Interlude:  My Mutant Love 

Julie Moretti has been staying with Stephen Wolcott for almost a month now.  When their apartments were destroyed in rapid succession, they decided to continue rooming together to conserve their dwindling resources.  
Rooming with him was a real experience.  At first, she would come home to find him in a trance; he'd stay that way till after she went to sleep!  No matter when she woke up in the morning, he'd be gone by then.  
One afternoon she came home early, to ambush him before he went into that trance of his.  He tried to walk out, but she wouldn't let him.  He finally invited her into trance with him.  And she went.  She could tell he felt she d be repelled by his mind, and thus leave him alone afterward.  But she wasn't, and she didn't.  
What an experience!  His mind was so active!  
The first thing he did was (in terms she could explain) build a wall around them, so he couldn't perceive anything other than her and himself.  But he didn't look into her mind at all!  He only toured his own mind, just to make sure it hadn’t broken down at all during the day.  
Julie (in mental form alongside him) asked him why he had to have everything in his mind just so:  didn't it stifle his creativity? Stephen responded:  "Perhaps, but 1 cannot afford to lose control." 
"Oh, come on!  You're the most controlled person I ever met!  You could lose a little of it and come out better!”
"You do not know how 1 was when uncontrolled.  I would sooner die." He flashed images of himself in high school.  
But Julie found them pretty tame, for something he fears so much.  She asked, “Is that all?  The rest of your life must have been OK, then.”
"I do not remember." 
Stephen Wolcott had some sort of trauma associated with the outbreak of his power during early high school.  As a result, he remembers nothing before then.  

In later evenings, Stephen unbent a little.  Julie would go with him into his mind for a while each evening.  One evening she found that he often thinks in music - like rock, but more eerie than anything she's ever heard.  But he creates new music constantly!  (When she asked him about it, he said, ·Yes, ever since ...  since I met a musician I respected.”· Julie got the image of Christine Lassiter - the bar band lead singer who fought alongside him.) 
Overall, Julie thinks she's helped him, just like he needed.  And - a surprise to her - he's helped her, apart from saving her life two or three times.  
He trusts her entirely!  He's done so ever since she met him.  He had no secrets from her!  
His mind was strange, at least compared to hers.  He felt it was strange compared to everyone else; she couldn't say.  He had sexual dreams, like other men.  He masturbated once; when he found out what that was like, that was enough for him.  
She 1ikes him.  He puts new meaning into the word "relationship".  He doesn't hide a thing from her, not even what he's thinking!  She's never seen that in a man before!  And she's starting to respond to it.  
Stephen bas never invaded her thoughts without her knowledge; however, he has begun to announce himself within her mind when he wants to speak with her.  She's almost responded, with her own deep secrets.  And he knows she's still keeping secrets from him (unimportant as they are); he doesn't care!
There's only one thing missing from this relationship before she reveals all, though.  And it's something he's been missing anyway.  Maybe it's time she tried to change that.  

One night after they both come home, she invites him to bed.  
For a moment he is overcome with shock.  Then, as she moves closer to him, he mutters, “no!" She stops; he says again, "No!' and flees the house.  As he runs out, he can hear from his own window, "You Bastaaard!" He runs aimlessly into the night.  
Stephen Wolcott has never even considered being that intimate with another person.  
Julie Moretti has had sex with two or three boys.  She's never offered to make love before tonight, though.  And he turned her down!  
Stephen ends up outside the East Lansing elementary school, sitting on one of the swings.  After a few minutes, Mike Roberts walks up.  Stephen says, "Why are you here?" Mike replies, "You're pretty obvious to someone who knows you, Steve.  You're having sane kind of problem.  Why don't you tell me about it" 
Hike showed up because he could feel Stephen in distress; he thought it was an attack or something!  
Shortly later, Stephen returns to their apartment.  Julie is gone.  They have just lately broken the lease for their old places and committed themselves to a new apartment; he goes there.  She is within, with virtually no furniture; she is huddled within blankets in a corner.  
He knocks on the door.  She says, 'Go away!' Mentally he tells her that she may open the door or no, but he will talk with her anyway.  Reluctantly she lets him in.  
He says, "I know no better way to say this, but I do want to live with you.  I have enjoyed living with you to now, and I ••• I would like to see it continue.”  Silence, for about five seconds.  
She sayst "How can you, when, you ...  ?' 
"I am NOT 1ike other men.  You, above all, should know that by now." 
"But what difference does that make? Is your precious mutant self immune to sex?' Silence, for about three seconds.  
He says!  "My mutant body goes either way, as far as I know.  My ... semi-human self does not know what to do with sex.  
"But ..• you have to try sometime!' 
"Do I?" 
Silence, for three seconds.  
He says "I'm sorry.  I do the rest of the world wrong.  It could be that all other beings have something that I must try before I declare myself entirely nonhuman." 
"Nonhuman? ••.  Is that your problem?"  Thorough silence.  
She says, "Unless there's something incredibly wrong with you that I've never got a chance to peek at, the parts must fit.  Any other problem you may have - somehow we can live!" 
"Yes ..• you make sense.  Shall we do it now?" 
"Do you want to?" 
'I ...  no." 
"Well .•.  it's too early to give up on you yet.  Let's go hO!1fe." 
"Is successful sex really a precondition for a successful relationship?" ·
“Well ••• that's always h!  it's been." 
"For' you?" 
Silence.  
He says, "It may have to be that way.  Or not.  Perhaps we can find out together.”
“Uh ••• okay, let's go home.”
'I agree.”