Chapter 14

 

 

 

"The baby," said Lalia to the rest of the company, "is the nuntulpo."

"Shit," said Al, with great feeling.

"And Polly herself does not respond," said Issio. "She lies inside her dreams; she will not come out. She –" with a disdainful gesture toward the girl on the chair – "told the truth. But it is not right, that she be allowed to keep a body not her own."

"Temporarily," said Sofi. "Only temporarily. Remember this, and be polite," she said to the girl. "Do not forget that we have the power to evict you at any time."

"So we're just going to leave her in there?" said Ann, sounding a little shrill. "We're not going to do anything?"

"While she plays with Patterson," said Mimi, "and runs in and out of our houses whenever she likes, doing whatever horrible thing she happens to think of?"

"That's something we need to consider," said Jared grimly, thinking of Issio and Sofi and Gina and that night when they could not be roused. "What about it?" he said to Polly. "You want to cooperate with us? Let's start with this. How are you getting into our houses?"

She was looking pretty pale and shaken; she wasn't at all as confident as she had been at the beginning of this interesting evening. She darted a glance at him, hoping for some sign of softness, finding none; he felt none. "It's an old trick," she said finally. "I had Mimi's thumb print."

"You most certainly –" sputtered Mimi.

"I made a thumb. That night when you were all at the party. Where you didn't take me," she added, with a touch of resentment; Jared looked at her with incredulity. He could imagine no circumstances under which she would be welcome at his wedding reception. "I stuck her thumb into this craft junk you had in your room." She shrugged at Ann. "It made an impression. A mold. I hid it and when I – "she gestured at her present body. "I just poured some plastic goop I found downtown into it. It made like a real thumb, with your prints and everything. It works on the locks as long as I get it warm, like a real thumb."

"Okay," said Jared, "give it to us." She withdrew into the chair, folding her arms tightly against her bony chest; out of patience, Jared grabbed her wrists and yanked her out of the chair. "Look in her pockets," he told the company in general, and when she tried to kick at him Issio seized her ankles, so they held her suspended between them. Phyllis and Mimi went through her pockets, coming up with a used tissue and a couple of small rocks and a bottle cap. Ann upended her purse on the coffee table, revealing a clutter of cosmetics and tissues and a small noter, which Maud picked up and turned on, flipping through the pages.

Cara reached into Polly's open collar and pulled out a cheap gold-colored chain; dangling from it was what looked like a severed thumb in an unpleasant shade of grey white, as if it had bled itself empty once it was chopped from its hand. She made a face and held it up, and then yanked it over Polly's braids and her head. "How about the mold?" she inquired, and when Polly didn't answer at once she grabbed the nearest braid and pulled; Polly let out a yelp.

"I put it in my room," she said. "On that table thing in my room."

"And your room is where?" asked Lillian over the pistol.

"I don't see why I should –" said Polly, and Chazaerte left the doorway and came across the room and took hold of her open collar with both hands, giving her a vicious shake.

"I don't want to leave bruises," he said, "and explain them to Patterson, but I'll risk it if I must."

"We can say she fell down the stairs," said Phyllis helpfully.

"A very good idea," said Issio, and he put her feet on the floor and released them and Jared let go of her wrists and thrust her into Chazaerte's hands. Chazaerte gripped her shoulders and shook her again, hard, and she gave another scream.

"All right, all right, it's on 62^nd above the place where they drink!" she said. "But you can't get in; it's locked!"

"You think that will stop us?" said Maud. She put the noter into Wundra's hands. "Download this to one of our noters," she said. "There may be information here we can use. Her address is actually written here, for instance." She looked at the page one more time, smiled, and signaled to Carter; he reached for her hand and his pendant and the two of them vanished. Wundra looked at the noter and then fumbled in Numum's pocket for another noter to start the download.

Chazaerte thrust Polly back into the chair and released her. She straightened her shirt, looked around the room as if seeking a friendly face. She didn't find one. "The baby," said Phyllis, "is actually the nuntulpo? Is he just moving in, taking over some poor baby's body, or is it his?"

"I don't know," said Jared, looking at Lalia, who was, after all, a doctor.

"I didn't feel anyone else," she said. "But he's very small, newly conceived."

Shamri, in Sister's arms, was still chewing her fist; she had not taken part in the conversation since pointing out the baby in the first place, being occupied in watching the people around her, and the living room lights, and the movement of the shadows, and exploring some of the explosive emotions she felt in the room. But she knew something about babies; she connected with the discussion again. Nice baby in colors, she said.

