Chapter 48

 

Gina

 

 

"I'm an idiot too," said Cara over the breakfast table, looking much more relaxed, glowing, in fact, in the morning sunshine pouring through the hotel dining room windows. "Like my half brother. Maybe that's genetic, do you think?"

"Some kinds of idiocy," said Jared, buttering toast one-handed; his other hand was holding Cara's under the table, Gina knew. "I don't know about what's-his-name's problem."

"In what way can you believe you are an idiot?" said Sofi.

"I forgot the most important thing of all," said Cara. "If Chazaerte is my brother, what does that make me to Willis and Terry and Gina?"

There was a pause as they all looked at it from a new angle. "Oh, hell," said Jared, putting down his toast. "Cara, you're their aunt!"

"I am," said Cara, and put out her free hand to Gina. "You're my niece," she said, with a smile Gina would never forget. She had family. She had, she supposed, her mother, not that she wanted her, and she wasn't sure about her real father, either. But she had her brothers. She had Phyllis and Lillian, the Bahtan sisters, Al, even the D'ubians, at least through Terry. She had, in all but blood, Sofi and Issio, and soon a sister, their daughter. And she had Jared, friend, brother, part of herself.

She had an actual aunt, related in blood, and affection, and everything that mattered.

Hugging each other, they didn't actually spill the coffee or the maple syrup or the cream Issio used on his Zamuaon whole-grain cereal, but they came close enough to get the attention of the robowaiters, both of them, not to mention the other diners.

"I don't have any relatives either," said Cara, "not really, just sort of adopted family. The Drs. Wood. Dr. p'Anotta. And now I have three, a niece and two nephews."

"Five," said Gina, counting. "Because we have Chazaerte too, don't we, and I guess, if he's her son, we have Maud."

Jared choked on his coffee, laughing. "I love this," he said. "You do indeed have Maud, honey. She's your grandmother. Maud is a grandmother."

"Oh, that's wonderful," said Cara, and put down her cup and began to laugh herself.

 

They got back to Bridgeton late Sunday evening; the lingering summer sun had set in a fine blaze of colors Gina watched from the window of the train, and there were stars, and the smaller moon, and the deep velvet sky. Issio drove them home in his car, which they had left at the station early Saturday morning when they caught the train.

The neighborhood was quiet and dark; there was a light somewhere in the depths of the Bahtan house but no signs of movement. The D'ubian car was gone, probably to their studio downtown. There was also something like a night light barely visible on the second floor in the Hardesty house.

"You are going to work tomorrow?" said Issio to Jared as he took his own and Sofi's bags, and Jared took Cara's bag away from her with a smile. Cara looked happier than she had in weeks, Gina thought, since Maud had begun making her appearances, in fact.

"Yes, we are still studying those arches," he said, "recording them centimeter by centimeter, and we still don't have any answers, but I must say I am getting a number of ideas. I don't know how I'd explain them to the Drs. Wood, though."

"Our pale friends?" said Sofi, and Jared nodded.

"The Celtic knots," he said. "It's such a coincidence, don't you think? And I don't think I like coincidences. Remind me, next time I corner one of those people, to ask about that."

"Possibly," said Issio to Cara and Sofi and Gina, "if you properly fulfill their plans, they will approach you. They will tell you all about themselves, and you may tell us, if you care to share with ignorant natives."

"Hey, we ignorant natives have power," said Jared, grinning. "She all but said so, just before she said your little girl was going to be remarkable. I do believe that, don't you?"

"Yes," said Sofi, "that is one thing which she said that I know to be true."

What the doctor had said about Issio and Jared was true too, Gina thought, and she wanted to think about it just a little. The old ones, the strong ones. She shouldered her bag and Issio casually reached over and detached it from her shoulder and added it to his and Sofi's bags over his arm. "It is late. We need rest," he said, diplomatically not specifying Sofi, who gave him a suspicious sidelong look anyway. "We will discuss this more in the morning. We should perhaps tell the others, also."

"Oh, yes," agreed Cara. "I'll call Ann. Tomorrow. I wouldn't want to disturb her after she's gone to bed."

"No, that would be mean," agreed Jared with a grin.

He and Cara linked hands and Issio and Sofi, on either side of Gina, turned toward their house. "Oh," said Cara, pausing, "there's something else. We didn't follow up on it. We got distracted. But the doctor said – they had to protect their children. Remember? That would be us, I suppose. And Jared asked who they were protecting us from and she said – "

"The enemy," said Issio.

"That's the It's," said Jared, and looked at Gina. "The thing in the farm house," he said, "and the things here, in Clyde's basement, in your basement, Issio."

"I wonder," said Cara slowly, "if we should move that jar out of your basement, Sofi. Your daughter shouldn't hear that sort of language anyway. And maybe – it really is dangerous."

Sofi shrugged. "Perhaps," she said, "my daughter will learn what is inappropriate."

"I can see her," said Jared, "telling her entire first grade classroom what she has learned in her own basement. Her teacher should be thrilled. You might want to think about that, Sofi."

 

Lillian was up and about, at least upstairs; she didn't manage the stairs well on Al's cane, and she couldn't manage crutches with her shoulder still immobilized. She was irritated that her injuries got in the way, but after a try or two she gave up and let Phyllis and Al and Gina bring her meals upstairs on trays; Phyllis and Gina took turns eating in her room with her and Al. Al did not take turns. He was always there.

