The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

/> “Oh, well, at least we’ve got something to do for the next couple of years, its going to take some time for them to build their city,” he said and Harry grinned.
And it did, it took the Alterians ten years of hard work with the help of the humans and the minosians to build their big city with its huge shopping malls, playhouses and opera house, movie theatres, restaurants, bars, clubs, hospital, schools, houses and everything else they needed. Harry and his children worked together on a building crew and they had the best time helping the Alterians build their houses. They put up one a week because they weren’t made of easy interlocking materials like the human houses, these were made of lumber and old fashion pipes and electricity and the Alterians had to build a plant to furnish the electricity and because Harry and Sarek were engineers they were both a part of that project and it took six months to build and the Alterians greatly appreciated their help.
And the Alterians brought down lots of factories and soon had all of them running and Harry loved that they had a strict recycling policy and he told everyone at town meetings that they had to be careful not to mix their plastic goods up with the Alterian because they used a different type of plastic and it wouldn’t be wise to mix them, it would only degrade theirs because the Alterian brand wasn’t as good. He made Max and Charles go over to Medford and insist that the Alterians put up several recycling bins for human cans and plastic wrap and make it the law to keep human plastic separate and even though they didn’t want to, Lily and the others made them.
“So their plastic is different, it’s still plastic, what’s the big deal,” Max snorted. Lily stood up.
“The difference you idiot is ours is better and they want ours to make theirs better and we don’t theirs to make our worst, that would be foolish and stupid, so we want them to give us ours back, now if you don’t go over there, then I’ll go over there and make you look like the idiot you are,” she snapped. He sighed.
“Fine, fine, I’ll make it the law,” he said. She glared at him.
“I’m going with you because this is too important for you to fuck it up,” she snapped. Everyone laughed.
“Yeah, Max, you’ll fuck it up,” Roger exclaimed and everyone laughed again. Max glared at him.
“Oh, shut up,” he yelled. Harry giggled and held hands with Jake. Violet watched them and sighed.
The next day Jake came home from the office with exciting news, the Alterian Medical Society had given their clinic approval to see their animals.
“That’s wonderful, honey, I know you’ve been dying to get your hands on some of those yum-yum dogs,” Harry said and Jake grinned. The Alterians had a very beautiful species of cats called Zenians that were long-haired and came in pastel colors. They were extremely nice and very friendly. Their dogs were medium sized and called yum-yum dogs and extremely friendly also.
“Yeah, the only problem is that they have a lot of paperwork and you know my dad hates paperwork and they also do surprise inspections and he hates those too but he promises to keep his area clean and he wants to see those cats so bad that I think he’ll keep his treatment room clean and tidy,” Jake said. Harry nodded, he didn’t believe that for a second but if Jake wanted to believe it he would let him.
All three doctors, Dr. George, Dr. Blake and Dr. Dennis finally had plenty of work to do as the Alterian medical science was about three hundred years behind theirs and since they didn’t need all that medicine and equipment they used it to help the Alterians who were sick. Harry was informed not to heal anyone until they learned how the new people would understand this and he was glad he didn’t. He found them a backward people and their God Bali a scary creature with four faces, three of them horrible and made to punish the wicked. They probably would have either worshiped him as a God or burned him at the stake as a demon so he left his aid to flying the ship and helping them build their city.
Things went well for the first weeks in the Clinic, being extremely neat and tidy, Jake had no problems with inspections and he saw no reason why his father simply couldn’t just pick up after every patient like he did. It was easy, you just put the needles where they belonged and put the towels and bandages and any creams or lotions that you used on the animal back where it belonged. It was easy for him and not easy for his dad who was used to leaving things out where they were handy and leaving them there for days or weeks at a time. His patient’s people were used to seeing a mess when they came into his exam room but the Alterian inspectors frowned and fined him and said if improvements weren’t seen, they would close the clinic.
“You’re paying this fine, you know,” Jake waved the paper in his dad’s face and frowned. Dr. Jackson’s face got red.
“We’re partners, we should split the cost, just like we split everything else,” he insisted. Jake laughed.
“This is your fine, old man; my exam room was in perfect condition, every violation on this ticket is from your exam room, I can’t believe you left needles out where a little girl could reach them,” he snapped and Dr. Jackson shrugged.
“Her mother was watching her,” he declared. Jake sighed.
