I doubt there are many things more nervewracking than standing waiting for a woman to come who is your wife, and who you have never even seen. And I stood not only with my family, Adelphe, Andrew, and Justina; but with Jonathon and his brothers. All of whom kept looking at me, wondering how I felt. As if I knew.

Adelphe had come over to me, early that morning, and whispered in my ear, “You’ll like her!” she had said. I hoped she was right. But, more importantly, I hoped she would like me!

“Look, there they are!” David called out, pointing. They were excited because they were hoping that it was their parents that would be bringing me my wife. It made sense that it would be them, and I sort of hoped they were coming too, so as to take the boys mind of me and my wife.

We all strained to see. Sure enough, it did look like a shuttle. They came from different directions each time; both because the ships themselves were always in motion about the planet and in order to prevent the Bn from planning another attack. The speck rapidly grew bigger and my heart pounded faster and faster.

It was a long time, and way too quickly, before the shuttle hovered over our compound and the ropes came down. The boys and I scrambled to the bottom of each rope, holding them stable. Seconds later the first rope started to shake and the colonel, his assuault rifle over his shoulder, came sliding down. Then the rope I was holding started to shake and, above me, a child came… his drag zipper bringing him safely down the rope. I still caught him… her… when she got to the grown. It was their sister, about half way to puberty. She gave me a quick kiss and ran off to Adelphe.

The next person down my rope was Jonathon’s mother. She always hated sliding, which I thought funny in a soldier-wife. She was a great shot, though, often taking top marks in our competitions. I had to kind of stand out of the way to hold the rope as she controlled her own meeting with the floor and, once she unhitched herself, she turned and hugged and kissed me. Then she stood in front of me and looked meaningfully over my shoulder.

I turned… still holding the rope, and saw her. Why, she was beautiful! She was talking with Adlephe and had an enormous grin on her face. They were hugging and kissing and all and she was crying. I thought, at first, that she hadn’t seen me, but then I noticed that, every few seconds, she was giving me quick sidelong glances.

One more child slid down my rope and then the hugging and kissing became general, and the shuttle flew off. Everyone watched that, of course. No matter how many times you watched a shuttle fly it was still glorious to watch.

“Carl,” Adelphe said, from behind my shoulder, “This is Jill.”

I turned and met her eyes, really met her eyes, for the first time. Adelphe had told me what to do, and I tentatively held out my hand afraid… my fears were foolish. She took my hand back, confidently, even eagerly. “I’m so sorry that my trip took so long!” she said, chattering. “And…”

Just then she kind of squealed. You see, it hadn’t been raining. It almost always rained but, by some miracle, it hadn’t been raining just when they landed. And just now it started again, and pretty heavy. So, when the rain hit her, she kind of squealed.

Everyone one else went racing into the hut but, when she turned to follow, I pulled on her hand. “Could you… I’d like to show you something,” I said.

“I… OK,” she said, glancing back at the hut with its fire and all. I pulled her, then led her, by the hand and we went down the path to my refuge. She was rather nervous at several of the crossings, and clung tightly to my hand, which I really liked. I knew I needed to calm down before tonight, and I hoped a little time alone with her would help. And, besides, I didn’t think I could face that whole crowd, just now.

“Oooh,” she said, when I led her in. “This is nice!”

“I like it,” I said, plopping myself down on the ‘floor’… the part of the branch just next to the trunk. The two huge branches that met here were so wide, and so joined, that I hoped she wouldn’t feel nervous, and we could relax and talk.

She didn’t sit, but walked around, looking at everything, and even looking down at the jungle floor. Then she looked at my collection of blowpipes, flowers, and all.

Then she turned back to me. “Thank you,” she said, and started taking off her ship suit.

At first I thought she was just getting dry. But, as my heart kept beating she didn’t just get down to her shorts but…

“It is so nice of you to give us privacy for the first time,” she said, when she finished undressing. “I know that this isn’t how we will normally be, but it was special of you to arrange this for  our first time.”

