This Side of an Icy Horizon by Judith L Tabron

Author:Judith L Tabron [Tabron, Judith L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Judith Lynne Books
Published: 2019-12-19T22:00:00+00:00

“I missed my old body almost immediately,” Atom told God.

“I expected that, and I'm surprised you didn't,” said God.

“I've invented writing to start recording the thoughts I have for contemplation in the future. I had never before experienced such a change of self.”

“Interesting,” said God. “And I see you taught it to your Other.”

“We're calling it a he, and he didn't like the name Other, said it sounded like he was always the extra one, so we're calling him Ether.”

“Fabulous,” said God. “And Ether also knows how to read and write.”

“He made several suggestions along the way — it was a joint effort.”

“I hope that is the sort of thing you wanted when you decided to take on sexual dimorphism,” said God.

Atom seemed excited now. “Actually, it was a complete surprise. And sexual dimorphism has been full of surprises. Some of them are good, some are bad, but overall I'm really enjoying it.”

“Interesting,” said God again. “Tell me about Ether's view of it.”

“Of course Ether's never been any other way, so he isn't as excited about the newness of it. He has more complaints about it than I have, I think, and he seems irritated that I got to do something else first. I don't see how he can be irritated about things that happened before he existed, especially when he would not exist if I hadn't done something to bring him here, but since I can't fix any of that, I'm ignoring it.”

“I can think of many alternative solutions, but of course you have the right to decide that for yourself.”

“That's actually the biggest challenge,” Atom said a little ruefully. “Now there are two of us, I can't just decide things for myself. Somehow there are far more negotiations than when it was just me and a copy of me. There always seem to be endless discussions about what to do and how to do it, and that's only with the two of us. Once our offspring start talking, I can't see how we're going to get anything done.”

“That will be a new journey,” God said with rather uncharacteristic politeness, Atom thought. “And you can discuss it with… whatever you decide to name your offspring.”

“I only seem to be growing them one at a time; is that what you intended? It seems very inefficient.”

“I can make it so you carry more than one at a time, but if you think this is tough, you're going to find that much tougher,” God told her. “Take my advice on this, stick to one at a time, at least for now.”

“It seems like it will be ages before there are any significant numbers of others for us to talk to.”

“You just told me how difficult it is to settle anything between just two.”

Atom smiled. “I'm really interested to see how this one develops.”

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