Theme Thursday...........KISS

Opal Nation16

They then knew this was one of the greatest mysteries of the Opal Nation. Father had wanted to ask the question again, but figured it was safer to keep silent. Plus they had not answered Father's question. Would they ever answer this question about the women of Opal Nation? Where were the women?

The Professor, Father and Carlos had thought it was really strange that they would not talk about the women in their village. That is when they started to notice that it was as if women did not exist in Opal Nation. When they had gone to look inside one of the village shops, they looked around and found that there was nothing in the shop for women to buy. This was really strange, if there were women, wouldn't they sell things for them.

There were no women's or little girls clothes. No hair clips, no perfumes, no pretty combs, no scarves or feminine wraps, none of the things that you would see in a shop that sold things to women. Father had thought that they would at least sell jewelry for women, but what little jewelry they had for sell, was obviously made for the men or boys. How could a world exist without women? This was not something that Father, the Professor or Carlos had thought about. Father told me that he had wondered how lonely his life would have been without Mother or me. Carlos had told Father that even though he was not married he could not see himself living without women in his life.

And so the mystery of the women in the Opal Nation became as great as the location of the great opals. When they had first arrived in this time period they had thought that the opals were the most important thing, so all their searches had focused on opals. Now they had to make a decision, which was more important, women or opals. They quietly discussed this and decided that both were equally important. They now had two mysteries and hoped that soon they would find their answers.

They continued to see there was nothing to show that women existed in Opal Nation. But where did the men come from? There were no pregnant men running around and they saw some signs of affection being shown among the men, but it was not sexual affection they were seeing. But somehow they knew that there was someone having babies in the Opal Nation. Although when they started to think about it they had never even seen any babies around either. They knew they had better not ask about the babies either. They did see male children and younger males that were in their teenage years.

The more they thought about things the more they realized that they should have been paying more attention to the lack of women. They had never heard the packwitts once mention their wives or daughters. The Packwitts would talk about their sons, their brothers, their uncles and fathers, but never once did they mention their female counterparts.

Father said they left that village the next day and on their way out as they were walking by one of the courtyards they again thought they heard laughter from a female, but then one of the packwitts shouted out, "Weenuckooie" and then there was silence. The other packwitts started walking faster and even the zerthbeelees picked up their pace. Were they so afraid that the outsiders would hear something that they should not? They did not slow down until they were a few miles outside the village.

What was going on? Why were there no women or children around? Why were the Opalites so willing to draw their weapons if anyone asked about the women? They decided that they would keep silent and just quietly seek the answers to these questions. Then Father went silent again. I knew he was thinking of Mother and how much he missed her.

Life without her seemed surreal somehow. I would still wake up in the morning, get ready, go down to the dinning room, all ready to give Mother a good morning kiss and then I would remember that she was not there anymore. She was never going to give me a good morning kiss again. Father and Mother had been so affectionate towards each other, that Ben and I had always felt blessed to be a part of their life. Little kisses here and then more kisses there. You could see the love they had for each other whenever their eyes locked. I can only say that their love shined for all the world to see.

I continued to stand there looking out the window. What would a world be like with no women? Shivers ran up and down my spine. Did I really want to go to Opal Nation?

For those who missed part 15, here is the link. Which also links to parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. For more Theme Thursday's please go here.