Fear and Aggression (20 page)

The other man getting an injection left the
room, and a third man entered. This time, Aspiria’s attention was
turned. This man had very dark skin. She had never seen, or heard
of a man with such dark skin. The man in charge turned to see what
was so interesting going on behind him. He turned back towards her
and looked at her questioningly. Aspiria, looked back at the man in
front of her, and reached up to her face. She waved her hand over
her face, and then over her arms. That was the only exposed skin of
the dark-colored man. Then she pointed at the man. The man in front
of her, looked at her quizzically for a moment, and then showed a
smile of understanding. He turned to the other man and spoke to
him. The dark-skinned man looked up and smiled. Then they both
laughed. Even the woman joined in the laughter for a moment.

When the dark-skinned man was done with his
injection, he too walked up to Aspiria’s cell. Aspiria walked up to
the bars at the edge of her cell. She wanted to look at this man as
closely as she could. The dark-skinned man looked at the blond man,
and then walked up closer. Aspiria reached her hand out through the
cage very slowly. The dark-skinned man walked up closer, and
Aspiria touched his arm. She gently caressed it, and then reached
towards his cheek. She caressed them as well. The dark skin man
smiled and spoke in the strange tongue of her captors. Aspiria
smiled deeply.

Other men also came in and got their
injections. One was her friend that liked to give her food. He
waved at her, when he came in. The next one was his companion. He
had darker skin too, but not as dark as the other man. The last one
to come in wore facial hair, and was clearly older than everyone
else. She laughed briefly when she saw the man with facial hair but
put her hand over her mouth and stopped herself. A man wearing
facial hair, at least where she was from, was unheard of. She had
never seen that before. The blond man signaled for the hairy man to
come over, when he was done. He brought the hairy man up close to
the cell, and signaled for Aspiria to touch this facial hair. The
idea was revolting to her, and she withdrew herself slightly and
shook her head. Everyone in the room laughed boisterously, while
the hairy man turned a little red. She worried that she had
offended him. But he laughed and smiled at her. He put his own hand
up to his facial hair and rubbed it and then shrugged. Aspiria
smiled, but did not want to come up closer to the bars.

She felt much better now
that she could see their faces. She was glad for the interaction
with them. But she also felt a sick feeling in the pit of her
stomach.
Who are they, and where are they
from?
she kept thinking.
I knew that they were strange, but they must be
from very far away. They couldn’t be from the city.
But,
…she didn’t think that anywhere except
the city had electricity. These people seemed to know a lot about
electricity and medicine. More than anything she had seen
before.
Where else could they be
from?
These thoughts and feelings began to
weigh heavily on her mind. The only hope was that they seemed less
afraid of her now. They were out of their suits and helmets. They
had let her touch one of them. They smiled and seemed kind. But she
was still in this little cell. She wanted to go for a walk. She
wanted to be with her family. She wanted to feel the sunshine on
her skin and the breeze in her hair.

How can I communicate with
them?
she thought. Suddenly, an idea came
to her.

“
She likes you, James,”
said Steve.

“
Hey, I can’t help it if
I’m the most amazing guy she has ever seen. Besides, I’m used to
it. I always have this effect on beautiful women—especially
supermodels.”

“
All I’ve got to do is
shave—then I’ll be her favorite,” Kenny asserted.

“
What? Are you kidding me?
She can’t stand you.
If
you shave, maybe she won’t back off when you come
near! No, I’m definitely her favorite.” James was clearly enjoying
the attention.

“
Look, she’s trying to
tell us something. What is she doing?” asked Steve. The woman was
holding out her left hand and pointing to it with her right index
finger. Now she was dragging her finger on the hand. They looked at
her curiously.

“
I think she wants
something to write on,” said Danny coming up from behind
them.

“
You’re right,” said
Steve. “Hey Tammy, do you have a tablet close by?”

“
Yeah, what’s it
for?”

“
She looks like she wants
to write or draw something.”

“
You want
me
to let it have one
of
our
tablets?”

“
We’re right here, we’re
watching her,” said Steve.

“
Aren’t we supposed to be
studying her?” said James. “This is pretty interesting. Do you want
to come over here, Tammy?”

“
I am studying it, and in
fact I need a blood sample so that we can figure out the genetics.
Let me get the sample, and then you guys can play with your new
toy.”

“
James, get a tranq. gun.
We are going to escort her for her blood work.”

“
Hey, she likes me. She
can’t stand Kenny. Let Kenny hold the gun.”

Steve stared at James and James dropped his
protest. James looked at the woman and shrugged. He went and got
the gun. Steve let her out and the woman looked over at James. Then
she went over to where Tammy was prepped for her. The procedure was
done in a few moments and the tablet was procured. They turned on a
drawing app and handed the tablet to the woman who was still
sitting at the counter. The woman looked up at the men curiously.
Steve reached down and dragged his finger across the surface. The
tablet picked up his finger stroke in a black color. Then he
touched the color pallet, on the red. He then stroked his finger
again on the tablet, and this time a new red stroke was there. He
hit the clear button and looked at the woman. The woman looked down
at the tablet and touched the surface quickly, and then withdrew
her finger. A red spot was now in the area that she had touched.
She looked back up to the men and then tried it again. She then
touched the color pallet, and hit blue. She did a streak, and then
a circular pattern. She looked back up again and took a deep
breath.

She hit the clear button, and then stared at
the tablet for a few moments. Her eyes squinted and then she looked
up at Steve. She made a drawing motion with her hand, like she was
holding an instrument. “Give her a stylus,” said James.

