Page 157 of The Genius
“Maybe they just need a mediator. Athena and Pearl are up by the school. I bet one of them could smooth things out.”
“Shelly.” Marco got up too. “We all want what’s best for Willow and Solo, but maybe a friendship is too much to ask with their history and all.”
“I just want to help.”
“I know you do.” Marco pulled me into a hug. “I think people are getting ready to leave anyway, so why don’t we go ask Hunter if he and Willow are ready to fly home? I know I am.”
CHAPTER 34
Four Months Later
Marco
Reading the words over in my head, I smiled. “I think I have a beginning for my book.”
Shelly, who was tinkering with something inside the house, called out to me, “What did you say?”
Raising my voice for her to hear me better, I repeated, “I think I have the beginning for my book.”
“That’s great. What is it?”
“You want to hear it?”
My beautiful wife came to the doorway and leaned against the frame while unconsciously supporting her belly bump. “It’s a good place to come up with creative ideas, isn’t it?”
“The hammock?”
“Yeah, yesterday I got a brilliant idea. You know how we have brain implants here in the Motherlands?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I think we could make one for animals as well. There has to be a way for us to enable them to communicate with us.”
“You want to make animals talk?”
“Not all animals. I’d start with dogs.”
I broke into easy laughter. “You’re not serious, are you?”
“Why not? We’re already using technology to help people with speech impairments. We could develop a system to give non-verbal beings like monkeys and dogs a voice.” Shelly’s eyes lit up. “Maybe even babies.”
I held up a hand. “Remember that deal we struck that I’d tell you when an idea was more than just normal Shelly-crazy?”
“Yes.”
“This is one of them. If you can make pets talk, fine. But you’re not messing around with implants in babies’ brains.”
“But think about how practical it would be if a baby could speak.”
“Practical? Did you ever wonder if it’s a blessing that they can’t speak? I doubt they’d have anything interesting to say except demanding things of you the whole day.”
“I see your point. Then maybe not babies.”
“Definitely not babies.”
Shelly tapped her lips. “But dogs. I’ll bet dogs would have something interesting to say.”
“Like what? When is dinner ready? Can we go for a walk? Have you seen my ball? Stop blaming me for farting?” I grinned. “There, I just gave you the whole breakdown of a dog’s world.”
