XXI

Dinner with Elizabeth and Jeffrey

Amanda and Michael left the hotel and walked the half mile to the Marten Seafood House. They weren't in a hurry so they strolled leisurely down the river walk. As they walked, Michael pointed to areas he remembered and told her what used to be there. It took them almost half an hour to reach the restaurant but, that gave Elizabeth and Jeffrey, her mate, time to arrive at about the same time they did.

When Michael saw Elizabeth and Jeffrey, he smiled because they were holding hands and standing so close to each other that he doubted you could easily slide a piece of paper between them. Elizabeth was nuzzling Jeffrey's neck as he smiled happily. As Michael and Amanda walked up, Elizabeth lay her head on Jeffrey's shoulder and smiled happily.

With Amanda maintaining her death grip on his arm, Michael walked to Jeffrey, stuck out his hand, as best as he could, and said, “Good evening. Obviously, you're Elizabeth's mate. I'm Michael Thomson and this is Amanda Fuchs."

Jeffrey shook Michael's hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Michael. I'm Jeffrey van Horne." He nodded to Amanda and said, “You, too, Amanda." He returned his attention to Michael and continued, “When Elizabeth called and told me about your invitation, I was curious as to why a human male would invite two strangers to join him for dinner. Now that I see you've got a mate, I'm more at ease but I'm still a little curious."

Indicating Amanda, Michael said, “Actually, she's not my mate. She wants to be but, I'm having a hard time convincing myself that it's acceptable."

Michael held the door and they entered the restaurant. They waited for the hostess, a Korat cat with brilliant emerald green eyes to show them to a booth. She was wearing a name tag that read, “Miss Chat". She placed their menus on the table in front of each of them, made her recommendations, told them their waitress would be with them shortly, and left. They looked at their menus, all except Amanda who continued to lovingly caress Michael's arm and rub her cheek against it. Michael pointed to a dish on the menu that he thought Amanda might like and asked if she would like it for dinner.

Amanda looked into Michael's eyes and asked, “What are you going to have?"

“I thought I'd have the grilled mahi-mahi."

She looked at what he had suggested and said, “I'll have what you're having." She smiled at him.

Michael glanced at Elizabeth and Jeffrey and saw them smiling.

“All right." Michael said. “Have you ever had mahi-mahi before?"

“No. But, if you like it, I know I will."

The waitress arrived and they placed their orders. After the waitress left, Michael looked at Elizabeth, who had her arms around Jeffrey and her head on his shoulder, and asked, “Elizabeth, you said that Amanda would be a very happy woman, if I can bring myself to love her. What did you mean?"

“I told you. My mate is human, after all."

“I can see that and I can see you're happy with him. But, why is the fact that I'm human going to make her happy?"

“Because I know. Jeffrey has always treated me with love and respect.

“My family moved next to his when I was four and he was six. There were several other human families on the few blocks of that neighborhood. In fact, out of thirty houses in the neighborhood when my family moved in, only three were occupied by humanimals, us, a hyena family and a lion family. Well, if you know anything about history, hyenas, lions and African dogs aren't the best of friends. But, we sort of became close out of necessity; the humans weren't too keen on having humanimal neighbors.

“One day, I was walking to the hyena family home, when several bigger human boys started throwing rocks at me. I wasn't anywhere near their yards so they didn't have any reason to do it. I kept walking trying to ignore them. One of the boys came up behind me and pushed me down. I started whimpering and I turned to look at the boy who pushed me down. I saw that he had drawn his fist back like he was going to hit me.

“The next thing I knew, a human boy, Jeffrey, had tackled the bully and stood over him saying, 'You leave her alone! She's a girl! Didn't your parents teach you any manners!? If you guys want to hurt her, you'll have to come through me!'

“The boy who had pushed me down said, 'Why are you protecting her? She's just an animal. Are you an animal lover?'

“'She's more than an animal; she's a humanimal and deserves the respect you think you deserve. How would you feel if a humanimal boy treated your sister the way you just treated her?"

“Jeffrey stared down those older boys. After they walked away, he turned to me, helped me up and, when it hurt for me to walk, carried me on his back to my home. When my mother saw my injuries, she started to snarl and threaten Jeffrey. Just as he had done to those bullies, I did to my mother. I explained to my parents what Jeffrey had done for me, how he had defended and protected me.

