Page 38 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

He smiled. “I wasn’t going to say that. I was going to say I’m going to give you a chance to change your mind. An open-ended chance.”

“Very magnanimous of you.” Rosie stopped suddenly. “You know what? I’m not going back to your house. I’m going over to the Weavers’ Barn.” She reversed her direction. “So see you later if you’ll be at dinner.”

Carnal stayed with her. She looked up at him. He was easily eight inches taller and seemed to tower over her.

“I’d just as soon walk you to the barn.”

“Suit yourself, but it’s a waste of your time.”

“Time spent with you is not a waste, Rosie.”

She was thinking that reply, while sweet enough to make the heart flutter, was a little too smooth to be trusted.

“You can walk where you want, Carnal, but it won’t get you anywhere with me.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, I’m not interested in being yesterday’s news.”

That literally stopped Carnal in his tracks. He stopped. Rosie kept walking. She looked back over her shoulder once, but didn’t break her stride until she was inside the Weavers’ Barn.

She began a slow walk down the aisle and back, trying to decide what class she would visit. In the end, she decided on a methodical approach. She would spend a day in every class beginning with the seven-year-olds. After making her way back down to the far end of the building, just before she reached the nursery and preschool, she entered the classroom quietly, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. The teacher, who was sitting in a tiny chair in a circle with her small class, looked up and smiled.

“Look,” she said to her charges, “we have a visitor. This is Rosie.”

“Hello,” Rosie said.

“We’re going to go around the circle and tell Rosie our names. You start, Daisy.”

“I’m Daisy,” said the little girl. “Are you human?”

“Yes,” Rosie answered. “And you’re mostly human.”

“I am?” The child looked astonished.

Rosie laughed. “That’s right.”

She wasn’t sure the teacher approved of her answer, but Rosie’s philosophy of teaching, newly formed within the previous second, was that the truth is what should be taught, regardless of the age of the student.

After introductions, the teacher said, “We’re identifying animals, their names, the sounds they make, whether or not they’re friendly to us, that kind of thing.”

Rosie nodded and took a seat far enough away from the circle to be forgotten by the kids, but not far enough away so that she couldn’t hear and observe the interaction. As it turned out, the school day ended at five. So she wasn’t there long, but she felt she had a feeling for what it would be like to teach seven-year-olds and she wasn’t sure it was a ‘fit’.

Carnal was at dinner at the Extant’s house that night and again the overall mood seemed elevated because of that. His simple presence energized the atmosphere.

“Rosie visited level two today,” said Serene.

“You did?” Charming asked.

Rosie nodded as she took a spoonful of mutton and cabbage. “I did.”

“What was it like?” Charming looked seriously interested.

“Well, they’re beautiful, of course.” Rosie noticed that her comment seemed to make all four members of the Extant’s family slightly uncomfortable. She wondered if they were prickly about the fact that they were the result of DNA tampering and selective breeding. “But they’re also bright, inquisitive, and eager to learn.”

It was evident that her latter comment made her dinner companions seem both pleased and proud.

“What made you pick level two?” Serene asked.