“Jade, I …”
The Vulpine grabbed him by the ear. “I’m sure it’s something vital to all of Xaianity, or so you think. Now get off your ass and come with me …”
Jade, Solomon found out, was a talented driver. Most drivers in Metris were, but Jade was also gifted with an ability to scare him while driving. Metrisian traffic was enough, but Jade …
… Jade know how chaotic the traffic was, but as opposed to fearing it, she used it. She knew shortcuts. She knew trolley timing. She knew how people would act. It made for an interesting ride that Solomon never wanted to have to show interest in again.
And she had helped teach HuanJen how to drive.
He also wasn’t sure about the van she’d borrowed from her friend Brandon. It was a simple, gray affair, but he’d found a box of condoms under the passenger seat, next to a bag whose contents he decided not to identify. He didn’t know much about Brandon, except, apparently, he’d slept with Dealer Zero’s semi-girlfriend Riakka and … anyone else he could.
The journey to the hospital was mercifully quick. Jade parked in the visitors section, proudly shoving a special Guild Esoteric Parking pass between dashboard and window. He wasn’t sure if it was a dishonest use of the Guild’s ability to violate many parking rules.
“Come on!” Jade jumped out. “And cheer up. You’ll love this.”
“Love this?” Dell asked carefully. “Jade, what is going on? I’m at a hospital and you are unnaturally cheery and I have teeth marks on my inner thigh that did not come from a human. I have …I am not a happy person.”
“Something HuanJen wants you to see. And you need to get there before there’s a crowd.”
Dell thought of arguing. He decided it wasn’t worth it.
“Let’s go.”
The two wended their way into the hospital. Metris General was always busy, especially because of the specialist practitioners in the outer wing. Dell looked around him, feeling out of place, despite the fact he looked like any other native, if shorter than average.
“What’s wrong?” Jade asked, then her eyes narrowed. “You don’t like hospitals?”
“You’ve picked up HuanJen’s most annoying talent.”
“Things change,” Jade said with a kind of humorous distance, why …
Dell gave her a glare. If Jade didn’t know, she would certainly pick it up.
“Ah,” Jade nodded, “Then … press on.”
In short order, along with Jade interrogating a few people, they found their way to a room. Jade seemed quite comfortable with being here, as if she’d been visiting recently. When she threw open the door …
Dell stopped.
HuanJen stood in the room, next to Slate, Jade’s brother, a huge gray-furred Vulpine with the sense of humor of a concrete block. In the bed, the single bed (someone had good Guild insurance) was a red-furred Vulpine female. Garnet. Slate’s wife, Dell realized. He felt a moment of concern despite Jade’s reassurances, then …
Slate was holding a bundle in his arms. Dell felt something catch in his throat.
“When …” Dell began.
“Yesterday, but I couldn’t reach you,” HuanJen said with kind calmness. “Solomon, this is Granite, Slate and Garnet’s son.”
Dell blinked, then smiled. He looked at Garnet, who looked radiant despite the fact she’d apparently woken up recently. Then he looked to Slate. Slate was smiling, yet his face had not shattered from the strain.
“Congratulations, I …” Dell tried to figure out what to say. He wasn’t good at this. In the Rancelmen he’d get told about births and send cards or have Miriam help him. Or Red Mikhail, who was a poet at heart.
He looked at the bundle in Slate’s arms. He could see a small face and closed eyes and thin fur. Vulpine fur, he remembered, was often short, thin, or nearly nonexistent on most newborns. You could just see Granite’s pinkish skin under the gray pelt.
A child. HuanJen’s group had their first birth, first one as a group, though he vaguely recalled that large shaman had children, or a son. But the first as a group.
He also felt sad. He …
… remembered.
“I thought,” HuanJen said evenly, “you would like to see their son.”
“Can I hold him?” Solomon asked suddenly, looking from Slate to Garnet.
“Of course,” Slate nodded, “HuanJen said you … may want to.”