I had no idea, at all, what to say, but she made it so I didn’t really need to say anything. The floor must have been uncomfortable for her, and Adlephe told me the first time always was for girls, but she didn’t complain at all.

“Well, so now we’re really partners,” she said, leaning back against me. “Oh, no, I forgot, you’re from Leeman’e, aren’t you, so that makes me your ‘wife’, no?”

She turned toward me, and I nodded. “I’m so glad,” she said. “It was a very hard trip for me. It wasn’t like I was a normal recruit, like Aliya,” she said. “On my ship…”

I listened for at least an hour. She didn’t seem to expect any answers from me, except the occasional nod. Eventually, however, she said, “Do you want to go back now? I’m kind of hungry.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, hopping up.

The rain had died down a bit, so she looked a little less uncomfortable on the way back. I was… I didn’t know what I was. Happy, of course. But shocked. I had never heard of anyone, you know, in the middle of the day like that. I thought it always happened at night, and in the morning. Would she still be willing to… tonight?

“Carl!” the colonel said, when we came into the hut, hand in hand, starting to come over to me. Then he stopped, and blushed. I had no idea why, but I wasn’t really in the mood to talk anyway. Jill kept holding my hand, and I didn’t resist, allowing myself to be led over to Adelphe and Jonathon’s mother.

“Jill,” said Adelphe, hugging and kissing her. I thought they had done that before, but Jill didn’t seem surprised. The colonel’s wife looked at us with a grin on her face. I suppose we did look a little funny. First of all we were all wet, and they had all dried off. Secondly I was just wearing my loin cloth, and my wife was all in her ship suit still. I had made a jungle skirt for her, I would have to show it to her. Later, I thought to myself. She is from NT and will probably not want to change in front of everyone.

“Tell us about your trip,” The colonel’s wife asked Jill, and she started in on that story. It sounded rather different, her telling it to everybody, than it had to me. It started to get a bit boring, her telling a story I had already heard, but, about a minute in, she put her arm around my waist and I reciprocated, getting lost in my thoughts. I had a wife. Not just a bed partner, but a wife; someone to talk to, to share everything with. I could even cry with her, you could with wives, or so my mother always told me. Not that I would.

~~~

The colonel’s shuttle came back for them soon after dinner, but no one else seemed ready for sleep, so we all sat up talking. I kept looking at Jill and wondering if she liked me at all. She sat next me, and all, and kept her hand on my leg, but was she just doing her duty?

Even when we went to bed (she looked funny getting in the hammock), and, well, yes… I still wondered if she was just ‘doing her duty’. She seemed to find being inside, with everyone all there and everything, very annoying. Adelphe had told me enough so I understood that, and tried to be as private as possible.

She was very, very tired when I woke her the next morning, and went right to sleep, afterwards. “Come on, guys,” I said, and the other boys stumbled, sleepily, after me.

“Those Rihalan will be here in a few days,” I said. “One hundred of them. We’ve got to get their blinds ready.”

“I don’t get it,” David said. “how come this works?”

“What?” I said.

“Blinds,” he said. “How come they work? I mean, the aliens. How come that they don’t, like, see us building these things and stay away?”

“That’s a good question,” Jonathon said. “We don’t know. They are genious’s, in some ways, but, in other ways they are really stupid.”

“They don’t cooperate well,” I said. “We do, sometimes.” I wasn’t doing too well at cooperating, myself. These boys were annoying me. The arrival of these Rihalan was annoying me. I’m not going to say that Jill was annoying me, I mean, you know, but what was annoying me was that I had no idea how to deal with her.

“Come on!” I said, as the other struggled along behind me. Frustrated, I picked up Benjamin, and lashed him to my back. We moved along a little faster after that and arrived at the first place I had picked a half an hour later.

“Here,” I said. “You see these limbs? I thought this would make a good place for a blind.”

“They can’t climb either,” David said, a half an hour later, as we arranged vines.”

“What?”

“Not very high, anyway. They can’t climb and they never really look up. This must be a frustrating planet for them, in some ways.”

I looked at him. “True,” I said. “I hadn’t thought of that. They like the water, though.”

“Yes,” he said. Then, “Look!” he whispered.

We looked. It was just a normal adult. “Your turn,” Benjamin. I would never have let him try to shoot a genious class, but a normal was fine.”

Phweet. “Did I hit it?” he asked.

“No,” I said. “But it didn’t hear your shot, try again.”

Three more shots and, finally, he hit and we watched the Bn collapse. “Back to work,” I said, and David, Jonathon, and I started moving vines around again.

A couple of minutes later Benjamin said, “Oooh, they found him. Their eating him!”

“They do that,” I said.

“Oooh, gross!” he said.

Phweet.

“What are you doing?” I said.

“I shot one of them.”

“Don’t waste ammunition,” I said. “It’s hard making those darts!”

“Sorry, Carl,” Benjamin said. “Oooh, gross!”

