Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Strangers in This World

   A story of young teens seeking love and belonging - By Gil Gamesh

   Chapter One

   "Connor, Mr.  Whitman said I should see you.  He said you might be able
to help me.  I'm Darcy.  Darcy O'Donovan."

   I quickly looked at her face, down at her body, and then back at her
face.  She was different from the others but I knew she was the same, just
a wolf in sheep's clothing, just a siren with a different song.  She was
blonde and beautiful, of course.  Aren't they all?  She wasn't wearing
jeans, not even a cheer-leader outfit, no varsity sweater, just a nice
skirt down slightly below her knees and that was unusual, a blouse, loose
fitting and buttoned high enogh to completely hide her breasts, and a
sweater over her shoulders, white socks and sneakers on her feet.  Her
clothes were simple but looked expensive, all very feminine but concealing
what most girls use as lures to catch suckers.

   My heart sank a little.  Why do they keep doing it?  They've fooled me
twice before.  I wasn't going to let them do it again.

   "No, I can't.  Go away.  Leave me alone," I said, trying to muster a
little nastiness in my voice.

   "But...but...Mr.  Whitman said you've helped some other students," she
said, frowning.  "Why won't you help me?"

   "Because I don't want to," I said, trying to put some meanness in my
voice.

   I looked up and down the school hallway and saw a few students still at
their lockers.  There was no side hallway anywhere nearby.  Where could
they be hiding this time?

   "Where are they?"

   "Who?  Who are you talking about?"

   "The jocks.  You know, the football players, the basketball players, the
all brawn and no brain gorillas and apes and giraffes and their usual
retinue of vestal non-virginal bimbo cheerleader whores.  Where's your
outfit?  You've got to have the right outfit when you worship the Great God
Football tomorrow night.  Don't you practice all your screams and sexy
wiggles and stupid giggles after school today?  Do you really have orgasms
when you cheer?"

   I paused and took a deep breath and then decided to let her have the
last barrel.  "Have you fucked your way through the football team yet?"

   "What are you talking about, Connor?  I'm not a cheerleader."

   "What are you then?  If Mr.  Whitman sent you, come on, let's go talk to
him.  I'm going out the back door to catch the bus.  His office is just off
the back hallway."

   I expected her to give up and go her merry way.  She surprised me.  She
followed along behind me.  I slowed down and she caught up with me.  I
looked at her and I saw her eyes, beautiful blue eyes, and they looked like
she was about to cry.  The skin on her cheeks was flawless, a little pink
on the cheekbones, milky white on the rest of her face.  I heard her sniff
and looked in her eyes again and saw a tear roll down her cheek.  I
couldn't believe she could fake that.

   "Is this for real?" I asked.  "Mr.  Whitman really sent you to me and
said maybe I'd help you?"

   "Yes, Connor," she said.  "He said you're the smartest kid in school."

   I looked at her harder.  I wanted to believe her but I really couldn't.
What would any girl as beautiful and, judging from her clothes probably
very well off, want with me, a nerd, a geek, a loner, a queer supposedly
but I'm not, a nothing, a nobody?  I knew she had everything and I had
nothing.  I opened my mouth to say something.

   She smiled at me and pressed her index finger against my lips.  I was
paralyzed, lightning struck, thunder boomed, the earth moved under my feet,
sort of like an earthquake, all at the same time.

   She held out her hand to me and I reflexively put my hand in it.  With
her other hand, she made a sandwich out of my hand.  She looked intently in
my eyes and suddenly I knew she wasn't just trying to hurt me.  My anger
and pain disappeared like smoke blown by a strong wind.  I knew but I
didn't know what it was that I knew, just that she was holding my hand
between hers and it was good and she was communicating something to me.  I
relaxed and felt a sense of peace and comfort sweep over me.  I knew she
was doing it; whatever, she was doing it to help me.

   "Come with me, Connor," she whispered, smiling.  She held my hand and
led me down the hallway to an empty classroom.

