V
Michael’s Education Continues
The next morning, Mrs. Sobaka and Mrs. Khomyak arrived right on time, as they did for the next four months of Michael’s lessons. Galina’s lesson today was history. After all, he had 20,000 years of history to catch up on.
After receiving his morning ritual with Anne, Mrs. Sobaka and Michael went into the dining room, sat at the table, and began his lessons. “I want to teach you history today, Michael.” Mrs. Sobaka said. “If you want clarification on anything we covered yesterday, you’ll have a chance at a later time, probably next week. I’m going to assume that you don’t need help with anything like math or English since you’ve completed college and, according to what Leo told me, you were quite a good student.”
Michael smiled at the compliment and said, “Well, my father demanded that I be the best I could possibly be.”
“Good. Now, let’s begin our history lesson. Because you were asleep for 20,000 years, there’s a lot of history to teach you. However, between the fall of human civilization and the rise of Humanimal civilization, there are over 10,000 years of what we call ‘The Dark Times.’ It was during the dark times that the most violence between humans and humanimals took place. The humans tended to blame the humanimals for their troubles and took it out on them. However, there were exceptions.” Galina handed him a rather thick book saying, “Here’s a book on the history of the dark times. Start reading it and you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about. We’re going to spend at least a week on history; so, it’s imperative that you understand what happened during the dark times.”
Michael sat at the table reading the book that Galina had given him. As he was reading, Anne came running from her room with Mrs. Khomyak in hot pursuit. Anne was laughing as hard as she was running. Anne ran up to Michael and jumped into his lap and pressed her face into his chest. “Anne! What are you doing?” Michael asked.
“Mah’l, I pwayin. Mama Komak pway chase Anne. Beez hide me.” Anne giggled.
Michael wrapped his arms around Anne and said, “Okay, Anne. I’ll hide you from Mrs. Khomyak.”
Galina stepped back into the dining room to see Anne sitting in Michael’s lap with her face buried in his chest and giggling. She smiled and said, “So, you like little Anne, huh?”
“Well, when I arrived here, Anne attached herself to me. According to Dr. Tigresa, she’s adopted me as an older brother. She never misses an opportunity to climb into my lap and hug me.”
“You impress me as being good father material. Have you got a girlfriend?”
“No. I’ve only been awake since last Thursday,” Michael replied, laughing. “Besides, I believe I’d have a hard time finding a human to marry.”
“Michael, you don’t need to marry a human. I’ve already told you that humans and humanimals are genetically identical and are capable of producing viable, fertile young. You are very good-looking. You could have almost any Humanimal woman you wanted.”
“No offense, Mrs. Sobaka, but I can’t even remotely consider a Humanimal as a potential wife.”
“Why not?”
Michael hemmed a bit before saying, “Don’t forget that when I was growing up there was no such thing as humanimals.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You have to remember about the era when I grew up. To my way of thinking, you’re an animal who looks human and sex with animals was illegal back then.”
Mrs. Sobaka asked, “Did you ever consider the possibility that we are humans that look like animals?”
“Well, I know you told me yesterday that humanimals are half-human and, physically, look exactly like humans but with animal fur and heads; but, unfortunately, when I look at a Humanimal, I don’t see a human that looks like an animal; I see an animal that looks human.”
“Michael! That sounds like a speciesist.”
“A what!?”
“Speciesist. They’re humanimals that believe that humanimals should only marry those of the same ancestral animal species.”
“That sounds like racists from when I was growing up.”
“If I understand correctly, back in those days, a racist believed that their race was the perfect race along with not believing you should marry someone of another race and they had a bad habit of trying to harm, or even kill, members of another race. Speciesists, on the other hand, don’t necessarily believe their ancestral species is the best, most perfect race; they just believe in keeping the bloodlines pure.”
“I see. However, I hadn’t ever really considered the possibility of it being all right to be in that kind of relationship. Maybe one day I will; but, right now, I, I can’t.”
“That’s fine, Michael. You’re young. You’ve got plenty of time to change your mind. I’m sure you’ll meet a Humanimal woman that will catch your eye and keep it until you decide you’ve got to have a relationship with her.”
Michael laughed and said, “While I won’t rule out the possibility; I’m not holding my breath.”