“My father said, 'Why would you protect my daughter like that? She's a stranger and a humanimal.'

“Jeffrey said, 'Mr. Hond, it isn't right to hate someone simply because they look different from you. Disliking someone should be based on how that person has treated you. In other words, if you treat me nice and your brother treats me badly, should I dislike you because of what your brother did to me? No. Should I like a human who treats me terribly but dislike you, who treats me nice, simply because you're a humanimal? Once again, no. Those boys that treated your daughter so badly were doing it simply because of what she is not who she is.'

“After that little speech, my dad stood, shook Jeffrey's hand and said, 'What's your name?'

“'Jeffrey, Sir. Jeffrey van Horne.'

“'Mr. van Horne, I've never heard it put so perfectly before. If you want to visit Elizabeth or if she wants to visit you, I will have no problems. Please don't be a stranger.'

“'Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.'

“From that day forward, Jeffrey and I were in each other's company almost daily. On my fourteenth birthday, Jeffrey asked my father if I could go out on a date with him. Since Jeffrey had proven his trustworthiness, my father said yes and we started dating. When Jeffrey announced that he was going to go to college out of town, I cried for days because I wasn't going to see him every day; but, the day before he left for college, he surprised me with the gift I had hoped for ever since I met him; he asked my father for permission to marry me. He asked Daddy in front of me. I don't know who was more surprised, me, my mother or my father.

“After several seconds of shock, my father said, 'Jeffrey, do you know what you're asking? To my knowledge no human has ever married a humanimal. You're crossing a line that, once it's crossed, can never be crossed back. You're setting yourself up for verbal, and possibly, physical attacks.'

“Jeffrey merely looked at my father and said, 'Mr. Hond, I don't care. I've loved Elizabeth ever since the day she and I met. I knew that, one day, I would ask to have her for my wife and that day is today. So, what's your answer, Sir?'

“Daddy looked at Jeffrey, then me, than back to Jeffrey, and then he said, 'Jeffrey, if I said no, Elizabeth would run away to be with you. I know that; you know that; she knows that. So, I'm just going to say, not before she's eighteen. I want her to get her high school education, at least.'

“'Mr. Hond, I wouldn't want anything less out of her. So, I'm going to say this. If you give your permission and, if Elizabeth refuses to get her education, the wedding will be off until she completes her high school education.'

“Needless to say, I not only completed my high school education; I graduated valedictorian, the first humanimal to graduate from a human high school with such an honor.

“Jeffrey and I got married a week later and, a year after that, I gave birth to our first pup."

Michael said, “That's nice, but you still haven't told me how marrying a human would make Amanda a very happy woman."

“I thought I had, in a roundabout way. If you're anything like my Jeffrey, you'll do anything you can to protect her and you'll do anything to make her happy because you won't like to see her unhappy. You'll want her to be as successful as possible. Now, do you know why I think she'll be a very happy woman?"

Michael turned to Jeffrey and asked, “Is what she said true, Jeffrey? Do you do anything you can to make her happy because you don't want to see her unhappy? Do you want her to be as happy and successful as possible?"

Jeffrey thought for several seconds and said, “Yes, to all three questions. She goes to college part time to get her degree in Hotel Management. She wants to advance from being an elevator operator into management."

“Why do you say yes to all three questions?"

“Why? I want to protect her because I love her and she's the mother to my . . ." he shrugged and continued, “pups. I want her to be successful because being successful makes her happy and, when she's happy, I'm happy. I would do anything to make her happy because, as I just said, when she's happy, I'm happy. Also, I enjoy sleeping with her and, if she ain't happy with me, I have to sleep by myself and I don't like sleeping by myself."

“I guess I can understand that." Michael replied, laughing.

Michael asked, “Jeffrey, what's your version of Elizabeth's story?"

“My parents were ambivalent towards the humanimals moving into our neighborhood. They didn't try to chase them out but they didn't run out the welcome wagon either. My parents had always told us, their children, that humanimal families have as much right to live here as we did. We were taught to treat them with as much respect as we would want if the roles were reversed.

“The first humanimal family to move into our neighborhood was the lion family, the de Leons. They lived about ten houses away from us. As they moved in, I was riding my bicycle and I stopped and watched for a few minutes. Their son, Andrew, saw me and ran over and started talking to me.