Slate handed the child over to the Head Rancelmen. Granite seemed odd - so small in Slate’s large hands, much bigger in Solomon’s own.
“Granite,” Dell said. The child didn’t awake. “Quite a name to grow into.”
“He’s my son, I think he’ll be fine,” Slate added.
“He’s large for Vulpine children,” Garnet said muzzily, “Trust me on this.”
“Oh,” Dell felt guilty, “Did they …”
“No C-section or anything,” Jade said happily, “We got close. I was here all night.”
“I had to remain on call,” HuanJen noted. “You know how things can be. Mild Obsidian flare-up near my area.”
“Yes.”
Dell looked down at Granite. Granite Slateson would be the full name, or Granite Slateson-Rubissom, if he was correct that Slate and Garnet had shared their last name. He wasn’t sure, and though the Vulpines were oddly widespread for an engineered species, their traditions were close enough to confuse you into thinking you understood them.
A child. A son.
“Thank you,” Dell said calmly, “I …”
“Huan told us about your son,” Slate said firmly. It wasn’t an accusatory tone, it was the tone of a man trying to be sensitive in a situation no one could properly handle no matter what.
“We understand,” Garnet added, “The plague cost a lot of people.”
“Yes,” Dell confirmed.
He wasn’t sure what else to say, except “Thank you.”
Dell looked at HuanJen, then back to Granite. He felt he should say more. There was a lot to be said, really. HuanJen and Jade had a way of putting you into situations that made you find new ways to say things.
“And we’re here!” Said a jovial voice.
Dell turned to find a man almost as short as he was a - dusky man with his hair in tight braids, wearing a gray coverall and a Technologist’s diadem. Brandon, Dell remembered. There were others behind him.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Jade asked, surprised, and forgetting that Granite was asleep.
“Used the truck,” Boomed a voice like a friendly earthquake. A huge, bald man in shaman’s motley managed to fit through the door, “Turns out I didn’t have to do those blessings. And we got Lorne’s car too …”
Dell saw the crowd behind the Technologist and the shaman. He handed Granite back to his father and gave a smile to Slate and Garnet and Jade and HuanJen. More people were coming in, and he became dreadfully aware of the fact that he was head of the Rancelmen and not always popular with people.
They were HuanJen and Jade’s friends, but they were still …
“Let us let everyone meet the baby,” HuanJen said, taking Dell by the arm, “The room is a bit small.”
“Yeah, Jade is …” Dell asked as the mystic escorted him towards the door.
“I gotta pick up any stragglers,” Jade dangled the keys in her hand, “This is a big day for us … “
Dell looked at his tea.
HuanJen had taken him to a small cafeteria two floors down. Metris General was designed in an oddly modular manner, probably so it could be repaired or expanded easily. There were several cafeterias around along with a surprising amount of restrooms.
“You wanted to talk to me?” The mystic asked.
“Yeah,” Dell fiddled with his satchel, “I didn’t know about Granite. Gods and messengers and Shaliba Lee, I didn’t know.”
“It is not a concern, you were busy.” The mystic seemed concerned, but also had an interesting aware air that made Solomon wonder.
“I … did you read t
he report the University put together on immigrant/native conflict?” Dell asked suddenly.
“Yes. It was part of my … retention as a troubleshooter for Guild Esoteric.” There was little emotion in HuanJen’s voice.
“I was thinking … things have been quiet the last few months. I wondered …”
“What will go wrong next?”
Dell looked into HuanJen’s eyes. They were calm, black pools, like a lake at midnight. You could almost see yourself reflected in them, and you always looked different than you thought you did.
“Yes.”
“Stop waiting.” HuanJen answered quickly, “Things change Solomon. Don not wait for Armageddon, you’ll never be able to live if it doesn’t happen.”
“Ah, well, I mean … the last few times we’ve met …”
“We talked about life?” HuanJen asked. “The various things that were going on?”
“Yes. And I should have realized Garnet was due …” Dell felt guilty
Hun-Jen shook his head. “Life goes on, Solomon, stop trying to define it.”
