“What, you never have anything like this where you’re from?” Gertrude asked, ignoring Haruhi’s attempts at tugging her towards the games.
“No, not really,” Morgan said over her shoulder, taking in the larger festival. One large corner was filled with people dancing, nearly all of them dressed in kimonos, while the general crowd was about fifty-fifty. In the center of that area was a small tower with a band on top, a trio of women singing in a language Morgan didn’t recognize. She assumed it was the same language as the writing she’s seen elsewhere.
There were mechanical contraptions too, small vehicles whose whole function seemed to be going fast or spinning about. They reminded her of the carts they had used to get about in certain parts of the mines, though she doubted these had any practical purpose.
“Momma, look!” Haruhi said, pointing excitedly at one of the booths. “Penguin!”
Morgan had never heard of a penguin before, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that the little girl was pointing at the biggest of the toys hanging above a cluster of games. It looked sort of like a bird to Morgan, but far too fat to actually fly. It was hard to tell. Humanity had brought a lot of species with them to the stars, but birds hadn’t been among them on Hillman. Or at least none that had survived to the present day. Most of the birds on Zion Morgan had seen were small colorful things that flitted about singing, but didn't seem to do much else.
Gertrude looked like she wanted to say no, but Haruhi had started bouncing up and down.
“All right, I’ll try and win one sweetie, but the game looks hard.”
Morgan just watched as Gertrude gave it a try. The point of the game was to throw small balls through holographic hoops, without touching the holograms. It seemed simple enough, but Gertrude only managed it with a single one of the balls, evidently not enough for a prize, let along the large one.
After trying and failing twice more Gertrude turned to Morgan. “Do you want to give it a try? Much more of this and it would be cheaper to just go out and buy one of them.”
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Morgan said, grimacing, “We never really played games with balls.”
“You can hardly do worse than I did.”
“You want to bet?” Morgan sighed as Gertrude handed her the first ball. It was even lighter than she had expected.
Morgan eyed the hoops carefully. They weren’t too far away, but the holes were barely bigger than the ball.
She drew back her arm and let the ball loose. . . and it sailed right past the table entirely, bouncing off the back of the tent.
The second did better, if only missing the table by centimeters instead of meters could be considered a worthwhile improvement.
She could feel her face reddening, heating up.
“You don’t need to throw it quite so hard,” Gertrude said, chuckling.
“It’s falling slower than it should be,” Morgan muttered. Then she remembered. It was falling slower than it should, if they were on Hillman. Different gravity, different falling rates. She knew that, but it was so easy to forget. “I’m not going to make it, you take the last throw,” she added louder.
“Game rules little lady, one person per go around,” the tall lady manning the booth said quickly.
“Why,” Gertrude started asking, but cut herself off, shaking her head. “Never mind. Just try then. Who knows, you might get lucky.”
“Is there maybe another game I could try for the same prize?” Morgan asked, rolling the ball around in her hands.
“Just the mallet,” the lady replied, pointing to a small pedestal with a target on top and large mallet lying next to it. A holodisplay stretched upwards a meter or so past the top of the tent, numbers dully flashing interspaced along it next to helpful labels like “weakling” and “strong man.”
“What? I just hit the target with the mallet? That’s it?”
“If you want the penguin you’d have to max out the meter,” the lady said, “but yes, that’s ‘all.’”
“Just try the ball, Morgan. I can try again after that,” Gertrude said, glancing down at Haruhi who was still intently looking at the penguin. She seemed to have realized they weren’t likely to get it, as she had stopped bouncing, her smile drooping.
“I think I can do that,” Morgan said, eying the mallet carefully. It was nearly as long as she was tall, but lifting it here would be fairly easy.
“Tell you what, little lady,” the lady said to Morgan. “I’ll even let you trade your last throw for two swings.” Clearly she didn’t think Morgan could do it.
Morgan shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” She walked over to it, carefully hefting it in both arms. She had guessed right, it wasn’t heavy, but the bulk would still be an issue. “What’s the best way to swing it?” she asked Gertrude quietly. Not quietly enough, as a couple of the people standing around waiting their turn snickered a little bit. Morgan didn’t think they were being mean about it. She imagined she did make a funny sight.
“Swinging it from behind your back over your head gives you the most force,” Gertrude answered. “Though I don’t think I’m strong enough to pull that off.” Left unspoken was and neither are you.
Morgan tried it, hefting the mallet above her head. Nope. As she brought it up perpendicular to her body her coveralls started pinching and digging into her shoulders and upper arms. They were simply too tight for her to swing it that way without tearing something. She’d already ruined one pair by accidently getting an acid based cleaner on it. That incident had been a whole lot of fun for her too, come to mention it. She’d ruined another that had gotten caught on a machinery edge. It had torn so badly it was easier and cheaper to just replace rather than repair. She couldn’t afford to lose a third over a game.
So she settled for raising it up as far as she could, then bringing it down as hard as she could, the flat head hitting with a resounding gong against the pedestal’s sensor.
The hologram sprang to life, lighting up in vibrant red as it measured the force of the blow. Up it climbed, slowing down a bit, then stopping a couple meters from the top.