“He said, 'Hi. My name's Andrew, Andrew de Leon. You're human, aren't you?'

“'Yes, I'm human. My name's Jeffrey, Jeffrey van Horne, Andrew. It's nice to meet you.'

“'Hey, why don't you come up and meet my parents?'

“He took me into his house and introduced me to his parents. They were very nice to me and were happy to meet one of their neighbors so soon after moving in. I met his little sister, Andrea; she was three. His mother was pregnant with her third cub which turned out to be another son; he was named Thomas.'

“Not long after they moved in, the de Leon family threw a house warming party. They invited every family in the neighborhood. Of the twenty-five other families that were invited, mine and five others were the only ones to show up. To say that Mr. de Leon was disappointed would be an understatement but he carried on as if he had only invited those six families.

“My father is a gregarious man; I don't think he's ever been a stranger for more than fifteen seconds. Even though he was a bit nervous about approaching a lion, he walked up to Mr. de Leon and struck up a conversation with him. In a couple of minutes, they were talking, joking and carrying on as if they had grown up together. They had similar tastes in sports, music and movies; they both loved hunting and fishing; but, I believe the most important thing they had in common was their love of a grilled steak."

Michael observed, “It's interesting how your father and Mr. de Leon had so much in common. By the way, do you know what de Leon means?"

“No."

“It's Spanish for 'of or from Leon' and, if I recall correctly, Leon is Spanish for lion."

Jeffrey laughed and said, “Well, that makes sense.

“Anyway, about six months later, the hyena family moved in. Once again, I was riding my bicycle by their house. Andrew was riding with me. When he was told that they were hyenas, he became a bit nervous.

“'What's wrong?' I asked.

“He shuddered and said, 'Hyenas. Lions and hyenas don't get along too well.'

“'Maybe. Should we introduce ourselves? There's a boy in the front yard.'

“'Sure.'

“We pushed our bicycles over toward him. He watched us nervously. Not wanting to invade his territory, Andrew and I stopped at the curb.

“I said, 'Hi. My name's Jeffrey and this is Andrew. You're new here. What's your name?'

“He looked from me to Andrew and started to back away from us as he said, 'I'm Manfred, Manfred Dubuk. What do you want?'

“Andrew said, 'We want to welcome you to the neighborhood. I've lived here for six months and Jeffrey was the first person I met here. He's a nice guy and made me feel welcome. If you give us a chance we'll make you feel welcome, too.'

“About that time, Manfred's father appeared in the doorway of the house and said, 'Manfred, come inside. You know how humans and lions feel about us.' Then, he gave Andrew and me a look that said, 'Go away.' So, we left; but, we didn't stay left." He laughed at his little joke. Michael snickered, too.


*****


The waitress had brought them their meals by this time. Michael ate as he listened to Jeffrey's story. However, Amanda was still clinging to his arm and laying her head on his shoulder.

“Amanda?" Michael said.

“Mmmm?"

“Your meal is here. You need to eat before it gets cold."

Amanda looked at her plate for several seconds and then asked, “What is it?"

“It's what you wanted me to order for you, grilled mahi-mahi."

A wry look crossed Amanda's face before she said, “I did? It's fish."

“Yes, you said you liked fish."

“Is it good?"

“Try it. If you don't like it, I'll order you something else and I'll eat it."

“I'm not hungry."

Michael whispered in her ear. “Do you want to sleep in bed with me tonight?"

“Yes."

“If you don't eat, I won't let you."

She whined and said, petulantly, “Why? You promised."

“I know I did, Amanda; but, if you don't eat, your heat will affect you negatively. I won't allow you to share my bed if your heat is so bad that you ignore your morals. Okay?"

Once again, she responded petulantly, “But, I want to sleep in bed with you."

“I know you do, so eat."

She looked at her plate again and then back at Michael. “Is it good?" She asked again.

“I think so." Michael answered as he put a piece of the fish in his mouth. She watched him chew and swallow. “Well?" He said.

She cut off a piece of the fish, put it in her mouth and chewed. As the flavors of the grilling spices and fish hit her tongue, Michael saw a look of sheer ecstasy cross her face. She ate as daintily as is expected of a humanimal female; but, he could tell she was forcibly restraining herself from eating as fast as she wanted to. Despite her restraint, she finished before anyone else did, partially because she didn't add much to the conversation. Michael was surreptitiously watching her eat and smiling the whole time. When Amanda finished her meal, she started watching him.

