This excerpt is copyright Mark Alders 2009

The Nourisher

Life Changes.

Hey, I’m Drake Glauco. I have a damn good life.

I’d have to say the best thing about being alive right now is my wonderful husband, Jankin. We got married in 2042, the year before his father passed away. We wanted him to see the ceremony. Both Jankin and his father cried like little school boys when the celebrant declared us together. It was beautiful.

That was a while ago now. We’ve been married for near on five years and I wouldn’t have it any other way. As I said, my life, with how we quantify it, is damn good. I have someone who loves me, a nice house and I’m also a partner in the law firm, Kosco, Glauco and Main. I must admit, I like having my name in the title. Then again, it’s been a long, hard road getting it up there. Well, you know what they say, hard work pays out big dividends, doesn’t it? I mostly represent illegal aliens and refugees. Since I helped draft up the Borders of Worlds treaty and it came into effect a decade ago, there has been a steady increase in alien activity here on Earth. Mostly aliens wanting to come here to get away from whatever it is they want to get away from.   

Anyway, back to the here and now. Traffic was pretty bad today, being a Friday. Then again, it’s always been bad no matter what day of the week, so who am I kidding? I just wanted to get home to my Jankin. We’ve got a special dinner tonight. Our anniversary. Can’t wait. He’s an awesome cook and I’m a lousy one. Perfect combination.  

I parked the car into my slot, a tricky affair that involved making sure I manoeuvre properly into the stack. Parking is now an art form since buildings introduced tiered parking. I still can’t get used to the idea of one or two hundred cars stacked up on top of each other on a rotating conveyer, each car only separated by a metal frame.

Once satisfied with my parking effort I headed for the entrance to my apartment. The parking stacks on my building are on the rooftop underneath the gardens, I suppose they can stack more cars that way. The sun burned the sky orange as it slipped behind the pacific. We had a great view.

“Welcome home, Drake,” the door chimed as I passed my ident card over the reader.

“Thanks,” I replied. I know the door doesn’t give a toss whether or not I answered, but you know, it’s kind of a habit of mine to do so.

I took the flight of stairs down to our living room. There was Jankin, my most beautiful husband, standing there with his shirt off. Next to him was another man. He was in his underwear.

“Oh, hi there, Drake, honey…I wasn’t expecting you home so soon,” Jankin murmured in his usual husky tone of voice as he came over to me. The look on his face told me more than anything he could say. He had been caught with another man.

You could say that right about now I saw red. But that’s not actually true. Not at first anyway. Sure, I was a pissed as all hell, but really things seemed to become clearer for me as I watched Jankin fumble with his shirt and the stranger cover himself up. Our relationship was over.

I opened my mouth but no sound eventuated. It was like I was watching this on holovid and I wasn’t really in the room. I was a passive bystander, waiting for the car crash or the explosion or whatever, dumbfounded by what I was witnessing.

The man stood up, snapping me from my reverie. “This isn’t what it looks like, I swear,” he said. Fuck he was painfully handsome, all toned and tanned and rippling muscles. Fucking bastard.

Then the sound of something snapping in my mind struck me. Those cars I had visualized did indeed crash…or was it that explosion? Whatever it was, what I now saw horrified me. Sure, I jumped to conclusions, who wouldn’t in my place? I had come home to see my husband and another person half naked on my couch. What was I supposed to think?  

“What the fuck is going on here, Jankin?” I stormed over to my husband, ripping his shirt out of his hand. No use him putting it on now. The damage had been done.

“Seriously, Drake, baby, this isn’t what it looks like. Jeff’s right.” Jankin reached out and placed his hands onto my shoulders.

I smacked his hands away. “Oh, so it’s fucking Jeff now is it?”

“Jeff’s a friend. He’s come over to help—”

“Don’t lie to me!” I interrupted. I was so furious now. The guy named Jeff had slinked away like the snake in the grass he was. “I can see it in your face, Jankin! I can see it in your body language. What? You don’t think I can read you by now? You’re a fucking liar! A fucking liar, you hear me?”    

Jankin came closer. “Baby, it really isn’t what it looks like. Jeff is training me…honest to God. I’m doing this for us…for you.”

“Don’t baby me. I can see what he’s training you for. Shirts off and all. What kind of training requires being naked on the couch? You’re a cheating son-of-a-bitch. I’m leaving, Jankin, and I’m not coming back. Not until you can come up with something better than that. I need an explanation, Jankin, and I need one that holds water, you hear?”

“It’s the truth. I’m telling you the truth. Jeff’s here to help me be a better man for you. He’s training me to—”

Again he tried to console me and again I knocked him away. “Oh, please! Forget it, Jankin. You can have your bit of fluff to get on his knees for you for all I care. You can have him bend over and take your lying cheating ways. I’m not doing it no more. Pathetic...that’s what you are. Abso-fucking-lutely pathetic.”

“Fine! You just don’t want to listen to me while you’re all hot-headed, do you? It’s so like you! Jump to conclusions. If I were a case and you’d done your research, you’d be eating your words right now. No matter what I say you won’t believe…”

I stormed back up the stairs. Jankin’s words trailed off as I left him and Jeff to think about how they ruined our marriage. As far as I was concerned it was all over. My eyes became misty from tears that now rolled down my cheeks. I had to get out. I had to get some air. I had to stop thinking about Jeff touching my Jankin.

“Leaving so soon, Drake?” the door chimed as I swiped my card.

“Fuck off!”

The sun had set. I took in deep the cool, crisp evening air. I needed to get away from the apartment so I dialled for my car. The seventeenth stack began to rise. My car was in bay forty-two, so it would take a few seconds to get to it. I hoped Jankin wasn’t following me. I was ready to punch his lights out.

I felt a sting on my neck. I turned, only to be confronted by two Boldiens, a green-skinned, amphibious and frog-like race native to Boldien’s world. One of whom was holding a needle—a now empty needle. “What the…” before I could finish my sentence everything fell into darkness.