Chapter 46

 

Gina

 

 

The supertrain was great fun. Among the five of them they took over one end of the car, turning the seats so that they faced one another and made a private space. All four adults insisted they had been on trains before and that Gina, the only novice, should have a window seat for the whole trip, so she was able to look out, to see the fields and forests and farms as the train flashed through them. Distant scenery lingered in the window; she saw mountains, a large lake, a checkerboard of farmland, sometimes a huddle of buildings, rooftops, that were small cities in the background, but the foreground was just quick glimpses and streaks of color.

Cara had her screen out and was trying to learn, she said, who Wark was, and why he had a ferry rather than a bridge. Sofi said she thought Wark was an old-fashioned fellow who thought a ferry was more fun than a bridge. Jared said he thought Wark was a reactionary extremist, who probably spent his spare time shooting laser rifles at cars with modern nav systems so that they would have to use his ferry to cross the river, and Gina suggested that with a name like that, he was perhaps really a toad or a quarg, who didn't understand nav systems and preferred boats.

"Transformed," said Cara at once, "into a quarg by a wicked witch, waiting for a princess to kiss him and break the spell."

Issio said Wark had probably started a ferry service so he could get out into the middle of the river on his boat and get away from all the lunatics visiting his town. "A problem to this very day," he pointed out, and Sofi called him an old grouch.

The train let them off at Wark's Ferry in the early afternoon, and looking at the town, Gina decided that Issio was at least half right; Wark went out on his boat to get away from his town, which was not particularly attractive. It was, Sofi said, very much like the town where her grandparents lived, a shipping center for the farm produce in the area. There were warehouses around the train station, square utilitarian buildings, and the business district was much the same; they supplied the local farmers without flare or imagination. There really was a river; their hotel was right beside it with a nice view of the modern bridge, nav-stripped for cars, and there was no sign of a ferry at all.

There was a small park beside the hotel with a pond full of swift-swimming red fish and a large family of quargs, uttering their shrill cries and leaping about in the shallow edges of the pool, flashes of gold scales. Jared said these were Wark's grandchildren; he never had found a princess, this not being the proper place to attract princesses.

"That's why he came here," said Gina, inspired. "Because once he became a quarg, he found that he liked it much better than being a man, trying to run a ferry and probably going broke, don't you think?

"With all the competition from the bridge makers," agreed Jared.

"So he stayed here, and fell in love with a beautiful female quarg, and lived happily ever after," said Gina, "staying as far away from princesses as he could."

"Write that down," said Sofi. "I like it. I wish to read it to my daughter someday."

Gina could almost see it herself; she wished she could get Lena Jenkins to illustrate it, but Lena and her family had moved to Ansantan, across the ocean, early in the summer. It was too bad she herself had no talent for drawing, she thought, and neither Willis nor Terry was into it either. She could write it down, though.

Since it was a small town, it wasn't hard to find the home address of Dr. Maarchesin; it came up on the directory in the hotel, about fifteen minutes away by car. The five of them packed themselves into the little hotel rental car and Cara tapped in the address. "Now," she said, "I suppose we'll find she went away for the weekend."

"To a medical convention in Bridgeton," said Sofi, nodding. "This would be our luck. But we could not call ahead. We could not run the risk of warning her in advance, if she is in contact with the others."

"She may already know," said Jared. "They may have told her; she could be off and running at this moment."

But she wasn't. The rental car pulled up in front of a moderate-sized house in a nice but not showy neighborhood; the yard was beautifully kept, surrounded by a flowering hedge, sheltered by spreading trees, decorated by flowerbeds blooming in bright colors. Digging into the flowerbed by the front step was a woman wearing grubby clothes and a large sun hat over very pale blond hair. She turned her head as the five of them got out of the car; Gina saw her clear blue eyes taking them in.

Cara and Sofi and Issio all nudged Jared into the foreground, unanimously electing him spokesman. "Dr. Maarchesin?" he inquired, and the woman came to her feet; and removed her gardening gloves; she was a little older than Jared, Gina thought, not all that tall, but she was thin and very fair of complexion, justifying the sun hat, and the blue eyes were just like Maud's, just like Chazaerte's.

"Yes?" she said. "My office hours –"

"We're looking for information," said Jared, "about a patient you saw back in Bridgeton."