"Shamri thinks the baby is nice," said Gina, "and I don't feel anything bad about him. It's a boy," she added. "I don't know if it's the nuntulpo."

"It's not a nuntulpo," muttered Polly. "I’m not a fly. I don't know why you guys keep calling me a fly."

"It's better than a lot of the things we could call you," said Jared.

"Damned man whore," said Polly, glaring at him.

"That's enough of that," snapped Cara. "I don't want to hear that from you again. Jared has been a lot kinder to you than you have any right to expect. Show him a little courtesy."

"Humph," said Polly.

"Someone," said Lillian, "should teach this thing some manners. If we actually have to put up with her for awhile."

"I can't believe this," said Mimi. "Is the real Polly so badly off? Maybe she just got tired. I got tired, fighting."

"It's more than tired," said Lalia. "She gave up long before our friend here came along. That's the feeling I get. I saw this sometimes in the emergency room, with addicts they brought in off the streets; they just don't care anymore, don't want to fight for a life. They just want to be left alone with their dreams."

"I can't imagine that," said Ann, but Jared, having known Ava, knew exactly what Lalia was saying. Faced with an invader like the fly in the last year or two of her life, Ava would have shrugged and rolled herself into that same tiny spark of being; as long as she was left with her dreams, she would be content. He felt the old frustration; she loved him, he knew, but it wasn't enough to attach her to life; he loved her, did anything he could for her, but it wasn't enough to save her. He thought he had come to terms with that in all the years since her death; he looked at Polly with resentment for stirring it up again.

Polly sat in the chair in the center of the room, looking at the toe of her shoe, a cheap scuffed old athletic shoe. The D'ubians played, something in a minor key. Shamri chewed her fist and watched the ceiling. Wundra downloaded the noter from Polly's purse into Numum's noter, gave it back to him and tossed Polly's noter down on the coffee table with the rest of the litter from her purse. No one seemed interested in putting it away.

Maud and Carter materialized with a soft popping noise by the stairs. "Good heavens, girl," said Maud, "have you never heard of housecleaning? That place isn't just messy; it's filthy." Polly looked at her without comprehension. "Get a cheap cleaner!" said Maud impatiently. "Dust by hand! Rinse out your clothes in the sink if you don't want to take them to a laundry appliance, even one of those laundry places! And the dirty dishes; don't you know they have mold on them?"

"The place smells," said Carter, wrinkling his nose. He handed Jared a lump of something hard and white; it had been split lengthwise, and Jared opened it and looked at the impression of a thumb, the fingernail visible on one side, the whorls of the print on the other. It was, he thought, ingenious; he wondered which of the various brains with which she had been in contact had known about this technique. And she had known enough to take advantage of it; she was intelligent, he had to admit, whatever her other flaws were.

"What am I supposed to do about mold?" demanded Polly, apparently feeling it was unfair to expect her to cope with mold, too.

"Dear god," said Phyllis. "Do we have to teach this thing how to keep house, too?"

"Well, how am I supposed to know this stuff?" said Polly. "She didn't do anything about it, and Dr. Lindstrom just lay around in bed, and the fly –"

"I clean house," said Mimi indignantly. "You might have learned from me. You wouldn't find any mold on my dishes."

"You wouldn’t let me that far into your mind," said Polly crossly.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," said Phyllis. "And if she dies of food poisoning I suppose it will be our fault. If Patterson dies of food poisoning. Not to mention that nuntulpo baby."

"Damn," said Lillian, and she lowered the pistol and grabbed a handful of Polly's collar. "Get yourself out to the kitchen, you miserable thing, and I'll show you what to do with dirty dishes. By hand. Move it!" She hauled Polly out of the chair and across the living room and into the dining room; Phyllis, looking put upon, followed.

Maud shook her head. "I suppose she really doesn't know," she said.

"Does that mean we have to tutor her?" said Mimi. "I'll put up with her for a little while if she stays out of my way, but I'm not going to teach her about living in this world. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner she gets back to her own world, the better."

"Exactly what I think," agreed Cara.

"What if she can't?" said Lalia, and they all looked at her. "Can't go back?" she explained. "Can't fit into her own world any more? Maybe she no longer fits there; maybe this world has changed her too much."

"Well, she can't stay here," said Mimi flatly.

"How about," said Al, beaming at Lalia, "you guys take her back to your places? See if she fits there. I think you should get to take your turn, don't the rest of you?"

"Good idea," said Clyde, and the three Bahtans nodded enthusiastically.

"Me," said Issio, "I just want her out of our world; I would settle for that. Feel free to take her at any time."

"Thanks a lot," said Lalia, making a face. "We'll discuss it."