   Once inside, she backed up against a wall where no one could look
through the little window in the door and see us.  She wrapped her arms
around me, pulled me against her, then put her hand behind my head, and
pulled it down so that my cheek was against hers.  I mechanically wrapped
my arms around her, then breathed deeply a time or two and relaxed.  I felt
like she was taking away my hurt and pain and anger and replacing it with
calm and peace.  I wanted never to let her go.

   "There," she whispered in my ear after a moment.  "Does that feel
better?"

   "What are you doing?" I whispered back in her ear.  "To me, I mean.  I
know you're doing something.  Why?"

   "I'm not doing anything, Connor," she whispered.  "I'm just giving a hug
to a dear friend, to show you somebody cares, nothing else."

   "You're not my friend.  Why should you care?  I've seen you around but I
don't know you."

   She dropped her hands down to my back and pressed me against her.  I
felt the softness of her breasts against my chest.

   "Connor, you and I are going to be friends, good friends.  Trust me. 
Just don't ever tell anyone else about our relationship.  To the outside
world, we're just acquaintances.  That's all.  Understand?

   "No.  Why would you want me for a friend?  I'm nothing like you."

   "Yes, you are.  We're alike in at least one important way.  I want you
to trust me.  I promise you'll understand after a while."

   "Well, I don't understand why you'd want to be friends with me, a
beautiful girl like you wanting to be friends with a geek like me."

   "Connor, you should maintain that geek persona.  It's a good disguise.
One of the first things you must learn is always to appear ordinary, not
special.  Never reveal what you really are.  I want you to think about
that. Now, come, let me drive you home."

   "In what?  Your little red convertible?"

   "Yes.  How did you know?"

   How did I know?  How could I know?  A memory came back to me from a few
weeks ago.  I'd been walking through the student parking lot when a
beautiful girl parked a little red convertible and then did something and
the top came out of the trunk and covered the seats.  I knew that if I
followed her out to the student parking lot we'd find a little red
convertible and the top would be up.  I was speechless and baffled and
confused and I didn't know what hell was going on.

   She dropped her hands down to my waist and pulled me against her again.
I felt the beginnings of an erection that I knew couldn't amount to much.
The jock strap I usually wore kept it bent down and under control.

   "Connor, you may not believe me but I want you to help me," she
whispered.  "I'm a stranger in a strange land and I think you are to.  We
can be good friends."

   I caught the reference to Heinlein.  She didn't seem like the kind of
girl who would read books like that.

   "Bull," I said.  "I don't understand.  What do you want with me?  I'm
just a tall skinny sixteen-year old kid who wears glasses and who has bad
acne."

   Down below, I pressed the firmness of my bulge against her stomach.  She
grinned and I knew she felt it and was aware that she had caused it.

   "Connor, the acne is not you," she said.  "Why don't you quit wearing
it?"

   "Huh?  It's not like clothes.  I can't just quit having zits all over my
face."

   My penis was becoming too uncomfortable.  I pulled away so I wasn't
pressed against her.

   "Yes, you can," she said.  "Let me help you.  Shut your eyes and relax."

   She took my hands in hers and guided my fingertips all over her soft
smooth flawless face.  I liked touching her and something down below liked
it too.  Then she changed so my hands were on top of hers.  This time she
touched me all over my face, forehead, cheeks, chin where the latest red
zip had popped up overnight, even back on my throat a little.  She smiled
and pulled her hands away from mine.

   "There," she said, smiling.

   I reached up and felt all over my face.  Nothing was different.  I still
had a bad case of acne.

   "It's not magic, Connor," she said, smiling.  "It takes time.  Give it a
while and it will be gone.  My father is a medical doctor.  He's going to
give you a prescription or two.  My brother Brian had the same problem and
his face is flawless and beautiful now.  You've just got to believe and do
what's necessary to clear it up."

   "I don't believe you.  We can't afford a doctor."

   "Connor, you reached up and felt your face and you believed for a split
second that I could do magic and your face had cleared up.  That was the
beginning of belief.  With routine care and a few prescriptions, your face
will be like mine.  Just like Brian's.  Just believe."

