Page 28 of The Pacifist
I wet my lips and blinked my eyes, unable to ask the question he was referring to.
“Don’t you want to know if I enjoyed the kiss, Mila?”
Not looking him in the eye, I gave an almost invisible nod.
“The truth is that… umm…”
My pulse beat fast and when Jonah didn’t finish his sentence, I met his eyes with impatience. “What?”
“Kissing you felt…” As if he was censoring himself, Jonah settled on the word “good.”
“Good?”
“Yes. You have nothing to worry about.”
My shoulders fell and I shrunk back in the couch. How could something that had blown my mind be nothing more than good to Jonah? “Was it better than with the woman in the sex club?” The moment my question was out, I wished I could take it back. What if he liked her more?
Trying to lighten the mood, I made another attempt at being funny and distracting him from answering my first question. “If you like kissing so much, maybe you should get married yourself.”
Jonah rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, which was so unexpected that I gaped. “Did you just roll your eyes at me?
“Don’t look so shocked.”
“But you could get reported for improper communication, Jonah.”
“By whom?” He swung his hands around. “It’s just you and me here and you’re used to much worse from your family and friends up North. If I’m honest, it’s one of the things I enjoy most about visiting the Northlands. The freedom to express myself without worrying that someone will get offended about a simple word.”
“What’s your favorite swear word?”
Jonah smiled and leaned his head back. “Huh, that’s a good question. Maybe fuck a duck… I’ve heard that a few times and it sounds funny. Same with shit a sheep. We would never say that here but I think we should. It adds color to the language.”
I laughed. “That’s true, but then there are plenty of sayings in the Motherlands that I find lovely and colorful too.”
“Like what?”
I thought about it. “Son of a sea lion is one of my favorites, and fidgeting fairies is cute too.”
“Yeah, no… the last one is definitely something only children would say.”
“I was a child when I moved. Maybe that’s why I still like it.”
“Probably, but either way, languages evolve and I’ve heard expressions take hold here without people realizing they originated in the Northlands.”
“You have?” My eyes widened. “Give me an example.”
“Okay… ehh, let me think. After my first visit to the Northlands, I returned full of impressions and when I did my first interview the words ‘dancing devils’ slipped out and it became an instant hit and was considered new slang.
“Why do you think that is?”
Jonah spoke with certainty in his tone. “Because it’s close enough to a curse word to be daring and it’s safe enough to not get reported. People are longing for us lawmakers to bring back free speech.”
“Really? You think Motlanders want to curse?”
“I can’t speak for everyone, but some of us do. It’sbloodyannoying to be limited and have other people censor you.”
I laughed. “And there we have the wolf howling again. You weren’t born to live with dogs, Jonah. There’s a wild side to you.”
“Well, it doesn’t take much to appear wild in this country of tame and domesticated people. I’m not saying we need to use vile or hurtful words, but a few swear words won’t kill anyone and people need to stop being so sensitive anyway.”
