She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

- Proverbs, 31:26

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hank tousled his hair as he walked with Anna towards a PEP Center company car she had parked on the street.

"Um… I didn't exactly look in a mirror today," he said. "How am I?"

Anna got on her toes to assess his look. "I can't lie. You need a haircut."

Hank couldn't lie as well. "Yeah. I do." Anna dug in her purse and handed him a box of breath mints. "Yeah," he conceded. "I need that, too."

She spoke professionally. "Aika is a great Sponsor. She has two Geniuses living with her right now."

"Really?" Hank asked, sounding curious.

"Yes. As you are now an official PEP Genius, it's my responsibility to help you ease into your new life. You have all the services of the PEP Genius Assignment Center at your disposal, and it's an honor for me to see your needs get met."

Anna moved ahead of Hank when they reached the car, opening the door for him. She spoke in her natural voice.

"Please let me know if there's anything I can do. Now, or in the future."

She handed him one of Fuji's business cards with her phone number written on it. "I will," he said, smiling greatly.

Anna did most of the talking as she drove, doing so excitedly. "Oh! You are going to love meeting Aika! She is such a sweetie."

"You know her? I mean, as a friend?"

"Well sort of. She is Japanese after all, and I'm well connected in my community. But yes. I knew her before I got my job. It was fortunate knowing who she was, because it helped me get hired."

As Anna chatted away, Hank thought about getting used to Milton and Rio being able to read his mind if he chose to live with them. Would I even know if they were doing it?

"Hmm," Anna said with casual concern. "You seem to be going somewhere."

She caught him by surprise. "What?" he asked, snapping out of his self reflection.

"I saw the bags. Well, leave your stuff packed! We'll come and get it after you meet Aika."

"Why?"

"Aika has helped dozens of PEP Geniuses settle into new lives. The two she has living with her right now are really hitting it off. They may stay with her forever!"

"That's nice."

Anna carried on without pause. She seemed to drive the same way, as Hank's foot pressed an imaginary brake pedal from time to time, while speeding through town.

"Teek is a Genius violinist. She could've moved out last fall, but she's still living with Aika more than a year later. The other gal—Sehrish—is more of a long term assignment, so maybe Teek just doesn't wanna leave until she does." Anna smiled while glancing at Hank. "Or who knows? Maybe they'll stay together! I sure hope Fuji and Sue Marie stay my roomies for a long time. Wouldn't that be great?"

"Anna, I know without a doubt that they both like you a lot. Fuji is very proud of you, and talks about you often."

Anna beamed big and bright, speaking between Hank's words. "Really? You think so? She does?"

"And Sue Marie and you are best friends, right?"

Anna nodded solemnly. More excited than ever, she spoke—and drove—even faster. "Would you like a Sponsor? Fuji and I can arrange it. I did tell you I work with her, right? We match Geniuses with Sponsors. There are so many demands, sometimes, with this job, and gosh! With everything Geniuses need.

"Hey, if you're not going back to Asok's, I bet Fuji could get a job for you at the PEP Center. You know, that is, if you want one. There are so many openings! We keep getting more Geniuses, it seems, and could sure use the help."

Anna took her eyes off the road, using her right hand to poke Hank in the ribs before playfully squeezing his thigh. "I mean, look at me! I'm working both days this weekend, and so is Fuji. She says you really need to find out what kind of Genius you are. Maybe you'll end up being a Genius PEP Center consultant! Oh! That would be awesome!"

"I've already told you. I don't think I'm a Genius."

She ignored his negativity, and took to teasing instead. "I bet you're a Genius at making love! Wouldn't that be a hoot?" She whispered in a loud voice, leaning into him while driving with only one eye on the road. "You know, they have those, so I hear. Perhaps if I got tested, I might be a sex fiend Genius like you."

Anna continued talking, but thanks to her speedy driving, it wasn't long before they reached a massive apartment complex on the outskirts of the city.

"Here's where Aika lives!" Anna announced as she zipped through a maze of twisty service drives.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anna introduced the Thai woman who answered the door. "Hank, this is Teek."

"Hello!" the woman said. Her hair was styled in big black curls that danced upon her head, bouncing on scrawny shoulders.

"She's our Genius violinist."

"I am!" Her smile was thin-lipped, and filled with many teeth. "Come in!"