   "Darcy, my family's kind of poor, well, maybe not poor, but not well off
like yours must be.  We struggle to get by.  We can't afford doctor's care
and expensive prescriptions."

   "Is that what you believe, Connor?  There are ways.  Just believe. 
Look, we're going to be friends.  I need somebody like you, somebody with
intelligence.  What was your score on the Wechsler?"

   "I don't know."

   "You know what the test is.  So you've had it, huh?"

   "Yeah, last year.  The school was trying to decide what to do with me.
They should have just shot me."

   "I've had it too, Connor," she said.  "My overall score was off the
scale on the high side.  I'll bet yours was too."

   "Yeah."

   "Now what was it?"

   "Off the scale.  They had me take the Stanford-Binet and some other
tests and they didn't know what to do with me.  My parents said treat me
like an ordinary kid and cut me a little slack."

   "See.  We're alike, Connor, strangers in a strange land.  I've been
looking for somebody like you.  I need to have friends like you."

   "Is your brother smart too?"

   "Yes, he needs friends too.  The three of us are going to be friends and
we're going to find other strangers to be friends with us.  We won't be so
alone, Connor."

   "I still don't understand."

   "You will.  How far is Alpha Centauri?"

   "4.267 light years," I said, deliberately giving her a wrong answer to
see if she knew the distance.

   "No, it's 4.367 light years.  You did that deliberately; didn't you?"

   "Yeah."

   "Girls can be smart too, Connor.  Now, come on, let me drive you home."

   I walked out the back door with her and we threaded through all the cars
in the parking lot.  She had parked at the back in the shade under some
trees.  When we got close, the top folded back and hid itself in the trunk.
I looked at her and I didn't see how she could have done anything.  She
didn't have her keys in her hand.  She smiled at me.  I couldn't help it. I
smiled back.

   "It's programmed so that I'm the only one who can drive it," she
whispered.  "I've got something in my purse that sends out a radio signal
and it recognizes me.  When I get close the top comes down.  When we're
away from school, I'll change the instructions and you can drive us the
rest of the way home."

   My mom had raised me with manners.  I went around to the driver's side
and opened the door for her.  Her skirt came up a little and I got a
glimpse of smooth beautiful thighs when she sat down.  I walked around to
the other side, threw my backpack in the little back seat, and sat down. 
She turned and looked intently at me.

   "Connor, listen to me," she said.  "We're going to be friends.  We need
to be friends to preserve our sanity.  At school, it's important for you to
maintain your geek persona and for us to be just acquaintances.  My school
disguise is a straight-laced religious girl but I'm really anything but
that.  It protects me.  Maybe you could say I'm your cousin."

   "I still don't understand," I said.

   "Trust me, Connor," she said.  "Be patient.  Brian and I will explain
everything when you go home with me tomorrow.  Wait `til then."

   She started her car and drove us off school property.  I gave her
directions and watched her handle the little car.  I didn't expect to see a
girl driving a car with a standard transmission.  I thought most girls
couldn't drive a car with a clutch but she seemed at ease with it.  Well
before we got to my house, she stopped in a quiet residential neighborhood
and pulled over to the curb under a big oak tree.

   "Would you like to drive?" she asked.  "Can you drive a car with a
clutch?"

   "Yeah, I learned in one," I said.  "My dad taught me."

   She got out of the car, I got out, and we met in the back of the car. 
We danced around each other, trying to decide how to bypass each other.  I
caught her by both arms, held her still, and looked in her beautiful
blue-gray eyes.

   "Darcy, please don't mess with me," I said, as earnestly as I could. 
"I've been teased enough by cretins who think it's funny to hurt me and
then laugh at me.  I can't help who I am.  If this is some kind of trick,
I'm going to go somewhere and never come back.  Maybe I'll dig a deep hole
and pull it in on top of me.  I just can't take it anymore."