“Wow,” Gertrude said as the meter fell back down, the lights dimming, except for the flashing word “Strong Man.”
“That’s not quite enough for the penguin,” the lady said, not sounding particularly sorry, “but it is enough for the monkey.” She did seem mildly impressed that Morgan had done even that well.
“How about a nice monkey, Haruhi?” Gertrude asked sweetly, bending down to bring her head closer to the little girl.
“Penguin’s better,” she replied sadly.
When she had woken up that morning, Morgan would not have believed she would be willing to put so much effort into winning something so useless for someone she had barely met. But she couldn’t just disappoint the girl if there was some way to avoid it.
“All right, I got one more try, I’d better make it count,” she said, putting the mallet back down. Hesitating for a moment she undid the top couple of buttons of her overalls. Luckily she had bothered with an undershirt today, she didn’t as often as not.
“What are you doing?” Gertrude asked.
“It’s too tight, I can’t swing properly,” Morgan answered, finishing unbuttoning it down to her navel. Peeling it back she bunched it up around her waist, tucking the sleeves in so they wouldn’t stick out. She glanced about, self-conscious about her scars, but no one seemed to notice. Or if they did, they didn’t care.
Gertrude did seem to notice, frowning slightly, but saying nothing. Morgan ignored her for the moment too. The lady running the game, however, seemed more interested in the size of Morgan’s arms, a dawning realization that Morgan could have a chance at winning.
Picking the mallet back up, Morgan swung it up over her head easily.
“Much better,” she said, readying herself for a moment before bringing it down on the target with all the force she could muster. The reverberation of the gong was even louder this time, as the holographi
c display climbed upward quickly. Just as it seemed to have stopped it passed the last line, and the ‘Super Man’ sign began flashing, so fast that it almost hurt to look at.
“The penguin, please,” Morgan said to the lady.
“You’re from a heavy gravity world. That’s cheating.”
“You can’t know that,” Gertrude cut in. “And even if she is, that little rule isn’t displayed anywhere. Besides, it looks like she earned those muscles the hard way.” She smiled broadly, the effect decidedly not warm and soothing. “I’m sure you’ve already made money off us.” Gertrude leaned in and added, “And how many of the young men who saw that little display are now going to be eager to prove that they’re just as strong as this ‘little girl?’”
The booth lady chuckled, acknowledging defeat. “Fair is fair. One penguin.” She reached up with a small stick and snagged one of the large black and white toys off of the display. “Have a nice day.”
Gertrude handed the penguin to Morgan, who just looked at it. It was cute, she supposed.
“Here you go, Haruhi,” she said, squatting down and handing it to the girl. The toy was almost a meter tall, which was as tall as the girl and decidedly wider. She hugged it tight, somehow managing to remember to add in a ‘thank you’ to Morgan.
Morgan just laughed and shook her head.
“Sweetie, maybe mommy can carry it so it doesn’t get dirty on the ground?” Gertrude said, holding out her arms for the toy.
Haruhi’s nose scrunched up as she thought about it. “Okay,” she said at last, “You can carry Penny. Who will carry me?”
Well, at least she’d gotten the naming part decided quickly. “I can carry you, if you want,” Morgan said. She wasn’t sure Haruhi would agree, she had seemed rather shy so far. . .
But then she nodded enthusiastically and jumped into Morgan’s arms. Well, Morgan supposed a giant toy was a good way to get a child on your side.
“I think we should get some food. I don’t know about you but I don’t have a lot of money to spare for the games. The lantern ceremony isn’t for a couple hours, and we need to try and get there early to get a spot where we can reach the river and still see the fireworks. Have you ever seen fireworks, Morgan?” Gertrude said.
Morgan shook her head. “I don’t think so. What are they?”
Gertrude laughed. “Well, you are in for a treat then.”
As they walked away from the booth Morgan could hear the lady calling out to the crowd. “Try the Strong Man challenge. So easy a tiny girl just won top prize! Surely you strapping young men can do better?”
CHAPTER 08
There were many attempts in the early days to automate spaceships; to reduce the crew down to a bare handful, even a single person. Technologically the method was sound, but they forgot the first lesson of humans. We’re pack animals. The need to belong to a group is so strong that sailors named their ships and give them a personality so she could belong to the pack with them. That impulse remains, for all that an ocean was traded for the stars.
- Ralph Baksis, Head Shipwright, LaForce Shipyards
MORGAN HELD THE STUFFED PENGUIN against her shoulder, not too unlike how Gertrude carried the dozing Haruhi. She felt nearly as stuffed as the toy, having tried literally dozens of different foods that, as of this morning, she hadn’t even imagined existed.
She still wasn’t sure how she felt about eating uncooked fish, but she had to admit it had been tasty. Luckily it had also been free, or Morgan would probably have had to skip meals for several weeks to stay on budget. As for the games, well, those she had skipped entirely after her success with the hammer. It was just as well, most of them appeared nearly impossible to win in any case.