~~~

“Carl!” Jill said, coming over and kissing me.

“Hi,” I said, hanging my stuff up. “Been busy?”

“Ummm, yeah,” she said. “I guess I was kind of tired. But I got up sometime after you left, and helped Aliyah fix breakfast. Kind of gross. Lizard.”

“Lizard is good,” I said. “Better than bug.”

She turned a little green, and turned back to the stove. The boys busied themselves with some dart making. I looked back at Jill. She had her shipsuit on again. Adelphe must not have told her about her new skirt. Probably thinking that, since I made it, I should give it to her.

I went to the closet, “Jill, come here for a second,” I said. Everyone, the boys and Adlephe, looked up as Jill came over. “Look what I made you,” I said to her holding it up. She grinned at me.

“What is it?” she asked. “You made it?” I guess, since she hadn’t seen anything quite like it before, it was a bit confusing.

“It’s a skirt!” I said. “Adelphe has some like this.”

“Oooh,” she said, sounding kind of confused.

“Well, try in on!” I said. “You’ll find it a lot more comfortable.”

“Ok,” she said. I don’t know if she liked it, really. I mean, she said she did, but I had to convince her that it was much more comfortable without the shorts and all, and she still seemed very uncomfortable with it. But she wore it, and I knew that she would find it more comfortable in time.

“Breakfast ready?” Andrew asked, coming in a few minutes later. Jill must have been embarrassed to be wearing the new skirt I had made her, as she kept her back turned to him for a while. And I guess Lizard wasn’t her favorite, as she didn’t eat much breakfast.

“What are you doing, Uncle Andrew?” Benjamin asked, once he had taken his first few bites of breakfast.

“Shelter, shelters, and more shelters,” he said. You are so lucky that you are getting to hunt with Carl.”

“Shelters?” Jill asked, blushing when everyone looked at her.

“We are having a hundred Rihalan, coming in about a week in a half,” Andrew said. “I’m putting them in four man shelters, so I have to work up twenty five shelters.”

“Rihalans,” Jill said, still blushing but gamely trying to integrate herself into the family. I was proud of how hard she was trying. It must be difficult from someone from a society like New Texas, without all of the formal training, to come into a family like ours. “I’ve never met any Rihalans.”

“What?” I said. “I thought you came with them?”

“They were in the fleet,” she said. “
But it’s not like I met any of them. They were all quarantined in their own quarters. We weren’t allowed anywhere near them.”

“Why?!” David asked.

‘Because I’m a girl,” Jill said. She really must not like being the center of attention, as she blushed, again, when we all looked at her, but she continued gamely, angrily. “Girls, women, none of us were allowed near them.”

“But why?” David asked, again.

“Because they don’t bring women with them,” Adelphe said. “Boys need girls, men need women, but the Muslims are so interested in getting two wives each that they send their boys out to be killed.”

