Faye had fallen asleep surprisingly quickly, and had slept deeply and peacefully for those few hours that had been left that night. She awoke in a completely new world. It was as if this was the first morning she had truly and completely woken up. Was this what people meant when they said 'rise and shine'? It was as if a light shone from behind her eyes and brightened the colors of the world, its heat casting everything in a warm and comforting glow.
Breakfast tasted like dessert, her parents seemed strangers speaking a foreign language and her brothers seemed uncharacteristically sane in a world that made no sense. She tried acting normal, and tried not to burst out laughing out loud with the joy of it all, make up a song on the spot, and sing and dance as if her life was a musical.
As the morning smiled upon Faye, her legs took her to Patty's home, and her fist knocked on the door.
It felt unfair to hide her joy from Patty, instead of letting her share in it. But what could she do? Tell her she was in love, in love, IN LOVE (oh god!) with a lemurian? How could she? How could she ever tell anyone? Who could understand? Man, she felt giddy!
In the classroom she spent her time playing back the scenes from the previous night. Should she look him up again tonight? She knew he'd be at the same old paper mill again. Did she even have a choice? Was there even such a thing as free will when one was in love?
The day went by like a television program playing in the background.
He smelled her, and a tingle went through his whole body. His heart lifted. He heard the stairs at the other end of the basement creak, ever so slightly. She seemed to be trying to sneak up on him. He kept his back turned and continued with the task at hand. He was kneeling down and took dead rats out of the traps with his gloved hands and put them in a burlap bag. He couldn't help smiling like a fool. He noticed now how her smell had changed, ever so slightly, she smelled somehow riper, more mature. He couldn't be sure, but he believed this was the smell of a girl in love. His heart pounded.
Then she shone her light on him. She had brought a strong flashlight with her. He didn't jump. He turned around slowly. "Hello," she said sweetly. And before he knew what he was doing, his body had straightened, and his legs carried him towards the girl. His gloves dropped on the floor, she dropped her flashlight which rolled away, and she fell into his arms. He buried his face in her hair, her scent was intoxicating. He didn't know who had started it, but they were kissing. Lips on lips, then their mouths opened, fumbled around a bit, until they locked together, fitting perfectly, and their tongues melted together. He felt his manhood swell, a bit uncomfortably inside his overall—but she didn't seem to mind, they clung together, holding on for life, sinking in to each other. When they finally resurfaced, it felt as if they had spent an eternity on some distant planet governed by alien laws of physics. Reality felt completely unfamiliar.
"Oh, god!" Faye said, panting, "isn't this terrible? How can something that feels so right be so wrong. It's unnatural, isn't it? I mean you're a different species, or I am, we both are!"
"Well," said her lover, surprisingly cool and collected, he thought, after such a hot first kiss, "being unnatural is what sets us apart from animals, what sets mankind apart from the apes and lemurians apart from the lemurs. What are we, if not unnatural?"
And they kissed again, for another eternity. Johnny had never kissed a girl before, neither human nor lemurian. He asked Faye if was always like this, kissing. "No," she laughed, "it's never been like this before!"
"Has Pearly told you about this believe lemurians have: truelove?"
"No, I don't think she did. But I know what true love is. Us humans also fall in love, you know."
"Yes, but truelove is a lemurian concept, it's one word," he said, caressing her face with his hands, "it's what we call it in English. I don't know what it was called originally in Lemurian, because I don't think there's anybody left that speaks Lemurian. Truelove is part of lemurian religion. I take it you were brought up Christian?"
"No, I wasn't really. My mother was raised very religious, and she says it has given her nothing but grief."
"For me all religion is mythology," Johnny said, "and I like mythology, I like these stories. Lemurians believe that truelove is caused by a future child that needs to be born. The child brings its parents together using truelove. Now, I don't believe a future child is bringing us together..." he said earnestly. He didn't want to freak out this girl with talk of children, "...see half-breeds like me are born barren, we can't procreate, we can't have children..."
"Good," said Faye. "I sure can't use a kid!"
"This is why nobody has ever heard of a half-breed finding truelove. Other lemurians think we half-breed have no purpose, since we can't have children. I used to believe that when I was little, and it made me feel real bad about myself. So I refused to believe it any longer. I have a purpose, just like anybody else. Having children is just not a part of it. And this pull I feel towards you, from the first moment I saw you and smelled you, it can't be anything but truelove. I'm sure of it. It feels very real. That whole business about children wanting to be born, that's all just religion, mythology. Truelove is probably simply a biological response, to do with pheromones and hormones, which is possibly all the more potent among lemurians because of our keen sense of smell. But humans have it as well, they can fall in love at first sight. It's two people sensing they fit perfectly together. The lemurians believe the reason is having children, but there might be other reasons for falling in love... Let me tell you a story," he said. "I'll finish my work here while I'll tell you the story. Sit down over there, try not to step on any dead rats." He got back to his work, putting his gloves back on and started taking dead rats from sprung traps, and he said, "This is one of my favorite stories, for obvious reasons. It's not very well known among lemurians. I wish it were. If they were brought up with stories like this then maybe they wouldn't dislike half-breeds like me so much."
And when he began, "This is the Legend of the Halfling that Brought Peace..." Faye went all queasy inside—he began his story just like Pearly had said! So cute!
As the tale unfolded she didn't ask any questions about things she didn't fully understand, his voice mesmerized her.