   I felt tears moisten my eyes and one little tear rolled down my cheek. I
wiped it away with a finger.  Shit!  The ultimate epithet of disgust.  I
didn't want to cry in front of her.  I took a deep breath and sucked my
hurt back down.

   "Una furtiva lagrima," she said

   "L'elisir d'amore," I said and she nodded.

   Damn!  She's intelligent, beautiful, drives a car with a clutch, wants
to be my friend, and knows at least a little about the cosmos and opera. 
What next?

   She looked at me intently for a moment and then pulled me against her
again.  This time, I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed.  She put her
hand behind my head, pulled my head down, and kissed me on the cheek.  I
felt her soft breasts against my chest again.

   "No tricks, Connor," she whispered.  "No teasing.  I'm not going to hurt
you.  I need you to help me.  I need you and others like you for friends.
We all need each other.  We're going to be part of a group of girls and
guys like us.  Please trust me."

   "OK," I whispered in her ear.  "I don't know what's going on but I'll
trust you."

   "Good, now do you want to drive the rest of the way to your house," she
whispered in my ear.  "I want to meet your mother and father and your
little sister."

   I hadn't told her I had a sister.  I knew she had somehow learned about
me and my family.  I didn't say anything about it."

   "Yeah, I'd like to drive but I don't know whether you should meet my
father.  He has problems and he might be having a bad day.  My mom is
working but she'll be home in time for dinner.  My sister, Cathleen, that's
with a C, not a K, anyway, she'll be home anytime now.  We usually ride the
bus together."

   "Connor, Mr.  Whitman did send me to you but I already knew about you
and your family.  It's important for me to meet them.  Trust me."

   "What do you know about my father?"

   "I know he's a veteran who lost part of his left leg below the knee in
Afghanistan.  I know he has phantom limb pain and can't work and that makes
him depressed."

   "You did a little research on me and my family, huh?"

   "Yes, Connor.  My parents are both doctors.  My father is a neurological
surgeon at University Hospital.  My mother is a medical doctor too but she
works with psychiatric patients.  Brian and I have observed my father do
surgery lots of times.  Your father's case is not going to upset me.  I
know about a couple of Dad's patients with the same problem as your father.
My parents can't talk to me about specific patients but we talk lots about
different problems they see.  I may become a doctor and end up helping
people like they do.  I'd like to."

   "Yeah, like a sixteen year old nerd who cries at nothing."

   "Look, you don't need to be like that.  I know you're hurting.  That's
why I gave you a hug.  Brian will probably give you one too and so will my
parents.  That's the way we are.  Sometimes a hug is the best way to
relieve somebody's pain.  At the maximum speed of the Space Shuttle, how
long would it take you to get there?"

   "About 165,000 years," I said.

   "Brain," she said, and smiled at me.

   I reluctantly let go of her and went to the driver's side of the car. 
We sat down and closed the doors at the same time.  I sat there while she
fiddled with a black fob and then the car started by itself.  I drove the
rest of the way to our house and parked in the street, leaving the driveway
and carport open for Mom.

   "Darcy, why do you want to meet my family?  I've got a good family but
we have problems.  My mom has to work because my dad's military pension and
benefits aren't enough for us to live on.  My dad wants to work but can't
get a job and he's depressed most of the time.  My sister's just turned
fifteen and she's rebellious, wants to start dating, and gripes a lot.  I
try to hold it together but I don't know how."

   "Connor, you said you'd trust me," she answered.  "Well, trust me.  I
know what I'm doing.  We're going to solve your family's problems and we're
going to solve yours.  Just wait `til I take you home with me.  Brian and I
will explain everything to you."

   "You really do work miracles, huh?"

   "No, but maybe I can help people.  That's all I'm trying to do.  Is your
sister as smart as you?"

   "I don't know.  She's been tested too.  You know they never reveal what
the scores are except in general terms.  She's got perfect grades as long
as she's been as school."

   "Like you, huh?"

   "Yeah, it's easy.  If I made a B, they'd think I was sick."

   "And you take AP courses."