The five of them stood on her front walk, Sofi and Issio side by side, Cara beside Jared, Gina to the side near the bird bath, in the center of the big flower bed, where two green birds dived in and out of the water. To her surprise, Gina could see all five of them clearly from where the doctor stood, as clearly as if she looked out of the doctor's eyes. Jared introduced himself and the others, wanting to clarify his legal position as Maud's executor, but the doctor wasn't much interested in his words. She already knew them all, Gina realized; she just hadn't seen them in person – well, actually she had seen Jared briefly, many years ago, a friend he brought into Emergency, but none of the rest of them, and she thought he had changed – "grown up" was the phrase Gina found in her mind.

She hadn't expected this visit; none of them thought it could happen, that it could be figured out so quickly, and she hadn't thought they knew about her.

At this moment she saw them in images rather than words; she saw Cara and Maud, linked portraits, and she saw Sofi with a plump white Zamuaon with a great deal of jewelry; this was someone she had a special affection for, and she looked at Sofi with attention, observing the maternity dress Sofi was wearing for the first time, thinking about how far along she was. This pleased her very much; she was happy about the baby, Gina saw, as if she were a friend or a relative. She looked at Gina, too, and saw her, small for her age with short blond hair tousled with the breeze and a fading bruise on her face, beside a very clear image of Chazaerte in a loose shirt of some shiny blue fabric. She took note of the bruise, too; she knew how it had happened. It felt odd, Gina thought, to see herself like this.

Jared was trying to read the doctor; so were Issio and Sofi, and she was fending them off, but she wasn't like Maud, unreadable. She regarded Issio and Jared with great interest, Gina saw, the amount of power each of them had. I thought so, she reflected, looking at Jared. I told Maud so. She didn't want to believe me.

Why not? asked Gina, and felt the doctor looking at her, too, surprised. She hadn't noticed Gina in her mind; she scrambled to find why not, and how long, and how it could have happened.

You are very strong also, she said. I never thought to check on you children. We knew you had latent power, of course. That was a matter of heredity, Gina saw, something from Mom, a lot from Chazaerte. We didn't think you would actually be using it, in this generation. Your children, maybe, but not you. Oh, my, many surprises. She gazed at Jared and Issio again, glanced back at Gina.

Jared could feel the crosscurrents; Gina could tell. He and Issio and Sofi were all alerted now, trying to reach inside Dr. Maarchesin, encountering the block she put up. Jared produced the paper copy of Maud's death certificate and handed it to the doctor, and she made a pretense of examining it. She remembered it clearly, knew exactly what it was; she was trying to decide what to say, what would be the best thing to do. Jared and Cara were watching her closely, and so were Sofi and Issio; Gina could feel probing at the very outside of the doctor's mind.

"You realize that this person was not a regular patient, Dr. Ramirez," Dr. Maarchesin said. "As an emergency room doctor I saw patients as they came in – a great number of them, as I am sure you appreciate."

"Certainly," he said, "but if you have any memory of this particular case –" A case, he thought, in which she pronounced a live woman dead ought to be fairly memorable; he thought this quite loudly, perfectly willing to let her pick this up from him, and she heard it as clearly as if he had spoken in words; she looked up at him with a little smile and then looked back at the death certificate.

I think her name was Madeline, she said, letting him Hear her, and Jared blinked once, quickly and Gina saw a picture come up in his mind, blurred with time, a woman with a lot of curly black hair and blood on her leg.

A client, he said to Issio and Sofi, years ago; she cut her leg and I took her to Emergency – you, Dr. Maarchesin, he said, and she nodded over the death certificate. Imagine your remembering it all these years. He glanced at Gina, aware that she was following the conversation along with Issio and Sofi.

I felt your Ears, Dr. Maarchesin said. I was sure I felt them; I told Maud, but she didn't think so at the time. I suppose she didn't want to. Now she has to deal with it.

You've heard from her?

Oh, yes, she called. On the phone, Gina realized, like ordinary people. Because –

Maud can't, she said. She doesn't have Ears.

She has many other talents, said Dr. Maarchesin. Much more important ones. But no, no Ears, Neither does her daughter. She looked at Cara, who was holding Jared's hand and looking at the death certificate the doctor held, probably aware of a pause in the conversation but not, obviously, following their Voices.

Jared and Issio and Sofi all pounced at once upon this. Her daughter, surely her daughter? said Sofi.

The doctor smiled and shrugged and handed the paper back to Jared. Enough of all this silliness, she said. Things are happening. We need to stop playing games.

Very refreshing point of view, said Issio.