“Are you still hungry?" He asked.

“A little. Why?"

“If you're still hungry, I'll give you half of mine."

“No. You don't have to."

“Amanda, if we only did what we had to do, nothing would have ever been invented. Besides, I want to do this."

She sat there with a look of mixed emotions on her face. Unlike normal, Michael couldn't figure out why these emotions were fighting for control of her. Elizabeth rescued her.

“Michael, didn't you tell me that you and Amanda weren't mates?"

“Yes."

“Do you want her to be your mate?"

“If I can overcome my upbringing, I wouldn't mind it."

“I mean right now, at this moment. Do you want her to be your mate and bear your pups, I mean kits?"

Michael laughed softly as he said, “Well, not right now. Why?"

“If she was to accept your offer of food, she would feel obligated to do that at your earliest convenience, preferably tonight."

“What!?"

Jeffrey said, “Michael, humanimal traditions are based on their animal ancestor traditions. A male would only share food with the female he wanted to mate with. So, the reason Amanda is fighting an emotional battle right now is because she wants you to be her mate and she knows that you have having a hard time accepting that idea. In other words, Michael, if a male humanimal offers to share his food with a female, other than family members, it's tantamount to a marriage proposal. When I decided that I wanted Elizabeth to be my wife, I offered her part of a meal I was eating, even before I officially asked her father to let her marry me. She had plenty to eat so she knew why I was offering and gladly accepted my proffered food."

“What if she had refused your offer?"

“As the ancient proverb went, 'No harm, no foul.' In other words, I would have been under no obligation to become her mate nor she mine. We could have continued dating without any stress of potential mating."

Michael thought for a couple of seconds, turned to Amanda and said, “Do you want something else to eat?"

“Yes."

“Would you like more mahi-mahi or would you like dessert?"

She smiled and said, “Mahi-mahi!"

“All right."

Michael flagged their waitress down and ordered Amanda more to eat. When it arrived, she ate more slowly than before but with the same pleasure she enjoyed her first meal. Michael looked at Elizabeth and Jeffrey and saw the knowing smiles on their faces. He shrugged his shoulders and returned their smiles and returned to his meal.


*****


“Jeffrey," Michael said, as he ate, “what happened with Manfred?"

“Andrew and I rode by his house every day. We'd stop and talk to him until his father or mother made him come inside. But, every day he walked closer to us before stopping. Finally, after about two weeks, he walked all the way to the road to talk to us. That time, instead of calling Manfred back, Mr. Dubuk walked out to us.

“In a stern voice, Mr. Dubuk asked, 'Why do you two stop here and pester my son every day?'

“Andrew was intimidated. I guess that was because of ancestral memories. However, I wasn't intimidated. I said, 'Sir, we're not pestering him. We want to be his friends.'

“'Ha! Friends! I know how humans and lions feel about us. You can't stand us and wish we would go away. You wish we hyenas weren't among the animals chosen for the changing.'

“I went on the offensive. 'Perhaps that was true in the beginning, but, you can't go forward if you keep looking back. Insulating yourselves from society, refusing to integrate into society only makes everyone else distrust and dislike you. Right now, there are only two humanimal families here in our neighborhood, you and the lions. If for no other reason that should make you a little more willing to be friendly to the lions. We're here to try to extend the hand of friendship to you and your family. Won't you accept it in the spirit in which it's offered?'

“'That's a rather mature speech for someone so young to make.'

“'My father taught me well. He knows that we humans are on our last legs. If something isn't done and soon, within the next 200 years or so, humans will no longer exist on Earth.'"

“So, what happened with Mr. Dubuk?"

“He listened intently to my speech, turned to Manfred and said, 'Son, do you wish to be friends with this lion and human?'

“'Yes, Sir.'

“'Very well. Go get your bicycle and you can ride with them.'

“Just at that moment, a female hyena about Manfred's age came running out of the house. She ran up to her father and said, 'Daddy, I want to go riding, too.'

“'Ludkhannah, these are your brother's new friends. You don't want to interfere with their friendship, do you?'

“Andrew was staring at her. You know, when you think of hyenas, you think of dirty, unkempt, vicious animals; but, Ludkhannah was a very clean, very well brushed, sweet girl. She was wearing a pretty light blue dress and had blue bows in her dark brown pigtailed hair. I saw the way Andrew was looking at her and I knew he was impressed.