Mrs. Khomyak, despite her advanced age, was playfully sneaking up on Anne. Every time Anne would look up and see her, she would bury her face again and giggle even louder. Finally, Mrs. Khomyak reached Michael and grabbed Anne causing her to screech her laughter as Mrs. Khomyak picked her up to carry her back to her room.
As Mrs. Khomyak picked up Anne, Michael said, “Go with Mrs. Khomyak, Anne. She found you.”
“Okay, Mah’l. Mama Komak, we go woom. We pway new game.”
“All right, Sweetie Anne. Besides, Michael needs to complete his education.” Mrs. Khomyak said as she carried Anne back to her bedroom.
Mrs. Sobaka said, “So, even though you obviously love Anne as much as you do, you could never see a Humanimal woman as a potential mate?”
“Believe me, Mrs. Galina, Victoria has tried to get me interested in her since Dr. Leo and Dr. Tigresa brought me home. I just can’t see it happening to me.”
“What if you met someone that you couldn’t ignore? What if she was so beautiful that you couldn’t get her out of your mind?”
“Mrs. Galina, there’s more to attraction than looks.”
“Well, that’s true, Michael. But we all know that physical attraction comes first. So, what kind of animal do you like?”
“I’ve always loved lions, tigers, wolves, foxes, cheetahs. I’ve always preferred felids but I’ve also liked a few canids, too.”
“What about rodents, lagomorphs, ursines, etc.?”
“I don’t dislike them; they just don’t appeal to me.”
“Would you accept one as a friend?”
“Most definitely. I’m not that prejudiced and I’m definitely not bigoted against anyone based on outward appearance.”
“That’s good. So, you couldn’t love a Humanimal. Is that what you’re saying?”
“No. I’m just saying that I’ve got a mental block about it. Like I said, I grew up during a time when loving an animal was only allowed if you were loving a cherished pet and then it could only be platonic.”
“Things change, Michael. You may be surprised at when and how love strikes you.”
“Well, I’m not going to say that it won’t ever happen but, right now, I can’t imagine me falling in love with a Humanimal woman.”
“All right, Michael. Well, now back to our lessons.”
Mrs. Sobaka explained how after experimenting for about 500 years after he was put into stasis the first Humanimal was born to a young woman who was 23 years old at the time of the birth. The baby, a little girl, was a German shepherd Humanimal. The woman had to endure a lot of prejudice and bigotry because she had chosen to give birth to a baby that wasn’t fully human. The little girl, whose name was Abigail Matthews, also endured a lot of bigotry, especially from religious groups who called her an abomination. A lot of groups even demanded that she be killed and all experimentation on hybridization cease. These groups openly admitted that they didn’t care whether or not this experimentation would possibly save some semblance of the human species and their accomplishments. However, in one of the rare instances where politicians ignored special interest groups, the experimentation continued and, after another 100 years, there were over 25,000 humanimals of each of 15 different species or races in the countries that allowed for the development of them with more races being created every year. After another 150 years, every known species of non-ungulate, non-aquatic mammal had been hybridized and the Humanimal species was officially established.
When Michael asked about Abigail, Mrs. Sobaka said, “There isn’t a lot known about her life. What we do know is that she grew up, went to school, and endured the prejudices and bigotries of the humans of her time. When she was 18 or 19, one of the most vocal opponents of the creation of humanimals whipped up his church into a maniacal fury and they headed to the home of Abigail. They demanded that she be turned over to them so they could ‘end the abomination” that she was. When she stepped out to speak with them, the leader of the group threw a stone at her and hit her in the head. Soon, everyone who followed him was stoning her. It’s said that she died in her mother’s arms forgiving the ones who had done such a cruel thing to her.”
“What happened to that man?”
“He was put on trial for murder. His defense was that Abigail wasn’t human; therefore, he wasn’t guilty of murder. During his testimony, he is supposed to have said, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong. If I have committed murder, may God strike me dead here and now.”
“What happened?”
“He had a heart attack right there on the witness stand and, before the ambulance could arrive to take him to the hospital, he died.”
“Wow! Talk about poetic justice.”
Mrs. Sobaka continued, “When the Humanimal population reached numbers significant enough to support the species continuation, problems developed. Humans still significantly outnumbered humanimals and, even though humanimals were accepted as intelligent beings, some politicians saw them as a commodity to be used and humanimals were, basically, forced into slavery, every kind of slavery.”