“Well, immigrant and native issues are …”
“You saw a crowd of natives and immigrants in that room, looking at that child. What do you think will really happen?” HuanJen asked. “Now or eventually?”
Dell sighed. “I suppose we can see. The city has a way of righting itself no matter what.”
“Many things do.” HuanJen smiled. “I have to go pick something up. Come with me, if Granite didn’t cheer you up …”
“Oh, he did. It has been … some time since I held a baby …”
” … this may.”
Dell gave his friend a curious look “What do you have in mind?”
“Something I promised myself when I heard Garnet was pregnant.”
“Why am I dreading this?” Dell managed some humor.
“Come on, my friend. I decided you had needed some cheering, this should help …”
Slate watched Brownmiller waddle out of the door. Well, waddle wasn’t the right word. Brownmiller had his own way of walking that his huge frame made a necessity. It wasn’t undignified, it was merely odd.
Slate was alone. Holding his child.
He looked over at Garnet, who was asleep. He couldn’t blame her. The birth had been exhausting and she’d had trouble sleeping despite the medications.
The hulking Vulpine looked down at Granite. The infant seemed to fit into one of his hands.
“Those are members of your extended family,” Slate said softly, “you’re going to get to know some very interesting people.”
Slate thought for a moment. Despite what some felt, he thought quite a bit. He just didn’t go around letting it be known.
“You’re going to have quite a life, son. I came here to get away from one world, one way of thinking. Here, here you’re going to have a choice of worlds, one, one or all.”
The hulking Vulpine paused.
“You’re going to have a lot of people to learn from. I’ll teach you what I can, your mother will do what she can, but …”
“Listen to HuanJen, and Rake, and Brownmiller. They’re wise. They may seem strange, but they’re wise. Listen to your aunt, Jade, she’s strong and she made something of herself, more than I realized. They’re holy people, the real thing.”
“Listen to Brandon. He knows how things work. How things are made. Just … don’t listen to him about women.”
“Clairice, she’s a survivor. She never wanted to be here, and she made a life. She also helps her friends out. You can learn much from her.”
Slate smiled. It was the kind of smile that would surprise those who knew him.
“You’ll meet my friend Lorne and his boyfriend Xianfu. Lorne’s my best friend and he’s a good man. He, we, all of us, we’ll tell you what it’s like to help here, to belong, to make a difference.”
“And … there is Dealer Zero, and Riakka, and …”
Granite made a sound that was a prototypical snore.
“Ah, but you have a life ahead of you. No need for me to go on. Welcome to Xai, my son. Welcome home.”
Solomon Dell sat in the kitchen of his house. It wasn’t an impressive kitchen. It gave most visitors a sense of having been planned by people who wanted precision over livability to whom eating may have been a pleasure, but cooking wasn’t that much of a thrill. It had an oddly immaculate feel that came from being clean only because it wasn’t used much.
Solomon was looking out of a the large window facing the south, the one that overlooked a small park. He was smiling in a way those that knew him would find all too unfamiliar.
“Dear?”
Solomon turned around to look at his wife, who stood in the doorway of a kitchen, a look of loving concern on her face. Mrs. Artemia Dell was about her husbands height, pale, with oddly-colored, long red hair. Her eyes danced oddly
“You’re looking rather … calmer than when you left this morning,” Artemia continued. “As I recall you were rather … distressed. Over that report from the University I told you would only depress you.”
Solomon nodded. “Well, it did predict increased divisions between immigrants and natives …”
“Oh, of course, it confirmed your worst suspicions.”
” … and about potential economic fallout …” Dell continued.
” … yes, and we know trade fuels the Rancelmen …”
“As I’ve talked about. But …”
“Yes?”
Solomon paused, then looked at his wife. His expression was an amalgam of gratitude and understanding and care.
“Life goes on,” the Head Rancelman said with a friendly kind of gravity.
