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"I've been searching a long time…"

"Someone Like You" - Van Morrison

I called Star right after I got back to the apartment I shared with Dex. Dex wasn't there, and I wondered if he'd spent the night with Grace again.

I'd pretended to be asleep when Gaelen got up to shower, afraid of the next words we might say to each other. I didn't expect Star to have any advice for me; I just wanted to hear his voice. Sure, I could have nipped home in an instant and seen him face to face, but I was upset, and frankly, it didn't occur to me.

"Evan!" His voice was as cheerful as I'd ever heard it.

"Hi, Star. Um… I just wanted to check in with you. How's Vai?"

"I'm so glad you called; she had the baby yesterday, a beautiful boy. She's named him Vrai."

I thought that was likely to get him picked on at school, but I didn't say anything. "Congratulations. Tell Vai I said so too. How are the other kids?"

"We are all doing well," he said, "but we miss you. I miss you."

I squeezed my eyes tight. "I miss you too. Star, I need to tell you, I've met someone, and I… I don't know how to deal with it. She's so wonderful, and we've been having amazing sex, but… sometimes I think she hates me." Right then I could think of nothing better than to be back home, preferably with Star's arms around me.

I could hear his raised eyebrows. "How long have you known her?"

"Two days," I said, suddenly feeling foolish. And then I hung up the phone, because Star had slipped into my mind, and at that moment he was very welcome.

In an instant, I shared everything about Gaelen: her smile, her wit, her enthusiasm for sex, the strange energy transfers, her puzzling references to her age and having been married and had children long ago but having no family left. I could feel Star turning the information over, using his fine analytical mind on my problem, and I was more than grateful.

[What should I do?] I asked, finally.

[Evan, I think you've reached an important turning point in your life. Talk to her; tell her everything about you, about all of us. I sense that she is struggling, with what I cannot say, but I believe you can help her. You may help each other.]

I shivered. [Star, I'm scared I'm going to do the wrong thing somehow, and I don't know what the right thing is.]

[Trust your heart, my dear. I know you will do what is right.]

I could feel his love wrapped around me like a blanket.

[I'll try,] I said.

Star left me alone to think. Maybe if, like I had in the beginning, I concentrated on what was best for Gaelen, I would be able to see things more clearly and perhaps do what was right for both of us.

* * *

It was ten thirty, and the bar didn't open till noon, giving me time to have some breakfast before I had to get serious about cooking lunch. Outside, the sky was spitting snow and threatening more. Maybe there wouldn't be quite the rush there had been yesterday.

I found eggs and bacon in the fridge and fried some potatoes to go with them. Before I could get things organized, Ben, the early bartender, drifted back to the kitchen, and I threw more food on the grill. He made coffee and squeezed oranges for juice, and we invited Etta to join us when she came in. Angie, the dishwasher, looked hungry, and before long Grace himself made an appearance, with Dex not far behind. We'd just sat down to eat when Gaelen pushed open the door. "Is this a private party," she said, "or can anybody join?"

Ben, a short guy in his thirties with close-cropped red-brown hair and a little goatee, pulled another stool over. She sat down between us at the big prep table, and we all dug in. I was chasing egg yolk around my plate with my last slice of toast when Gaelen nudged my leg with a bare foot and gave me a fleeting smile. I was so pleased I almost forgot to eat.

Immediately thereafter, everyone got up to prepare for their own jobs, throwing thank-yous over their shoulders. Gaelen lingered to help me carry dirty dishes to the sink for Angie.

"I'm going to be hungry again about three," she said. "Do you think you could take a break then and bring me a sandwich?"

I grinned. "Turkey, roast beef, or a burger?"

"Surprise me." She gave me a wink as she headed out the door.

Time went by in a flash. I ate with Gaelen at three, and Etta promised to call me if there were any orders, which there weren't. The snow had arrived with a vengeance, and by five the bar was nearly deserted. At Grace's suggestion, I made a big pot of soup in case anyone was hungry, including him, and he told me I was free for the evening. He'd called Claude and told him to stay home by the fire.