“You mean they were also forced into being sex slaves?”
“Yes. That’s one of the reasons that a lot of humanimals still hold a grudge against humans, even though there haven’t been any Humanimal sex slaves in well over 18,000 years. After almost a thousand years of slavery, the humanimals, whose numbers had increased significantly during their time of slavery, started demanding to be treated as equals. There were a lot of uprisings throughout the world. After one particularly severe uprising, the president of the United States at the time, went before congress and demanded that they pass a resolution to amend the American constitution outlawing slavery of humans and humanimals. He believed that he had the backing of a majority of Americans to support his demand. He was right. Congress passed the resolution and within two years the required ¾ of the states approved the amendment. This made the United States the first country to outlaw Humanimal slavery. In another 10 years, every industrial nation had outlawed it and after 50 more years, Humanimal slavery was illegal all over the world.”
“So, what led to the fall of human civilization?”
“Because of the ravages of the HEV, the human population had declined to such a point that, even though they still outnumbered humanimals, it was by the barest of margins, 50.1% of the world’s population was human, couple this with the fact that the earth, in its ever-changing orbit, was moving away from the sun and, as a result, getting cooler and, consequently, a new ice age was beginning. The poles started freezing again and glaciers started forming on the mountains once again. Soon, the humanimals, who had felt that they were mistreated from the days of Abigail Matthews, decided to solve their problems militarily and a worldwide war between humans and humanimals began. Due to the attacks of humanimals on humans coupled with the new ice age, in just 20 years, human civilization crumbled and fell.”
“An Ice Age? Wow! So, when did it end?”
“The Ice Age started slowly ending approximately 8,000 years ago.”
“What was the attitude of humans and humanimals then?”
“When the earth started warming again, humans and humanimals who were still, technically, warring on each other, decided to accept each other and respect each other’s right to exist. It was easier for humans because, at that time, they comprised less than 1/3 of the world’s population and their population was dropping every year. There was still a significant number of humanimals that distrusted humans but they were willing to accept their right to exist. The one thing neither side was willing to accept at that time was interbreeding between humans and Humanimals, even though there were documented cases of humans and humanimals interbreeding during the ice age. It was about this time that speciesists started appearing. At first, they were only opposed to human and Humanimal interbreeding but, eventually, they became opposed to interbreeding between the Humanimal races.”
“So, even though you think that I’ll have to consider a Humanimal for a wife, I’ll probably have to deal with Humanimal speciesists who may physically attack me for dating their daughters.”
“No, not physically attack you, Michael. Verbally, yes; physically, no. Physical attacks aren’t just frowned on; they’re downright illegal, especially against humans, who are considered a protected species now that there are less than 10 million in the entire world. The penalties for physically attacking a human are so severe that no one wants to risk them.”
“How severe?”
“The first offense carries a 50,000 Yenar fine and it escalates from there.”
“Wow! Has a human ever instigated a physical attack?”
“I’ve heard that in the past they have but not in the last 300 years.”
“Why do you think that’s the case?”
“Most humanimals are descended from wolves, lions, tigers, bears, chimpanzees, gorillas, and other large animals. We still carry the canine teeth of our ancestral animal. Even the humanimals descended from rodents and lagomorphs could inflict a painful bite with their sharp incisors. And all it would take is a severe bite to seriously injure a human.”
“Ah, self-preservation. That’s a good reason to not antagonize a Humanimal.” Michael replied, laughing.
*****
Tuesday morning, Amanda started out the door of her family’s home. She paused for a second and said, “Mom, I’m leaving.”
Mrs. Fuchs walked out of the kitchen where she had been preparing breakfast for Amanda’s baby sister, Felicia. “You refuse to listen to me? You still insist on working?”
“Yes, Mother. I need to be able to support myself and, before you say anything, I’ll choose my husband. I’ll find the one that I can love who’ll love me back.”
“Amanda, I just want what’s best for you. I know you don’t believe me but I really do love you, Sweetheart.”
“Mother, I’m not saying you don’t love me but, you have a weird way of showing it. You don’t trust me to make decisions; you think that I’ll always make the wrong one and you’ll always make the right one. Mother, did it ever occur to you that I have to make wrong decisions to start making right ones?”
