Orpheus | Installment ∞ – Living [Epilogue]

“She was a nonesuch, a nonpareil, yet seemed
Pallid and slightly wilted now, a flower
Long after the rainy season. Had there been
No music for her in Hell to lift her heart
To her throat in his absence but wild shrieks and groans?

But that would end. Now he would play for her
(Without looking back) to raise her fallen spirits:
A medley of her favorites, even some new ones
Composed in her absence, despite it, because of it.”

– “The Return of Orpheus”, by David Wagoner, 1998

Living

“Her slender hand on the small of his back, night after night—this had saved his life.”
― Jason Heller, Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow

Vesta City, Zariah3 – Three years later

He woke up with a voice in his mind. It was sultry, low, slightly husky. He knew exactly who it belonged to. Plus, her small, warm hands on his naked torso were a dead giveaway.

Michael smiled and kept his eyes closed. Life was good, and he could have easily flipped Lisa over and just taken her, but he decided to remain perfectly still.

The caresses continued, slow and comforting, and his hearing zeroed in on the light sound of her breathing as she straddled him and kept stroking his chest. Her hips undulated against his crotch and he had to muster all his willpower to keep pretending that he wasn’t awake. It was a moot point anyway. She knew. Nobody in the universe knew him better than his wife.

“Good morning, Mike…”

He didn’t answer. But he recognized the color in her voice and barely repressed a smile. When Lisa spoke again, her tone was still as sexually charged as it was amused.

“You gonna keep up the charade for long? Stop it… I know you’re awake. At least, a part of you is.”

Damn! He thought he was well trained and very much capable of self-control, but it was clear that not every part of his body knew how to behave around her. Some things just never changed.

Thankfully.

Inhaling a deep breath, Mike opened his eyes and his hands came resting on Lisa’s hips.

“Oh, well… if you know…”

She smiled, and for a moment all he saw was his woman. Sitting up in his lap, her legs naked and tanned, nothing but one on his white shirts on, the first couple of buttons undone and the soft slope of her beautiful breasts visible, her hair wild. She looked young, refreshed and gorgeous. And life was good. It was oh, so very good.

The rest of his body utterly still, Michael moved his head to the side and glanced outside. The French doors were open, the curtains floated like clouds in the gentle morning breeze, and he saw the blinding, yellowish color of the sand. And then the mesmerizing, deep blue of the sea. It was calm and smooth today, a perfect mirror for the vaguely purple sky above. No neon flashes, no annoying voices advertising products and services, telling you what to wear, what to eat, what to drink, what to think, how to fuck. And no obnoxious home automation systems with a quirky voice either. The only voice he could hear was that of the seagulls. Because yeah, those were fierce and strong animals and had shown how quickly they could reproduce in the new environment, once they had been transported there together with many other species.

Flora and fauna. A planet with real trees and real flowers and real animals. Not all of them, but still… It was more than anyone could dream about in this age. And knowing they were there too, somewhere, was much better than watching them on high-res pictures and videos. It didn’t matter if they never showed up and preferred not to have much contact with human beings. Not that they could be blamed…

“You’re still overthinking…” Lisa bent over him and started kissing his neck with warm, open-mouthed kisses. “Or maybe I’m not entertaining you enough…”

He shivered, then caressed her perfect ass. Oh, she was entertaining him alright. And life was good. It was oh, so very good.

“No, you’re doing fine, baby…” His hips pushed up and against her warm center and his breath became more erratic. “But I bet you can do even better…”

She purred and nipped at his shoulder and he smiled, pulling her head back and staring into her eyes.

“Good morning…”

He kissed her, and the contact was slow, deep and lazy. His eyes closed, he felt her hot fingers skim over the sides of his face as his kiss deepened even more. Lisa backed off and watched him, her hooded aqua eyes the most seducing sight ever.

“So, you wanna get up or…?”

He framed her face with both hands and brought her down again, toward his lips.

“Or.”

And they started their slow, unhurried morning lovemaking. The night before they had spent hours screwing like bunnies, their passion as unstoppable as it always had been. It had been rough, it had been wild, it had been hardcore and so fulfilling, and now it was time for a different kind of sex.