“Oh,” said David. I didn’t quite understand why Adlephe and Jill were so upset. I never did understand girls, really.

We ate the rest of the meal in silence and then, as we all picked up our bowls to take them over to sink, Jill pulled me aside. “I talked to Aliyah and she said it was OK for us to, you know, spend some time together. Can we go back to the… to your shelter?”

I was confused but Adelphe, standing behind her, nodded vigorously at me. Ordinarily I would have hated a hint like that but, really, girls… she knew about them and I really didn’t.  I knew the girls in my dorm but they… they weren’t really girls, if you see what I mean. They were more like sisters. “OK,” I said.

She grabbed my arm, like partners did sometime. It was kind of awkward, holding my arm against my body but I did like it. It connected us. I didn’t understand what was supposed to happen between us… except in bed. And even there I wasn’t sure I was doing it quite right, she seemed so awkward and tentative.

“Oooh,” she said, when we got to that one section of branch where I had to help her across. “We have nothing at all like this back on New Texas,” she said. “Everything is just totally flat. The tallest thing on the planet… well, not really, but in our area, is new corn, which grows to about ten feet.” We got to the other side and she looked back, and down. “And that is way more than ten feet. Oooh, what’s that?”

I pushed her behind me, and down, dropping down next to her, sort of on top of  her. She squealed a bit as I whipped out my blowpipe.

Pwheet.

“Sorry,” I said, getting up. “It was just an adult, but I don’t like to let any get by.”

And adult what?” she asked, me as I pulled her up and she straightened her skirt and brushed some leaves out of her hair and off her chest.

“Bn!” I said. Didn’t she even know that?

“Enemy? Really?” she asked, falling flat on her face again and peering over the edge. “That’s my first one to really see.”

I stood there, staring at her. At first just because it was so beyond my ken that someone her age had never seen an enemy. And then because, well, she was my wife, and she really looked good, laying there, in nothing but her skirt… which had kind of rumpled up. And, now, I was really allowed to look.

Girls must have some kind of sixth sense because I hadn’t been staring at her for more than a few seconds before she rolled over and grinned at me. “Want to get to the shelter?” she asked.

“I, umm, yes,” I said, embarrassed and excited.

She must really like the shelter, I thought to myself an hour later, as we lay together on the floor of the shelter. She really seemed to like being here, so much better than back at home. She even seems to like me better here!

“How’s it going with the boys?” she asked me, suddenly.

“The boys? Jonathon and them? Ok, why?”

“Oh, you just seem a bit angry at them.”

“Angry? No, just frustrated. They’re supposed to be helping me, and learning, and instead I seem like I’m babysitting them.”

“Well, they are younger than you,” she said, rubbing her hand across my chest. “It’s not like they’re ready to be married yet.”

“I guess,” I said, glowing at the compliment. “I guess we need to get back. I need to set up a lot more blinds. All of those Rihalans are going to hunt, too.”

“OK,” she said, sounding sad.

“You, you don’t have to wear that skirt, you know, if you don’t like it. You can wear your ship suit, or I can make you something else.”

“I love it,” she said, kissing me. “It’s just a little different from what I am used to wearing back on New Texas.”

“On New Texas?” I asked, confused. “I have seen files from their and that is more than just a little different… oh!” I said. “I’m so sorry!”

“Sorry, my love?” she said.

“For making you wear that! Oh, I’m so sorry. I grew up in the dorm, but I should have remembered from my studies!”

“It’s OK!” she said, kissing me again. “I knew things would be different here. It will just take me a little while to get used to.” She took my hand and led me outside.

“This rain, on the other hand, I don’t think I will ever get used to.”

I didn’t say anything. No one else seemed to like the rain. I liked it.

“What are you looking for?” she asked me, halfway back to the house.

“Bn,” I said, and she gripped my hand tighter, looking down at the jungle floor herself.

“Come on, boys,” I said, when we got back. The boys looked up from the table, which was covered in plants. They must have been helping Adelphe sort. That was good, that they were working.