“Amanda, I . . .”
Amanda held up her hand and said, “Mother, I’m going to be late to work. If you’re willing to discuss this like two adults, we can continue this when I get home tonight.
“Are you going to do anything to try to prevent me from going to work today?”
“No, Amanda. I made you a promise yesterday that I wouldn’t interfere with you working after what Corporal Ilves said to me. I don’t particularly enjoy the thought of going to jail. I just wish you would listen to me.”
“I’m sorry, Mother. I’ll see you this evening.”
*****
Mrs. Khomyak came out of Anne’s room holding her hand. Anne squealed with delight when she saw Michael, ran and jumped into his lap. “Mah’l, Mama Komak pway tea wif Anne. See say time eat.”
“Thank you, Anne. I’m feeling a little hungry. How about you, Galina?”
“I’m getting hungry, as well.”
Mrs. Khomyak said, “Good. I’ll prepare us a bite to eat. What would you like, Anne?”
“I wah bacon.”
“You want a bacon sandwich, Anne?” Mrs. Khomyak asked.
“Yeah.”
Michael looked at her and said, “Anne, what do you say to Mrs. Khomyak?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Anne replied shyly.
Mrs. Khomyak looked at Michael and said, “You seem to expect good manners from Anne, Michael. Was that normal when you were growing up?”
“It was a dying tradition, Mrs. Khomyak. But my parents expected it. For some reason, about 100 years before I was born, manners were deemed to be archaic and no longer taught to children. Saying things like, ‘Yes, sir’ or ‘Yes, ma’am’ were deemed too confining and restrictive to some people so they refused to say them. My parents, on the other hand, trained me and my siblings to have good manners. You’d be surprised at the odd looks I’d get when I’d say, ‘Yes, ma’am’ to someone.”
*****
Amanda arrived at the SoGa Industries parking lot and found a place to park. She locked her car and walked to the front door. She entered the building, greeted Mrs. Lagomorph, and continued to the elevator to the 12th floor. She exited the elevator, greeted everyone as she walked to her desk, and sat down. The intercom buzzed and Mr. Blaidd asked Amanda to come into his office and bring her stenographer’s pad.
“Good morning, Amanda.” Mr. Blaidd said as she entered his office. “I see you didn’t have a problem getting to work today.”
“Yes, sir. I reminded my mom of what Corporal Ilves said to her yesterday. I’m not saying that she won’t try something else but, right now, she’s leaving me alone.”
“Good. I need to dictate several letters and I need you to type them and get them back to me to sign. I would prefer them completed before lunch so we can get them out today.”
“Yes sir.” Amanda retrieved her stenographer’s pad and pen and waited for Mr. Blaidd to begin.
Mr. Blaidd dictated a few letters to her and, after he finished, she went back to her desk and started typing the letters and addressing the envelopes. She finished typing the letters and envelopes before 0500 and took the letters to Mr. Blaidd for his signature. After he signed the letters, Amanda returned to her desk, folded the letters, and placed them in the envelopes. She took the letters to the mailroom so they could stamp them and put them in the mail. She returned to her desk just in time for lunch and met Wanda, Bertha, and Michelle at the elevator to go to the lunchroom.
*****
Michael, Anne, Galina, and Mrs. Khomyak ate lunch, Michael with Anne in his lap. He was amazed that potato chips were available, although the chips were about twice as thick as the ones he remembered eating growing up. Anne would eat a chip and then, turn and offer Michael one. Michael noticed that like their animal ancestors, Galina, Mrs. Khomyak, and Anne didn’t drink anything until they finished eating. This was a habit that he started following very soon after arriving in Dr. Leo’s home.
After they ate, Michael said, “Anne, Mrs. Sobaka and I have to go back to my training. Go with Mrs. Khomyak and play until we finish. Okay?”
“Okay, Mah’l”
Anne took Mrs. Khomyak’s hand and said, “Mama Komak, wets go woom an pway.”
“Of course, Sweetie Anne.”
Before they left, Mrs. Khomyak turned to me and said, “You know, if I was 40 years younger, I’d be chasing after you. You’re going to make someone a good husband and father to her cubs.”
Michael smiled in an embarrassed manner as Galina added, “See, Michael. I’m not the only one who thinks you’re good husband material.”