Under Michael’s shirt, Lisa was still naked. And he was too. After reversing their positions, he took great care in taking the garment off her, and every new portion of skin he discovered, he kissed. For every button opened, his hands and lips moved further down her body. When he started kissing and gently biting her firm thighs, Lisa’s head fell back into the pillows and her hands came to rest on his head, stroking his hair in slow, tantalizing motions. How he loved the way she touched him. As if he was something precious that had to be treated with great care. That was one of the details about them that had never changed, and the shift between their first and second life had been smooth and flawless.

Another detail that was still the same was the way she smelled and tasted. Which was like heaven.

Michael buried his head in between Lisa’s legs and kept her thighs open to his deep kisses, and she arched up, moaning. Her beautiful, tanned body relaxed and tensed all at once. He found himself sighing against her warm, pulsing flesh and realized that he could not wait much longer. How was it even possible that he had never, ever stopped desiring her like that? It was crazy!

Reading his mind and despite being on the verge of a soul-shattering climax, Lisa tugged at his hair gently and he reemerged from his personal Eden, his eyes shining.

She giggled, breathlessly.

“What’s that shit-eating grin?”

He just shrugged, playfully, as he started leaving a trail of kisses from her hips up to her stomach. He spoke in between gentle bites and strokes of his tongue.

“No reason… I guess I’m just a happy-go-lucky guy…”

And he was honest. He had everything he needed: someone to love, things to do, a future to build. As he stopped at her breasts and cupped one, kissing the other, gently biting on her nipple, making her gasp without really inflicting any pain, Lisa reached down and grabbed him with a firm hold.

“Oh, baby… I can feel how happy you are…” She was breathless. “Let me see what I can do… to make you even happier…”

Her hand started stroking him with just the right pressure, with just the right rhythm. He found himself pushed a little closer to the edge and his breathing, too, quickened.

Their lovemaking had changed, during the past three years. Since they had moved to Zariah3, many things had changed and had become a harmonic fusion between what they wanted in this life and what they had longed for in their previous one. Sex was included in the list. Gone was the despair, gone was the longing, gone was the fear of losing each other. Michael and Lisa had gone through so much – through time, space, through their respective presence and absence. And now they felt they had finally arrived somewhere. What remained was that perfect mixture of burning passion, emotional entanglement, chemistry, and trust. In themselves and one another.

Their new home certainly helped, and Miss Oshi had been right in so many ways, when she had told them that they would find it interesting. It was nice to still see and talk to her and Akira on their holoscreen, once in a while.

Vesta City was one of the several residential areas on Zariah3 and it was located on a small, artificial island, a fluctuating ground surrounded by the sea, but not too far away from the coast. A bridge connected the city to the rest of the land. Its name had a mythological origin: Vesta was the goddess of the family, hearth and home, which was appropriate since Michael and Lisa had created their family there. What they found appealing was also the etymology of the name, which had different meanings in accordance with different cultures. Vesta meant “standing by power” in Latin, and “standing for ever” in ancient Greek. Both interpretations were fitting.

Vesta City, just like the rest of the planet, had been designed and configured to guarantee the perfect coexistence between nature and human life. Those who chose Zariah3 to escape from the Earth did it because they didn’t want to live in a highly-polluted, ultra-technological world any longer. In fact, the small orbital planet was the perfect example of what any world should be. It wasn’t huge in size, but it was dubbed “the Ecotarium” for a reason. It was a tiny, warm paradise of beauty, peace and equality, owned by the very people who inhabited it.

Zariah3 was a soft buffer zone able to accept and nurture a double world: that of nature, made of natural elements, flora and fauna; and that of people – as long as they were respectful. Environmentalism was the keyword: the founders of the planet had seen first-hand the destruction inflicted on the Earth and its natural resources. They had also seen the effects that obliteration and disconnection had on people, and they had designed their new home by moving in the opposite direction.

Clean energy was the only available energy. Waste was not recycled, but upcycled again and again, used as raw material to feed the planet and its people, transformed from a state of refuse to a state of sophistication. All the citizens on Zariah3 were informed and aware and sensitive about the green policy that ruled their home. And they  did their best to keep the planet as healthy, clean and beautiful as it deserved to be. The small orbital planetoid was now, in its totality, the exact opposite of the Garbage Megacities on Earth. There was no distinction between waste and supply, as one became the other and they were the same thing. A resource for all.

Also, there was no anthropocentric, architectural view of the environment. There were no upper or lower levels, but a complex, interconnected metabolic system. A living, breathing system. The planet, its natural resources, its population were symbiotic, akin to a synergistic biological system. Every life serviced the others harmonically, and the web of virtual reality had left space to the web of life. It was the only one that mattered.

