Farr’vye
And that fascinated me.
As I walked toward his hut, situated in the furthest corner of the village, I couldn’t keep a smile off my face.
Our first conversation had gone better than I expected.
He’d actually spoken to me! My efforts were rewarded not with simple one-word answers, but an entire conversation. I was glad I’d taken the risk.
I was compelled by him. I wanted to examine him. To know him.
But most of all, I wanted to see his real face.
A low thrum of desire pulsed through my feelers. The idea of stripping his clothes back fascinated me. I wanted to crack open his shell and see the soft parts of himself that he kept hidden.
I had always been a curious individual. Perhaps too curious for my own good. As a youngling, I’d been scolded for pursuing knowledge in… less than kind ways.
As an adult, I knew better. I didn’t want to hurt Assistant 23. The idea filled me with great displeasure.
Yes, I wanted to keep him safe. I simply wished to know what was inside such a unique creature.
I reached his door. I knocked.
A frustrated groan sounded from the other side.
“What do you want?” he cried.
“You forgot your fruits,” I replied brightly.
“Leave them outside.”
“They will rot or become infested,” I pointed out.
He huffed. “They won’t! I’ll take them right after you leave!”
“Why will you not accept them now?”
“Because!”
His voice rose high and shrill. He had such a wide vocal range, so unlike a Maeleon. Our voices could rise and fall, but within a shorter range. In comparison, Assistant 23’s voice had a musical quality.
“Look, can you just… leave me alone?” Assistant 23 asked. His voice had changed again. Now it was tight and thin, evoking discomfort.
“I am bothering you?” I asked.
There was a pause.
“N-no,” Assistant 23 replied. “Well…”
Another pause followed. I stood there patiently, my tail swishing back and forth in amusement.
Would he tell the truth? Or would he lie?
I almost hoped it was the latter. The human urge to tell falsehoods was another trait that I found fascinating.
Did that occur to all humans, or was Assistant 23 special?
Finally, a long sigh came from the other side of the door. “No, you’re not bothering me.”
My mouth widened into a grin. So, he had chosen to lie after all.
“No?” I asked. “Then you will not mind opening the door to face me.”
I knew I was “pushing his buttons”—a human English phrase I’d overheard from Paz.
It meant to annoy another individual with the intention of lightly upsetting them.
My wish was not to anger or frustrate Assistant 23.
I merely wanted to scope out his limits.
What would he agree to? What would he refuse?
Maeleon society was honest and direct. We rarely, if ever, lied to each other. We did not take another individual’s feelings personally, and we communicated our desires and boundaries without a second thought. In this manner, we avoided most conflicts before they began.
Assistant 23 did not do any of this.
He maintained his silence. I assumed he disliked the thought of facing me, yet he could not say it out loud.
“If you tell me to leave, I will do so,” I offered when he didn’t respond. “Your fruits will be left on the ground. I will not push your buttons anymore.”
There was another silent pause, but suddenly Assistant 23 swung the door open.
“How do you know that phrase?” he demanded.
My feelers pulsed with excitement to see and speak with him.
“I overheard it from Paz,” I replied.
Assistant 23 took a few breaths. I knew this by the way his small shoulders shifted beneath his coverings. It was neither the first nor the last time I wished I could see his face.
But I was patient. Fruit left to ripen on the branch was always sweeter than fruit picked too soon.
“Okay,” he said. “But how did you know what it means?”
His tone had changed again. The tight discomfort was gone. He sounded lively and enthusiastic—a new quality I had never heard from him before.
My feelers pulsed faster.
“I assumed its meaning through the context,” I answered. “Did I use it incorrectly?”
Assistant 23’s hand flew to his mouth—or rather, to where I knew a human mouth was. His face was hidden beneath the tinted shield, as usual.
“No. Actually, you used it properly,” he said. “I’m… honestly impressed.”
My grin widened. That might’ve been the first honest thing he’d said all day. And I liked his honesty just as much as his lies.
“I’m actually a linguist, first and foremost,” he said, then sounded embarrassed to admit that so freely. “Um… in case you didn’t know.”
My feelers lifted in surprise. That single tidbit of knowledge only made me hungrier to learn more.
“I did not,” I replied.
The moment passed. He cleared his throat. “I’d better eat.”
To eat, he needed to remove his face shield.
“Can I watch?” I asked.
Assistant 23 sputtered, “N-no!”
His muscles tensed as he shrunk in on himself again. His body language insinuated that I’d pushed him too far. Although, I had to admit, he was cute while flustered.
“All right,” I said.
Grasping the fruit in my tentacles, I offered them to him. He accepted with a curt nod.
When he gripped his fruit safely in hand, I expected him to run inside and slam the door. But to my surprise, he hesitated. Silently, I watched his face shield and waited for his next move.
“Why are you talking to me?” Assistant 23 blurted out.
My tail waved slowly from side to side. “I wish to know more about you.”
“But why? I’m a—” His hands, hidden by the same beige material as the rest of his strange coverings, flailed in the air. “I’m a freak!”
I didn’t understand the word.
“What is a freak?” I asked.
Assistant 23 breathed faster as though the outburst had exerted him but making him explain the term calmed him down. Slightly.
“It means… someone abnormal. A social outcast. Weird. Off-putting,” he muttered. “Me, basically.”
My feelers pulsed as I considered this new information.
“Then I, too, am a freak,” I stated.
Assistant 23 let out a laugh, but there was no mirth in it. “Yeah, sure.”
“You say you believe me, yet you do not sound sincere,” I pointed out.
“You’re not a freak. Trust me,” he mumbled.
“I do trust you.”
A tiny sound of surprise escaped from him.
“But I do not agree with your dismissal,” I continued. “You do not know me very well. Am I correct?”
He crossed his arms. It made him look minuscule and fragile, like a freshly sprouted twig. I could have snapped him in half. Of course, I did not want to. But I could have.
“Yeah. You’re right,” he admitted. He uncrossed his arms, letting them return to his sides. “It’s… hard for me. To talk to people. Humans, Maeleons, whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m just bad at it.”
Happy warmth spread through my body. That was more than I had dared to think he would share.
“Interesting,” I replied.
“What’s interesting about that?” he grumbled.
I tilted my head. “You are confused? Everything about you is interesting to me.”
He made a warbled sound and hunched his shoulders. “D-don’t say weird things like that.”
“What is weird about it?” I asked, not understanding.
Assistant 23’s voice rose to a loud, strained pitch as he yelled, “Argh! Just go away!”
In a frantic motion, he retreated behind the door and slammed it in my face.
My mind filled with questions as I remained standing in front of his hut. We had been conversing well until I called him interesting. That instantly shut him down. How intriguing.
“Are you still out there?” Assistant 23 called, muffled and shaky.
“Yes.”
“W-well, please leave!”
“All right.”
Although I felt a tinge of mild disappointment, I was elated by our progress. We had exchanged so many words today. If I had known Assistant 23 was so easy to pry open, I would have attempted to talk to him sooner.
But my comment about finding him interesting seemed to overwhelm him. I did not know why, but I would remember that knowledge in the future. I could not explore him if he shut down.
As I walked away from Assistant 23’s hut, my feelers thrummed with an excitement so intense that I felt like I could leap into the sky and soar.
I was desperately excited for our next conversation. Desire and curiosity gnawed at my insides like ravenous grubs. I had never felt a yearning for knowledge quite this passionate.
I thought of myself as a patient individual, but Assistant 23 was testing my limits, too. Because I did not think I could wait very long to see him again.