In fact, in all her eighteen years, Kaylee had never seen a black person in the flesh.
“What would they do to me if they found me, Alex?” Kaylee asked.
“They won’t find you,” Alex said.
“But if they did-”
“-They won’t. Trust me.”
Alex pulled Kaylee into his arms. He held her on the footbridge. He pulled her in, close and tight and comforting. He almost, for a fleeting moment, felt like a real man. Not a “sissy”, not a “whiteboi” — a sterilized slave — but a protector.
“There’s always a contingency,” Alex said. “These mountains are full of hiding places. Tons of little settlements, an endless network of trails.”
Kaylee’s hair smelled of wildflowers and honeysuckle. Her plump, budding breasts pressed against him and awakened a primordial, masculine energy. Even through the thick haze of the estrogen pills, nature fought to assert itself.
“I just wish,” Kaylee whispered, “there was some hope for the future, Alex. Something to look forward to. Something more than hiding and fear.”
“I know,” Alex said, holding her sweet head to his chest.
“When my mom was my age, she was about to start her first marriage. About to start a family. And what do I have?” Kaylee whispered.
“You’ve got me,” Alex said.
They held each other tighter.
“And who knows?” Alex said. “I’ve heard rumors. There are doctors in the mountains to the northeast. And underground network of them. They can reverse the sterilization. They can fool the тестs. It’s not over. Even if it seems like it, it’s never over.”
Kaylee said nothing, but held her step-brother (now step-sissy) in the fading late afternoon light. She lived in a strange world, indeed: a world devoid of men. All she knew were whiteboi sissies: a breed of sterilized half-men incapable of impregnating her. In the prime of her life — her moist and fertile loins begging for attention — she was relegated to a life of celibacy.
Kaylee ached for the touch of a man. Alex was the closest thing she’d known to one. He hadn’t been psychologically defeated. Despite his clothing, the ridiculous wig, his hormones, and his government-mandated makeup, she still saw the spark of manhood somewhere within him. She was drawn to it. She needed it in a primal way.
“I love you, Alex” Kaylee said, her voice sweet and soft.
“I love you too,” Alex said.
The step-siblings hugged in the silence of nature, s
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