Chapter 6

Dumar and I have now been together for a year.  It has been a really nice year, Dumar really knows how to treat me right.  He is just what a girl could hope for, and he's mine.   Our thing has been walking a lot, as it always has been when I'm alone.  He had lost some of his mysterious leavings, and I was quite happy about that.  When we were together, we talked about anything and nothing.  I remember the first time we kissed.  We were out walking for hours, and he kissed me when he dropped me off at home.

"You are just what a guy could want in a girl", he had told me.

I was feeling especially brave that night, because I was sounding extra suave, "you are just what a girl could want in a guy.  You know what I want-you are such a gentlemen."

And that's when we goggled each other and he leaned in to kiss me.  It was perfect.

I also remember another day we shared together.  He was holding me on my special bench in our giant garden.  It was so beautiful, I still remember the smell in the air.  You see, the smell always changes in there with the growing and harvesting of the fruit.  It smelled especially like apples and cherryblossom that day.

"I am so glad that we are here together, Jez.  This day is perfect, the air is almost as sweet as you.  But, you beat it by a longshot." Dumar has always been a romantic.

"I am more glad than you, dear Dumar.  This day is lovely, but it can't beat your sweet smell."

On this day, there was absolutely no one in the dome, and it was perfectly still.  I couldn't be happier.

Then Dumar leaned in and gave me dozens of sweet kisses.  I have become accustomed to his delicate, soft lips and they have always been calling me. I loved the way he held me, the way he touched me with the right amount of force.  His kisses were perfect: not too much tongue, not too aggressive.  They were just right.  I'd find myself wanting a kiss from him when I was eating lunch, in which case I could just talk to him through my earpiece, and he'd arrive in an instant, and we'd go somewhere private.  Ah, I was falling hard.

But on that special day in the garden, between kisses, he asked me what I've been hoping he would for a long time.

"Jez-you're my girlfriend, aren't you?  You're not seeing anyone else?"

"Yes Dumar-I was thinking you'd never ask.  There is no one else-just you.  Please, don't stop kissing me."

Then he gave me an extra passionate kiss in thanks for my agreeing to officially be his girlfriend.  He held me for what felt like hours.  I thought it was the best day of my life.

Slowly, Dumar was showing a more rebellious side.  It was a snail-like progression, but I could tell that each day he was suggesting to do something naughty, intensifying in degree.  I remember the night he suggested to egg a house.  We had been walking, and he stopped in front of a house.

"Jez, come on, let's egg this house!  This is home to your friend Niki."

I really wanted to agree this time, because boy does Niki make my blood boil!  I really hate her.

But does she deserve to have her house egged? I had thought.

I decided that she did, she has annoyed me long enough.  And besides-she herself likes to prank, so how can it be so bad if we show her a little bit of her own medicine?

"You know what, Dumar, let's do it!"

I have been confused with him doing these pranks, but this time I let it slip.  This isn't the friendly Dumar that I know and love!

So Dumar went to the house with the eggs he miracuosly had in his pockets.  It was strange-he had a dozen eggs on his person, and I don't get how that was possible.  He didn't have a bag with him, and the eggs weren't cracked.  He didn't have any bumps on his clothes.  At least I didn't see them at the time-I figured that I must have missed them.

Dumar threw the eggs at the door with perfect pricision, barely making a noise though the eggs cracked.  The whole expedition seemed to lack common sense-not of Dumar, but of how it played out, and the eggs themselves.

While he was throwing the eggs, I wasn't even looking at it, I was silently cheering him on, though I was dying inside, thinking the worst.

Once he did the deed, we ran to my house which wasn't too far away, and no one even noticed us!  It was the strangest thing.  I was thinking for sure someone would catch us!  But there wasn't a trace of anyone, not any noise.  We were perfectly safe.

I also recalled the afternoon that Harah told me why she didn't like me seeing Dumar.  She hadn't said much since the day she saw me with my makeover.  I believe she was giving me the cold shoulder, but she let me be with Dumar.

On that afternoon, she and I were reading in the living room.  I was on a rather boring part of my book, and this question was egging at me, so after a while, I put the book down to get the nerve to ask.  It was the perfect time.

"Harah, why don't you want me seeing Dumar?"

I just knew there was a reason, and I was right. "Jezabelle.  I have told you this once, and I will not repeat it.  I have had bad luck with multiple men in my life, so I know how they are.  Every single one of them is a scum bag.  I just don't want you to get hurt, Jezabelle.  I once had a husband, but he divorced me when you were about three...he didn't want to have a kid."

A lightbulb had gone off in my head.  I had thought that I was about three when I came here, and of course I don't remember a man, that part was unmemorable.  I do remember Harah's face-but if there really was a guy, he must not have been there.  He didn't want me, so that's why he divorced Harah.

I had laughed at her reply.  Harah, you are wrong!  All men are not scum bags!  My Dumar is so nice.

I tried to forget about the pranks that he's been doing.  Well, he has been really nice to me-so that's what matters, right?

Instead, I said, "thanks for lookin out for me, Harah.  And I'm sorry I did this to you-I was desperate..."

Another day I remember we had gone to the pool. 

Since it has to be extra warm in there, we have it under a dome, and the sunlight is magnified to make it warmer, and so that plants are able to grow inside.

I recall looking at the water slide, and questioning it for the first time. "Dumar, why do we even have a water slide here?  There are no kids to play in!"

The youngest kids I've seen are about fifteen-I've never seen a young child here, except when I was, well, a young child.  It's the strangest thing!  I have always thought that few have children, since a lot of people here are gay or lesbian, and those in a straight relationship are often in it just for the company, and not in it for the sex.

"I wish I could tell you, Jezabelle.  But adults like water slides too."

I accepted his reply and nodded.  Sure some adults like to go on them, but you'd think that they wouldn't be there just for the adults.  In a world of adults, those kiddy types of slides just aren't there.

Then I jumped into the water.  Dumar was just standing there.

"Dumar, aren't you going to come in?"

He was just scratching himself, looking rather uncomfortable.

"Um-I'd rather not..."  He was acting rather strange.  He loves to swim!  He doesn't have a broken bone or anything, we walked here.

But I took his foot and playfully pulled him into the water.  He seemed like a fish out of water...but he was in the water.

Then we held our breathes together to see whose lungs could hold it the longest.  I won, and I gasped for air.  I looked down and Dumar was still under, not even struggling.  His eyes were open, and he was looking every which way under the water.  It looked like he was panicing-but he wasn't even drowning.

I want under the water anyway to bring him up.

"Are you okay?..."

He gave me a fake smile. "Yes, yes, of course I'm okay." He was guilty of something, and I wasn't quite sure what that could be.

Then I got up and went in the hot tub.

"Come on in, Dumar, the water is fine." I gave him my best flirty smile.

His eyes moved to the left, and he was no longer looking at me.

"Um, I'd better go.  I'm supposed to be home.  I'll call you later."

He burst away from me, and walked to the door.  It was just fast enough to notice that he was going faster than usual.

What is Dumar's deal lately?

I shrugged it off and continued to enjoy the bubbling water in the hot tub.