The economy, too, cycled back and was stable, because all citizens were aware that nothing could grow to infinity. Recognizing the limits of the planet’s metabolism was the essential step to allow Zariah3 to not only survive, but thrive. The human footprint on the whole territory, in all its cities, stations and colonies, was minimal by choice, and so was human population density. People had left a world where privacy no longer existed and now inhabited a small planet where privacy was everything. They had willingly given back useless amenities and luxury nothings, receiving something much more crucial in return: a healthy future for their bodies, souls and minds.

Kneeling in between Lisa’s legs, Michael’s covered her hand with his own and closed his eyes, following her movements and letting her guide them for a minute. She just looked at him, mesmerized by the enraptured expression on his face, by his parted lips as he enjoyed that intimate caress. Biting her lip, she held him tighter and gave him a squeeze and a gentle tug, making him gasp.

Mike opened his eyes and smiled.

“What? What you want, baby girl?”

Lisa’s blue gaze under those long, lowered eyelashes entangled him in its seductive spiderweb. Irresistible.

“You know what I want… Come on…”

He arched an eyebrow and kept grinning.

“I’m sorry?”

She laughed and shook her head.

“You’re incorrigible…” She bit her lip again, turning serious. “Please baby, fuck me… Give it to me…”

Satisfied, Mike leaned in and kissed her, his tongue sweeping into her mouth and stroking against hers.

Now that their life had finally reached a point of complete peace, of absolute safety, resuming those old games was as natural as breathing. Still in a kneeling position between her parted legs, he allowed Lisa’s foot to run up and down his side, making him shiver, as they kept kissing. His hands did some exploration on their own, finding her more than ready for him. Which was a good thing, because he was about to burst into flames.

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him. He smiled when she yelped and giggled, locking her legs around his body. But then, when he brought her calves up over his shoulders and gently stroked her center with his steel, she turned serious once again and her expression became intense, enamored.

He slid inside of her, burying himself into her body and they both let out a moan, in perfect sync. Their eyes locked for a long moment suspended in time and Lisa reached up, her hands caressing his arms and shoulders. Then he started to move in slow, deep strokes, as if dancing inside of her. He kept maximum control over himself, wanting their complete communion to last forever, and got lost observing Lisa as she watched him. She was entranced, captivated, her eyes fixed on his torso, on the motions of his hips. Her hands moved, her fingers stroked his chest, then the taut, rippling muscles of his stomach as he kept moving into her.

To him, the sounds of pleasure coming from her mouth were as exhilarating as those coming from the sea. Just like he never got bored waking up every morning and hearing the waves gently crash against the shoreline, so the little sobs and whimpers that Lisa let out as he took her were still one of the most beautiful melodies he had ever heard.

His eyes still fixed on her, his lower body caught in a dance that didn’t require almost any volition, Michael turned his face and kissed her calves, her knees, all the while caressing her thighs. He bent forward and she rose up on her elbows at the same time, and they met halfway in a scorching kiss. Closing his eyes, he felt her hand reach his ass and pull him further in. He groaned against her lips.

Lisa pulled back just enough to speak.

“I love this… feeling you like this… I love you…”

“God… Lise…”

The way she was able to trap him into her body made him feel dizzy.

He was so in love. And it was free, unbridled, fully expressed love. His movements intensified as he felt the point of non-return approaching quicker than he expected. Just as he tried to hold on a little longer, she pulled his head down, kissing him again, swallowing his sobs and whimpers. Her body started to shake and tremble against his, the heat scorching him both outside and inside. She bucked up against him, moaning loudly and all he felt was rapture, pure ecstasy. His thrusts became more forceful as he accompanied her through her pleasure, and Lisa’s eyes snapped open.

She gripped his forearms.

“I wanna feel you.” She blinked and her eyes tried to focus. “Let me feel you.”

Her legs came down and she wrapped them around his waist. Forcing him inside her tight heat. And it became crystal clear that he could not hold off any longer. He had to let go, and he loved doing it like this. Making her his. He surged into her once again, in a series of sharp, well-delivered thrusts, bracing his hands on either side of her torso.