Michael just shook his head and said, “Don’t we have more training to do? I want to be a good productive member of Humanimal society.”
*****
Amanda, Wanda, Bertha, and Michelle reached their table and sat down. They continued their conversation from yesterday. Amanda said, “Michelle, you never did say if you ever had a boyfriend when you were in school.”
Tears welled up in Michelle’s eyes. “When I was 14, a 16-year-old boy, a caracal named Stephan Mauaji, asked me to go out with him. I was ecstatic. I thought he really liked me; I thought he believed me when I said I was a full-blood serval. We went out and I had the best time of my life. He was the perfect gentleman. He treated me with respect. When he brought me home, he took my hand and kissed it. We went out a couple more times and he was just as gentlemanly as he was the first time.
“A couple of weeks later, he gave me a ride home from school. When we arrived, he walked me to my door but, instead of being a gentleman again, he forced his way into my home.
“He said, ‘I think it’s time you show me what a mixed-race girl can do.’
“I replied, ‘What? I’m not mixed-race. I’m a full-blood serval, Stephan; I told you that. I’ve told everyone that ever since I was six years old.”
“He laughed and said, ‘I know better than that. Your mother is married to a cheetah; that makes you mixed-race.’
“‘Even if what you’re saying is true, that doesn’t mean that I’m free with my body.’
“He forced me into my bedroom and raped me. When he finished, he said, ‘Humph! I’ve had better from caracal girls.’ Then, he leaned over me and whispered into my ear saying, “Don’t report this to the police. You’ll never get a conviction. Believe me when I say this.” Laughing, he left my room and went home.
“When my parents got home, they found me in my room crying. Through my tears, I managed to tell my parents what had happened. They called the police. They came and asked me a lot of questions, all while looking at my parents oddly. After about half an hour of questions, they left.
“Later, I heard they went to Stephan’s home and questioned him. He denied that he raped me. He said that, since I was a mixed-race, I actually wanted it and that it wasn’t until afterward that I changed my mind. He also said that I made the claim because his family was rich and I wanted to extort money from them.”
Amanda said, “What happened?”
“The police dropped the charges. I heard rumors that Stephan’s father paid the police chief off to drop the charges. I also heard that I wasn’t the first girl to claim Stephan had raped her.
Amanda looked at Michelle with sympathy and asked, “Where’s Stephan now?”
“He’s dead.”
“WHAT!? What happened?”
“I heard that Stephan started dating this girl who was half-wolverine and half-badger. I also heard that her father was deeply involved in criminal activities. In fact, rumor has it that her father was the boss of a crime syndicate.
“When the father called the police about the rape, the same thing happened to her that happened to me. The charges were inexplicably dropped.
“Two weeks later, Stephan was attacked by someone and both of his legs were broken. Stephan’s father claimed that he was attacked by someone hired by the wolverine. He confronted the wolverine. The wolverine supposedly said, ‘Your son took the innocence of my daughter. He should have been charged with rape but you paid off the police commissioner to drop the charges. Now, your son knows he won’t rape another mixed-race girl and get away with it.’
“Stephan’s father said, ‘You just admitted to being behind Stephan’s attack. I’ll have you charged.’
“‘I admitted to nothing. I merely said that your son got his just desserts. You paid off the police commissioner to ignore the facts. I can pay off any doctor to say your son’s broken legs were the result of him doing something stupid. You don’t have more money than I do.’”
Amanda said, “That’s horrible. That boy wasn’t even 18 years old.”
“I know, Amanda. I’m sorry for his family but, I agree with the wolverine. A few weeks later, Stephan was tried for the rape of the wolverine-badger girl. He was convicted and banished from Gargia. Stephan never learned from that lesson. He was living in the mountains of eastern Kenturkey. He got the daughter of one of the mountain lions pregnant and refused to marry her. I heard the mountain lion didn’t take his refusal too kindly and, it seems, Stephan wound up being accidentally shot during hunting season. Personally, I believe he got what he deserved.”
“Yeah, I guess. I think it’s still bad that Thomas’ parents lost their son because he refused to treat girls properly.”
The rest of their lunch passed in silence as Michelle cried quietly both because of her lost innocence and Stephan’s banishment.
