When he turned around, he knew that the Glucids were watching every move he made. Keeping his eyes fixed to the door handle, he slowly lifted his left hand and rested it on the drawer, ready to pull it open quickly, if the need rose. What was inside the drawer would be useless if the Glucids decided to make a move, even he knew that, but it was reassuring and anyway, it could always be that the Lipids or even the Salabos would represent themselves as the immediate threat. Above all, it was important to be ready for any eventuality.
It was like this; the Glucids have succeeded in recruiting the Lipids. The Lipids have had a history of changing sides and now that the treacherous Gluicids were apparently increasing in number, the Lipids only slightly hesitated in joining them. He couldn’t hold it against them; it was very attractive being near Glucids. They radiated immense power and confidence and if you were a Lipid, which were incapable of generating energy themselves, you were bound to feel in awe. But he, being a proud Andronite of long standing, felt strongly nauseated by the idea of some of the practices the Glucids practised. He found it alarming that the Glucids, whose motivation and intention were never discussed openly, were allowed to use their hypnotic faculties with such freedom, as they did when the Lipids were first introduced to them, while the Andronites were always warned, by the Metagons, never to employ the gifts that were communicated to them by the Siganors. Not unless… but he daren’t contemplate that. He had too much work to do and no time for indulging in day-dreaming. “Let them watch me, if they want to. They can’t hurt me in my own home. I’m sure of my protection here.” He turned away from the window and sat down again to his work.
Whenever the Metagons met accidently on their random trips around the territory, they tried to keep the joy of the recognition contained as reduced it to a manageable entity by shaking furiously and then bursting out laughing hysterically. That way, the passer-bys usually mistook them for Andronites.
It was so hot that night, we had to keep all the windows open. Through the open gaps of disturbed slumbers, all sorts of things penetrated our rest. The nightly activities that never stop but most of the time we were protected from them by the distance, were free to come in and wander around and leave an impression behind. Those marks were apparent everywhere when we were woken up by the grey dim light, It was too early in the day but already too late. On the window sill, a passing lipid’s shadow alarmed us.
It wasn’t that she was inherently weaker than me. I wasn’t trying to dominate her by jumping up and trying to protect her. She could have looked after herself very well, and have done, and would have had more success in dealing with that Lipid than me. My reaction though fueled by accumulated anger and frustration, was so violent as to make her shrink so she would not be noticed.
Nobody remembered anymore how the Gluicids came into being. Their appearance has always remained mysterious and provoked a lot of rumors. Those who wondered and pondered most were the Andronites. It was a very important issue for them, in which they indulged so much that the Metagons began at one stage to feel worried about their well-being. At one meeting the future of the Andronites was discussed at length but the only conclusion arrived at was that if they continued I their current trend, the deviation would be unforgivable and bear tragic consequences upon the clan. All that read very well on the protocol, but Gior the Metgaon wanted something to be done. He was well aware of the Metagons’ tendency to assume that things written in the protocol were things done. He wanted to enquire into it. He wanted to know for instance why he was getting that gut feeling that the Glucids weren’t in fact so extremely opposed to the Andronites in intention or action but that rather there was something pointing towards a common future, a unifying element that in times of emergency could bring the two seemingly rival elements together against the rest of them!
1990
