What Freedom Means (11)
Waking up in the morning gave me an... interesting view of my mate. I made the mistake of blowing on her to wake her up, because she intially bonked me on the head with a leg, then started giggling when she realized what I was up to. We both felt somewhat grimy, so we both agreed that a shower was in order.
After the shower, we proceeded to the kitchen, and found that some kind soul had gotten doughnuts for the group. I asked what exactly we were to do during this day, and Tal'ena explained that it was a day off, that you could just lounge around all day if you wanted to. She explained that if the weather was nice, it tended to be outside most of the day, and if it was raining, it was inside most of the day. Today the weather was nice, so doughnuts in hand, we went out the back door and found that Jack had set up some lounge chairs outside, and that Mike had occupied one. He was face down and reading the morning paper. The day crew was out just playing around with a frisbee or some other thrown toy. Jack was sitting upright in a lounger reading some recent novel. Mike explained that he had finally decided to participate, if only to even out the tan lines on him. This made us chuckle. I asked Tal'ena what we could do, and she asked if I had even run around on all fours before. "Once, when I had to get something in the very back part of a shelf. I've never run around on all fours, though." She decided that it was time I learned. She explained that it'd be easier to learn with no clothing on, so that I could get a feel for how the joints and limbs were supposed to work.
We did this for about two hours, and I was in some deep grass when I heard a car engine coming down the driveway. I used this to my advantage, and was in a well hidden portion and saw the car pull up and park. Wendy got out, which slightly surprised me. She started walking around to the back yard area, and I tried to follow her as quietly as I could. I was not quiet enough, though because she got about five steps before looking in my direction and calling out "Who's there? Show yourself!" I jumped out of the grassy area and jogged up to her. Sitting very cat-like, I responded. "Sorry to startle you. I was practicing moving quietly. I guess I'm not very good." She nodded. "That's ok, you'll get better with practice." She must have also caught the inquisitive look in my face as well. "What else did you want to know?" My muzzle felt hot and I knew I was blushing. "To risk an impolite question, but is the bathrobe all you have on?" She knelt to bring her face to my level. "One, yes, it's an impolite question. I'll tolerate it from you because you don't really know better yet. Again, you are learning. Two, you'll just have to find out." She had a smirk on her face as she said this. "My reason for coming out here is to even out my tan lines. It looks like Mike is getting a start on his." I nodded and proceeded to ask her the other thing that had come up. "To risk another impolite question-" She skillfully caught my muzzle with her hand, stopping me from speaking. Her voice dropped to a whisper and took on the entirety of the Mississippi accent she normally had but a trace of. "Yes, black people do tan. And I'll get Tal'ena to show you exactly why that question is so very offensive coming from anyone else, morphs included. I'd recommend ducking when she goes to show you. Now, I want to know if morphs tan. What do you say?" I nodded as she let go of my muzzle. "First, let me apologize. I did not know. Secondly, morphs don't tan. All this fur prevents that for the large part. I think that our pads might tan if left out long enough, though." She hugged me. "Apology accepted. And let me apologize for coming down on you like a ton of bricks. It's a... sensitive issue." I nodded again. "Again, I did not know. But now I do, and I thank you for the lesson." I half-jumped and stood up on two legs. Feigning an over the top French accent, I held out a paw. "May I escort mad'dam to a lounge chair?" Wendy giggled, and took the proffered paw. This slightly amused Tal'ena as we came into sight, and Wendy came up to the last empty lounge chair. There she turned to Tal'ena.
"Eddie here asked me if all I was wearing was this bathrobe. There was also a comment he made which I'll talk to you later about, but we need to add history to his training." This second statement made Tal'ena look at me with a glare. I could only stare at the ground, face and ears burning hot with embarrassment. I heard Tal'ena say "I'll talk with him Wendy. Was there anything I need to deal with right now?" I didn't hear the next part from my staring at the ground, and very shortly I was distracted with a bathrobe being tossed on my head. By the time I got it off, Wendy was sitting in the lounge chair, Tal'ena was on the ground laughing, Mike and Jack were both chuckling, and the day workers had stopped and stared for a second. Tal'ena must have caught my confusion, because she took my arm and led me to the barn. "I'll explain once we get inside."
The 'explaining' part took about half an hour, in which I discovered that I was a victim of a practical lesson that Wendy had conspired with everyone to teach me on dealing with people. It was in the form of a practical joke, but it had shown that I really did need some additional training in regards to human history. So we went over the informal schedule that we had written down and added history lessons to the list. Fortunately, when I explained what Wendy had said and the entire conversation that took place, I did not need to duck. That was part of the joke. So, we went back outside, and relaxed for another couple hours just being lazy. It looked to be a great day for doing nothing.
Until one of the day workers shouted at us and pointed to the news crew setting up on the portion of the road that we could see.
to be continued...