Adaptation: book I (15 page)

She felt a stab of guilt, but she swallowed it. “You do have a human … form,” she conceded.

He looked at her. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

“So it needs to be kept clean. Look, I can’t live in the same house with filth. I tried that before and it doesn’t work for me. You’re going to have to bathe.”

He nodded eagerly.

“Okay, so what we’re going to do is boil the water. You’ll have to carry it upstairs to the bathtub.”

“You want me to go outside—with the wolves?”

“They won’t hurt you. They’re well trained.”

“I’m not willing to take that chance.”

She blinked at him. “Are you planning to stay in the house forever?”

“No.” He looked out the window. The big wolf watched him. He always watched him. “I’m hoping that he will go away. And when he returns I will fire a gun the way I saw you do—up in the air … at first.”

“Well, I’m not sure that Wolf will leave as long as you’re here.” She was very aware of where he said he would place the first shot. If he thought a subsequent shot would go into her baby boy, then he would definitely find one in his own half-human brain! “Wolf and Girl have never stayed this long.” She rather liked it but realized that Bilal didn’t. For now, Bilal was needed, and the two—make that three—would have to get along. Although Girl mostly kept her distance, Carmella feared Girl. Wolf would do what Carmella wanted, but Girl might not.

“Let’s just do this.” She reached for the doorknob.

“Uh, I would like to have a gun.”

She shook her head. “No. You get no gun.”

His posture changed and his feet seemed to plant themselves in one spot.

Carmella rolled her eyes and looked around. “Okay, you can have … a big stick.” She moved to the kitchen for the broom. She thrust it into his hands.

He examined and handed it back to her. “No.”

She took it from him and slammed it against his head.

Bilal yelped and rubbed his sore head.

“See? This can be a very effective weapon. And I didn’t even hit you as hard as I could have. Look, you can’t stay inside forever, and you can’t kill my wolves—or I’ll kill you. So you’ll have to try to get along with each other. Or else you’ll have to leave.”

He glanced out of the window. “Carmella,” he said without looking at her. “If I die then my people will come for you.” He looked at her. “And I don’t mean that they will come with the purpose of integrating you with others. They will come to experiment on you and the child. I am the only thing that is keeping that from happening. I am your protection from them just as you are my protection from those.” He gestured to the wolves with his head. He moved toward the door. “I’m ready.”

She absorbed Bilal’s words. She was not a stupid woman even though she might be a little crazy. So she decided to rethink her plan to introduce Bilal to the wolves. She had him wait in the living room while she dug through the closet to find a leash and a collar. She waved the leash in the air. “Wolf will hate this, but it’s probably the best way.”

She went outside and sat on the porch stairs. Wolf came up to her and plopped his head into her lap, waiting for a neck rub. Carmella indulged his wishes for a few minutes before slipping the collar and leash around him. “You need to be on your best behavior, boy. Do you hear me?”

Wolf watched her intently.

“You be good. Be a good boy!” She stood and led him into the house.

Girl watched from the yard, her ears perked. 

Bilal had moved to stand behind the couch.

Carmella kept a tight grip on the leash, but Wolf wasn’t pulling at it though he did watch Bilal warily.

“Come over here, Bilal. Just move naturally but slowly. No need to be afraid. He can’t bite you while I’m holding him.”

Bilal resisted the urge to rub his shoulder. It still ached, and the wounds on his belly offered a nagging discomfort. But he did as Carmella requested until he was standing next to her.

“Hold out your hand slowly and let him smell you.”

Bilal did, moving as slowly as possible.

“Wolf, this is Bilal. Don’t hurt him. Do you understand? He helped you once, boy and he helped me. You be good to him.” Carmella continued to croon softly to the wolf, who sniffed at the offered fingers. He sat down and turned his head away as if he didn’t want any part of the alien.

Bilal waited, and with encouragement from Carmella, Wolf sniffed the fingers again. His ears moved forward and then back.

Bilal didn’t know what to make of it.

“Wolf,” he finally said. “Please do not bite me again. I never did anything to you. Wolf, we have to get along.” He spoke as if the animal could understand his words.

Carmella realized Wolf might be able to understand Bilal. If Bilal could communicate with the unborn baby, maybe he could be understood by Wolf, too.

“I’m going to let you go, Wolf, but you behave,” Carmella said, unhooking the leash and removing the collar.

Bilal could do nothing but stand there trusting that the wolf would do nothing more to harm him.

Wolf avoided Bilal and walked to the door, scratching it to be let out.

Carmella let the wolf out. “I guess he has no interest in you.”

Bilal didn’t believe that in the least, but he followed Carmella outside.

Wolf had joined Girl at the edge of the yard and watched without showing aggression.

Carmella went about making a fire in the large fire pit. A metal grate covered the hole, and she slid a huge pan over it.

She looked at Bilal. “Now start filling buckets with water from the pump and dump it into the pot.”

Bilal did as he was told, and when the water grew warm, he dunked the buckets into the simmering water and carried them upstairs, dumping them into the tub.

He yelped once when he burned himself with hot water that had splashed his legs, but that happened only once and he made sure it didn’t happen again. It took many trips to get the tub half full.

When it was filled to Carmella’s satisfaction, she handed him a fresh bar of soap, a wash cloth, a fluffy towel, and shampoo. She spent a few moments telling him how to use each, and he nodded in excitement about his first bath. As an afterthought she left the bathroom and returned with a toothbrush still in its wrapper and a brand new tube of toothpaste. She gave him instructions on how to brush his teeth and told him to do it every morning and every night for the rest of his life.