Teek was even smaller than Rio. Her arms were long and thin, with oversized hands at the wrists. She wore a white peasant blouse, fastened loosely at the neck with a blue string bow. Dark cotton dress slacks with knife-crisp pleats ended at two bare feet so tiny that only her toes peeked out from beneath the cuffs.

Another woman appeared while Teek offered Hank and Anna sandals at the door, to replace their shoes. Almost as small as Teek, and Japanese instead of Thai, she wore nothing but an extra large man's white business shirt. Its tails were long enough for her to wear it as a dress, and bare legs poked out underneath, ending in feet wearing sandals like the ones Teek gave to Hank and Anna.

Teek walked away, her hips swinging well for a woman who was so bony. The other woman stood and stared. Politely, and through beautiful eyes the color of sage and honey.

Anna bowed to her. "Aika-san, this is Hank."

Aika returned the bow, though not as deep as the one she received. Hank also bowed low.

"Konnichiwa," he said.

Aika simply stared. Anna got Hank to turn with her, fussing a bit too much with putting their shoes on a rack by the door.

"Everyone here is sorta different," she whispered in his ear. "You know—being Geniuses and all."

"I'm getting a lot of that these days," he whispered back.

Aika spoke as they faced her again, to no one in particular. Her voice was as small as her body, yet filled with conviction.

"The world is sad and frightful when you're all alone."

Hank and Anna merely stared. "You really have to go," Aika said next.

Anna grew visibly upset. Sensing her dismay, Aika spoke more pleasantly. "But first you must stay for dinner."

"Isn't it a little early for dinner?" Anna asked.

"Well… for lunch!" Aika enthused.

Teek appeared to have been practicing her violin before Hank and Anna arrived, in an alcove near the kitchen. Humming to herself and sometimes singing in a foreign dialect, she put her instrument away. With her back to her guests, far away but clearly visible, she shed her concert clothes. Beneath them she wore a thin knit muscle t-shirt, baggy and teal in color, along with skin-tight denim shorts. She plucked a grey and blue striped pinafore apron from a peg on the wall, placing her concert clothes there instead. The apron was at least four sizes too big, yet she put it on, and disappeared into the kitchen. It soon sounded like she was beating someone to death with the pots and pans.

Anna spoke with glee to Hank. "Besides being a violinist, Teek is also a great cook!"

As Teek sang and cooked and banged away, Aika left her guests standing by the front door. She entered a bedroom at the end of the hall, no doubt hers, and stood facing them in the doorway.

"I will see you soon," she said, bowing only to Hank before entering further.

Anna sensed Hank's trepidation. "Her office is in there," she explained. "She does business sometimes at the kitchen table—when Teek isn't cooking!—but she keeps paperwork and stuff in her room."

Anna followed after Teek, to sit on a high wooden barstool with a low back and spindle legs. It was located just inside the doorless entryway to the kitchen and, from this strategic location, Anna had a commanding view of the apartment. It appeared to be her favorite spot in the whole world, as she oversaw the affairs of both Teek and Aika from her lofty perch. A tall pedestal table stood alongside it and, despite there being a second chair, Hank chose to stand at Anna's right hand side.

"Ah, Teek, she's a real artist," Anna said to Hank, watching the woman cook. "She can paint and sketch, and composes her own music, and is a master of the kitchen. Wait until you see what she whips up for us to eat!"

To the banging, singing and delicious scents of Teek's frenetic activity, Anna carried on. "But she wasn't getting anywhere in life, so she used her last two dollars to take the bus to the PEP Center. And wouldn't you just know it? She struck the Genius jackpot, and now she's our first violinist!

"And I mean that sincerely," Anna said to Hank's doubtful expression. "She'd already be the concertmaster of the city orchestra, but seniority rules to some degree, and she's not yet earned the seat from its current owner. That guy went and got PEP tested as soon as he heard about Teek, but too bad for him! He is not a Genius! Still, he gets to keep the chair—for now—but he has to practice night and day to keep it from her!"

Anna continued praising the woman, who was smiling greatly. "A lot of politics goes into the position of concertmaster, you know, and there our Teek has little knowledge. I mean, she was playing guitar in some grunge band, basically for fun, before we found her. And now she's a shining example of what the Enlightenment is all about. We take good care of her at the Center. She's so beautiful when she plays."

Anna spoke luxuriously, staring down at Hank from her barstool throne. "She can make you cry or sing when she plays her violin, and if she has a mind to, she'll make you fall in love."

Anna arched her back and leaned in Hank's direction, before Teek burst out in laughter. "Oh God, Anna! Don't you ever shut up?"