   "Yeah, as many as I can get."

   I saw the school bus stop at the corner, a pack of kids got off, and I
saw Cathleen walking toward us.  I got out of the car, went around to the
other side, and held the door for Darcy.  I started to reach over in the
back seat to retrieve my backpack but she surprised me.  She caught my hand
in hers and pulled me toward Cathleen.

   "Hello, Cathleen," she said.  "I'm Darcy O'Donovan.  I'm a friend of
Connor's from school.  He's told me a lot about you.  He thinks you're the
best sister in the world.  Are you?"

   I knew Darcy was lying, maybe a white lie, but still a lie.  I'd told
her almost nothing about Cathleen.  I understood she was doing it to be
nice to a typical insecure fifteen year-old.

   "You're Connor's friend?" Cathleen asked.  "He hasn't told me anything
about you."

   "Oh, well, you know how guys are," Darcy said.  "They never talk like
girls do."

   "Darcy wants to meet Dad," I said.  "If he's having a bad day, would you
help us out with him?  Be nice and don't cause any problems?"

   "I never cause problems, Mutt," Cathleen said.  "You know that."

   "Mutt?" Darcy asked.

   "Yeah, that's my name for him," Cathleen said.  "He says I'm a butthead
so I call him Mutthead."

   "Makes perfect sense to me," Darcy said.  "Connor invited for dinner
tonight but said the two of you had to cook.  Would you let me help?  I
like to cook."

   "There's not much to cook," I said.  "We're having spaghetti with
Italian sausage and bread and a salad.  Boil the spaghetti, open a jar, fry
the sausage, make a salad, and we're done."

   "Well, I'm not good at opening jars but Cathleen and I could make a
salad," Darcy said.  "Believe it or not, I can even do Italian sausage.  I
like it."

   She hooked her arm through Cathleen's and walked toward our front door,
sort of dragging me along by the hand.  Cathleen opened the door and we
entered single file.  The room was darkened.  I knew what that meant.

   <><><>

   I started to walk Darcy back out to her car but she wasn't ready to go.
She took my hand and led me over to our front porch swing.  We sat down at
the same time, pushed off with our feet, and started swinging.

   "What you did to my father's leg, touching it, saying you were trying to
learn how the nerves caused him so much pain, that was all just
misdirection; wasn't it?" I asked.

   "No, of course not," she said.  "I know the nerves of the body.  When I
pressed on his leg and asked if that reduced the pain, I knew what I was
doing."

   She was grinning when she said that and I knew she wasn't telling me the
truth.

   "The truth, now, Darcy," I said.  "He thought you were playing with his
leg.  You were really playing with his mind; weren't you?"

   "How can you accuse me of such?" she asked, grinning.

   I knew she knew that I knew she had been playing with his mind.

   "Because you let your skirt ride up a little too much.  Because the top
button on your blouse was unbuttoned when you examined his leg and it
wasn't when we went in the house.  Because you deliberately leaned over so
he could look down your blouse and see your breasts.  You wanted to make
him see you as a beautiful sexy girl whose hands were on his thigh; didn't
you?"

   "OK, you've got me, Connor," she said.  "My father told me to try that.
He said the pain was in your father's mind, not in his leg.  He told me to
make your father think of something else and see if the pain was reduced.
It worked; didn't it?"

   "Yeah, did you see what happened in his shorts?  You gave him a
hard-on."

   "Well, he can just give it to your mother tonight.  That will take care
of it."

   "You're devious, Darcy."

   "No, I'm not, Connor.  Your father's a man but he doesn't feel like one
right now.  If he makes love to your mother tonight, he'll feel more like a
man.  That's what we've got to do.  We need to reduce the pain in his leg
and help him get a job so he feels like he's the breadwinner for his family
and so he can be a good lover for your mom.  That's how we're going to heal
him, Connor.

   "And my mother?  She still loves him."

   "I know.  I could see that.  Maybe we can reduce her workload and her
stress and let her concentrate on helping your father.  Brian and I will
work with you to develop a plan to heal your family.  Just be patient."