We got five more blinds done before dinner time. Seriously, it took me most of my time getting them there. They were fine once we got to a site. We got back and showered… which I always thought funny, as we spent pretty much all day pretty much naked in the rain. The boys, unlike my wife, liked the clothes I had made the. Especially Benjamin.

“Carl,” Uncle Andrew said, “Are you going to want to do worship time with just your wife? Or join  us?”

I looked up, startled. And  upset at myself. Of course I would need to do worship time with myself, and I had totally forgotten. But… “I think it would be good to do it together, in the evenings,” I said. “Then perhaps we can find some time, during the day, to do our own worship time?”

Andrew looked pleased at this answer, Adlephe grinned at me, but Jill looked very confused. She didn’t say anything, though, so I let it ride. “OK, well, if you change your mind, let me know,” he said, and we finished the meal while he, basically, moaned about having to build all of these shelters for the Rihalan. Once we were done, and had done the dishes, we gathered, as we always did, in a corner of the hut… if a round hut could be said to have corners. Jill, without my even asking, sat down in my lap, sort of.

“Since we are going to have Rihalans coming to live with us, or near us anyway,” Andrew said. “I thought it would be good for me to teach, some, on what the differences are between us… between the religions of New Texas, New Geneva, and Rihala. Jill squirmed in my lap, I guess she was having difficulty finding a comfortable way to sit. I was comfortable just having her there, I can assure you.

“Are you cold?” I asked her, suddenly thinking of it. After the day it got a bit cold, here. Not like it had in the desert, but still. She nodded, and I reached out for a blanket, and covered her… us really, with it. She relaxed a bit then, leaning back more against me. She probably was tired, as well, poor girl, having to change shifts.

“New Texans and New Genevans share most of our religion,” Andrew said. “New Genevans are much more serious about it, of course. New Genevans explain much more in relationship to their religion, as well. When we execute someone on New Texas, for example, we are likely to say ‘they had it coming’ or ‘good for them’ or some such. New Genevans are much more likely to specifically state the religious conviction behind the execution.”

“Another issue would be that the Genevans tend to emphasize the role of God in salvation, and we from New Texas talk about man. So we might say, “I found God,” while the Genevans will say “God found me.” Both have their roots in Scripture, and were not here, tonight, to argue the point, I am just pointing out the differences.”

“But, mostly, we agree. We believe in God, as a trinity: the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe that Christ died on the cross to save us from our sins…”

He went on for a few minutes on that subject, and then, finally, got to the part that interested me. It had been a long time since I had studied what the Muslims actually believed.

“Muslims believe in one God, as well, but believe that we believe in three. Like most non-Christian religions they insist in misunderstanding Christianity.”

“Rihalans are different from other Muslims. They have taken several aspects of Muslim culture and religion to rather an extreme. The  one that will affect us the most is their view of women. We believe in a strong difference between the sexes,” he said. “We believe in early marriage, and in women being very ‘fruitful’ and having lots of children.”

“But we believe, and believe strongly, in being ‘one flesh’ with our wives. In doing lots of things together, and really getting to know each other. We believe that the love between a man and his partnére… or wife… is the strongest and most important love after the love that God has for us, and we are supposed to have for him.”

“For  Rihalans, on the other hand, women are almost a separate speices. Except for their sisters, mothers, and ‘aunts’, Rihalans almost never see women. Women are kept very closely guarded in their compounds or houses.”

“Rihalans, like some religions, even, I’m sorry to say, some Christians, see women as basically evil.” He paused, “Well, maybe that’s not quite fair. Basically they, many religions, see the body, and its desires, as evil. A necessary evil, a ‘fun’ evil even, but evil. And for Muslims and others, including many early Christian writers, women represent that evil.”

“No one, not here on the colonies anyway, reacts like some of our anscestors did. It used to be common for people to delay partnership, thinking they were somehow more Godly if they were able to wait; or scared of getting into a ‘bad’ partnership with a woman who wasn’t Godly enough. Fathers of daughters had the same idea. It was truly an insane time.”