Dell looked back out the window. “There’s what may happen and what is. We’re not pawns you know. We’re alive. I forget that sometime.”
“How very profound. Did your little friend HuanJen tell you this?” Artemia asked, sitting by her husband.
“No. I realized it myself.”
“Good, dear, that should spare him the burden of having to be profound for you … and why are you still smiling?”
“Oh, I expect there’s going to be a change coming … and I want to see how some people cope with it. Two in particular …”
There is an apartment called the Crosspoint. It’s one of the many apartment buildings dotting Xai, vertical communities, usually patronized by professionals and immigrants. It was, simply, an instant neighborhood for those that needed it, maintained by those who stayed on when others moved.
On the top floor, the tenth floor, was the apartment rented by HuanJen and his partner/lover/apprentice Jade. It overlooked HuanJen’s Zone and, coincidentally, a goodly portion of Metris.
As the sun had begun to set, the Taoist mystic and his companion were looking over the city, as they so often did.
“So, what did Solomon Dell want?” Jade asked, her voice layered with several emotions. She had an odd relationship with Dell that even HuanJen had not quite figured out - and Dell was, technically his friend.
“That study at the University on immigrant-native conflicts. The one Byrd had us read, you know, the one that had Brownmiller making those jokes.”
“Oh, yeah, we’re gonna hear about that for awhile,” Jade sighed, “It’s always someone looking for trouble.”
“Unlike us, for instance,” HuanJen answered with strained innocence.
“Well …” Jade began, “Uh …”
“We find trouble, there’s a difference. A subtle one.”
“Yeah.” Jade nodded. “Yeah. So …” The Vulpine stopped, and sighed. “Thought a lot about Garnet when the baby came due.”
HuanJen smiled. “So have I.”
“Yeah,” Jade trailed off. “Think about life and stuff?”
“I always do, but in this case … in particular.”
“Yeah.” Jade rolled her eyes. “Um …”
Jade produced a small box from her jeans pocket and aimed it towards HuanJen without actually looking at him. “I f
igured … “
“Jade?”
The Vulpine looked around. Her lover was holding a box as well, a rather bemused expression on his face. He flipped the cover open, revealing a gold ring nestled on green silk.
Jade looked at her box, and opened it, revealing a ring resting on black silk.
“I … ” HuanJen began.
Jade shrugged. “I figured you’d take a little longer.”
“I had actually planned to once Garnet gave birth.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It helps to set a deadline on things like this.”
Jade smiled. “Me too. So …”
Time stood still. It was probably waiting for the couple to get on with things.
“So … want to get married?”
“Well, yeah, that’s why I blew my spending money on a ring, loverboy.”
HuanJen nodded. “Yes. I accept.”
“So do I. Er … how do we.”
The Taoist Mystic scowled. “I … hmmm. Why don’t we …”
“Take each others rings and put them on?”
“Yes, excellent idea.”
The couple gingerly exchanged boxes, and proceeded to wear the engagement rings, both seeming a bit uncomfortably embarrassed, yet happy.
Jade looked at the ring. “Traditional gold band?”
“Of course,” HuanJen answered. “Dragon inscription on mine?”
“I wanted to be different.”
“Beyond proposing on your own?”
Jade leaned forward and gave her fiancee a kiss on the lips. “This is Xai dear, none of that bizarre gender role stuff.”
“Some traditions, unfortunately, do carry over. I myself thought you would let me do it, as you would worry you would do it wrong.”
Jade appeared shocked for a moment. “Me, why … yeah, pretty much. Took a lot to do this.”
HuanJen nodded knowingly, eyes sparkling.
“We’re gonna be married, aren’t we?”
“Yes, I imagine we are.” HuanJen said. “I .. . yes.”
“And a family to come,” Jade ventured.
“Of course.”
“And all those things in life,” Jade trailed off. “I’ve been here … two years or so. I’ve come so far. And it’s never over.”
“Life is a journey,” HuanJen said, without pretension. “We’re on it together, at least.”
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