"Yes, Dr. Ramirez, I remember the case," she said. "Suppose we go inside and sit down; I have some lemonade in the keeper. Lovely summer day, isn't it." She led the way to her front door and opened it, ushering the group into the cool shadows inside. "Perfect day for gardening. It's been a hobby of mine for years, but it was hard finding time for it in Bridgeton; the ER is exciting to work in and certainly worthwhile, but it does tend to take over your waking hours. Here my associates and I take turns covering weekends and evenings, and I have a chance to enjoy a little leisure now and then."

The house was almost chilly and, after the sunshine outside, very dark. The doctor looked around at the armchairs and the couch and seemed dissatisfied. After being open, she was now blocking again, Gina with the rest of them. It wasn't a matter of caution, though; she found something about the situation very funny, and didn't want to reveal it too early and spoil the joke. "What we should do," she said, "is take our lemonade out to the patio in back; it's a shame to miss this lovely sunshine, don’t you think?"

"You get a lot of heat here?" inquired Cara, trying to be polite and sociable.

"They say so. I've only been here eight months; I can tell you the winters are milder than in Bridgeton, or at least last winter was. I do enjoy that. We're further south here, you know. Not that the winters are that bad in Bridgeton. I spent a year in the north and that was something to remember. The chute froze; the garbage came back up in the kitchen."

"I grew up near Tandoi," said Sofi. "I remember chutes freezing; also water lines."

"My supervisor had a pipe freeze and break. Terrible mess. We treated cases of frostbite there. A man actually froze his foot, if you can imagine."

She was passing out glasses of lemonade as she chatted; Gina thought it was funny, how they all stood around talking about the climate while every single one of them had their mind on something quite different.

The doctor led the way to the back door; it was open with the repeller on, and Gina could see the sunshine on more hedges and trees and flowers, an expanse of foamstone surrounded by bright flowers growing in huge pots, chairs and a table made of woven material she wasn't familiar with. Rattan, the doctor said, and flicked off the repeller and waved the five of them through the doorway, and Sofi, stepping out onto the foamstone, stopped abruptly as if frozen. They all, in fact, pulled to a halt, clustered about her.

Dr. Maarchesin made the introductions. "My friend Zarei," she said, "visiting here; Zarei, this is Dr. Ramirez, Issio f'Alzen; Dr. Cara Lindstrom, you know her mother, and Gina McIntosh, Chazaerte's daughter, and of course you know Sofi."

"Lalia, what are you thinking?" shrieked the plump white Zamuaon female in the sun hat, struggling out of her chair at the rattan table with a glass of lemonade splashing in her hand, and Dr. Maarchesin laughed.

"Come sit down," she invited the five of them. "Here, sit here, Sofi, it's time you got acquainted with your mother, don't you think?"

 

There was no doubt about it; this was the woman Gina had seen in Mom's room back on Linden's World, when Gina was only six. Sitting at the table sipping her lemonade, Gina studied her, observing the earrings, the tail rings, the ankle bracelets, the necklaces. She still favored bright colors and lots of jewelry, a bright contrast to sleek white body hair.

And Gina had a name for her now, Zarei, and Zarei was extremely ill at ease. "You are well?" she asked Sofi for the third time, sounding every bit as uncomfortable as she looked, sitting on the extreme edge of her chair casting sidelong looks at Sofi in her maternity dress.

"I am well," said Sofi, sounding every bit as stiff as she looked, sitting on the extreme edge of her chair eyeing Zarei and her sun hat and her sun dress, pink and red flowers on a white background, and her multiple earrings and the tangle of beads and chains around her neck and the bangles and clashing charm bracelets on her wrists. She had five tail rings, Gina observed with fascination. Sofi had only one, the twisted gold ring from, well, her father's late wife, who could not have been her mother if Zarei was her mother.

Issio was holding Sofi's hand, regarding both her and Zarei warily and trying not to mind that Sofi had her claws out, just a little. "Stress," he murmured, and Sofi cast him a look that promised revenge later. Cara sat across from them, looking from mother to daughter uncomfortably, thinking, Gina knew, of Maud, and she was holding on to Jared's hand very hard; he, on the other hand, was leaning his elbow on the table and keeping his free hand cupped over his mouth, trying to control an urge to laugh and determinedly not looking at Dr. Maarchesin. She didn't mind in the least; she was smiling quite broadly as she sipped her lemonade.

Gina sat between Issio and Cara and wondered how this was all going to work out.

"You are – seven months?" said Zarei.

"Six," said Sofi, her claw hitting her glass with a little "ping" that made Zarei jump.