“Andrew said, 'Mr. Dubuk, I don't mind if Ludkhannah rides with us, if Jeffrey and Manfred don't mind.'

“Realizing how smitten Andrew was, I said, 'If Manfred is all right with her riding with us, it's okay with me.'

“Manfred said, 'Thank you. Ludkhannah and I are twins and we do almost everything together.' Turning to his father he said, 'Will you let her ride with us, Dad?'

“Mr. Dubuk smiled and said 'All right, boys. Ludkhannah, go get your bicycle.'

“I noticed as we rode around that Andrew kept looking at Ludkhannah. In fact, several times, Andrew almost ran into a tree, a pole or a car because of this. Ludkhannah acted like she didn't notice but, I saw her smile every time. You know; the funny thing is that Andrew wasn't showing off. After we'd rode through the neighborhood for a while with Andrew and me showing them the important sights, the four of us rode back to Manfred's home and said our “So longs."

“As Andrew and I rode back to his house, I said, 'Andrew, what is your father going to say?'

“He said, 'What do you mean?'

“'You've got a crush on Ludkhannah. Do you think your father is going to approve?'

“'I don't have a crush on her. It's the first time I've ever known a hyena. She's a lot different from what I was brought up to believe about hyenas. That's all.'

“'Andrew, come on. I saw how you kept staring at her, even she noticed. I won't give you a hard time about it, Andrew. Actually, I think it's interesting that you like her. After all, you two are different species.'

“He stopped his bicycle and, in a harsh whisper, said, 'We aren't different species. We are like the different races of the humans. Internally, we are exactly alike; it's only externally that we are different and, for that matter, humans are basically humanimals without fur. You could marry a humanimal and father young just as easily as humanimals can.'

“His statement got me to thinking. 'Was he right? Can I father a child with a humanimal?'

“However, I said, 'I guess I'll never know. I'm pretty sure my parents would never accept me marrying a humanimal anyway.'" He said as he leaned to kiss Elizabeth.

“So, tell me about meeting Elizabeth." Michael said, as Amanda lay her head on his shoulder and sighed ecstatically.

Jeffrey sat in thought for several seconds before replying. “I had heard from Manfred and Ludkhannah that a third humanimal family had moved into the neighborhood. Manfred had told me that they were African dogs. I had been out of town for a few weeks visiting family in St. Alsatian which is about 30 miles south of Jaguarville; so, I didn't know anything about them.

“The next day, the four of us were out riding our bicycles when I saw something that made my blood boil. I saw one of the African dog pups, a girl, walking along the street. She was walking toward the hyena house. There were several older human boys throwing rocks at her and saying, 'Go back where you came from. You don't belong here. This is a human neighborhood.'

“As we watched, I saw this one boy I know was 10 years old run up behind her and push her down onto the asphalt. From the way she landed, I knew she had scraped her hands and knees. Then, I saw that bully draw back to hit her. My God, Michael, she was only four years old and less than half as tall as he was!

“I didn't think; I reacted. I jumped off my bicycle and before he knew what was happening, I had tackled the bully and his face hit the asphalt scraping his forehead and chin. He turned over and I hit him in the face. I jumped up and, as I looked at the other boys, said, 'Leave her alone! You're not supposed to hurt a girl! Didn't your parents teach you better than that!? If you want to hurt her, you'll have to come through me first!'

“When the boy I had knocked down said that Elizabeth was just an animal, I said, 'She's more than an animal; she's a humanimal and deserves to be treated the way you think you deserve to be treated. Besides, how would you like it if a bunch of humanimal boys treated your sister the way you treated this girl?' I glared at them until they walked away.

“Elizabeth must not remember this but, because my house was closer than hers, I took her to my home. When I ran into the house with her on my back, my mom asked what was wrong. After I told her what those bullies had done to Elizabeth, my mom started cleaning and bandaging her wounds. I saw tears in Elizabeth's eyes as she looked at her hands where the asphalt had scraped them. My mom talked soothingly to Elizabeth and calmed her.

“While my mom was bandaging Elizabeth, someone started knocking on our door. Mom answered the door and I heard her say, 'May I help you?'

“'Your son beat up my son.'

“'How old is your son?'

“'Ten, why?'