Bilal nodded solemnly.

Carmella left him alone to take care of his business and waited anxiously in her bedroom.

Fifteen minutes later Bilal came out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around his body.

She saw him standing in the hallway looking like a drowned rat. He had soap everywhere, and his hair stood straight up. 

She suppressed a smile. “Are you finished?”

He frowned. “Why does it itch?”

“Okay, get back in the tub.”

He returned to the bathroom, dropped the towel on the floor, and climbed back into the tub. He wasn’t the least conscious of his nudity.

Carmella almost stumbled, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She focused on his face, but soon he was sitting in the tub.

He looked at her expectantly for further instructions.

She had seen him naked when he was unconscious, but now that he was conscious—and he looked good walking naked through her bathroom—she had to calm her nerves. She stuck her hand into the water. It was still warm. She picked up the last bucket of simmering water and poured it carefully into the tub.

Bilal shivered and seemed to enjoy the warmth.

“Close your eyes,” she said.

Bilal closed his eyes.

She filled the bucket with some of the bath water and carefully rinsed him from the top of his dark hair down to his toes.

He gasped and rubbed his eyes.

“You still smell like cheese,” she commented while picking up the shampoo. She poured a hefty portion into her hands and applied it to his hair, working up a good lather.  When she was finished, she rinsed his hair with a bucket of water.

Next she picked up the washcloth and rubbed soap into it until it foamed, and then she ran the cloth over his neck, back, and shoulders taking care around his stitches. She wrung out the washcloth and scrubbed his face and ears. Bilal sat there without comment, but she could tell that he enjoyed it. She washed his arms and his pits, scrubbed his back, and ran the cloth lightly over his torso. When she met his eyes, she noticed his look of pleasure.

“It is nice to be clean,” he said.

She smiled and nodded. With a slow swallow she told him to stand. “One of the most important places to wash
are your genitals.”

He stood, and Carmella handed him the soap and washcloth. He mimicked the motion of
sudsing up the cloth and ran it down his pelvis.

Carmella looked down quickly and then away.

Dear God,
she thought. She felt her body vibrate as if a chord had been struck inside of her. Her skin felt alive, her breasts seemed to fill, and her nipples ached.

And the space between her thighs seemed to come to life.

Bilal was concentrating on his penis and testicles. He ran the soapy cloth over them and realized something that he had never experienced before. He could become aroused. Bilal had not thought of sex. It was the least of his thoughts. Centaurians did not have a sexual nature. Procreation did not create a pleasurable sexual sensation. It was only a means to create life. Sex for pleasure rarely occurred, and he likened it to being tickled—it was nice but not something he strived for. Bilal had enjoyed the feeling of wrapping his tentacles around friends and loved ones more than he had ever enjoyed sex.

He’d seen humans and other animals engage in sex. It did not arouse him, but it did intrigue him. He had never thought to do it. Humans almost seemed ridiculous when it came to their sexual desires. It seemed that they chased every small pleasure.

But the sensation that was engulfing his penis was surprisingly pleasant and different from anything he had experienced so far. He watched his penis thicken and lengthen as he rubbed the soapy cloth over it.

Carmella coughed.

Bilal looked at her and noticed her skin looked strange. A blush of red showed through her brown skin. He liked that look on her face—her eyes big and her lips parted.

Carmella abruptly turned and headed toward the bathroom door.

“I think you can handle it from here,” she said. “And don’t forget to wash your ass!”

Bilal wanted to
call after Carmella and explain that he wasn’t pleasuring himself. Though he was not human, he had grown into adulthood around them. He knew that men did such things but only when they were in private—unless pornographic movie was playing. Then it might be acceptable to do so in front of others. At least Lawrence had seemed to think this way, though Raj—who surely became aroused, too—frowned on the practice of self-pleasuring around others.

Bilal felt a bit confused on the protocol
, but he knew he would never do that in front of Carmella. He was, however, certain he would explore the sensations his penis caused him later. It had been one of the things he had planned to test out but had been sidetracked by being sick and staying warm.

After Carmella closed the bathroom door soundly behind her, Bilal looked down at the wilting penis resting in his hand. He wondered what it would be like to place the penis into Carmella
the way that men did in movies. Suddenly it began to rise again. He shivered and focused on washing the rest of his body.

When he felt and smelled clean
, he stepped out of the bathtub and brushed his teeth. Now his mouth felt clean, and that strange bad taste had disappeared. He watched the blackened water run down the drain in satisfaction.

Bilal
left the bathroom with the large towel wrapped around his wet body, the door leading to Carmella’s bedroom closed, the hall empty. He went down into the basement and found clothes to wear. After slipping on his own shoes, he looked down at himself, pleased he had taken his first bath.

~***~

Carmella paced back
and forth in her bedroom. What had possessed her to allow this
man
to live in her house? Yes, he was an alien, but he was a man, too.

He wasn’t dangerous.

Carmella stopped pacing.
Either kick him out or deal with it. But stop this. Stop it!

She opened the door to her bedroom and went downstairs. “Bilal!” she called from the top of the basement stairs.

“Yes, Carmella?” He appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

He cleans up nice,
Carmella thought. “Look. We’re going to have to get some things straight if you’re going to live here.”