Our body feels strangely numb and stands frozen in place.
“Continue moving,” Float instructs. “We don’t want to attract undue attention.” Noah’s feet shuffle from side to side, but they’re no longer in time with the music.
Chloe manages to move our feet once or twice, but then she halts again. “Don’t you think my dying on the dance floor will attract attention?” she asks.
“I am certain that it will,” Float says. “But we won’t see that happen.”
“No.” Chloe’s voice is ragged. “You’ll be gone by then.”
In that moment, I know what I must do. “Professor Float? I’m not returning to our dimension yet. I understand I’ll fail your class again, but I’ve decided to stay with Chloe.”
“Don’t be foolish, Welkin,” Float says. “Why would you do a thing like that?”
“Because it wouldn’t be right. It would be wrong of me to cut her life short.”
“Is that so?” Float asks. “Tell me, Welkin, why do you believe this?”
“Because we think maybe she’s here for a reason,” I tell him.
“Hmm.” Float tilts Noah’s head. “What reason might that be?”
“We don’t know yet,” Chloe answers.
“That’s a lot of maybe and don’t know,” Float says. “Welkin, surely you can state your case more clearly. Allow me to give you a hint. What does bioethics mean?”
“Erm,” I say. “Well. The bio part is for biology. That’s the scientific study of life and living matter. The ethics part is the study of what is morally right or wrong.”
“Exactly.” Float nods Noah’s head.
“Omigod,” Chloe cries. “I just realized! You’re going to kill Noah too!”
From the corner of our eye, I notice some of the other juveniles glancing our way. They may not be able to hear what’s being said over the music, but they seem to sense that something is amiss.
“Calm yourself, human,” Float says. “Nobody is going to be killed.”
“Killing our bodies is as good as killing us,” Chloe replies. “At least the ‘us’ me and Noah are meant to be.”
“I’m not here to debate that with you,” Float tells her. “I’m here to test Welkin. I want to know if Welkin can correctly state a reason for choosing to remain with you. Can you, Welkin?”
I know why Float made me define bioethics. I even know the answer to the question. But putting it into words is difficult. “Um,” I begin. “Okay. In your class, Professor, we are learning the correct way to study life. I’d say that means we must show respect for what life truly is. Which is a mystery. So it would be wrong for me to interfere with Chloe’s life.”
“Ah,” Float says. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Excellent. But answer me this. If you stay in her body, won’t that also interfere with her present life?”
“Not as much as it would if he leaves,” Chloe chimes in.
“Indeed.” Noah’s mouth smiles. Float is quite expert at operating a human body. “So I’d say you have a dilemma, Welkin. Obviously, your choice to enter a host was made without thinking through the consequences.”
“But,” I sputter, “that was the assignment! You made me do it.”
“Did I?” Float asks. “I forced you to do this?”
Such an annoying question. Of course he didn’t force me. I chose this project of my own stupid free will. “I only wanted to pass bioethics,” I whine.
“My congratulations,” Float says. “You’ve passed. And now we must go.”
“But—” Chloe and I speak as one.
Float cuts us off. “No buts. Welkin, passing basic bioethics means you’re ready to begin advanced bioethics.”
I’m stunned. “Advanced bioethics? Me?”
“Yes. Class starts now. Your first lesson is in body-save withdrawal. It requires the trust and cooperation of your host. I believe she may give you that.”
“Are you saying—” I begin.
“That Welkin can go—” Chloe continues.
“Without killing her body?” I finish.
“Precisely,” Float answers.
Chloe chortles with delight and twirls both us and Noah-Float. When she’s done, I want to give our head a shake, and Chloe does this for me.
“Professor Float, why didn’t you tell me this was possible before?” I ask.
“You don’t always pay attention to the things I say, Welkin.”
I can’t deny that.
“And,” Float continues, “some things are better learned through experience. I find that students who face this choice personally gain deeper understanding.”
“So what do we have to do?” Chloe asks. “Do we need to go stand in a field or something? So Welkin can beam out?”
“No, no. We can remain right here. It’s quite simple, really.”
The notes of the slow-tempo song are beginning to fade. Some of the couples dancing nearby begin to separate. “Quickly now,” Float says. “I must assist Welkin on his first attempt. For that, we require close contact.”
“Closer than this?” I ask.
“Chloe must connect a breath portal.”
“Huh?” Chloe asks.