“'My son is six and kind of small for his age. Why did my son “beat up" your son?'

“'I don't know.'

“I heard my mother say, 'Jeffrey, bring Elizabeth in here, please.'

“I brought Elizabeth to where that boy's mother could see her. My mother said, 'That is the reason my son attacked your son. Look at her knees and her hands. Your son pushed a four-year-old girl down in the street. We have always taught Jeffrey to protect girls, no matter who or what they are. Your son is a bully and I commend my son's actions.'

“That other woman turned and said, 'Aaron, come here. Now!'

“I saw the bloody mess of that boy's face and was shocked at what I had done. His mother said, 'Did you push that girl down?'

“'Yes, ma'am.'

“'Apologize to her. Now!'

“'But, mom. . .'

“'No buts. Apologize!'

“Aaron looked at me and Elizabeth and said, 'I'm sorry for pushing you down. I won't do it again.'

“Aaron's mother said, 'I'm sorry for accusing your son of picking on Aaron. I should have known that he wouldn't be honest. Please forgive him. He learned to dislike humanimals from his father. My husband hates humanimals. He thinks they aren't natural and, therefore, don't deserve any respect.'

“My mom said, 'I understand. Bigotry has been around as long as there have been humans and will continue for a long time to come.'

“Aaron's mother took him by the arm and led him away. As she walked, I heard her say, 'You leave that girl alone. If I hear you've tried to hurt her again, I'll beat your ass. Do you hear me?'

“'Yes, ma'am.' Aaron said."

“So, did Aaron or any of the other boys bother you again, Elizabeth?"

“No. They left me alone after that."

“After my mom bandaged Elizabeth's hands and knees, I took her home. Whoa! Her mother got angry with me. Like Elizabeth said, Mrs. Hond literally growled, snarled and threatened me. Elizabeth stepped between us and told her mother what I had done. When she heard how I had protected Elizabeth, Mrs. Hond changed her tune and apologized to me for reacting the way she did. She told me that almost everywhere they had lived she and her family had had to deal with that kind of hatred. She also said she was happy that I had defended Elizabeth from those bullies.

“Mrs. Hond let Elizabeth come to my house regularly. We used to swing on my swing set. I would swing high and jump out of the swing. She saw me do it and tried it herself; however, being a dog, her flying skills were . . . atrocious." Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at Jeffrey causing him to laugh. He continued. “She jumped out of her swing and landed wrong and twisted her ankle. You can guess the rest.

“I guess I fell in love with her way back then although I wouldn't admit it then. All I know is that I looked forward to her visits, even though most of the time she was accompanied by one or more of her siblings. When I was sixteen, I went to her house and asked her father if he would allow us to date. He was a little skeptical but, he gave his approval. When I was 18, I asked him to let us get married on the condition that she graduate from high school first. We got married a week after she graduated and eight months later she gave birth to our first pup. I've never been happier in my whole life and I foresee even more happiness as we grow older."

“So, are you saying that your happiness is a catalyst for Elizabeth's happiness?"

“No, Elizabeth's happiness is a catalyst for mine."

Michael suddenly became aware of Amanda's weight on his arm. He looked at her and saw a beatific smile on her muzzle as she leaned against him. For a moment, he thought she was asleep until she started caressing his arm and rubbing her cheek against it.

“Are you sleepy, Amanda?" Michael asked.

“A little but I can stay awake until you're ready to leave." She answered.

Elizabeth said, “Michael, you know, I believe she loves you."

“She does, although I don't know why. I've never encouraged her. I've even gone so far as to tell her my brain won't let me return her feelings."

Elizabeth said, “Why do I have a feeling that there's a 'but' in here?"

Michael smiled at her, looked at Amanda and said to Elizabeth, “Because there is one. But, for some reason, when I see Amanda, especially when she's acting like she is right now, I get a funny feeling. I keep telling her, and myself, that I love her just not in the way she wants me to love her. Right now, my emotions are confused. I want to make her happy; I want her to know that she can trust me; yet, I can't let myself give in to the emotions I feel. Do you know what I'm trying to say?"

Jeffrey said, “I believe I know what's going on with you. Your parents taught you that you shouldn't mate with humanimals because the human race is slowly, painfully going extinct."

“Actually, Jeffrey, believe it or not, my parents never told me that. You see, they didn't know anything about humanimals."

