As she did so, she peered in the window, directly into the face of the Barzicon. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly, not into the shocked O he had expected but into a soft pleased smile. She walked forward to the front of the truck, and turned towards him. The sun flamed and sparkled through her sandy red hair framing her amazing face in clouds of fire. Her dark eyes reached through the windshield into his mind with soft waves of mist and sunbursts. She came to the driver’s window and he was so dazzled in her presence that he saw her lips move but the first words he heard were, “I see you have the Barzicon.”
He woke up trying to catch his breath and remember her face.
Several days later he described the Barzicon to his brother. The great little brother who gave him money, bought him trucks and had provided his double wide down at Tender Acres in Fawnville. Tommy, electronics whiz and designer of industrial robots; the generous, talented brother who always did the things Harry-Wayne couldn’t.
Harry-Wayne didn’t mention the girl with red orange hair; he couldn’t bear to share her, even with Tommy. He just talked about the Barzicon. As he listened to the fantastic story, Tommy became very excited and with increasing interest pressed Harry-Wayne for details. It turned out that Harry-Wayne knew far more than he had imagined about the bizarre creature. Soon thereafter, Tommy built a Barzicon into Harry-Wayne’s truck and told him to have some fun with it.
That first one had looked nearly right. It had great looking plastic skin and it was a lot like the monster of his dream. It could raise its head, grin, and lick its teeth. It was mean looking and ugly enough that it scared the hell out of anyone the first time they saw it, but it couldn’t keep doing it. After that, it got boring.
The second Barzicon looked great and did really cool stuff. It too, was installed in the back of the king cab of Harry-Wayne’s old truck. His brother had had to put hydraulic pumps, extra batteries and all sorts of weird junk into his truck to make the this one work. It couldn’t get out, of course, because it was connected to cables and hydraulic hoses that ran up through the floor into its belly. But the creature could stand up and move around, it breathed, rolled its eyes, licked its teeth and made a fantastic array of strange sounds. It could even turn and put its face through the sliding window into the bed of the truck. There were several hidden foot pedals and switches to start what his brother called ‘routines’ that the Barzicon would then work through on its own. The creature appeared to be totally real. It was scary, and it got results.
Most amazing of all, it got him laid! Oh yeah! A girl he had picked up, instead of being frightened, was turned on by the beast! That and the line he had fed her about the Barzicon. He said he was part of an experiment with these rare animals which had been discovered living with an exotic race of people in some far off place. Harry-Wayne claimed he was the caretaker of this one. He told her scientists had discovered that these animals were sexual amplifiers who could tune into human sexual activity and magnify the experience for the participants. The beasts themselves received power from the transaction and in turn, they could enhance ‘the energy of life’. He described the society of the people who lived with these unique creatures and enjoyed their incredible properties. Each man had a companion Barzicon, the male of the species. A Barzitrix, the female, accompanied every woman.
The Barzicon, while fully capable of all the pleasure enhancement skills of the species, did nothing more. Barzitrix were different; they also improved the human male line. The Barzitrix judged any male suitor’s ardor and ability to please its mistress. If a human male’s emotional aura and sexual prowess did not meet the approval of the Barzitrix, she would tear his Barzicon to pieces, then kill and eat him!