Educating Mork

Part Four

"Tell me what you're thinking," Mindy said, draping her arm across Mork's body, nuzzling against him.

They lay together in bed after making love, listening to the patter of a steady rainfall against the windowpanes.

"Remember Ayada?" He asked, wondering how much Orson had altered her memory.

"Your former girlfriend?"

Mork nodded. "She died," he said.

Mindy turned on the lamp beside the bed. "What?" She asked. "When? How did it happen?"

Mork turned to her. The soft, warm glow of the lamplight looked like a halo, framing her head. Although her brown hair was disheveled from their lovemaking, he thought she looked perfect. He didn't want to spoil what they had. He didn't want to lose her the way he had lost Ayada.

"Are you sure you want to know?" He asked.

"Only if you want to tell me."

Sighing, Mork decided to relate his story to her. When he was finished, she looked thoughtful.

"She must have loved you very much," she said finally.

"She did."

"I wish I had met her. After what you told me, I have a newfound admiration and respect for her. I can also see now why you loved her."

"I still do," Mork said, looking away as if ashamed. "But I love you, too. What am I supposed to do? I don't want to think about her, but I do. Do you think that, in time, I will forget her? It seems unfair to you."

"What would be unfair is if I asked you to stop thinking about her," Mindy said. "You see Mork, you never forget your first love. It doesn't mean that you love the person you end up with any less."

"But Ayada's gone. Shouldn't I devote my time to the living? To you?"

"You already do, Mork," Mindy said, smiling and stroking his bare, muscular arm. "You're just grieving for her, that's all. It's natural. You don't need to feel ashamed or guilty about it." She snuggled closer to him. "Let me tell you something. You know that I lost my mother when I was a young girl, right?"

Mork nodded.

"Well, a few years after she died, my dad began dating this other woman, and they grew very close. They almost married."

"Pops doesn't currently have a wife," Mork said. "I'm assuming they didn't marry, then?"

Mindy shook her head. "No, they didn't," she said. "Do you want to know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I was furious with him. As a young, impressionable child, I thought he was betraying my mother's memory when really he was a very lonely widow longing for a relationship again. I couldn't understand that."

"So what happened?"

Mindy sighed. "I behaved like a spoiled little brat," she said. "I did everything I could to sabotage their relationship, to make her life a living hell. In the end, she couldn't stand my atrocious behavior anymore. I succeeded in driving her away. At the time, my father recognized that I was a sad little girl still grieving for her lost mother, unable and unwilling to accept a replacement mother, so he lavished me with attention. Still, I'm sure a day doesn't go by when he doesn't think about what life might have been like with a new wife. He cared about her deeply, but I made him give her up. I've apologized to him before about my wicked girlhood schemes, but he always tells me he understands and he forgives me. Secretly though, I'm almost positive he never completely has. How could he? I made him give up a new chance at love. No one has a right to do that, not even someone's child, heartsick over the loss of her mother."

She looked at Mork. "Ayada didn't want you to give up a new chance at love," she said. "She wanted you to move on, to live. As painful as her sacrifice must have been for her, she gave you permission to feel, even if she knew those feelings would now be reserved for someone else. She realized that she could no longer have you, because keeping you would mean changing who you are, and she wasn't willing to do that to you because she loved you too much. She decided to move on and let you go, and you have to do the same. You can't live in the past, Mork. Not for the rest of your life."

Mork cupped Mindy's face with his hand. "I do love you," he said. "You do know that, don't you?"

Mindy leaned into his hand and took it, kissing it. "Of course I do," she said.

He kissed her and they settled back into bed, the rain continuing to fall outside, lulling them into a peaceful sleep.

Ayada often visited Mork in his dreams, transporting him back to when they were together. The dream he had that night was vivid, recreating a specific memory he had of their relationship. They were standing on the balcony of her apartment, overlooking the capital city of Ork with its sober, imposing towers. Among the impressive structures of steel and glass stood a rather plain, industrial brick building, looking completely out of place with the marvels of Orkan engineering surrounding it.

"That's where they store the undesirables," Ayada said, pointing at the unsightly building. "That's where they house the criminals, placing them in stasis for the rest of their wretched lives." She shuddered. "Mork, what we're doing together…we're committing a crime. Promise me we'll never end up in there, shut off from our bodies and locked inside our minds. Promise me that you'll never be there, because of your desire for me. I couldn't bear it."

She was wearing her robe, and Mork was still only half-dressed, his sturdy torso exposed. Too insatiably amorous to pay attention to her, he reached into her robe, kissing her neck.

"Don't," Ayada said, shrugging him off. "They could be watching us, right now."

"You worry too much," Mork said, grinning and kissing her again. "I thought I had cured you of that."

Ayada turned to him. "I don't know what to think," she said. "You've got me confused."

"Then don't think. Feel."

"I'm an Orkan, and so are you. Until I met you, I didn't think feelings between us were possible, yet here we are. Mork, what do we do now?"

Mork smiled. "I was hoping we'd stay together," he said, stroking her hair. "You know, like those Earth couples on TV."

"We aren't on Earth," Ayada said, sighing and going inside, Mork following her. She shut the glass doors to the balcony behind them and closed the curtains using her telekinetic powers, still cautious about their privacy. "I want to love you, believe me. I want us to be like that, too. But here on Ork…I don't see how we can."

"We can be the first. We can change things here. I really believe that."

She looked at the passion in his eyes and knew that he fervently believed in their cause. She found him irresistible with the power of his convictions. It was nearly impossible not to be swept up in his enthusiasm.

"I want to believe that, too," she said, leaning against his bare chest, listening to his hearts beating. "But what if we can't change Orkan society?"

Mork wrapped his arms around her, pressing her closer to him. "Then we change ourselves," he said. "We already have. Maybe that's enough."

"You have changed me, Mork," Ayada said, closing her eyes. "I didn't know I could feel like this. I didn't know I could feel anything. I can't go back to my old life now, and I don't want to. It seems so dreary and colorless, now that I've met you. I guess that's why I'm so scared that everything will go wrong."

"Nothing will happen," Mork said, gently rocking her. "I won't let it. Stay with me, please."

Ayada looked up at him. "I'll stay with you," she said. "Always."

The dream shifted, and Mork found himself in stasis again, unable to move or speak. Like an enchanted prince in a fairy tale, all it required to break the magic spell and revive him was a kiss. Ayada kissed him, and he responded, wrapping his arms tightly around her, trying to keep her with him for as long as possible, knowing that once he let go of her she would be gone. Despite his best efforts to keep her with him, she vanished anyway, the pressure of her lips against his fading until all he felt was a slight tingling sensation, as delicate and insubstantial as a fine mist.

The End