*****
For the rest of the week, Galina taught Michael as much history as he could ever possibly want to know. He learned that the Humanimal history semi-mirrored human history in many ways. They went through a period of city-states, kingdoms, small nations, empires, and, eventually, a united nation within the general borders of the United States of America that he grew up in. He was especially fascinated by the city-state and kingdom eras because, as strange as it may sound, the city-states were divided among the different races of humanimals, foxes, wolves, hyenas, bears, etc., as well as numerous human city-states. When the kingdoms started, he noticed that most of the kingdoms were run by the larger races and their knights were mostly mid-sized races, mostly foxes, cheetahs, lynxes, and hyenas. He learned that most of the hyena knights were spotted hyena females, although there was the occasional male hyena who was an outstanding fighter who eschewed the idea of dominant females.
The empire era also fascinated him because he knew how much territory the USA had covered and found it interesting that, at times, there were as many as six empires existing within the borders at the same time. Being originally from the southeastern part of the USA, Michael wanted to learn as much as he could about the history of what he knew of as Georgia. He found that most city-states covered between 25 and 100 square miles, were generally bounded by natural obstacles such as rivers and mountains, and were almost constantly at war with the neighboring city-states. After close to a thousand years of city-states, the stronger city-states started conquering and absorbing their neighbors and became kingdoms. These kingdoms fought fewer wars but, on the occasion when they did, it was usually a war of conquest and the kingdoms were ever-expanding. This time was equivalent to the human Medieval Period and was when the knights were most prevalent.
All too soon, the history lessons stopped and, since it was related, Michael was thrust into Social Studies and how the UPA (United Provinces of Amurica) was formed. Galina explained how each province in the UPA had been an independent kingdom and how the kingdoms decided that, for the better good of all the people of the country, it would be a good idea to form a loose, and eventually strong, union to prevent other countries from attempting to attack and conquer the smaller kingdoms. She also explained how there were regions that worked independently of the national federal government which allowed the federal government to concentrate on the big picture of protecting the country, inter-provincial/inter-regional commerce, protecting natural resources, international commerce, international relations, etc. The regions oversaw the different provinces because the humanimals believed that, in a country to the size of the UPA, regional governments were more in tune with the needs of the region than the federal government and were, therefore, more receptive to the requirements of their respective region. She also taught Michael that each province had a capital (Gargia’s capital being Catlanna), each region had a capital (the southeast region’s capital being in Gnashville), and there was a national capital in Tapirka, Cornsas. The federal governing body consisted of two houses of government, a Senate and a House of Representatives. Each province sent three Senators to the Senate (each senator serving for 6 years and senatorial elections being held every two years) and each province sent one Representative to the House. Each Representative represented 50,000 citizens of the province (each representative served for 4 years and representative elections were held every 4 years). Each region also had its own two houses of government. Each province in the region would send 2 Senators (each serving 6 years and senatorial elections were held every 3 years) and 6 Representatives (each serving 3 years and representative elections were held every year) to its respective house of government. Each province had its own two houses of government. Each county in the province would send one Senator and 3 representatives to the respective house of government and elections were held every 4 years.
Very few national laws were necessary because the humanimals understood that there was no such thing as one law fits all, the Federal Houses of Government could concentrate on the needs of the country as a whole. They understood that regional and provincial laws worked better at governing people than a law that might work in Moo York but not in Aridzona. Michael complimented the humanimals with their insight into the cumbersomeness of a large federal government attempting to oversee each minor aspect of the country as a whole.
Galina explained that the Federal Government oversaw the military and made certain that there was always plenty of military personnel to protect the country against the potential, although rare, attack from another country. There was at least one Navy base in each province with a coast and one Army and Air Force base for every 5 counties, with a minimum of one each per province. This information shocked and surprised Michael, who had grown up during a time in which the USA had barely enough military personnel to protect each state let alone the country as a whole.
Galina also taught Michael that air transportation within each region was restricted to military flights and flights of at least 500 miles, except in extremely rare instances such as the need to travel to a funeral or other important activities such as business travel. When Michael asked why this was the case, Galina explained that military flights were necessary for the protection of the country and humanimals understood how important family disasters were to each other. In a week’s time, Michael learned that humanimals seemed to have more foresight in the defense of their country than the humans of his era.