“I’m going to have to hire someone to clean up after you, that’s the only way we’re going to stay open,” Jake informed him and Dr. Jackson grinned.
“We’re splitting that cost, Son and we need a receptionist too,” he added and Jake agreed they needed that. So he took money from the drawer and opened a separate account at the bank just for the Clinic and hired a receptionist and someone to help his dad with keeping his office clean. Harry kept the grin off his face and Jake rolled his eyes.
“I see you smiling over there, you knew he’d fail his inspections didn’t you?” he teased and Harry giggled.
“I’m sorry, honey, but I’ve seen your dad’s office when I’ve taken the cats in and there’s no way in hell that man’s passing any inspections,” he said and Jake growled and grabbed him. He nuzzled his neck and Harry felt his knees go weak and moaned. Jake grinned.
“Babe, you are so easy, I love that in my man,” he whispered and Harry smiled and kissed him.
“Take me to bed, Jake, I need a nice hard fuck and you’re the perfect man for the job,” he said; his eyes all nice and slanty and Jake felt his heart stop. He picked him up and carried him to bed.
“You know it turns me on when you talk dirty,” he said harshly and they began ripping their clothes off. Harry trembled.
“Oh, Jake, I need you so badly, hurry up honey,” he said and Jake attacked him and took him hard and fast the way he liked it. They ate dinner much later, watching Alterian TV and laughing over some stupid sit-com that didn’t make any sense and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
The next day Violet visited an Alterian doctor she found in the phone book and after he examined her he told her that it would be no problem to help her with her problem and they scheduled the procedure for the following week. She left with a big smile on her face and decided that the Alterians landing on the planet had been the best thing that could have happened to her.
At the next town meeting Dr. George informed everyone that it was clear to him and to all of the doctors that the Alterians were aging normally.
“I have some bad news to report, the average Alterian lifespan is roughly the same as the normal human one, about eighty years for the male and eighty-five for the female and they are aging normally. Their aging process hasn’t slowed down like ours has,” he informed them solemnly. Everyone looked sad. Carl stood up.
“That’s too bad, I know a lot of Alterians and they’re nice people,” he declared. Harry stood up.
“Its extremely important now that we tell them nothing about the average human lifespan, let them think it’s the same as theirs,” he said. “Then when the time comes, some of us; like Dr. George and them can disappear over to Sherwood where we can build another little town for a few years and then come back to Edenville as Dr. George Junior and none of the Alterians who knew the old Dr. George will be alive will be able to know the difference. We can all do that at one time or the other. The Alterians will never know it’s the same people over and over.” Lily stood up.
“That’s a very clever idea, Harry, you’re very clever,” she said and everyone clapped. Dr. George cleared his throat and he and the other men of Farm One looked nervous. Harry sighed.
“What did you already tell them, Dr. George?” he asked. Max glared at him.
“Well, you could have told us your great plan before,” he snapped. Harry sighed again.
“Didn’t we already agree not to tell them anything about us?” he said and everyone nodded. Dr. George sighed.
“I know, but that Dr. Bentley caught us off-guard and before I knew what I was saying I told him that the average human lifespan was five hundred years, I thought that sounded like a good number,” he said and the other men looked pleased. Harry didn’t.
“And don’t you think that a man who only lives eighty years might not appreciate living and working day-by-day with men who live five hundred years and wouldn’t start to feel, say, jealous and want some of those years for himself?” he asked and they looked confused.
“How on earth can he do that?” Max snapped. Harry shrugged.
“He’s a doctor, maybe he’ll try to figure out a way, but you’ve opened the door to a whole can of worms here, medical experiments, DNA testing, he’s going to be asking for blood samples that’s for sure and maybe tissue samples or bone marrow and God knows what else,” he told them. “Eventually he might want a guinea pig to play with and remember we’re already out-numbered four hundred and eighty-seven to one and they’re only going to be having more babies and we’ll never catch up. And they know we’re not from this galaxy so more humans won’t be arriving to rescue us so if we disappear no one’s going to miss us. Telling them five hundred years was a very costly mistake.”
“You’re out of your mind, these are very nice people,” Dr. George insisted and most of the people agreed. Sarek and a few others agreed with Harry though and they formed a group of concerned people.
Violet waited until the swelling went down and the stitches came out and she was all healed before she took her beauties over to David and Gloria’s to show them off and when David opened the door he didn’t even notice, he just waved her in and disappointed