Triptych

Middle - Part IX

KALP'S CLAIMING Gwen and Basil for his Unit at the holiday celebration seems to act as tacit permission, and three other Aglunated Units form in the Institute within the season. It should be surprising to Kalp that Derx is among one, but Derx always seemed to be about single-minded selfish pleasure, so it is not.

But, as with all joy, Kalp is beginning to learn, comes sorrow. Word gets to the media and press of Earth about the union between Kalp, Gwen, and Basil — a mixed-race Aglunate and polygamous marriage that makes several religious factions and parental rights groups absolutely furious. Kalp tries to point out to the first microphone shoved at his face, on their own door step, that they have not undergone the actual bonding ceremony yet, but Basil says "Not helping!" and drags him away from the camera as Gwen protects her belly and says, "No comment, no comment!" over and over again.

They stay home from work for a week, hiding behind locked doors and drawn blinds. Basil has taken apart three different radios and their components have begun to vanish into a device that Basil takes pains to keep from the view of Kalp. They let the chickens out afternoons, so they may have some fresh air, and they must feed the chickens through a small gap in the patio doors. For three days the papers carry an absurd image of Kalp's hand throwing bird seed into the back garden.

Finally the police and the government manage to draw up suitable penalties for the reporters who hound the little house they share. Several are arrested, all are charged, and the reporters leave them alone, at least in person. The shirt vendor in Gabriel's Wharf and the pub owner in London both sell their photographs of the trio to "gossip rags" for an obscene amount of money, but the people of their own village rally around the Unit and keep their lips sealed, and block the news vans deliberately with their own cars at intersections.

The mayor pulls several prominent citizens together and the town holds a baby shower-cum-congratulations party to show their support of their local heroes. It is in the same small square that the Friday market occurs in and in gratitude, Kalp buys up whole flats of osaps and turns them into Daiquiris for the occasion.

In an effort to curtail the pressure from the press, the Institute oh-so-gently suggests that Basil and Kalp make an honest woman of pregnant Gwen, and both marry her already. They decide on a quick and informal Aglunating ceremony, to honour Kalp's contribution, and it is attended only by Institute employees and one conscientiously chosen team of a reporter and photographer. There is a splashy yet tasteful spread in the London and New York Times filled with full- page colour photographs and a quick write up about the history of Aglunation and triad families. Personal information is completely omitted, though it does not stop the lower rags from speculating.

The British love their tabloids, and Basil's mother calls the day after the article is published to say that she is making a scrapbook. Basil groans at the phone.

Scandal sells papers, and once they are Aglunated and their humble speeches to the press have been recorded and run, Kalp's Unit is no longer scandalous. Kalp learns the words "husband" and "wife" and rather likes the connotations of ownership that are implied by them.

The world moves on to other, more sinful people. Anti- Integration protests move to Moscow, where a human and an alien have professed to trying to get pregnant together via in vitro. Basil or Gwen or Kalp's faces periodically reappear in the tabloid news when someone with a camera phone catches them canoodling in public, but otherwise the fanfare dies.

On those rare spotlight days, Basil spends hours on the telephone with his mother and sisters, reassuring them of his personal happiness and safety. In every conversation, Basil promises to visit his family with his Unit, once the media circus dies. Later, he promises. Always later.