"Sure. Uh, want to go somewhere for a bite to eat first?"

"Uh, you mean my bed?"

"Huh?!" A'moth burst into laughter, a sweet melodious sound. "No! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize how I must sound! I meant food we both could eat, a snack."

"Oh. Okay, sure. The hotel has an all-night snack-bar downstairs."

"Oh, I was thinking of something a little more interesting than that. Do you speak French?"

"No."

"Then let me do the ordering. I know a fantastic spot in Paris that serves breakfast crepes. It's 7 AM there. Hug me?"

I nodded nervously and we stood up and held each other tightly. As I looked around at my hotel room, there was a quick flash, and then another. We were standing inside a closet. The door was ajar, showing what looked like the basement of an old, dimly lit industrial building. The place looked deserted.

"Where the hell are we?" I whispered.

"Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island," whispered A'moth. "We're one jump away from Paris. My planned jump point has a human nearby. I'm retargeting..."

I nodded. "How far are we?"

"From Paris? If you measure on the surface, 4,773 kilometers. The critical distance is 4,340 kilometers, the straight jump-line through the planet..."

"Wow! You have all these distances memorized?"

"Gary, I've been mapping this planet for five-thousand years."

"Oh... right... Uh, A'moth?"

"Yeah?"

"Our first jump, before here, where did we go?"

A'moth sighed, giving up for a moment trying to scan Paris. "We took a jump-line of 5,380 kilometers Santiago, Chile to Acapulco, Mexico, then another jump-line of 4,292 kilometers to get here."

"Oh. Well, I always wanted to go to Acapulco. How long was I there?"

"About seven hundred milliseconds."

"Ah... Perhaps someday we can stay longer."

"Fine. On the way back, we'll stay a full second!" A'moth leaned over and gave me a playful kiss. "Now shut up and let me concentrate!" She resumed her scanning. "Have something... There should be a window in a few seconds... Hold tight..." There was another flash, and we were in an alley.

"Come on!" said A'moth smiling, as we came out onto the sidewalk. "We're about two blocks away."

I followed in silence, stunned to find myself walking in the morning sunlight of late summer. The Eiffel Tower was clearly visible a few kilometers away. After a short walk we sat down at a charming café and A'moth ordered for both of us.

"How are we going to pay for this?" I asked.

"Uh, euros I guess."

"Oh... Sorry..." I felt like an idiot. "You know what your destination is like, before you jump?"

"Sure. How else could I avoid jumping into someone's body or chair or whatever?"

"Oh... Yeah, good point."

"It's like being there with my mind's eye," whispered A'moth. "I use my visual image to create a path for my mind, and then decide whether to have my body follow."

"Wow... It seems so incredible..."

"After five thousand years, it's as natural as walking to me."

I nodded. We chatted pleasantly for a while. She was right, the crepes were fabulous. I was somewhat surprised to see A'moth eating normal food, but I kept quiet. After breakfast, A'moth picked up the tab and we walked around Paris for almost an hour until A'moth noticed how sleepy I was. We found a deserted spot and were back in my hotel room seconds later. A'moth insisted the Mexican layover was a full second. It seemed faster to me.

It was time for business. "A'moth, I should be ready to donate another pint." She didn't reply directly. She just leaned up and kissed me. We walked over to my bed. I crashed and closed my eyes.

A'moth was so gentle with me. I could feel her undressing me as I drifted into a dream. She rolled me over on my back, I was dimly aware of her licking me, felt a cool breeze on my sac and cock. It seemed so right, so natural to feed her. I just sighed in contentment as I felt my cock sliding up into her mouth. Everything was peace and gentleness, and I fell asleep as she suckled.

I woke up briefly a short while later. A'moth was licking my penis clean, and then her long black tongue descended to caress my testes. I blinked. Her tongue must have reached at least five inches. "Hey..."

"Oh! Hi Gary! I wasn't paying attention. I didn't realize you were awake."

"Is your tongue really that long?"

A'moth blushed and smiled at me. "Oh yeah!" Her head descended to kiss my sac.

"How long?"

"Uh..." I heard her muffled voice as my left testis slipped into her mouth. Her warm tongue was sliding all over my testis, all moisture and kindness. It felt both loving and wildly erotic. "Pretty long..." she murmured.