“Oh, fuck… I’m about to come…”

“Yeah… Just like that, Mike… Oh, baby…”

Her trembling voice was the prelude of another orgasm, and she just couldn’t resist. She had never been able to. Feeling him lose control like that, letting himself go like that was the best aphrodisiac ever. And the sheer perfection of his movements, and that of his body, did the rest. She started writhing under him as he froze for a second, and then was swept away by a violent, almost painful climax.

Mike collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily, his face hidden in the crook of her neck, her hand in his hair, holding him in place. He didn’t know how long they stayed like that.

He kissed her sweaty skin, not really moving.

“Am I crushing you?”

He heard her smile.

“No… I love feeling your weight on me…”

“And I love you…”

He rose on his elbow and stared at her for a moment. God…

They kissed for what felt like forever. When they finally broke apart, she was a bit dizzy once again. Mike tilted his head and caressed her face with the back of his hand.

“Hey… The little ladies up yet?”

“Nope. Apparently, they’re starting to love sleeping late in the morning… just like their dad.”

“It’s not late at all.”

“Indeed. That’s why I had to wake you up.”

“I love how you wake me up with your body…”

One more kiss.

“You do? I’m glad. But now my body wants to go to the beach. And I bet your daughters do, too.”

“Alright… then off to the beach we go. Damn, I’m a slave to my women…”

Kneeling up, he scooped Lisa up and she clung to his body, yelping and laughing. All the while, she thought that life had never felt so good.

On Zariah3, the colors were different. The sky was not blue. It was pink or, on some days, lilac. Just like today. Together with the distance to the other cloned planets orbiting around the Earth, those colors made the nights magical and very, very starry. Especially if observed from their home on the beach.

And the best part of it all was the astroglass shielding system, surrounding the whole planetoid and efficiently protecting its inhabitants both from global warming and ultraviolet radiation exposure. Joking, Michael called Zariah3 “the planet with sunglasses.”

In short, that meant that the sun was not dangerous at all there. Ever. Not even for Michael, who was no longer forced to stay in the shade or live in a perpetually rainy megacity in order to protect himself. For him, too, sunshine had become nourishment. And he loved it. He loved to swim and sunbathe and simply enjoy hours and hours in the outdoors.

Lisa watched him as he scampered out of the water, wearing only a pair of swim trunks, his torso naked, holding both twins in his arms. They had been chasing the waves together for a while now, and they were laughing.

Eve and Julie adored their daddy and their mommy. At eighteen months of age, they were perfectly happy kids with a perfect life and a bright future waiting for them. The twins had been a surprise – an unexpected miracle. Lisa and Mike really had thought they were unable to procreate and, according to Sydney, that condition would have never changed.

Well, Lisa had gotten pregnant about a year after she and Michael moved to Zariah3. Sydney had either lied to them or had underestimated the ability of their bodies to adapt to the new environment… and their deepest desires. They had wanted to raise a family together so much. For so long. And now they had it. And since Lisa and Michael never used any precautions during sex, and they made love all the time, a further expansion of the family was something they had considered.

It would be welcomed.

Lisa smiled hearing Mike and the babies laugh, and raked her fingers through her wet hair. Even if she was never going to become pregnant again, it would be OK. This existence was now worth living as it was. And it didn’t even matter if Sydney had told them the truth or not about their possible expiration date. Because life, and the energy it was made of, just couldn’t die. It would only change its form.

For now, the only thing they were looking forward to seeing was an endless series of sunrises. Auroras rising above the lavender horizon, on a planet with sunlight.

“Babe…! Come on! Whatcha waiting for?”

Nothing. He was right. The wait was over.

Lisa took a sip of water, rose from the sand and ran toward her family.

They would survive. They would keep living.

The end.

“On the surface, I was calm: in secret, without really admitting it, I was waiting for something. Her return? How could I have been waiting for that? We all know that we are material creatures, subject to the laws of physiology and physics, and not even the power of all our feelings combined can defeat those laws. All we can do is detest them. The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that finis vitae sed non amoris, is a lie, useless and not even funny. So must one be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going? Are we to grow used to the idea that every man relives ancient torments, which are all the more profound because they grow comic with repetition? That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox…
Must I go on living here then, among the objects we both had touched, in the air she had breathed? In the name of what? In the hope of her return? I hoped for nothing. And yet I lived in expectation. Since she had gone, that was all that remained. I did not know what achievements, what mockery, even what tortures still awaited me. I knew nothing, and I persisted in the faith that the time of cruel miracles was not past.”

― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

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