HOMO RATIONALIS (SCIENCE FICTION STORIES) PART THREE Chris MYRSKI,   ?1979 ... 2023      [ As far as this is a whole book let us give an idea about the cover (if there are no better propositions).      In front: On a blue background, in the middle, hang, suspended on a rope, scales (pharmaceutical), in the left and heavier plate of which is put the Earth globe (with picture of the continents), and in the right one is seen only a stem of clover (in a pot) with four leaves, as symbol of happiness.      On the back: whatever, or even nothing. ] CONTENTS      In the first part:      Foreword      The recruit      It sounds logical      The discovery of professor Kolossov      The stimulator of Peter MacGreeves      The clover      The marriage proposal      Right of choice      In the second part:      Homo Rationalis      The tunnel      The cannibals      Biological partner      In the third part:      The order      The sixth day      Homo Retarded      Nights and days of a young robo-mother      What else if not afterlife?      Afterword THE ORDER      -- Are you sleeping, Marv?      -- Mm-m -- mumbled Marvin Kluth not opening the eyes.      -- Thank you, dear. Only that I did not understand whether this means "yes" or "not". Because if you were not sleeping then I would have asked you something.      -- Mm-hm.      -- Well sleep then. Yet because you have a day off I thought that maybe you could spare a little time for me -- continued Leona Jones her morning monologue. They were living together already five years and she decided that it is time to put the question about the order, because one cannot live only with sex in this world. And in this way were strengthened the pairs, which still, by inertia, were caller families. She obviously was not going to leave him in peace, but to all appearances he also understood this, because looked with one eye at the watch and hugged her with his right hand, continuing, though, to pretend to be asleep. Beginning as if from away she added.      -- I was thinking whether you know how long we are living together?      Marvin raised slowly his left, normal hand, and spread out his five fingers. After this answer it remained nothing else to her, except to proceed directly to the point.      -- Marv, have you thought sometime about this to have a baby?      Well, by this direct question he opened his eyes, at least from surprise. He stretched himself, yawned, and then patted her affectionately on the belly.      -- I suppose you don't think to disfigure this here pillow, do you? Or also your hidden "grotto"? -- and he stretched hand also below.      -- Am I crazy or what? In 22nd century and to intend to give birth. Br-rh. I will carry it so, a pair of weeks, but not more than a month, and then let them in the incubators think. Though we must decide how will look our daughter, if you are not going to leave me already.      -- A-ah, I have no such intention for the moment. To leave you, I had in mind. But who has said that she must be a daughter?      -- Well, I think so. Why, are you against?      -- That I were against the desires of my little lion? But when has happened such thing?      -- Many times, if you want to know the truth. Yet don't twist it, dear. You want a son, yes?      -- Or maybe one nice sexless baby? Or then two-sexual, what will you say to one hermaphrodite, ah? He will have a dick, and in the same time also, a bit lower, also a pu-, sorry, "pot", in English.      -- Why two-sexual and about what pots are you mumbling? If you so much insist to tell you that you are a ruffian then, well, I tell you this, my dear ruffian.      -- We-ell, pot, the Latin puta or putta, the medical name pudendum, or "shameful lips", the French putain, and other words, these are similar things, "birds of a feather" so to say, my little lion. You are not angry at me, are you?      -- But where you have picked up this linguistic culture, ah?      -- Well, I look from time to time in PenSmart*, this is one such journal for men. Something like "Clever Pen", but it is obvious about what kind of pen it goes, because, maybe for euphony, is pronounced like PeniSmart, where the "s" can be read with the both parts. And the penis, I beg your pardon, in fact, comes from the Greek God Pan, who was son of the nymph Driopa and the son of Zeus Hermes (who by the Romans becomes Mercurius). And this nymph, maybe, was capped so because she loved to make "opa-opa" with the men, yet wanted that this was at least three (in German this number is exactly drei, read 'drai') times in a row, ha-ha. So this Pan was the chief satyr, because was born with goat legs, horns, and long beard, well, and with something else long. ... And do you know from where comes this Latin puta, dear?      -- I just burn with desire to hear this.      -- Oh, yes, I know well your burning or quivering desire, my dear. Sorry, sorry. But otherwise the root is ancient and comes from the Sanskrit, because according to the Buddhism there was one demoness Putana, read as 'Puutanaa', who was killed by god Krishna. And he has decided to kill her, possibly, because she entered in every woman and turned her in a sheer demoness, what made the men to ask themselves: is the woman, after all, something good, or she is just an evil demon of feminine gender? And her name, most probably, is an imitation of some spitting, something like "pooh". So that, such nice things.      -- Pooh-pooh, you nasty PeniSmart-er! And what common is there between my little "pot" and these things?      -- Well, there is no need to personify the things, is there? I am not speaking about your, but about some abstract little pot, or about some other narrow place, because the root has crept all over the world, now in figurative sense. I mean, for example: the French boutique; our boot, and also various other shoes and boots in the world; the verb to "put" as to place something in the pot; French boute as barrel or wineskin (i.e. something which can be expanded and is suitable for filling with something); Turkish potur or baggy trousers; what comes from their pot, what means swelling of a cloth or some boat (ah, my little boat!); church pottus as chalice, which is potir in Slavonic; German die Putte, what is foreign for them word and means amour-baby or cherub, i.e. again something related with the loving filling of the "pot"; and also the ... potency, which (don't you thing so?) consists exactly in the ability to fill the thing in question; and sundry other words.      -- You have struck me down, Marv!      -- Well, not yet for this morning but if you so much insists -- and he turned to her and was going to hug her.      -- Maybe I insist, like you say, but later. Don't distract me now. I am speaking to him about the order of the baby, and he blows bubbles to me about boats and boutiques.      -- Well then, I will strike you down later. I do not object much, you know. Still, I have not yet struck you down with my knowledge because have not yet told you how is called in Latin one special skin, which every man has on his "pencil", if he is not a Muslim or a Hebrew, I mean. Maybe you have heard how it is called?      -- You want to say, the so called foreskin, right? Well, I have no such skins and because of this have shown no interest on this issue.      -- So, so, foreskin in English, or die Vorhaut in German, what means in both cases some skin afore, or at the end in Russian ("end flesh"). Yet the Latin word is pretty piquant because it is related with the root which we are chewing. So this scientific name was ... -- and he looked victoriously at her -- praeputium, i.e. exactly something placed before the, hmm, "cave" in question. ... But well, when you object then I will no more jump to the side. So I did not mean that we have to have a hermaphrodite, because you might have thought this, right? And as to the may or not -- you know that by all qualitative changes, as well also by quantitative but exceeding the double size, is necessary the agreement of both partners, and I don't think that we have to give birth to all kinds of monsters, only because the contemporary genetics and medicine allow this. If it was about home pat then this is another thing. Nobody hinders you to order, for example, a dog with small horn on the forehead and hoofs on the paws.      -- Surely I know this, Marv, but I like this, that your right hand is much more impressive than the left one, so that there can be some differences from the standard "God's" image, right?      -- Well, you like it because it clutches better some specific ... swellings, let us say so, placed on your thorax, which serve for ..., in fact, do they serve to you for something, Lea, except for attracting of men like me to visit more often your "cave", ah?      -- And why you don't like now my "swellings", ah? You have always said that you have hesitated whether you prefer pear-shaped breasts or spherical, and this, that have found by me the both things in one place, has made you to chose me. Although different breasts are not a big extravagance, if I begin to think about this now, yet nobody has asked me before I was born.      -- Even if they have asked you, you couldn't have been able to answer then, ha-ha! Besides, I like them very much, so that you don't begin to ponder how to change them, because they are exactly fit for my right paw. It, this paw, is 1.5 times bigger than the norm, and the left is a bit smaller, but their ratio is not more than two times. And I am also a man, so that it is normal that my right hand was bigger, right? There also by the crab the claws are not equal, yet this does not hinder it to be a crab.      -- Well good, but I have nothing against your "claws", if that is what you mind. And about my "swellings" -- do you really think to say something nasty about them, too?      -- When you don't want, then I will not say, my little lion. And again it goes not about your, but about some abstract woman's breast charms.      -- A-ah, so you can, after all, say something, ah? Will you again lead me to the Sanskrit? Now, come on, spit it.      -- Well, this, as if, is also not widely known -- said he and decided to light one aphrodisiac cigarette, because, as it seems, the conversation will not end soon. -- Our word bosom, or breasts, has to have as direct parent German der Busen, what means the same, but also ... a bay, creek, what says that the Germans stress mainly on the oval curve (though it is not clear why this feminine attribute is of masculine gender for them?). Be it as it may, but it turns out that this root is quite spread on the East, and even by Bulgarians exist words, like: "busdrav" or mushy, languid (what, surely, has nothing in common with your attributes, I'll tell you), then the soft drink "boza", which is known by the Turks (the same boza, only with Latin characters) and by the Greeks (μπoζασ, what is read as 'bozas'), and also "b`uza" as cheek, what is again a kind of bulging; then the Russians call the belly also "p`uzo" ...      -- And what common can there be between some sour slops, which the people in the Orient drink, with my breasts, Marv?      -- We-ell, there exists pretty direct relation -- the boza helps for releasing of breast milk, which the women from times immemorial have produced in their breasts, only that already two centuries they have given up to do this (not that I now want that you do this, of course). From this root in Bulgarian exists one plant, "baz" (yet read with that vowel like in "girl"; and in Russian it is "busina"), which is elder for us, and it is taken to be good for producing of breast milk. It is quite probable that our English bus, i.e. German der Bus, also is related somehow with this root, because it is one pretty swelled transport vehicle, although it is derived from Latin omnibus as case form of omnia, what means all, i.e. transport for everybody. And then our "boss" is also of this root, for the boss is usually haughty and swaggers, doesn't he?      -- Well, good, my darling, I believe this, bu-ut ... have not yet heard anything indecent, and, having in mind what things you told me a bit earlier about my "treasure", maybe there is something else, ah?      -- But surely. There is more. For example the Turkish boz, what means gray or of muddy colour, i.e. something like the boza, what gives also their bozaltim. And by the Germans exist the word böse, what means evil or angry. But this is not all -- and he made a small pause.      -- And what means this Turkish word, which you did not explain? Or you think that I am not listening attentively, and decided to check me?      -- Well, You have asked this, right? Bozaltim means, sorry, faeces.      -- Thank you for your appraisal of my breasts.      -- But listen, my little lion, here the idea is entirely different, and I have not yet finished. Have you heard the Russian word "arbuz"?      -- Not, why?      -- Well, it means a watermelon, but if we split it in syllables ...      -- Look at him, begins to split in syllables words that I have never heard.      -- Well, what you have thought about the persons from PeniSmart, ah? They are great guys, I'll tell you. So let me continue. The "ar" is some Eastern measuring unit, from which is made our "acre", and the Slavs use also ares, decares, and hectares, though the measures in quantitative regard are quite different. And the second syllable of the arbuz is the Eastern boza. In other words, the arbuz is a big and swelled Eastern fruit. Now we come to the Eastern root, which as if was Persian, if I am not wrong here. So the Persian word was kharbuz (or kharbuza), what meant some smelly fruit. In the English there is the word "calabash", what is a kind of pumpkin; the Bulgarians speak about "alabash"-es; and the Russians about arbuzes, yet also about "obusa", what is some heavy duty, which we are dragging with us like a dumbbell, and also about "karapuz", what means a fat child, which turned to be the Turkish gorpuz; and the Germans have their Kürbis as pumpkin; and a heap of other words in the European languages. So that, if we return to your charms, then here it goes about two arbuzes or watermelons, or some other juicy fruits (say, avocado, if you like it so, or at least peaches), in what there is nothing insulting. Well, if we do not count the oriental meaning of something soft and decaying, which turns to boza, which you don't like (and this Turkish word about which you asked).      -- You have knocked me down, to tell you, with your shrewd explanations. Come, give me also one aphrodisiac thing, because when one listens to you ...      He handed her an aphrodisiac cigarette, lighted it and kept silent for a while. Then added:      -- So, however. Hence you want a girl. It is not that I have objections, but, you know, it is accepted that the first child was ordered as a boy. Otherwise as if it is time to breed one, so that we have also other occupation.      -- Well, I am not much excited by the "breeding", as you put it, yet when not I will bear the fetus, but they just take from me the fertilized ovum together with the order, and, if the sex is the necessary, then later give me the baby, when he or she is already two-three months old, then maybe you are right in some extent. But why is it accepted that the first child was a boy?      -- Well, it is so because ... how to tell it, the boy will carry my family, and for the man is more difficult to offer a baby, unless he uses some anonymous unfertilized ova, but it is better that he has known the woman and the act of fertilizing was done in the made for this purpose special "cave". Not that it can't be done otherwise but so is nearer to the set by God way. And also that the first offspring was male is just a traditional wish. Well, in the end, if you want a girl I do not object. And if I will object then we will order also a boy. Though it is better that the brother was older than the sister and that he was a kind of defender, until she grows up and finds herself another defender. Well, as you wish! ... And have you already chosen her name? Because I can propose you Titolina, shorten to Titi, for example, or ... Putelina. Very sonorous name and simply fills your mouth. Do you like it?      -- I, for my part, like better, Eona. Airy or ethereal, or something of the kind. A Greek root, I suppose.      -- Good, and as pat-name we will use Bonbona**, yes? Come on further down the list. Eyes, hairs, nose, et cetera.      -- The hairs blue-greenish, I think But this is not important because they can always be repainted. Do you know what colour were mine?      -- Hmm, difficult question, It seems that they were crow-black, but can now a man know even the colour of hairs of his sweetheart, ah?      -- Wrong guess. Light brown, bur I don't like them, and you also have not said that want me such, have you?      -- And why should our Bonbona look like a mermaid?      -- Well, wait a minute. I have not yet described to you her appearance. In accordance with the hairs, then, her eyes have to be: one blue and the other green. This will give her quite mysterious view, right? Now yours, for example, when they are not both equally blue, then this is pretty intriguing.      -- My eyes can differ a bit, but these are nuances! While blue and green is quite ... strange combination. (I have almost said "perverse" and you would have taken offence at me, but good that I have not said it, right?). Never mind, continue further.      -- Even if you have said it, I have not heard it, so. Then the mouth: I think to want it in something like heart form. You get it, right -- the lower lip has to be thicker and a bit sagged down, while the upper one has to be more concise and with a bend in the middle. Maybe I have to draw this, in order to convince you how much more interesting this will look, compared with my small mouth, which my parents have ordered for me.      -- We-ell, it is small, but ... sometimes big things enter there. Sorry, sorry. We have come to the nose. Maybe you want that it was bent up, yet also down. What means that it will be like some saw, or like corkscrew. Knocking chic!      -- But you take everything frivolous! This, what you invent, will not be aesthetic, don't you understand? I think that the nose was with classical Roman form, yet had also a tiny hole ...      -- Good heavens, a nose with three holes! And with three sinuses, maybe, where the third one you will want that they placed on the forehead, like a little "aesthetical" horn, ah?      -- We-ell, I have not thought about the sinuses, yet one nose can quietly have a third hole. One such tiny one -- exactly on the top. It isn't necessary to join it with its sinus.      -- Listen now, my little lion: this what you want is a matter of some, maybe not complicated, operation later, and why not to leave Putelina, sorry, Desdemona to do it, when she grows up? We discuss here genetic pre-natal surgery, not how will decorate the Christmas tree, right?      -- OK, she is not Christmas tree. Good. But we will call her Eona, not all these variations of you. And, well, I agree that she can have only two nasal holes, when you find so many faults with my propositions. But then let it be a little, but very little bent to the left, let's say. Or maybe you prefer that it will be bent to the right, ah?      -- I personally think that when the nose will be Roman, then it should not at all be bent to whichever side, but to be straight and beautiful. And when you so strongly want that it differed a bit, then maybe it can be stump, i.e. with slightly heaved up top, while the Roman nose is more suitable for a man.      -- Well stump is good, when you want so. I agree. But the lips must be a bit more curved.      -- So you draw it to see how this will look. And don't forget that God is the best "designer" known in the world, so that don't try to outdo Him. I personally have nothing against small mouth, if it goes about a woman. It may be also with little curved up ends, yet not something that stands out much, so that it does not turn, according to one proverb, that instead of to paint the brows one pokes out the eyes. A propos, the brows I think you will not want like by Father Frost, or that they were slightly rose, ah?      -- OK, mouth with slightly heaved up ends, with a little concave lower lip, and the brows -- classical. We have come to the ears. I wish that the left was smaller, and the right bigger, approximately 1.5 times, but otherwise with traditional form. When the left will be smaller then there has to be also the darker eye., i.e. the blue, right?      -- But listen, make both eyes green, only that the left was a little darker, when you so insists on this, that they were different. If you ask me, I mean. The ears can differ, but approximately 1.2 times, so that it did not look like she has hanged a slipper on one of the ears. And the hair can quietly be chestnut, or whichever it becomes, because it is elementary to repaint it. Don't confuse the people with very difficult requirements, in order that it does not emerge some unforeseen complication in the future.      -- Bu-ut, Marv, you deprive me of the most significant details. But well, the hair is not a problem and it can be chestnut. With the eyes, however, the question remains open, for the moment. What remains there more on the physiognomy? A-ah, the profile generally elongated and with barely noticeable cheekbones. I wish that here, too, was some asymmetry, because, isn't it, this is the most interesting moment in life, but you will again laugh at me.      -- But why should I laugh, I won't. You just take that the face can be twisted like a question mark, so that every man will ask himself whether she will agree to sleep with him or will keep resisting?      -- Nothing but a cynic! And why should the men not ask themselves, ah? But well, we have agreed, till now. Then about her "avocados", because, really, I like this name better. What kind you want them to be?      -- We-ell, but I will not ... use my daughter, so that to ask me what kind I want to be her breasts. But me thinks that a bit raised up would be more intriguing. Or nice big and round. In any case it is not good if the one looks up and the other sags down. As there also is not good if both are one above the other, where the lower one reaches to her belly, and the upper one pops out of the neckline. Am I right?      -- OK, about her breasts we have reached consensus on upright -- for to be in harmony with her nose. And do you want to say something about her ... little "boat"?      -- Oh, save me Lord to change the things also there! Well, on the outside you may rotate it a bit, when want this so much -- and he looked questioningly at her, -- but not more than at 30o and only clockwise, because otherwise it turns to be perverse, right? Or, maybe, you want that she had one to one thigh and another to the other? This is possible, but it is not sure whether it will be enough place for two men between her legs. Or then, why not to make three small "boots" -- for to form her Venus triangle, and then, if there happens that some man will have three "pencils", then they will be ideally suited to each other.      -- You are again joking with me, but so be it. Let us leave it which it happens. And as to the thighs I suppose that you will to be longer, don't you?      -- But surely, only that long does not mean that she became higher than two meters, because then she will be too brittle, or must weigh more than hundred kilos. So, about 180 cm I think make the ideal stature. Unless you want that the one leg was with about 10 centimeters longer than the other, but in this case she will have some problems in children age, when she begins to walk, I mean. ... And that you have not forgotten about her bottom, because a woman without a bottom is like ..., say, a staircase without stairs.      -- Incredible sentence! Is it again from your journal for clever guys, ah, Marv?      -- O-oh, no. This one I have invented alone. Impromptu, so to say. Or also: a woman without this is like a pot without bottom; or like a chimney without hole; or like a tree without root; or ...      -- Well, well, enough! I already understood. So what has to be this part?      -- That it stuck out back as much as her "melons" stick out forward -- in the name or harmony and equilibrium. In the language of order this means: averagely big, and in accordance with her breasts.      -- Well, I agree with this. And something about her character, about the intellect?      -- Write down: character -- feminine; intellect -- average.      -- And what means this feminine character, ah? Patient and obedient, or sensual and loving, or something else. And why her intellect should not be very high, for example?      -- We-ell, one must look at the standard form for ordering, but I had in mind something similar. In the sense that there is no need to have many masculine qualities, because she is not a man, right? Maybe: sensitive, susceptible, enduring, obedient, and other good qualities for a woman. And if her intellect is very high then she will have problems with finding of suitable and more intelligent partner, or, if she succeeds to find him, than he will not be much interested in her, because in the sex, I'll tell you, is necessary whatever else only not intellect! Words of a playboy, yet they are true.      -- Well, as to the character I also have not pondered much. For the woman in important the upbringing, but this is not a question of genetic predispositions, so that I also don't know exactly. I have thought about the eyes, nose, breasts, hands ... But yes, I have not yet told you about the hands, have I?      -- What are you intending to tell me about them? -- asked Marvin.      -- Well, about the fingers. I think that seven is a good number. So, two more little fingers, to the little finger. How do you think?      -- Well, in fact, five is the best number, because it is from the very God, yet it is better that you have not said six, because this is masculine number.      -- Look at him! You speak to me again with riddles. What is so masculine in the six, ah, sweetheart? Or this exceeds my mediocre intellect?      -- No, of course, but this is a long story, although it, positively, will be interesting for you, when you don't know it. You see, the six was considered in Ancient Greece, i.e. some five-six centuries before our era, as the perfect number. In the sense that it can be got, once via summing, and one more time via multiplying of its prime factors. And for the six they are: 1, 2 and 3, where: 1+2+3 = 1*2*3 = 6. Interesting, isn't it?      -- Oh, yes. And with other numbers this can be got? Small, for example.      -- Well, with prime numbers this is impossible, because for them except the one the other prime factor is the very number, so that when we add them we will get with one more than the number. While with composite numbers only for the 4 their sum (i.e. 1, 2 and again 2), is more than the number, for the 6 we have exact matching, and further on the sum is always less than the number (or the product of its factors). For example, for 8 we have 1 plus three twos, for 9 -- 1 plus two threes, for 10 -- 1, 2, and 5, and so on, what can be proved. In two words, there is no other such number at all, even if it is very big. Unless by a bit different definition, but then this is the smallest, or the first perfect number.      -- Good, 6 is the perfect number. And what of it?      -- Well, there can be added also that in old Hebrew it was called "netsah", yet the point here is not in the name, but in its meaning, because according to the ancient people the numbers (and the letters, too) have had cabalistic significance, and netsah symbolized the victory and triumph, what is sign of masculinity, isn't it? The woman wants that she was conquered, and the man wants the he conquered. But, you see, everything lies in the relation between sex and six, with what I must have begun, but you have tired me with your questions.      -- O-oh, now I understand nothing at all. Why sex and six have to be related, and why exactly with the man, not with the woman, ah?      -- Well, they are related just because this is so! This relation is not at all occasional, for it exists in many languages, where in German, for example, people write the number as "sechs" and read it 'zex', only that this is because they are used in the beginning of the words to read "s" always as 'z', otherwise this is again the "sex", isn't it? Similar is the situation also in Latin, where the one is called sexus (this is the gender or sex), and the other is sexis (this is the number 6). But this has come phonetically from the ancient Greeks, because for them the number is εξι, i.e. 'exi', what sounds very sexy, doesn't it?      -- Yes, as if I begin go grasp something. Hence the six is symbol of the sex, so to say. But then why you speak to me about masculinity? If you still have not grasped that the women, too, are experienced in the sex, then ...      -- Yes, yes -- interrupted he her, -- but you have missed the Greek symbol of perfection, right? The six according to the Greeks is perfect, the man, you have to excuse me, but as if also according to the women, is perfect, the six in the Talmud is symbol of victory and the Hebrew star has six rays; though here is important also the way of graphical description, and as far as our digits are Arabic (in fact, Hindu), then this means that similar ideas have put also the Arabs and Hindus in this digit. It just can't be feminine, because, at least for the ancient people, the woman was one imperfect likeness of the human, i.e. of the man, she was made from his rib, and so on. And the graphical image of this digit -- well, it is true that I have learned this from the guys from PeniSmart, but this surely was clear to the ancient people (were they Arabs, Hebrews, Hindus, Greeks, and others) -- is very similar to the masculine sex. I want to say that my "pencil", when it sits quietly and no "dame" provokes it, looks like one turned-down six! So to say, when a man, a male of course, looks at himself in the river as in a mirror, he, naturally, sees his "six". Did you get it now?      -- Ah, let me look at it -- and she bent a little and began amazed to inspect this perfect creation of nature. -- But you are quite right, do you know? See now, it has its hook and there is also the circle -- well, there are two circles, but looking a bit from aside can be taken that it is one. And generally, Marv, you are really incredible!      -- Look now, Lea. You can look at it, when this gives you pleasure, but don't change its configuration, because you spoil, ohh-ah, the cabalistic meaning of my symbol and it begins to turn itself in an egoistic one, i.e. in a ... wand, and we discussed the order for our daughter, and when so ...      -- Marv, let us leave the order at ease, when you have aroused my curiosity. This is not honest on your part, is it? Let me look at the symbol of your perfection, in order to realize the profound wisdoms that you have just now explained to me. Because even a woman must become acquainted with the world around her, together with its perfect elements, in order to learn to appreciate the beautiful in it, right? Mm-m, a perfect accomplishment, yes! A six with capital "S", so to say ...      -- Well, it grew a bit, in your honour. In order to satisfy this, how you named it, a-ah, your curiosity. But listen my little lion, in this way one can also reach to the victory and triumph.      -- Of course that can, sweetheart. In the name of perfection I agree with everything. Only that I am a little angry that you take away my initiative and want a boy, but maybe I will agree. But then what I will do for the order?      -- After the victory, my sweetie?      -- Yeah, a-ah, after the triumph of the victory.      -- Well, a-ah, you will fill the order form, my little lion, after I think it over. Will give them our zygote, and will bring up the new perfection. Is this not enough?      Dec 2000             * You know well what pen or pencil means, and this really is related with the Latin penis at least through the popular pun "To put more lead into your pencil", but the Bulgarians are also not much away from these associations because to write is "pisha" and the penis (mainly of a young boy) is "pishka"; similar is the situation also in Russian, where to write is "pis`at" (but I p`ishu, you p`ishesh, etc.), and to piss is "p`isat" (I p`isayu, you p`isayesh, etc.).       ** Bonbon is candy in Bulgarian, yet the word is French and well known on the West.      Etc. ... AFTERWORD      I must with all seriousness tell you that now I am closing at last this book with supposed SF stories, because have reached ... my ceiling in the art of invention. Yet it must have been closed for other reasons, because nobody keeps open a book for nearly ... half of a century, surely, when my first such story was written about 1979 and now we are 2023-rd. And I am in my 73-rd year now (and am beginning to go blind in my left eye). But well, one could have probably coped with all this, because I will continue to write something for a pair of years more, and some funny poetry from time to time (or rather, from day to day), but when I have cast a look at the dates of my last stories it turned out that they are, as follows: 2001, 2012, 2016, and now 2023, what is really a shame (it is like -- I am sorry, but I want just to give an example -- to screw a girl once in 5 or so years)! Yes, I have kept the idea for the last story probably for several years in my head, knowing neither in, nor out of the dilemma.      The point is, how I have mentioned this several times, that I am a scientist, not real fiction writer, so that I can not really invent stories but extrapolate some existing tendencies, what are different things. The real story- (or novel-) teller starts with some sucked out of his fingers situation and bothers only to show logical conclusions from that point on, where "logical" usually means the contrary, i.e. silly or infatuated or passionate etc. behaviour, while a scientist endowed with imagination starts either from the reality, or from some logical (according to him) thought or idea, and is interested not in the emotions but in the truthful depicting of the situation; there is some kind of intersection between both types of writers only in this, that they try to make people (and first themselves) believe in the invented stories, to sound convincingly. From all my as if SF stories the most really invented one was the smallest, about the Clover, where I had practically no idea (except that the children are in many cases better than the grown-ups).      Anyway, I am material being, so that I am bound sometime to become tired of everything, and want to stop it (the everything). I don't say that it is not possible for me to try to write something without deep ideas in it, this is possible, yet not much probable. And with this, plus the final Limerick-type verse, I say Adieu or Farewell to you, hoping that you will begin, after all, to copy my works, because else they may simply disappear (and then will remain only my pleasure during the time of their writing, which has long ago disappeared in the eternity).      M`y brain cells are getting pretty lazy,      and my memory 's-not more like daisy.         It's becoming crunchy like a cracker,         and I soon will go to meet my Maker.      Hence, of further efforts may go crazy.      03.2023 E N D