"Your grandchild, Zarei," said Dr. Maarchesin. "Just think of that! Your grandchild! I suppose you know if it is a boy or a girl?" she inquired of Sofi, who glared at her as if she thought the doctor would look better with a few scratches across her forehead, or a bruise or two.

"Yes, I do," she said coldly, and turned her green eyes toward Zarei in a menacing glare. Jared turned an escaping laugh into a cough, and Cara looked at him sharply and nudged him with her elbow. He turned his head abruptly to look at the red flowers in the nearest pot, clamping his mouth very tightly shut.

"You have had trouble," said Zarei, "in the past. I am aware of this. But this time you are well."

"I am well," said Sofi grimly, and Issio eased her claw away from his palm, only to have her clamp her hand down again.

"So in the winter," said Zarei, "you will have a fine baby boy. Or a baby girl."

"Yes," said Sofi.

She was angry at being in this position, Gina knew, and she was angry that Zarei existed, and she was angry at the thought that Zarei might have any claim upon her or her child, and she was angry that Dr. Maarchesin was a friend of Zarei, or even knew her, and she was angry that she was angry. Underneath her feelings weren't that different from Gina's feelings about Chazaerte, except that in the last couple of days he had tried to be there for Gina, and for her brothers, clumsily, perhaps, but it was better than nothing, she supposed. So she was feeling just a little bit better about Chazaerte; Sofi was not feeling at all better about Zarei, and the thought that she might ever feel better about her also made her angry.

And Zarei, clearly picking up on some part of Sofi's feelings, was looking as if she wished she were absolutely anywhere else in the entire galaxy.

"And you're feeling well," she said, and Jared got up quickly and went to investigate a hanging plant by the back door; Cara looked with awe at Sofi's tail, which was bushed out to twice it's normal size, switching sharply back and forth, smacking against the back of Issio's chair as he tried gently to pry her claws loose and keep his own tail out of her range.

"Do you feel well?" Sofi inquired in a tone oozing threat, and Zarei swallowed hard.

"Have you thought of names for your baby?" she inquired.

"Yes," said Sofi, and Issio winced and pried another claw loose. Sofi raised her glass and drank and put it down on the rattan table with a thump that made Zarei jump. Dr. Maarchesin gave a little gurgle and Jared, back to them all, crossed his arms very tightly, shoulders shaking slightly.

"Oh, god," said Cara, and put down her own glass and began to laugh herself. "Sofi, you can't bite her head off; I know how weird it all feels, but Sofi, our mothers –"

"Your mother is not sitting here," said Sofi crisply, "with jewelry enough to fill a shop in the mall." She eyed the jewelry with disdain. "A cheap shop," she said. "And every minute asking you if you are well."

"No, my mother," said Cara, "is either in a jar in your basement, screaming obscenities, or hanging out in the woods spying on us. Probably every day. Probably every night. Watching my boyfriend. Lusting," she said to Jared's back. "While he compares."

"No, sweetheart," he said in a muffled voice, hand over his mouth, but it wasn't doing any good; it was perfectly obvious that he was laughing, and he wasn't going to be able to say anything else.

"It is in no way amusing!" exclaimed Sofi. "These people play with our lives!"

"No, no," said Zarei. "I am not interfering, truly; I am only concerned. After all, dear Sofi, I am your –" she rethought what she was going to say and clamped her mouth shut, with an appalled expression as if she expected Sofi to spring on her with all claws out.

"Twenty-seven slavering venomous demons from the slime pits!" snarled Sofi, and Issio pulled his hand free and shook it, as one trying to shake off the pain; he reached over with his other hand and gingerly took her hand by the wrist. Sofi looked at his hand, and then at him, and then at Cara, and then at Gina; Gina at least wasn't laughing, but she kind of understood how Jared felt, and Cara, too. It was too weird. It was too beyond belief. You had to either laugh or cry, and Jared, for one, would always choose to laugh.

"Hells beyond hells!" cried Sofi, and pulled her hand away from Issio and glared at Dr. Maarchesin, smiling across the table, and then she looked at Zarei.

"Very well," she said. "I have a daughter. She is healthy. I am well. We have not yet selected a name. I will name her anything but Zarei. Now be still. We have business to conduct." Zarei opened her mouth and Sofi shook a claw in her face. "Be still. I do not accept you as my mother," she said. "If I ever do so, I will inform you." She turned around and glared at Jared, by the hanging plant. "And I do not find this amusing!" she informed him.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, in a somewhat choked voice.