“Anyway, no one today acts like that. Even before the war made it even more vital pretty much all the colonies were in favor of very young partnership. But what they do do, and the Rihalans really do, is hide the flesh away, and try to pretend that those relationships don’t exist.”

“The Rihalans, in particular. They wear clothes you will find oppressive… and our women will have to wear something like it. They don’t care so much about boys and men. They might kill us if they found us around their women dressed like this, but there will be none of their women here.”

“As for justice,” he said, “They have a rather different judicial code than we do…”

~~~

The next morning the boys did better. Jonathon and David were getting better at getting around, and Benjamin just climbed on my back first thing. “I’m going to leave you guys for a while,” I said, when we got to the fourth blind are after breakfast. “I need to spend some time with my wife.”

“OK, Carl,” Jonathon said, looking around. “Which way do you want us to go for the next one?”

I explained that and hurried back to the house. “Are you ready?” I asked Jill, when I got there.

“Ready?” she said, looking confused. I guess I should have told her when I was coming, but I hadn’t been sure it would work. “Oh?!” she said brightening up. “Sure.”

“You don’t have to wear that skirt, you know,” I said to her as we went, hand in hand, toward the shelter. “It won’t offend me if you want to wear something else.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “How was your morning?”

“We’re getting more blinds built,” I said. “The boys are getting better. I haven’t seen many Bn, though.”

“Well, with the Rihahalns coming you will have lots of help, soon, no?” she asked.

“I hope they will be help,” I said. “How are you doing with Adelephe?”

“Who?”

“Aliyah, your sister. Sorry, I call her Adelphe. It is a New Genevan name for a sister in law.”

“Oh, fine. She and I get along fine, we always have. Does it always rain, here?” she asked, as we got to the shelter.

“Pretty much,” I said. She started to take off her skirt, but I shook my head. “Not yet. You remember what Uncle said. I need to do our worship time. I noticed, last night, that you didn’t seem to know any of our Psalm tunes, so I thought I would teach you a couple of them.”

Well, she had a fine voice, and learned well. And, well, the rest went well as well. “Can you find your way back?” I asked. “I need to…”

Her panicked face answered my question and I took her hand. “Look, I’ll get you started,” I said, remember that she had problems with that one branch. “But you really will need to learn.”

Then I remembered myself. “Or, maybe not. You won’t be able to get out of the house without me with these Rihalans here. Bother.”

A couple of minutes or so later she said, “I can find my way now, thanks.”

She gave me a quick kiss, and I darted back toward the boys…

~~~

“Carl!” Uncle called, from where he was building a shelter, the next morning. We had just been passing nearby on our way to a new blind.

“Yes?” I yelled back. I didn’t really like to yell, I figured it let the enemy know where we are. I had been having a lucky morning so far: three enemy shot and killed.

“Get the boys working and come up here, will you?” he asked.

“K.”

It was probably fifteen minutes later I made it back. “Sir?” I asked.

“Ah, well, more ‘Uncle’ I think,” he said. “More of a family thing.” He cleared his throat and said, “How is it going with Jill?”

I blushed, I’m sure. What was he asking? “I, umm, fine.”

He frowned. Obviously not what he was looking for. “I am not trying to pry,” he said. “But it is my responsibility, both as your new father and as your superior officer, to make sure that things are really ‘fine’.”

“You have been taking her off to your shelter every day, and I think that is a good thing. She was not raised on shipboard. You’ve been coming together there?”

I nodded, blushing, although I didn’t know why.

“Good,” he said. “And she is talking to you, that is good.”

“Talking? Yes, she is always talking.”

He laughed, “She is kind of talker.” He sobered up, ‘You probably need to do more talking too. Do you do any talking?”

“Yes, sir,” I said. Didn’t I do worship time, just like I was supposed to? That was talking, wasn’t it?

