Terra Nova: An Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Science Fiction Read Free

sense its smells, his touch was
atrophied, the sounds of things did not reach him, he did not
recognize the world, or he were sensing or perceiving it for the
first time.
    He also did not like it when Charni
enveloped him with her contour to strike up a conversation and
seemed nervous or agitated when she sketched words on his.
    “ Go away, girl. I’m not
your stuffed toy,” were sounds he made often.
    On one hand, Charni had noticed that each
time Chaid Khasat ran into an inert entity, he swore quietly and
got into a bad mood. He suffered for his clumsiness and pretended
it did not matter, yet sometimes he was infuriated the restrained
laughter of the beings who had sweet scents, soft and warm textures
and melodious sounds.
    “ Women”: she remembered
the word that Mama had told her to use, above all in front of the
beings that shared the predominant characteristic of strong odors
and low sounds.
    “ Men”: she scolded herself
for not having used the sound that defined them in the first place,
at least in her head.
    Yes. As much as she preferred the tactile
words Mama had shown her that transmitted wider concepts, she had
to force herself to use those sounds, above all in the presence of
… men.
    Mama especially insisted
on that. Men were not suitable for using the textures of words.
They had something called “pride” that not only blocked them from
that kind of learning, it made them react with violence or
rejection when a woman tried to remind them of that.
    “ Hmm …” Mama emitted the
vibration of doubt before confronting the explanation. “Let’s
texture the sound ‘to see,’ all right?”
    She enveloped Charni even more with her
contour to allow her to use sounds and tactile words in her
explanation.
    “ As far as we women know,
men are born with an additional sense to the ones we have, a sense
that lets them obtain more information about what surrounds us and
give it even more consistency. And this same sense lets them
explore and move in the world that exists beyond our own. Without
it, survival wouldn’t be possible.”
    “ A world beyond?” The idea
overwhelmed Charni. More worlds? Was that possible?
    “ Yes, Charni. You’re still
not developed enough to know the true limits of ours, which is much
more defined than what you’ve perceived so far. And that’s because,
besides this world, there’s another world that can be reached from
certain spaces in ours, and it is so big, so enormous, that without
this fifth sense we would be lost in infinity and never find the
way to get back to our home.
    “ This unlimited space is
filled with so much information that without the sense of sight, we
couldn’t understand it. In fact, even our own beings would reject
it. We couldn’t stand it. Imagine something like that, Charni. We
have to give thanks that men have this sense because only they can
protect us from those who inhabit this strange world.
    “ Each time I have been
able to produce a man inside of me, I have felt happy … because I
have helped protect our world. And protect you, my daughter. You,
me, and all the women here.”
    Although the sounds and
caresses that accompanied the explication did not completely fill
in the empty spots in Charni’s understanding, the idea that Mama
could produce men to ensure the survival of women like herself made
her pleased, surprised, fascinated and overwhelmed all at once. And
it was still a difficult concept to take in.
    “ But … but …” she began to
say. “More information? How?”
    “ I can’t explain something
to you that I don’t know myself, Charni. Some men have tried to
explain this fifth sense to me, although it was hard for me to
understand. They used words like ‘light’ or ‘colors,’ but they have
never known how to transmit the concept to me. I’m sorry. I’m not
being much help to you.”
    Charni tried to put all
those concepts within the limits she understood and could
assimilate. To think of “unlimited” was not too