Grace officially closed the place at nine, and he and Dex headed up the stairs, hand in hand.

I went and stood by the bar while Gaelen stacked the last of the clean glasses, then offered to make me one of her special drinks. I smiled. "I'm sure they're delicious, but alcohol doesn't do much for me." Even overdoses of sugar no longer affected my perceptions. These days, it seemed that sex was my only drug.

She sighed. "Me either, though I do enjoy the taste, sometimes."

I walked to the window. Nothing seemed to be moving except taxicabs, and even they were just crawling along. "Spring snow is always the worst," she said, appearing at my elbow. "I love this town most times, but on a night like this I just wish I was somewhere else."

I reached out, and she let me put an arm around her. "Where would you be, if you could?" I asked softly.

She leaned against me. "I don't know - somewhere warm."

I turned her until I could look into her eyes. "Will you trust me?"

She stared at me for a long moment. "Yes," she said finally.

I held her more tightly, and we jumped.

* * *

Exotic scents surrounded us, underscored by the perfume of the sea itself. Waves lapped gently against the damp sand.

It was equally dark in Jamaica, but the temperature was in the seventies, the sky was clear, and the stars were bright. Gaelen stumbled a little at first, but I held her until she steadied. Like me, she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with tennis shoes and socks. After the cold of New York City, here we were overdressed.

A little way down the beach were the lights of a restaurant. I took her hand and we started off that way, only pausing to remove our socks and shoes. The sand was warm between my toes.

The little eatery showed no signs of closing, and a friendly waiter seated us at a table on the beach. When we'd ordered, he left us alone.

"Are we really here?" she asked me, her skin glowing in the light of torches thrust into the sand.

I nodded.

"What are you," she said softly, "some kind of genie from a lamp?"

I shook my head, admiring the sparkle in her eyes. "I'm a genetic experiment, designed to rule a planet in another galaxy. I'd be there now, but there was a flaw in their design, and I ran away before they could execute me."

She took a gulp of her ice water. "You're telling me the truth, aren't you." It wasn't really a question.

"Yes."

"What about your cousin, Star?"

"He was the next experiment, the one that turned out perfectly. When he's old enough, he'll become the ruler of the Lecurelan Federation."

She shook her head. "I've heard of a lot of places, but not Lecurela. Where is it?"

We had a brief discussion on astronomical navigation, interrupted by the arrival of our fruit juice drinks and shrimp appetizer. When we'd each had a sip and a nibble, she whistled. "That is a long way from here, and I thought I'd done a lot of traveling. What are you going to do when Star goes back to be king?"

Gaelen had a way of cutting to the heart of matters. "I don't know," I said.

She nodded thoughtfully. "Why Earth?"

"It was far away, and very primitive, compared to Lecurela. I didn't think they'd find me. I guess I was right."

She sighed, picking up her coconut shell for another drink, tossing away the little paper umbrella in annoyance. "Yeah, I thought Earth would be a good place to get lost in too. I'd been here once before. My father sent me to check things out. He was writing reports on the development of primitive planets and I was his assistant, like an undergrad, you know?"

I nodded.

"It all seemed so very important, back then. Taking notes on primitive social trends, drawing parallels between Earth and our planet. I was young then, and I loved the adventure."

"Your people have space travel?"

"Had," she said, stabbing another shrimp. "Maybe some of those ships survived, but mine was lost… stolen is more like it."

I waited.

"I suppose that should have taught me not to pick up strangers on strange planets." She looked up at me. "But I guess I haven't learned that lesson quite yet."

"So you're marooned here?"

"Yeah, I guess-until I make contact with travelers who can take me to some other god-forsaken world."

"Can't you get in touch with your people?"

She gripped the coconut with both hands, squeezing until the thick shell cracked and liquid drenched the table top. "My people are dead, except for a few nomads like me. Our planet is long gone, blown out of the sky. Nothing left of it but memories."

