“It’s true,” I told him. “I was.”
Dad left me lying there with my legs hanging down off the side of the bed. “Fine. Make sure she gets her teeth brushed. And we have to be out of here by 0600 to make it to the space dock on time, so go straight to sleep.”
I would have answered him, but I was already asleep.
I woke a couple of hours later to a pounding headache. I took something for it, brushed my teeth, stripped off my dress and put on a soft t-shirt. Winn didn’t wake up when I slid in next to her. Somewhere, far away, I could feel Sam sleeping. I touched him gently and dreamed I was in his arms.
We entered the Galla Lupanio through her shuttle bay, which was large enough for the ship’s shuttle and not much else. She was more than five times the mass of RuComm’s new Vista-class ships so had I expected her to be spacious on the inside. Instead, everything was cramped. I had to flatten myself against the passageway wall on the way to my cabin whenever a member of the crew came running by, which they seemed to be doing all the time. No one walked. I looked into my cabin where there was barely room for a bed and a desk. A narrow door led into a bathroom that was shared with Winona’s cabin.
“Good thing we’re friends.”
“Merchant ship. If it doesn’t make money for the Guild, then it’s not here.” A crewman ran by outside the door. “I think that goes double for the crew.”
There was a box sitting on my bed and I peeked into it, holding my breath. I touched the blue gauze, enjoying the feel of the texture between my fingers for a moment.
“I want to go back to the shuttle bay and find my parents.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t trust them.”
“You think they’ll ditch us?”
“Mom might. I’m not sure about Dad, but he has self-control issues when it comes to her.”
“Ya think?”
We ran, then skidded to a stop just inside the hatch where we could see that my parents were talking to a man in uniform.
“Looks OK so far.” I glanced at Winona. “We’re supposed to break from the dock in just a few minutes. If either one of them makes a move toward the outer hatch…”
She nodded. “We drag them back in or we go with them.”
We waited. They kept talking. There was a barely perceptible flicker of the lights and change in gravity as the ship transitioned to internal power and then the outer hatch slid shut and sealed itself. A moment later the Galla Lupanio announced that we were clear of the Boden Gate docks and maneuvering for home. I liked her voice, there was something warm and sultry about it.
“Galla Lupanio,” I asked, “What should we call you?”
“You may call me by my full name if you wish, Ms. Holloman. Most of the crew call me Schiava, and I will answer to that as well.”
“Schiava. That’s a pretty name. You may call me Mala Dusa if you like. I’m looking forward to traveling with you and I have a bunch of questions, but first, I think I should go fetch my parents.”
“That would be difficult, Mala Dusa. Mr. Holloman and Ms. Weldon departed back to space dock twenty minutes ago.”
“But they’re right…” I started to point. There were three very handsome German Shepherds sitting by the shuttle.”
“Schiava, do you have any dogs on board?” I asked the question even though I knew the answer.
“Dogs? No dogs, but I do have six cats that help me police the cargo holds. Would you like to meet them?”
I couldn’t say anything, I was too busy trying to decide whether to laugh or to cry.
“Maybe later, Schiava,” Winona answered for me. She wrapped me into a tight hug. “Choose to laugh, Duse. You’ll feel better.”
I did a little bit of both and after a moment I could feel Sam holding me too. I let go of Winona and unrolled my new display pad.
“What are you going to say to her?”
“Mom? Nothing. I’m calling Sam. I think he might be afraid that I’m in real trouble.”
“Then you’re calling your mom?”
“Maybe.”
I brought Sam up to date on how Winona and I had been fooled. He seemed inclined toward laughing it off and forgiving her, but he’d follow my mom into battle even if it meant his own certain death, so I wasn’t sure that really helped me.
I went back to my cabin and sat on the bed staring at the display pad, not sure what I wanted to do with it. Winn sat with me, not saying anything, just being there with me.
It was finally starting to seem funny, the three Tarakana sitting there staring at me, getting a free ride with us back to Earth. I tapped the icon for Mom and she answered immediately. One look at the anguish on her face, mixed with guilt, pain and longing, and I had to forgive her.
I sighed. “Nice one, Mom. When are you and Dad really coming home?”
“There’s a series of meetings over the next six weeks. After that I should be able to leave.”
“So, we could have stayed with you and still made it back in time for school?”
“If this was just about Bodens Gate, I’d have let you. With the rest of the Union tearing itself apart we decided it would be safer to get you back home as soon as possible.”