“Connect your nostril or mouth to a similar portal on this Noah body,” Float instructs. “I believe such behavior is common in you humans.”
“Uh,” Chloe says, “you must mean kissing.” She takes a deep breath. Then she places our mouth on Noah’s.
It feels strange there. Awkward. And yet it’s interesting too. I didn’t realize our lips had so many sensitive nerves. But before I can analyze it further, Float’s life energy finds mine. The contact is similar to the electrical current I experienced in Chloe’s body. But Float’s energy isn’t running about wildly. It is focused, and it begins pulling me into Noah’s mouth. And out again, through a Noah nostril.
“Gently, now,” Float says. “Gather only yourself. Take no part of the human.”
Take no part of Chloe. That’s easier said than done. I’ve inhabited her body right down to the molecules. It’s as if my energy is water that I poured into a Chloe glass of water. And the water has mixed to become one.
Still, bit by bit, I find myself. Slowly at first, then faster and faster.
“Good, good. That’s it.” Float encourages me. “I’m free of the Noah skin bag. He’s becoming self-aware again. Hopefully, he’ll cooperate with maintaining contact.”
For the first time since I entered her body, I hear Chloe’s thoughts. “He’d better keep kissing me.”
I’m almost out. Enough to hear Noah’s thoughts now too. “Whoa! What the…?” He draws his mouth away from Chloe’s, and I hang between them. But only for a second, because Chloe’s mouth reconnects, and he thinks, “I thought she was shy?”
Obviously, he doesn’t know Chloe very well. Shy? Hardly. “She’s amazing,” I tell him.
I think he actually hears me. His next thought is exactly that. She’s amazing.
Then, I’m free and clear.
Float says, “Think home, Welkin. I’ll see you there.” And Float is gone.
Home, I think. But I don’t want to go. Home, home. I really don’t want to go there. I want to experience all the things Chloe mentioned. Swim in an ocean, climb a mountain, run races…
I can no longer see Chloe as I did through her eyes. I simply perceive her as a field of energy. As she separates from Noah, she thinks, “Phew!”
Does she mean Phew! I got rid of Welkin? Probably.
“No, Welkin,” Chloe thinks. “It means I’m glad this worked.”
I’m astonished. “You can still hear me?”
“Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?”
“I didn’t know such a thing was possible!”
“Can you wait a minute?” she asks. Her next thoughts are less clear to me. I believe she tells Noah she’ll be back soon, but her thinking is mixed with a range of emotions. Emotion does not translate precisely into thought. This is why some Universals say we should attempt to overcome it.
“Have you made up your mind about that, Welkin?” Chloe asks. “Because I think your emotions saved my life.”
I believe she is correct.
“I know I am.” Once again, her thoughts fog with emotion. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m going to miss you, Welks.”
“I’ll miss you too, Chloe. I’m most grateful for all your help.”
“Aw, that’s okay.” Her thoughts shift rapidly for a moment, and then she asks, “Do you remember when you said that if I let you stay, I could study you while you studied me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I think maybe I learned more about myself than I did about you.”
“Is that good?” I ask.
“Oh, yeah. Really good. So thank you.”
If I still inhabited her body, I believe I would feel it smiling.
“You would,” Chloe says. “And Welkin?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think you might come back and visit sometime? Like maybe when you finish school?”
“Universals,” I say, “never finish school.”
“Wow. Really? What about that Float dude? Dudette. Whatever. Isn’t that your teacher?”
“Yes, Float is a teacher. We’re all teachers when we know enough about something. But we all keep learning too.”
“I see,” Chloe says.
“Don’t lie,” I reply.
“Okay, so forget that. Just visit me soon. As in, before I’m dead.”
“I’d like that.” I really would.
“Only,” she says, “you can’t barge into my body again.”
“But—” I begin.
“No buts!”
If I could sigh, I would.
I sense laughter mixed with her next thought. “Being human is fabulous, right?”
It is. It really is.
Float instructed me to take no part of the human with me, but I do. I take memories. I take experiences. I take understanding. I include much of this in my final report. I note Chloe’s difficulties with head hair. The mechanics of running and dancing. The necessity of eating food. The audio nature of farting.
But some things cannot be stored in the Thought Archives. Some things are un-thought. Like making memory physical in shades of color. Or losing thought when the body is at play. Or the sensation of touching another being’s life energy. Try as I might to transmit the essence of certain experiences, I can’t.
Some things cannot be downloaded.