Lovers of Babel by Valerie Walker Read Free Book Online Page A

over my face as if to shield myself from the relentless taunting,” she demonstrated for the men, “and then suddenly everything stopped. The room was silent for only a split second then it started back again. When I removed my hands I had already changed.”
    “So what you’re saying is you had a natural instinct to protect yourself and that’s when you transformed?” George asked her.
    “That sounds about right. It was as if my anxiety reached a peak and it had nowhere else to go. That’s when I changed,” she said.
    George rocketed from his seat.
    “That’s a lot like what happened to me on the surface!” He exclaimed.
    “Wait. You went to the surface?” Cameron asked surprised.
    “Yes and there was a giant mammoth that wanted to eat me, but in my desperate need to protect myself I closed my eyes and when I opened them a forest was there shielding me from the beast,” he said.
    “It was just some random forest?” She asked.
    “No. It was a forest from the book Tarzan that my father used to read to me at night. It was a source of security that I remember from my childhood,” he said looking nostalgic.
    “My father used to read me the Cinderella story. I’d always imagine I’d be as beautiful as her someday. I used to draw pictures of myself as a dazzling princess,” she said joining the nostalgia.
    “So are you…is this the face of one of your drawings?” The Australian asked with a mouth full of orange slices.
    “Actually, yes! Yes it is. Hold on let me get something.” Cameron briskly walked out of the living room and after a few minutes, entered again carrying a wooden shoe box.
    “My dad was always building something with his hands. He hated the idea of robots and machines taking over our humanity. This shoe box was one of his first creations underground. Anyway, I kept lots of pictures from the past inside here.” She sat next to George again.
    She began looking through the collection of photographs in search of one particular picture. George was studying her childhood through happy snapshots from her past. One particular snapshot that caught his attention was of her and her young father laughing while kneeling on a small plot of soil planting turnips.
    “So, where exactly is your father?” George asked.
    “He’s dead,” she said flatly still searching for the picture. “Ah! Here it is!” She lifted it up to the light. “It’s a little faded, but you can see where I drew squiggly lines for the hair.” She handed it to George.
    “Wow this does look like you.” He gave it to the Australian.
    “Do you think this proves that there is some correlation between the imagination and our abilities?” The Australian asked George.
    “ Our abilities? You guys can transform too!?”
    “Well not exactly. Why don’t we give her a little demonstration?” George asked the Australian.
    George flipped her old drawing over to the back and placed it on the table along with a pen from his pocket.
    “ Here. Draw a picture of your first pet.”
    “My first pet was a hybrid poodle-gerbil that we got from the stem cell and animal cloning lab. I’ll see if I can remember how she looked.” She began to draw the face then the ears until all that was left was a fluffy tail. “Ok this looks about right.”
    “And what color was she?”
    “Baby pink with white in her inner ears.”
    George studied the picture for a few seconds then closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Then he opened them and stared out into a void. Suddenly, a tiny pink poodle the size of a rat appeared in the middle of the floor. It was squeaking and jumping around in a circle.
    Cameron gasped. “Cuddles! How in the world!? Did you…how did you?”
    “I have the power to create things and make them appear out of nowhere. I discovered I had this ability just a week ago when I went up to the surface.”
    “That’s amazing! And do you have the same power?” She asked the Australian.
    “No. I can travel fast.”
    “What