“You could have told us. Explained it.”
“We talked about it and decided that there was too high a chance that you’d refuse to go and there wasn’t any time to argue.”
“You’re right, we would have refused.”
“Your dad joked that we’d probably end up putting a pair of Tarakana that looked like you two on the ship. It gave us an idea.”
“Great. Well, at least it’s only for six weeks. I think I can avoid burning the house down for that long.”
Dad leaned into view. “Anna and Corinne will be meeting you when you get off the shuttle.”
“Your sisters? Both of them? I don’t need, I mean, I’ll be fine on my own. Really. Winona’s folks are just down the street.” Aunt Anna was alright. She was a geologist, like Dad. Reasonable, logical. Aunt Corry might be her twin in appearance, but she went through relationships and professions faster than I did display pads.
“It’s just for a few weeks,” Mom assured me. “This is your last year living at home and I don’t want to miss any more of it than I have to.”
She disconnected and I sighed. “Can I move in with your parents for the next few weeks?”
“Why? I like your Aunt Corry. She’s crazy.”
I laid back on the bed with my arm over my eyes. “I’m doomed. She’ll have me making clay pots or mosaics or something while we chant ancient Sumerian poems.”
At exactly 1052 ship’s time the next morning I lost my Samuel. We were on the display pad together and I was as close to him emotionally as we could possibly be. At just a bit over fifty million kilometers apart we were talking over each other because of the comm lag, waiting for Mesa Vista to make her jump through the first Deep Space Hole. One moment he was there inside my head, then it was like he was ripped out of me. The image of him kept talking for almost three minutes before the pad reported that the comm link had been lost.
I sent a message to him, knowing that it would take twenty hours before he saw it, then I rolled up the pad and cried on Winona’s shoulder for a time.
“By tomorrow morning you’ll have a message from him.” She pushed the hair back away from my eyes. “You’re going to be fine. Let’s get an early lunch and see what there is to do on board this big ship.”
“OK. I’m going to be a mess for a day or two, but I’ll make it.” I tried a brave smile, but it was such a failure that Winn laughed at me.
“Just go ahead and be miserable for a little bit and get it out of your system. I have too much I want to do to have you being all mopey. Like trying to figure out how the emotional connection seems to operate outside normal physics. It cut off as soon as
he made the jump?”
I nodded, letting Winona comfort me in her own way.
“So here’s the plan. We’ll spend a few weeks with your aunts–”
“Doomed.”
“– and then your parents will be home and we’ll be back in school. As seniors.” She grinned at me. “And then, in the spring, we grad–”
“Sam will be back. In the spring, Sam will be back.”
“Huh. I think you’re right. You are doomed.”
“If I am, it’s a happy sort of doom.” I stood, willing myself to not be mopey. “Come on, I’ll race you to the mess hall.”
“Do you even remember where it is? You got us lost this morning.”
“I have no idea where it is. It’s the not knowing that makes the race more fun, don’t you think? Are you ready?”
“I am the wind.”
The End
THE ELEPHANT SONG
by Stephen Boyd
Elephant walked a lonely, weary way, through oh so many lands
Towering forests dark and green, and deserts of sand
Crossed oceans wide and mountains steep
and e’en thru swamps he did creep
Singing “Home, home, home,
Oh, for a home to rest my feet.”
In a jungle river he met Young Hippo, much to Elephant’s surprise
Asked he “How do you hide in a river that’s shallower than it is wide?”
Hippo blinked, and thought, and said to him
“It’s just the way it’s always been
Here in my home, home, home,
Oh, my home is three meters deep.”
They journeyed on and came upon a camel in the desert sand
Said Hippo, “How do you survive, in this dry land?”
Camel thought and walked with them
“It’s not that bad, since I can’t swim
It’s my home, home, home,
Oh, my home is on my feet.”
The friends came to a forest tall and tangled up in vines
Filled with some monkeys chattering out of their minds
Elephant asked one “Pardon me, but just how
Do you get some rest in such a crowd?”
Said Monkey, “It’s my home, home, home,
Oh, my home is my family,”
The three friends stopped and thought it through, much to their surprise
Elephant’s question’s answer had been there before their eyes
“If I keep on walking on with you
then all our homes will be there too;
We are home, home, home,
with everyone we meet.”
Wandering Soul Page 34