"What?"

"No, seriously," Teek said as she flew around the kitchen. "Do you ever stop talking?"

Anna took Teek's hint to heart only for a moment. She lightly shook her head, to make her long hair lay proper.

"I'm warning you," Anna said with a smirk. "If you let her, she'll seduce you with her bow."

Teek resumed laughing. "I'm gonna chase you from my kitchen if you don't knock it off!"

Hank joined in on the fun. "So… she's a little Asian Cupid?"

Teek's smile grew so big it looked like her face hurt.

"But what about Aika?" Hank asked the teardrop pendant in Anna's cleavage, since it was at his eye level. "What's the deal with her?"

Anna purred, rolling her shoulders for his approval. "Mmm. What about her?"

"Is she a Genius?"

Anna pulled in her chest and sat like a lady, to keep her mind on business. "Aika is a genius, but it's not like she's a PEP Genius. She's the old-fashioned kind, you know? She's crazy and a freak, but really, really smart." Anna spoke to the Asian fury banging on pots and pans. "Isn't that about right?"

Teek paused to face her guests, placing her hands behind her back. "Aika is the smartest person you'll ever meet. It's like she knows everything! And she's so fun!"

"Yes. So be ready for that," Anna said to Hank.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hank wondered whether it was a good idea to let a person described as crazy get to know him. He spoke plaintively about his concern.

"Why am I here, exactly?"

"I told you," Anna said. "Aika wants to meet you."

"I'm not sure I want to meet her. You said she's insane."

"Oh, she's not that kind of crazy. I mean, you have to know by now that it's just how my friends talk. It's our way of saying she surprises us with how smart she is. I mean, Teek is right. Aika does seem to know everything!"

Teek sang as she cooked. "It's freaky! It's super freaky, man!"

Hank was not convinced. "Well, what did she mean when she said the world is sad and frightful?"

"I dunno."

"Why did she say I have to leave?"

Anna spoke professionally. "Hank-sama, I am sorry, but I'm afraid I do not know. If I were you, I'd ask her to explain herself before we eat dinner." She smiled towards Teek. "Or lunch. Whatever. What are we having, anyway?"

Teek's tongue stuck out a bit whenever her smile was big. She sucked it in before addressing her guests, whipping out her words in a single breath.

"We are having papaya and green mango salad with beans, and Khaw Mee stir fry you can add beef or chicken to if you want." She did an abrupt about face and returned to her singing and cooking.

"Got any larb, Teek?" Anna asked.

Teek held a jar over her head, singing with her back to her guests. "I have it right here! I know you like it, so I got it out for you!"

"Her larb is the best," Anna told Hank. "It tastes so good with stir fry! Have you ever had larb?"

"Well, no, I never have. But I can tell by what she said that were having Thai for lunch."

"Or dinner," Anna said with a grin.

"Whatever!" Teek sang out.

"Is Teek Thai?" Hank asked Anna.

"She is! I'm proud of you!"

Anna bent low to peck Hank with a kiss before remembering the professional nature of their visit. So instead, she mischievously pulled him in, pressing him to her hip.

"Twenty minutes until dinner!" Teek announced.

Anna whispered to the top of Hank's head while holding him close. "You should see what Aika wants before we eat. After all, it's the reason why we're here."

"But I don't even know her."

Anna counseled Hank with her arm snug around his back. "I've known Aika practically forever."

"You have?"

Unable to control herself any longer, Anna rested her chin atop Hank's sandy hair. Their new position placed her scented breasts directly beneath his nose.

"Since we were kids," Anna said of Aika, as the two love nuts swooned. "She's the kindest person I know."

Hank gathered in Anna's jasmine rice scent, as it rose like steam from her bosom. He then noticed there was a bit more jasmine in the air than what was coming from the boobs in his face.

"Are we having rice?" he asked Teek.

"Yes we are!" she sang.

"Jasmine rice?"

"Yes we are!" came back the same lyric.

"I love jasmine rice," Hank said to Anna's breasts.

"Me too!" sang Teek.

"She puts in jasmine syrup for extra added flavor," Anna said to the top of Hank's head. She sucked in some of his fresh scent herself. "It's an aphrodisiac, if you didn't know."

Hank sighed. "Yes. I see."

Anna pushed him away. "Leave me," she commanded. "See what Aika wants. Go. Kudasai. Right now. Dōzo."

