construction.
The river curved, cutting into the stratified bank, exposing one of Crimson's fossil beds. The water rippled and softly splashed. Downstream, the channel narrowed; the river roughened and raced with a hollow roar. Stephen Thomas took off his shirt, hesitated, and slipped out of his shorts. He moved gingerly.
Zev watched him, worried that he might collapse again.
'Is it swollen?' he said, when he saw Stephen Thomas naked. 'Does it hurt?'
'It isn't swollen. It's sore.'
'Then I don't blame you for leaving it out.' The river rocks rattled hollowly as Zev crossed them. He tossed off' his clothes and picked his way over the treacherous footing to the river. Stephen Thomas followed slowly.
Zev threw himself into the midstream current, let himself be carried fifty meters through the rapids, then vanished beneath roiling white water.
'Zev!'
Upstream from the rapids, halfway back to Stephen Thomas, Zev reappeared. He waved and beckoned.
It looked like fun, but Stephen Thomas lowered
himself into the cold eddy near shore. Today, a sitz-bath was about his speed.
The water did feel good, easing the soreness, massaging away bits of dead skin.
Zev splashed toward him.
Stephen Thomas got a close look at an adult male diver for the first time. Struggling to stay calm, he patted the water. He slapped harder than he meant to, sending an angry splash toward Zev.
'Sit down.'
'Does your penis hang out like that all the time?' Zev asked suddenly. Stephen Thomas shifted on the uncomfortable rocks. He was trembling.
Instead of replying, instead of asking all his own questions, Stephen Thomas started to laugh. Hysteria tinged his laughter, but this really was funny. He thought Zev looked strange, and Zev thought Stephen Thomas looked just as alien.
Zev smiled uncertainly.
'Yeah,' Stephen Thomas said. 'It hangs out like that all the time. But I guess . . . it won't for long. Does it . . . T' He took a deep breath. 'I guess you don't know if it falls off, or withers away, or He stopped, confused. 'But Victoria said-'
'It won't do either,' Zev said. 'I don't think it will. It will just go inside.'
Though Zev had no idea what stages Stephen Thomas would have to go through to become a diver, he knew-he was an example of-the result. He explained to Stephen Thomas about internal genitals, and then he showed him.
'It's more streamlined,' he said. 'All aquatic mammals are like this.'
'So are a lot of terrestrial mammals,' Stephen Thomas said. 'But not ordinary humans. It never occurred to me. . . .'
Now, at least, some of the pain made sense. If his body was creating a place for internal genitals . . .
'You're a lot different than I thought,' Zev said. 'I knew you kept your scrotum outside-that's so silly, you have to work so hard not to be fertile-but I didn't know you kept everything outside.' He shrugged cheerfully. 'I didn't know men humans looked so different from women humans. Divers don't.'
Stephen Thomas let himself slide into the water until it covered him completely. He wondered how long he could stay submerged. He wondered if he could breathe underwater yet. He tried to take a breath.
He jerked upright, choking and coughing and gasping for air, just like last time.
Zev watched him, bemused.
'What are you doing?'
Stephen Thomas flung his wet hair out of his face. 'Trying to breathe underwater.'
'Why?'
'To see if I could. Maybe I don't want to come up.'
'You shouldn't breathe underwater unless you have to,' Zev said.
'Why not?'
'Your lungs get full of water. It's hard work, and it isn't very good for you. It's just to save your life if you get stuck. You get enough oxygen to keep your brain from dying till somebody finds you. You can get pneumonia if you're not careful.'
'Great.' He coughed and snorted and got rid of the rest of the water. 'Anyway,' Zev said, 'you should stick your penis out when you want to pee. Especially if you're living on land, otherwise you'll get all itchy.'
'What about sex?'
'Then it sticks out by itself,' Zev said solemnly. 'Of course.'
'Right. Of course.' God, Stephen Thomas thought, I'm blushing. 'Why did it hurt Victoria when we tried to make love in the water?'
'I don't-' Zev cut off what he was going to say, and thought for a minute instead. 'Did you try too soon? Were you ready?' 'Of course she was ready,' Stephen Thomas said, irritated. 'What kind of a jerk do you think I am?' It annoyed him to have to ask for advice in the first place, but to have Zev act like a teenage sex therapist-'Were you ready?'
'Obviously,' Stephen Thomas said sarcastically. But then he went back in his mind and listened to what Zev had just said. 'What do you mean by 'ready'?'
'She-'
'Not for Victoria. For me. How would you know if you were ready?'
'I'd be slick, of course,' Zev said.
'Oh,' Stephen Thomas said. 'Oh.
'That doesn't happen to men humans?'
'No.,,
'And it didn't happen for you?'
'Not as of this morning.'
'You're still changing,' Zev said. He patted Stephen Thomas on the arm. 'It'll be better when you're done.' He cocked his head, thoughtfully. 'You'll have to learn how to retract and extend. I never thought of that.' He jumped up and stood knee-deep in the water. 'Come on. Come swimming.' Stephen Thomas pushed himself to his feet. 'I can't right now, Zev.'
Zev glanced over his shoulder, wistfully, down the river. 'Are you okay? Can you get where you're going by yourself?'
'Sure.'
Zev grinned and waved and pushed off backwards. The current caught him. He vanished into the tumble of white water.
Stephen Thomas waded out onto the dry rocks. They were uncomfortably hot. He slid his feet quickly into his sandals and shook himself off. Droplets scattered from his body. In the bright light, his pelt was white-gold against his darkening skin.
He eased into his shorts, tempted to return to the cool solace of the river. He needed time to think and
reflect . . . or he needed to be distracted from too much thinking and reflecting.
As he climbed the path, Crimson Ng strode down it, pulling a wheelbarrow. 'Hi,' she said.
'Hi. Current project?'
'A new one.' Crimson let him look into the wheelbarrow. He expected to see the bones of one of her heavy- boned, long-fanged predators.
The rough slab of stone contained alien shapes, the fossilized soft bodies of creatures never in any vertebrate line. Tentacles writhed and tangled. Eons ago, some violent accident had crushed the feathered legs. 'It looks like-'
'I devolved Nemo,' she said. 'And invented the rest of the ecosystem.'
She gazed past Stephen Thomas to the riverbank, barely aware of his presence. 'It's ready to go in the ground. Want to help?'
'No,' he said, aware that she was offering him a courtesy. 'Thanks. I have to stop by the lab, and then I promised Fsther a stint with the ASes.'