“Well, good. Girls seem to need a lot of talking. Glad to hear it is going well, you can go back now.”

As I left I wondered what that had been about. My wife was great, I was enjoying her attention in bed, if not so much her talking, and we could only hope she would be fertile. If she helped Adelphe with the house and all, and freed her up to do more doctoring, the I could do my job of killing enemy, and everything would be fine.

“What did Uncle want?” David asked me, when I showed up at the blind, which they finished and had been sitting watching for Bn.”

“To talk to me about how it was going with Jill,” I said.

“Oh!” he said.

“Come on,” I said. “I have to get you to the next blind area.”

I took them there and then went off to the shelter. Jill had told me she would try to get there herself and, when I got near, I saw that she had done. I was on a level several meters above her, and could see into the shelter from where I was.

She was, surely, the most beautiful creature on Earth… or this planet anyway. I was sitting, just looking at her, as she stared down, probably looking for enemy… although whether she could hit something with her pistol was a doubtful question.

Truly girls must have a sixth sense, for she almost immediately turned around and looked at me, grinning and waving… quietly. I had talked to her about how important that was. I grinned back, and started down toward her.

When I came in she was, again, watching for Bn. Which was good. I hadn’t seen any, myself, on my trip down, and we needed to get everything done, tho, so I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around, and sat up for worship.

“Umm, before I get started, I have a question for you.”

“Yes?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.

“Are you happy? I mean, is there something different I should be doing as a husband to make you happy?”

Her face totally changed, and I was afraid I wasn’t communicating very well. “Uncle took me aside, today, to ask how everything was going, and I wanted to hear from you, as well, how things are going for you.”

Her face was a study, and she seemed at a loss for words. She opened her mouth several times, and then, finally, with an embarrassed pull at her skirt, said, “Well, I won’t lie to you, it has been hard coming out here. Things are very, very different here. But you have been wonderful, and Aliyah, and Andrew, and I love Justina and the boys and all.”

“Good,” I said, relieved. Uncle’s question had worried me. “Let’s see what the next text is…”

~~~

“What on Earth!?” I said, when I got back to the latest blind. Benjamin was standing in the middle of the blind, looking truly bizarre. I looked at the other boys.

“Camouflage!” David said, excited. “We looked it up, and wanted to surprise you!”

Well, they had done that. Benjamin was all over splotchy: not a trace of his original skin color was left. Greens, browns, even purples covered him from head to toe… at least everywhere not covered by his loincloth… covered him in long, scraggly, streaks. Even his eyes.

“Camouflage?” I said, wonderingly.

“So we can’t be seen,” David said, as if I wasn’t clear on what camouflage was.

“Where did you get the stuff?” I asked them. Jonathon kind of giggled.

“We asked Adelphe,” he said. They had taken to calling Aliya that like I did, I’m not sure why. “We had to do it when you weren’t listening. It was hard. They are all local plants and things. The brown is from the bark of a Yhoran tree,” he said.

“It itches,” Benjamin said, scratching. Scratch how he might, it didn’t come off tho. I rubbed on his skin, and looked at the other two, who grinned.

“Won’t rain off, either,” Jonathon said, confidently. “Adelphe says so.”

“Wow!” I said.

“Shall we all put it on?” David asked and, when I nodded, he squealed, running over into the corner where they had the materials all bound up in leaves.

Minutes later, fun minutes later, we all looked like nothing on Earth. “Wow!” I said, as Benjamin finished putting the last few touches on David’s leg. “This is awesome. Good job, boys!”

The boys grinned, and stayed grinning all the way back. Especially when…

“What on Earth?” Jill said, almost dropping the pot she was carrying to the table.

“Like it?” Benjamin asked her. Aliyah stood in the background, grinning.

“What is it?” Jill asked. Then I came in, “Carl?!”

“It’s camouflage,” I said, enjoying the boys pleasure. It was funny to see Jill’s face.