"Show me?"

My testis popped from her mouth and her head came back up. "Well... Gary, I don't want to seem like a monster to you. I can make it really long."

"You'll never be a monster to me. Show me?"

A'moth suddenly burst into a very playful smile. "Okay! Just yell if it gets too long!" Her head descended back to my groin. A few seconds later I felt her tongue moistening my anus. I suddenly realized what I had let myself in for, but the stimulation felt so incredibly slick and sexy I wasn't going to ask her to stop. And then she entered me.

I blinked as I felt her tongue sliding and sliding, reaching right up to my prostate. She was extremely gentle with it. As I drifted in the sexuality, I realized she must have already drained my semen glands when she fed. And then her tongue tip moved, sliding deeper along the sensitive walls of my rectum to the intestinal connection. There was a brief pause as she probed me, sliding the tip of her tongue in lazy circles on the rectal intestinal connection. And then I blinked in astonishment as I felt her tongue sliding up, penetrating me, seeking me, wiggling deeply into my intestine.

Was she a monster? Certainly non-human. But everything was love and playfulness. I trusted her completely, trusted her with my body, with my life, with the core of who I am. I just relaxed, determined to show her how much I trusted her. Eventually I felt her poking the bottom of my stomach. Her tongue had reached that far inside me, to the first major bend of my large intestine, just below my stomach. I sighed, and noticed the intense sexuality had given me another erection. Drifting...

I blinked as I realized A'moth was curled resting in my arms, almost asleep. I nuzzled the back of her neck, almost falling back to sleep myself. I began to caress her, lazy circles on her breasts and stomach. As my hand descended to her hips and thighs I realized she was naked. "Gary, I love you..." she murmured.

"I love you too," I answered. She was so relaxed I dimly wondered if she were asleep. But then she pushed her rump back into me, nestling my penis into the crack of her butt. She heard me...

We both crashed for a full night's sleep. When I awoke A'moth was still sleeping. I glanced at the clock. It was early afternoon. I stared at her nakedness. She was so beautiful, even her legs, especially her legs. She reminded me of the beautiful female athletes in the Olympics, strong and graceful and so femininely sexy, not masculine at all. I caressed her thighs until she woke up and smiled at me.

We just lay around with each other naked on the bed, lazily petting each other. My curiosity finally overcame me.

"A'moth?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh... My intestines last night... Forgive me for asking... But wasn't the taste unpleasant?"

A'moth laughed. "No!" She saw me staring at her in disbelief. "Gary, I've got a digestive system that would make an alligator proud. I can eat almost anything. Up your rump, your taste is bitter and salty and very sexy. I really liked it. Oh, don't shudder! Just accept me for what I am!"

I nodded, still shaking at the thought. "So you were feeding too?"

"Well, sort of. Think of it as cleaning. After you fell asleep, I dropped back down to your rectum... You were very clean by the time I finished..."

I gulped and felt like changing the subject. "Uh, the prison ships, you said you could tell me more about them."

"Sure, what I know, which isn't very much. I don't know how to build one. They have ion-drive engines, not much thrust but very efficient. In a couple of years, they reach a few percent of the speed of light, relative to the background stars... Then they coast until their sensors detect a possible landing site. I don't know how the sensors work. My mom told me they refuel around gas giants, like Jupiter."

"My gosh! How long did your trip take?"

"There was no way for the group to know. Ten thousand years would have been a wildly short estimate, a hundred thousand much more likely... maybe much longer..."

"My gosh... And your mother was pregnant with you the whole time?"

"Yep. We were drugged both unconscious and suspended. Not frozen, some other process I don't understand. The zygote in my mom's womb... me... completely dormant... Gary?"

"Yeah?"

"Carlotta... Take her as your wife, if you love her... if you both love each other, I mean. I won't mind."

"Ah... You sure?"

"Uh huh..."

"Can I tell her about you?"

"What?! Absolutely not! Honor your promise!"

"Okay! It's just... hell... I'm so selfish. I want you both, want to be intimate with both of you."

"Gary, I want to stay intimate with you too. As long as you feel you're not betraying Carlotta, I'd like to visit you next month, to feed, to be petted..." She was quiet for a long moment. "...and to love you. But I don't want to stand in Carlotta's way, or yours. I had a long dream about this last night, while we slept. You deserve to have someone to grow old with, someone you can procreate with..."