Elizabeth and Jeffrey looked at each other for several seconds. Finally, Jeffrey said, “What do you mean your parents didn't know anything about humanimals? They've existed for almost 20,000 years and for the last 15,000 they've migrated to almost every corner of the Earth, even in areas of the world that wouldn't originally allow them."

“I'm significantly older than I look."

Elizabeth said, “How old are you?"

Amanda, who Michael had thought was asleep, piped up and said, “He's over 20,000 years old."

Elizabeth and Jeffrey looked at Michael strangely. Then, Jeffrey said, laughing, “You two almost had me there. Amanda's statement that you're 20,000 years old was convincing in her sincerity; however, I know that living to 100 is a rare feat."

“Jeffrey, have you ever heard of stasis or suspended animation?"

“Yes. I've read about it in science fiction stories. Why?"

Michael nodded his head and said, “That's how I'm over 20,000 years old. I was one of the first humans to contract the HEV virus and I was dying. When I had less than a week to live, I remembered that a scientist friend of mine had developed a stasis sarcophagus and I convinced him to place me in it as an experiment since I was going to die anyway. It worked and for the next 20,000 years various research doctors, human and humanimal, took care of me and worked to find a cure for the virus. About nine months ago, Drs. Leo and Tigresa Panthera of Catlanna, Gargia, developed a cure and used it on me." Michael smiled at them as if to say, “And you know the rest of the story."

Jeffrey got an excited look on his face and said, “Are you saying that there is a cure for the virus?"

“I'm saying that one has been developed. However, the question right now is how it will work best. The last time I talked with Dr. Leo, he said that he and Dr. Tigresa were conducting experiments on the best way to use the cure, injection, aerial disbursement or blood rinsing. Of the three methods, blood rinsing would be the most painful and expensive."

“Which method was used on you?" Elizabeth asked.

“Blood rinsing and injection."

“How bad did it hurt?"

“I didn't feel a thing."

“But, you said. . ."

“Yes, I did and I'm not lying. I was in stasis at the time. The needles were inserted when I was placed into the sarcophagus so my blood could be cycled into an oxygenator and an artificial kidney to remove toxins."

As Michael was talking, he was looking at Amanda. He noticed that she was nodding and, occasionally, snapping her head back up when it nodded too far forward. Michael had put his arm around her shoulders earlier and she had snuggled against his side, sighing contentedly as she felt his arm go around her.

Michael heard Elizabeth say, “Is she asleep?"

Amanda responded, “No. Sleepy. Not asleep."

Michael said, “Are you ready to go to bed, Amanda?"

Michael saw her muzzle wrinkling into her mischievous smile as she said, “Only if it's with you."

“Then, perhaps we should be leaving. Jeffrey, it was nice meeting you. Elizabeth, thanks for telling me the story of your life with Jeffrey."

Elizabeth said, “You're welcome, Michael. I hope that you can find it in your heart to give Amanda the love that she wants and I know you want to give her."

Michael slid out of the booth and coaxed Amanda to get out, too.

When she got to the edge of the seat, Amanda said, “Michael, please carry. Too tired to walk."

“I have to pay for the meal first, Amanda. Just lean on me until we get outside."

They walked to the register and Michael paid for all the meals. Jeffrey started to protest until Michael told him that, since they were his guests, custom and tradition said Michael was obligated to pay for their meal. Since he couldn't argue with Michael's logic, Jeffrey accepted Michael's “kind offer".

When they got outside, Michael squatted down and let Amanda climb onto his back. Michael placed his hands under her buttocks and she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck and lay her chin on his shoulder; actually, it was her cheek she lay on his shoulder as she fell asleep again.

Michael looked toward Elizabeth and saw an enigmatic smile on her muzzle. “What?" He asked.

“Why don't you admit to yourself that you love her?"

“I've never denied that, Elizabeth. I just don't love her romantically. I love her like a friend."

“Michael, Jeffrey and I love each other; but, our love started as friends. I see the same thing between you and Amanda."

“We'll see.

“Goodnight, Jeffrey. Goodnight Elizabeth."

Jeffrey and Elizabeth wished Amanda and Michael a goodnight and Amanda said, “Goodnight, you two. Enjoy yourselves when you get to bed." Then, she giggled mischievously. Michael just shook his head causing Jeffrey and Elizabeth to laugh.