   "Darcy, you're just a sixteen-year-0ld girl, maybe a smart one, but
still just a teenage girl," I said.  "What are you trying to do?"

   "Connor, tomorrow after school, Brian and I want to take you home with
us.  We'll bring you back before bed time.  Will you go with us?  Can you
arrange that?  Remember, you're going to trust me.  We'll tell you
everything then."

   "I think so.  Cathleen will be there for Dad after school and Mom will
be in before six.  I'll talk with Cathleen tonight and we'll plan something
easy like sandwiches for dinner."

   "Good.  You said you trust me but your life is about to change a lot,"
she said.  "We have a big pool.  Would you go swimming with me and Brian,
in the nude?"

   I looked at her and I knew she could see the disbelief on my face.

   "Connor, Brian and I swim in the nude lots of afternoons and sometimes
at night.  Sometimes my mom joins us.  Sometimes my dad does.  We've done
that all my life."

   "Well, I haven't.  Why do we have to swim naked?  Maybe I could swim
with you and Brian but not with your parents.  I'm not that bashful but I
don't think I could do it if your parents are swimming too."

   "Just me and Brian, tomorrow afternoon," she said.  "Mom and Dad won't
be home until about five or maybe six.  We'll just have a quick swim before
dinner."

   "You want me to stay for dinner?"

   "You fed me dinner tonight.  I told you I like Italian sausage.  I like
spaghetti.  I like you.  I like your family."

   "Well, you certainly made a good impression on them.  Me too.  But you
were a guest.  You didn't have to help me and Cathleen clean the kitchen.
What have you got planned for tomorrow night?"

   "After dinner, Dad's going to look at your face and skin.  I think he'll
diagnose common acne vulgaris and give you some prescriptions about like
Brian had.  I wrote up Brian's care plan and I'll modify it for you to
follow.  That's all it should take to clear up your skin."

   "We probably can't afford expensive prescriptions, Darcy."

   "There won't be any cost to you or your family, Connor.  Trust me."

   "OK."

   "Good.  Now here's something else.  Tomorrow Brian and I will talk to
you about joining the group.  That's all we're calling it so far.  The
group will work on a project to help people like your father.  It's
important for you to join with us in the group and to work on the project.
Remember my parents are both medical doctors.  They'll be involved with the
project but only when we need them.  This is going to be our group and it's
going to be our long-term project."

   "And I'll learn what this is all about tomorrow when I go home with
you?"

   "Yes.  You'll know enough to decide whether you want to be part of the
group.  If you do, you'll have to take a thorough physical and mental
examination.  We'll do a preliminary physical tomorrow night.  My dad will
help us with the in-depth physical later.  My mom will do the mental after
that."

   "But I told you I can't be running up big medical bills, Darcy."

   "Connor, that's the last time I want to hear you worrying about what
things cost.  If there are any costs, they'll be covered by the project,
not by you.  You'll understand tomorrow.  Come on; trust me!"

   "OK."

   "Once you're in the group, you will help us decide whether your sister
will join us.  Then we'll decide whether to make your family the first case
we help as part of the project.  That's what Brian and I want to do.  Each
case will be about helping the whole family, a family that needs to heal
like yours.

   "Well, we could use the help.  The VA's not doing much to help us.

   "We know.  That's why Brian and I want to do the project, to help
families like yours to solve their problems and be a good loving family
again.  You're going to have to help us do all this, Connor."

   "Work miracles, huh?"

   "Call it what you will.  Now, will you come home with Brian and me
tomorrow afternoon?  All your questions will be answered."

   "Yeah.  I trust you.  I've got to trust somebody to help."

   "OK.  Now come on.  I'll let you drive my car and you can show me around
your neighborhood.  Do you want to?"

   "Yeah.  Sure, I want to," I said, and then muttered something else.

   She looked at me and grinned.  "You horny devil.  There's not room for
both of us in them."

   TO BE CONTINUED



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