Gertrude had explained that the food was either donated by local restaurants – these were easily identifiable by the advertising prominently displayed on the booth – or made by the local temples and their members as gifts to each other and any visitors. This meant that the same dish could easily be available in a dozen different varieties and recipes, and Morgan had found it all too tempting to try everything.
And the fireworks! So many patterns and colors mixing in the inky sky, she had never imagined something so splendid, if loud. She supposed a similar display wouldn’t have worked on Hillman, thanks to the cloud cover, even assuming they would have wasted money on something so frivolous.
Well, they probably would have for Founder’s Day.
Morgan put aside thoughts of home as she struggled to keep up with the taller woman. For all its light, fluffy, construction the toy was more than half as tall as Morgan herself was, and she was trying to be careful not to let it drag on the ground.
“What did you think of the lantern ceremony, Morgan?” Gertrude asked over her shoulder as they passed the graveyard again. It looked different at night, dark save for the candles here and there along with the scattered red glow of incense sticks. It was a stark contrast to the dim but consistently lit streets and their walkways.
“It was,” Morgan paused to find the right word, “peaceful. The lanterns twinkling and reflecting on the river were quite beautiful. A good way to remember your family, I think.”
“Do they have anything similar where you come from?”
“Back home? Not really. There was a graveyard, but markers were little more than a name and a date stamped in discarded metal ore. The wall was sturdy though.”
“What about a funeral?”
“I’m. . . not familiar with that word.” Morgan supposed she was blushing, but stopped herself from looking away. Gertrude couldn’t really see her anyway, and the night was dark.
“The lanterns are part of a memorial ceremony in the years after a death; the funeral is the ceremony when we bury the deceased.”
“Oh. We don’t do anything like that. The family might gather as they can in one of their homes, but the only people who go out to the graveyard are those who draw the lots to dig the grave, and then again those who draw lots to bury the body.”
“They aren’t done at the same time?”
“Most of the deaths, where I come from, are mining accidents. It might be weeks before the body can be recovered, especially if the collapse was a large one.”
“That seems callous.”
“It takes a lot of time to clear a collapse safely. At least. . .” Morgan cut herself off. She’d been about to say ‘at least they let us have a graveyard,’ but she didn’t want this woman’s – or anyone’s – pity. It also felt wrong, talking ill of her former home, now that she wasn’t there anymore.
“At least?”
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
They walked in silence for a moment before Gertrude changed the topic.
“Do you have a large family?”
“I only ever knew my parents. I think they had family in the capital, but that was very far away from where we lived.”
“No siblings?”
“No. Most families in town were large, but my parents couldn’t have any after me.”
“That must have been lonely.”
“There wasn’t time to be. There was always work to do. At home daddy would talk with me, teach me.”
“You miss them.”
Morgan thought for a moment before answering. What kind of question was that?
“Of course I do.”
“Oh, that wasn’t a question. It’s always hard being away from family, even if you don’t get along with them. We also feel the absence keener, being in a strange city on our own.”
There didn’t seem to be any proper response to that, so Morgan let the conversation lapse.
As they got near to the part of town where Morgan’s studio apartment was, she spoke up again.
“Is your home far? I wouldn’t want you have to carry the both of them very far.”
“Another ten minutes or so. Not too bad.”
Haruhi stirred, nuzzling against her mother’s shoulder, whispering something Morgan couldn’t quite hear.
&
nbsp; “Okay honey, we’ll find a bathroom, just try and be patient.”
“My place is just a few blocks that way,” Morgan said, pointing out towards the outskirts of town.
“I wouldn’t want to be a bother.”
“How would it be?” Morgan started down the street, stopping for a moment to heft the toy up higher. Glancing back Morgan saw Gertrude frown slightly before following. With her longer legs she caught up to Morgan before they’d gone half a block. Morgan noticed Gertrude’s free hand had opened the top of her small bag, resting inside.
Gertrude was looking back and forth, her eyes lingering on the faded facades of the buildings, the alleys lit only by slivers of light spilling out of windows here and there.
“You live out here?”
“It’s quite cheap ‘out here.’ The neighbors can be a bit loud, but I’m usually either at my jobs or school anyway, all of which are in walking distance.”
“And you aren’t worried about crime?”
“There is always crime. I learned that long ago. Try not to look like a target and you’ll be fine, most of the time.”
“Most is not all,” Gertrude said, glancing down at Haruhi.
Morgan shrugged.
“Something could fall and kill me twenty seconds from now. Most is the best we get.”
Morgan motioned Gertrude over as she stopped in front of her building. Gertrude started up the steps towards the main entrance, but Morgan shook her head.
“No, down here.”
Half hidden by the stonework of the building there was a staircase leading down just forward of the front of the building. A dirty metal door was barely visible at the bottom from the light spilling down from above – there was no light in the stair. Morgan fished her identification card from one of her coverall pockets and tapped it on the sensor, unlocking the door. The hallway beyond was lit, barely, by a red light back from the doorway. Doors lined either side of the hall, spaced a few meters apart. The third one on the left was Morgan’s, which also opened with her ID.
The Long Black (The Black Chronicles Book 1) Page 10