"How long ago?" I asked softly.

Her deep brown eyes held mine. "Five hundred years."

* * *

Our waiter came and cleaned up the spill, apologizing for the defective cup. He brought us refills for free.

"Tell me about your people," I said.

She sighed. "They were good people, for the most part, and left to ourselves, we lived a long time." She squeezed my hand. "I thought maybe I'd accumulated a little wisdom over the years; then you come along and I start acting like a schoolgirl."

We looked at each other for a few enchanted seconds, then she pulled away. "I'm glad you don't do relationships, Evan, because I don't either. I've gone out of my way to make sure I don't need anybody. I've had enough hurt to last me a lifetime. But… maybe we can be friends, like you and Dex. Or, as they say here and now, 'fuck buddies.'" She laughed. "How does that sound?"

It didn't sound like nearly enough to me.

"Is sex always like this with you?" she asked, before I could answer.

"You mean the surges of energy?"

"Yeah, I've never felt anything like that." She held out one hand to the light, spreading the fingers and looking at them closely, first one side and then the other. "I don't look any different, and I feel fine, better than I have in a long time."

"I don't know what it is, Gaelen. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before, during sex or at any other time." I supposed I had shared a little of my energy with other lovers. Some had said they felt less tired than they expected after being with me, but that was minor compared to this. "I just know I'm not doing it on purpose."

She shrugged. "Me either." She looked up at me from under lowered eyelids. "But it feels incredible."

I smiled, feeling a jolt of that pure sexual attraction she inspired in me. "It feels fantastic to me too."

Our grilled fish filets arrived, accompanied by herbed rice and vegetables, and we began to eat, smiling between bites. "This is delicious," she said, "and it's great not to be freezing. Can we stay the night?"

A warm glow of contentment that had nothing to do with the food or weather was spreading out from my center. "Do you want to get a hotel room?"

She glanced out toward the ocean. "Let's just make love all night, on the beach."

* * *

And that's exactly what we did. Luckily, there was another nuclear power plant close by, in Florida.

* * *

When the sky began to brighten, we retreated back into the trees and spread the blankets I'd borrowed from her bed farther away from the prying eyes of tourists.

"It's too bad," Gaelen said wistfully, her head resting on my shoulder.

"What is?" I couldn't think of anything bad at all.

"That you can't make a girl pregnant."

I turned to look at her.

"Oh, I'm not talking about me, you understand, but someone like you should have kids, pass on those good genes."

I swallowed. "Well, maybe there's something that could be done about it."

She looked at me. "I thought you said the doctors don't know why…?"

I sighed. "I wasn't being truthful with you. I can control my body, be fertile or not, as I choose. And…." I hesitated, not sure if the next bit of truth might spoil the perfect evening we'd shared. "I have a child. Star's, um, doctor combined our germ cells. The little girl was raised as a twin in his family; she's almost fourteen now."

"Huh," she said, seemingly not bothered at all. "Well, that's good then. I thought being infertile might have been the imperfection you mentioned, the reason you had to leave home."

"No, that wasn't the problem," I said, feeling uncomfortable.

"What then?" She turned to stare directly into my eyes.

"Well, um… I was gay."

Her eyebrows rose, and she laughed aloud, startling a large green lizard that had been resting nearby. "Gay? Said the man who just screwed my brains out?" She didn't seem to hear the annoyed reptile scurrying away. "Did you happen to notice that I don't have a dick?"

I rolled my eyes, then reached down and squeezed her mound gently. She gasped. "I'll be darned," I said, "you're right. Gaelen, I was completely gay for the first seventy years of my life. If it wasn't for Star, I probably still would be."

She grabbed my hand and placed it on her belly. "I'll bet that's a long story." She smiled at me. "Maybe we should save it for another time. Right now, there are things I'd rather do than talk."

She got no argument from me. I decided that the story of the planet Muir and their three sexes could wait for another time too.