More Than Human Part 2, Section 11 Summary

  • Now we're experiencing Alicia Kew's perspective, the one that Gerry just remembered.
  • Alicia, hearing Gerry say Baby is three, thinks that her child would have been three if she'd had one. She feels as if she's with Lone and opening up to him.
  • She thinks about Lone probing her mind with his spinning eyes. She wonders if he even cares about her, or if he just wants to take knowledge from her brain.
  • Alicia recalls the first time they met. She was dancing naked in the woods when suddenly she saw him, a frightening animal-like man. She decided never to dance naked again, and that she hated him. Dancing alone was her single secret when she was the prudish Miss Kew, prim, proper, and lonely. But uncaring Lone robbed her of the ability to dance. Boo.
  • Lone walked up to her and asked her if she read books. Lone barely touched her face and asked her to read books for him. She asked his name; he answered. Alicia was terrified but agreed to read.
  • Lone probed her mind, capturing concepts from books she'd read. He asked what some of the concepts were called. Alicia named them: telekinesis, teleportation, and other mind powers. Lone said they're real and that she needed to read about them for him whether she understood them or not. How rude!
  • He asked for another concept. Alicia named it: Gestalt. She defined it as a group. Like a lot of thoughts expressed in one phrase or the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
  • Lone instructed her to read about the gestalt concept most of all. He retreated into the woods without even glancing at her. What a meanie.
  • She read books and returned every so often to meet Lone, who waited to take the concepts from her but not taking anything of her herself.
  • He made her read books on evolution, social organization, mythology, more.
  • One day, he sat by her to puzzle something out. They talked about symbiosis, two forms of life depending on one another. Lone asked for a book about four or five kinds doing that together. She said she doesn't know of any. He asked the same question about multiple radio receivers working together, all listening to one head. He asked if there was life like that.
  • Alicia said she thought not, except perhaps a team or a group working under a boss.
  • Lone clarified that he meant a single animal.
  • She asked him if he meant a gestalt life form and said it was a wild idea. He asked if any book has written about that. She said none she knew of. We bet you're reading it, though.
  • Lone explained he had to know about any gestalt life form existing previously, because he was one. He described it to her.
  • Alicia searched for writing about such a creature, found nothing, and reported back to Lone.
  • He was disgusted with her, saying she read, but didn't think. Meanie.
  • He explained he was a brain that pulled together separate parts with mind-powers. He felt disgusted that no one had figured it out before.
  • Lone and Alicia talked about what he did in the woods. He explained that he was gaining parts and trying to grow and wanted a book about it. He said he was not the right kind of head for his gestalt life form, but in the future there might be one, pointing out that cavemen weren't advanced. He must not have been thinking of the Flintstones with their car. He grunted with satisfaction (he's always grunting!) and left.