The Weapon - Resurrection - part 19
By Diana the Valkyrie
A declaration of love
Update: 13/06/2003 to valkyrie05



At the restaurant, I let her order for me. After all, she was the expert in
this kind of food, plus she'd worked there, so she knew the ropes. She also
ordered for herself; a vegetable vindaloo, with rice and nan bread. I watched
her eat, this was the first time I'd seen her eating. She looked across the
table at me and smiled, "Yes, I can eat, I just don't need to. But I used to
eat with Duncan all the time, it's a social thing. And I don't want you to
think of me as some weird creature from outer space, I want to be just Wendy
to you."

"Are you a vegetarian?" She looked down at the table. "Actually. Yes. Since I
don't need to eat anyway, it doesn't feel right for me to eat meat. It's
different for you, you actually need to eat. But when I eat, it's purely
social, so I decided to be vegetarian, sort of. Milk and cheese is OK, the cow
didn't have to die, but I'd rather not eat meat. Does that sound silly?" "Not
at all." I hoped she didn't expect me to follow her lead in this.

She fed me the occasional spoonful of vegetable vindaloo, and tore off bits of
nan bread for me. She obviously wasn't really interested in eating. While we
ate, we talked. I asked her what it felt like to be able to fly.

"That's hard to explain; it would be like me asking you what it feels like to
be able to walk. It doesn't feel like anything, of course you can walk. But
try asking me what it feels like to be unable to fly." "OK, how does that
feel?" "Terrible. It's like a big limit on mobility, and on my freedom of
action. I can only move in two dimensions, and only very slowly." "How
slowly?" "I doubt if I could get up to more than a couple of hundred miles per
hours." "Uh huh, that's terribly slow," I said, unsympathetically. "It is when
you're used to being able to fly to the sun in half an hour for a quick dip.
But it's worse than that; I had to learn bipedal locomotion from scratch. I
never used to have to balance while walking, I used my flying ability to stay
upright and move forwards, the leg action was just for show, so it looked like
I was walking."

"And running?" "You must be joking. It took me weeks just to be able to stand
up on two legs; walking involves taking one leg off the ground at a time, but
running means you don't have any feet on the ground, you have to land and
balance on one foot while ... David, I don't need to explain to you how to
run, you already know, and it is really complicated. And then there's jumping.
Forget about jumping. And I can't go wherever I want to; for example, I can't
go to Freedonia Island."

"You could get on an airplane like the rest of us." "I don't have a travel
permit. And even if I did, they want money, and I don't have any. The
restaurant didn't give me much, and what I did get, I gave to the church, they
had more use for it than I did."

I had a thought. "So when did you last see Mattie and Rosetta?" "About 23
years ago. They had their own children and neices then, they're grandparents
and great-aunts now." "Would you like to see your great-grandchildren?" She
looked towards me, and her eyes almost glowed. "Oooohhh. Yes! And Fiona."
"Fiona is, er, still alive?" "Oh yes." I wondered how she knew that, but I've
already discovered that when Wendy says something, it's true.

Wendy offered me a finger dipped in lhassi; creamy and salty. I licked her
finger, and she dipped it again and offered it. "I bet your
great-grandchildren have been told all about you." "You think so?" she said,
dreamily, and gave me her dipped finger again. "Duncan says I should go visit
Fiona as soon as I can, she isn't exactly a spring chicken."

Duncan says. I suppose I'd better get used to that. He's obviously going to be
an important factor in her life, and (I hope) therefore in mine too.

In mine? What was I saying here? She seems to have moved in with me; she
didn't ask, she just did it. Not that I object. And she seems to be sleeping
in my bed. Again, no objection, none whatsoever! Plus, she was even cooking
for me, how many people have a Guardian of Humanity in their kitchen? And
don't forget those toe-curling kisses. So, I'm not sure what she was planning,
but I was very willing to be part of it. Maybe I should tell her.

I dipped my finger in the lhassi and offered it to her. She licked it
delicately, like a cat, demonstrating that she did actually have a tongue, and
knew how to use it. "Wendy, I'd be very happy if you decided to come and live
with me." She stopped licking, and regarded me seriously. "Is that a
proposition?" she asked. "Er. Yes, I suppose." "Do you proposition all the
females who visit you?" "Er. Well. Actually, you're my first visitor." She
frowned. "And so you propositioned the first female who came by?" "It isn't
like that. You're making it sound terrible." "So what is it like?" "I've been
in love with you for 20 years."

Oops.

I hadn't meant to tell her that.

She sat silently, waiting for me to say something. The silence continued for a
while, and we stared at each other, until I looked away, down at the table,
and said, "Yes. Now you know."

"Oh, David."

I couldn't look at her, I stared at the table some more.

"Oh, David," she repeated.

I didn't dare look at her. I felt such a fool.

She stood up, and came around the table, and knelt by my chair. She pulled my
head into her bosom, and hugged me, and held me close, her arms around me. "Oh
David," she said again, "I knew that."

"You knew?" I said, somewhat muffled. "Of course I knew." "How?" "Oh, a girl
knows these things." Girl? And then she kissed me again, making it impossible
for me to think about what she'd just said, and when I was allowed to come up
for air, we got a round of applause from the other diners in the restaurant.

As we walked out of the restaurant to find a cab to get home, we held hands,
and one of us was flying. And it wasn't her. Inside the cab, we got into a
clinch, and as a result, it wasn't until we arrived back home that I realised
that the declaration of love had been completely one-sided. That brought me
back to earth with a bump, and I felt like a complete idiot. So you can
imagine how I felt when she said:

"Can I hold you while you sleep?"

. . .