I could only nod. Words wouldn't come. I petted her for a while until I noticed tears falling from her eyes. As I reached up to touch them she gave a loud sob and vanished from my arms, leaving her clothes and a very confused me behind.

Chapter 6.

The months flew by. At least it was nice to get into summer weather. With my work schedule, it was my first time to be in summer for almost two years.

The market turned very choppy on my model, we were down 6% in October. New York called me back to the U.S. for a week in November, to calm the investors. I don't think anything I said made a bit of difference. We made 7% in November. That made a bit of difference. December was quiet, with some additional profits. Carlotta and I went out to a New Year's Eve party to celebrate the arrival of 2009.

Our dating is very sweet. We spend lots of time on the phone together, and I'm often a guest at her family's home for dinner. Carlotta and I go out on Saturdays and buy groceries for the family for the week. She's reluctant to let me keep picking up the tab, but it's the least I can do.

Her extended family is really nice. Her two nephews are a junior and senior in high school. Emilio is working hard to provide them both an option for college. Carlotta, Isabelle, and Carlotta's niece, thirteen-year old Francisca, are all sleeping in one room, with a partition for Carlotta. It's a crowded house...

Carlotta and I have been managing to go out at least once each weekend, dinner and a movie or concert or play. She's been to my hotel room occasionally. We've begun to pet each other, nothing too sexy. Carlotta really wants to move slowly on this, and that's fine with me.

I've only been seeing A'moth once a month. I asked her if she'd like to get together more often, but she doesn't want to get in Carlotta's way. I'm still feeding A'moth, one pint a month, building a buffer for her. Her feedings remain intensely sexual. I sometimes find myself dreaming about her tongue. I dream of her tongue sliding up into me, after she feeds. The physical pleasures are that intense, almost addicting...

The first week in 2009, I asked Carlotta if she'd like to go house hunting with me. She hesitated, making very sure I wouldn't let her tastes influence my decision. I promised, but I slyly avoided making the same promise about Isabelle. I managed to convince Carlotta to bring her along.

It was a beautiful warm summer Saturday, January 10'th. The three of us spent the day touring mansions in the most exclusive parts of Santiago. Carlotta was aghast at the prices and kept giving me odd looks. I just smiled back. Isabelle went wild with delight looking at all the private swimming pools.

That evening Carlotta and I had a simple dinner at my hotel, and then we went up to my room. We were sitting on my couch, kissing and lightly petting each other.

Carlotta kissed and licked my ear. "Gary?"

"Hmm?"

"Those mansions... Did you do it just to give Isabelle a good time?"

"Huh? No, of course not."

"Right... So, did the two of you find something you liked?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. The second house this afternoon. It was the favorite for both of us. When you weren't looking, Isabelle told me to buy it."

Carlotta laughed heartily. "My daughter certainly has good taste! Expensive, but good! I remember her gaping at the swimming pool and barbeque area."

I nodded. "But it was her future bedroom that sold it to her."

"Oh, really?!" Carlotta was laughing so hard, tears were flowing from her eyes. "Let me guess! The one with the northern bay windows, overlooking the gardens and the pool!"

I nodded. "The very one! Isabelle loves the light. She wants to fill the room with stuffed animals that will enjoy it with her."

Carlotta tried to control her laugher. I went on. "The place is very private, 20,000 sq feet of land, about 6,000 sq feet of built space if you include the pool. High walls, beautiful gardens, the automatic sprinkler system is a plus. Top-of-the-line central heating and cooling system, and I love the solar panels! All in all, I think the place will suite Isabelle and me very nicely."

Carlotta kissed me again, continuing the game. "And what else do you remember?"

"Everything. Five bedrooms, the master is a cavern. Three full baths... Beautiful hardwood and stone floors, large living room... Excellent workmanship... The dining room will seat twelve easily. Isabelle loved the play room. I liked the inside parking space, enough for five cars... The street is very quiet, and there's easy access to downtown. I like that too."

"And did you also like the price?! It was close to a million U.S. dollars!"

"Well, $950,000. But that's just the asking price. The owner said he would negotiate. If I made an offer, 90% or 91%, to show I'm serious, I'm sure we could close the deal at $900k."