Hank discovered how Sue Marie felt when being bossed around by this big teenage woman. He stepped back and blinked up at her while she stared down from her barstool throne.

Anna explained herself kindly. "I don't want to eat Teek's good food after it's gone cold. Please see what our best PEP Sponsor has to say, then both of you come out in time for dinner."

"Fifteen minutes!" Teek sang through her incredible smile.

Hank resisted an urge to groan as he turned to face Aika's room. "I'm supposed to go in there? It's her bedroom."

"It's an apartment with three people in it. For privacy, she uses it as her office."

Hank felt like he was being played for a fool. But after another noseful of Anna's sweet scent, mingled with Teek's good food, he obediently walked away.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Teek asked with concern.

"Ah, he'll be fine. He's having a harder go at it than most, that's all."

"What's he a Genius at?"

Anna sighed as she turned to face Teek, since Hank had disappeared from her view. "Well, that's part of the problem. We don't know."

"You don't? How can you not know?"

Anna spoke confidentially, knowing she ought not share Hank's personal information. "I checked the records, and it seems something went wrong with his test."

"He's a Dot?" Teek asked, dismayed. She held a big wooden spoon in front of her face, to cover her mouth with her two fists for having slurred Hank by saying the word.

"He doesn't appear to be. He doesn't have any PEP Dots, and his second test was only four days ago."

"Four days? And no PEP Dots?"

"Hai," Anna said over her shoulder, as she had turned her eyes back toward Aika's doorway. "Not a single one."

"That doesn't make sense," Teek said energetically, hurrying the conversation along so she could get back to the pots and pans steaming for her attention.

"Hai," Anna repeated with concern.

She implored Teek with her eyes, signalling for her to come near. Noticing the silent plea, Teek turned down the burners on the stove and approached.

"Hank never completed his second test," Anna whispered. "The records are blank."

"Really?" Teek whispered back, as she leaned past Anna to peer into Aika's room herself.

"Hai. And so that, of course, is impossible."

"Hai," Teek replied, imitating Anna, even though she didn't speak Japanese.

"I checked, you know, and the test can take an hour or more, and forty-five minutes at best."

"They had me in that prickly beast forever."

"Yes, well, we've never had a violinist before. I don't know if anyone has."

Teek puffed up with pride, knowing how Anna admired her. "Oh yes, they have them. But I'm the only one in this country. There are very few of us."

Anna bent low to give Teek a hug, as she'd been doing to Hank, even though all she could reach on tiny Teek was the tippy-top of her head.

"Well, Sugar Teeks, you're a delight."

They held onto one another in silence as they peered into Aika's room, unable to see a thing.

"They have him down for a scan of just fifteen minutes," Anna confided.

"Fifteen minutes? Is that even possible?"

"No, it's not. Yet the information is correct. It's unexplainable."

"And no PEP Dots," Teek reaffirmed.

"He says they went away in a day or two."

"That's really fast." Teek's eyes went to her neglected cooking before she asked another question. "And he says he's a Genius?"

"No, Teek. He says he's not. He insists he's a false positive. But of course, there's no way to tell."

"Why doesn't he just take another test?"

"He won't do it. He said it was horrible."

Teek sang as she danced away. "Well, I can't argue that! I hated it, too. But I love my violin! I really really do! Thank you, Anna-san! And thank Fuji, too. I'm so happy here!"

Anna filled with pride. "Aika is such a blessing. How's Sehrish?"

"She's great!" Teek said with her tongue poking out, as her huge smile reappeared on her face. "You should hang out with us more! And bring your bikini friend!"

"Sue Marie?"

"Yeah!" Teek sang. "Sue Marie! She should meet Sehrish!"

"No." Anna laughed as she caught a glimpse of Hank in Aika's doorway. "That would not be a good idea."

"Oh yes it would! We'd have lots of fun!"

Anna sighed. "Yes, I know. And that would be the problem."

"They've been in there an awful long time," Teek sang after another moment of silence. "Perhaps you could see what they're up to."

Anna had been staring at Hank's backside for a while, as she had a good view of him framed in Aika's doorway. But the little woman in a big man's shirt was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm going to find out what she's up to," Anna announced, agreeing with Teek's idea.

She picked up her barstool throne and carried it with her as she walked away, to park at a more advantageous location.

Teek sang to herself through her smile as she flew about in the kitchen. "She's really freaky now!"

The Book of KINDNESS - Chapter ONE

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