Steve almost asked Tammy, but looking over
at her, he knew that he would be pushing his luck. He rummaged
through her instruments and found a piece that would work. He gave
it to the woman and changed the stroke size on the app. to
approximate the small stroke size of her makeshift stylus. The
woman was pleased, and she started to draw. She was very good; it
only took a few minutes for her to have a small and colorful, full
bodied self-portrait, drawn with the same green as her dress that
she had on. “It’s her,” said Steve.

She then wrote several symbols. They were
typical shapes: circles, triangles, squares, etc. The shapes were
variously sized and some also had lines or dots next to, on top, or
within the shapes. She underlined the whole of them and then spoke
while pointing to herself. All of the men looked at her curiously.
She then pointed to her self-portrait and then back at herself
again. She then spoke the same way again, while indicating the
shapes. The sound of this woman’s voice was angelic. Her tones and
inflections were unlike any voice these men had ever heard before.
To say that it was beautiful would be a severe injustice. It truly
was the voice of an angel.

The woman continued to repeat her
vocalization and gestures. Danny was the first to attempt a copy of
her vocalization. “anzzaa.” The woman looked up at Danny with some
excitement, and then repeated her word. Danny tried again,
“azzamppa.” The woman smiled, giggled a little, and then repeated
the word.

James, still enjoying his favored status,
decided to jump in, “azzpppra.” She smiled encouragingly, and then
repeated. “azzpprya,” was met with an approving nod, and then
another repeat.

“
aspprya,” stated Steve.
This time she gave a smile and an approving nod, while repeating
the word and pointing to herself.

“
Aspiria,” said Kenny. She
looked at him and uttered a new word.

“
Aspiria,” she said in her
angelic voice, and worked with the other men until they could all
adequately pronounce it. Kenny was still the best at pronouncing
it, and she indicated the stylus to him. He came over, and picked
up the stylus. She indicated a space under the shape characters
that she had written. Kenny looked at her with some confusion. The
woman indicated the same space. Then she said, “Aspiria,” while
indicating her characters. She then said the word again, and
indicated the space under her characters.

“
She wants you to write,
‘Aspiria,’” said Danny.

Kenny leaned in to write, and the woman
leaned back uncomfortably. She was clearly, still, uncomfortable
with Kenny. He wrote, ‘aspiria,’ and handed her back the stylus.
The woman pointed to herself and repeated the word. Then she
pointed at her characters and repeated the word, and finally she
pointed at the word that Kenny had written, repeating the word
again.

James pointed at himself and said,
“aspiria.” The woman drew her head back, and shook her head and
then smiled. She then pointed with emphasis at herself and
repeated, “Aspiria.” James felt a little embarrassed. The woman
looked down at the tablet, and indicated that she wanted to draw
more, but didn’t seem to want to change what was already there.

“
Save that drawing,”
commanded Steve. “That may be real important.” Kenny was still
close at hand, and he saved the drawing. Then he cleared the page,
so that she could draw again.

The woman gasped, and looked up at Kenny and
then at the rest of the men with alarm. “It’s still there,” said
Kenny and he pulled up her drawing. She looked relieved, and then
indicated that she wanted to write again. Kenny showed her how to
clear the page again.

The woman took a good look at James, and
then began to draw. She was clearly drawing James. It wasn’t quite
as good as her self-portrait, but it was easy to tell who she was
drawing. The darkness of his skin was over-emphasized, but she
clearly had some talent.

“
It’s James,” said
Danny.

“
issjmnnnzz,” said the
woman with a very different sounding voice. It actually sounded
horrible, and was exceptionally nasal. She pointed to James and
said it again. Then she pointed to herself and said,
“Aspiria.”

“
James,” said James and
pointed to himself.

“
Jmnnnzz,” said the woman
and smiled while indicating him.

“
James,” he said
again.

This went on for several moments, until she
was getting closer. She then wrote in her shape characters next to
the picture and said, “James.” James and the other men continued to
repeat the name “James,” and as they did so she continued to
reformulate her characters. Sometimes she would change the shape.
Then she might change a shape’s size. Sometimes she would change
the lines or dots near the shapes. Finally the men were satisfied
with her ability to repeat, “James,” and she was satisfied with her
characters. She then indicated to James to write his name under her
characters. He did this, and then saved the file. She smiled up at
him and said, “James.”

He pointed at himself and said, “James,” and
then pointed towards her and said, “Aspiria.” To which the woman
did the same. James was feeling very proud, and was pleased that he
was still her favorite. She pointed at the clear button, and looked
at James for approval. He nodded with a smile, and she cleared the
page.

Steve’s drawing was next. The same episode
was repeated. His name took her a little longer to get, and she
said it with such a nasal emphasis, that it didn’t sound very good
at all when the group indicated success. “Why does her voice always
sound so beautiful, except when she tries to say our names?” asked
James.

“
I think that we must
sound like that to her,” said Kenny. “Think about how we sound when
we say, ‘Aspiria,’ compared to how she sounds.”

She drew Danny and then Kenny next. Danny’s
skin tone was also over-emphasized. Kenny’s beard was really
exaggerated. Everyone laughed when she did that, except Aspiria—she
seemed a little embarrassed. The pictures of the men took on almost
the appearance of caricatures. Their features were somewhat
over-emphasized, but the effect was not comical—except Kenny’s, of
course. Everyone was enjoying themselves immensely. They were
captured by the moment, and the time was flying by. This woman, who
had already cast a spell on them by her beauty and elegance, was
now drawing them in further with her personality and talents. Each
of them, like Bob before, was mesmerized by her. ‘Enchanting,’
would only begin to describe her persona.

It was Tammy’s turn next, and she drew her
beautifully, although Tammy’s back was turned. She had obviously
studied Tammy’s face that afternoon. She actually enhanced Tammy’s
beauty in the picture, and Steve felt very proud. “Tammy,” said
Steve.