Willis was slower. He had made an attempt to stand and his broken leg had given way under him, and Wundra and Clena had packed him downstairs and to Dr. Frank's office, where scans showed that the bone had broken again – "crumbled" was the word Lana used to Rose when she thought Gina couldn't hear her.

So Willis was back in bed, for the most part, venturing only occasionally to walk up and down the hall on crutches. Whoever wasn't eating with Lillian ate with him, but he didn't talk much. He listened politely, smiled when it seemed expected, and spent most of his time sleeping, or reading, or watching vids, often the same ones over and over.

Phyllis had got some rest and she was feeling better, and she said that she was grateful for the help, but it was all right if Terry and Gina came back home. "Gina is home now," said Issio without hesitation. "It is not a question of your care for her," he explained, "but we prefer to have her here." Phyllis looked at Gina, but Gina couldn't say anything at all; she was so comfortable here with Sofi and Issio, and she felt so secure with them just down the hall, and Jared and Cara just across the lawn. She loved Phyllis and Lillian, but she didn't want to leave Issio's house, and she was so happy that he and Sofi didn't want her to leave either.

The D'ubians also declined to let go of Terry. They had rearranged their household, throwing up a hasty partition to give him his own room, an unusual arrangement in a D'ubian household, and opening a vent for Climate Control just for him, to keep him cool, recognition of his needs as an Earthian child, Jared said, and privately admitted that he was impressed by the depth of their affection for Terry. He had never heard of such an arrangement before, but it seemed to work for all parties. Terry could not have been happier.

"Terry is ours; we share him with you others," Durakal said.

"Gina is ours," said Sofi, "and we share her with you others."

So that was the end of that. Phyllis was busy enough with Willis, and Gina spent a great deal of time in the Hardesty house, helping, but her things were gradually moving to Issio's house, even her display of treasures, which Sofi helped her arrange on shelves in the little bedroom, shared with the baby's still unfilled crib. Issio was making plans to build on a separate bedroom before the baby came; he said they should each have their own room.

Dural said it would be a help if the neighbors kept an eye on Terry during the day, when the D'ubians slept. Terry, visiting Lillian and Willis, was on his best behavior; he promised to cause no trouble at all. He helped haul trays and he ran errands for the invalids and Phyllis, and he helped to steady Lillian on her irritable clomping walks up and down the hall, banging the end of the cane on the floor and refusing to admit that she was within a millimeter of losing her balance. He rigged up a bell system for her and for Willis, buttons on the tables by their beds; it was an accident that tied the system into the circuit that handled the front door lock. Clyde said it was actually quite interesting; he didn't know you could do that. He and Al experimented for quite a while, ringing Lillian's bell and watching the front door flap open and shut while playing Terry's trumpet fanfare.

"God, it's good to be home," said Phyllis, collapsed in giggles at the dining room table.

Gina began to write down the story of Wark the Quarg, finding that it got bigger and longer as she thought of things to make the story better. It turned out that Ann could paint with watercolors. She read what Gina had put down and said it was great, and began to talk about illustrations and making little sketches.

Cara thought it was a very good project for Ann, a chance for her to use talents she often neglected. Gina saw that Cara also thought it was a good distraction for Ann, who was very wrapped up in her new love affair; Cara was not at all sure about this new man, who had begun to be known in the neighborhood as Charles No-Last-Name. She had several times suggested that Ann bring him over for a visit, coffee, maybe a beer, a little conversation, but it never seemed to work out. His consulting firm kept him very busy, Ann said.

Gina tried to see him through Ann's mind, but he was just a blur, hands and arms and pretty words, no clear face at all. She couldn't get any kind of grip on what he was really like, and she was afraid that Cara and Jared were right in being suspicious about him. Cara said he was just using Ann. Jared said it was impossible to tell, from the outside, what a relationship really was like; look at us, he said softly in her ear, and they smiled at each other. They had settled things between them since Wark's Ferry, Gina was glad to see; they seemed very comfortable and sure of each other again.

Gina caught Terry while he was sitting on the bank of the little creek, plunking on his guitar, and tried to tell him about Cara and how it happened that they were related. "Our real dad, yeah," he said. "Hey, listen to this chord; you just have to move this finger here, and then if you hold it – "

"She's our aunt," said Gina, who still felt this was truly momentous news. Dad – well, Eugene McIntosh, who Terry persistently referred to as "our not real dad," – had never mentioned if he had any living relatives, and Mom said if she had any she didn't want them. Now they had Chazaerte, who was, well – and Maud, who was also – but they had Cara, who was someone they already knew and liked, and who liked them too.

"Yeah, I know," said Terry with his sunny smile. "Neat, huh. Duran thinks we could try this with Duroh's flute. Really good sound."

The next time she had lunch alone with Willis, Gina tried to bring up the subject to him. They had, since his return to the Hardesty house, tried to talk about the rescue from Linden's World, and since this involved Chazaerte, they tried to explain the relationship; Willis either dozed off at that point or turned up the current vid, drowning them out. "He doesn't want to hear," Jared said. "He may be ready later, when he feels stronger."

But it was later, and Gina really wanted to know what he thought about it all, and since they were eating and he couldn't doze off, and he wasn't playing a vid, she thought this was the best chance she was going to get.

He listened without expression, stirring his fork through the macaroni salad. "I'm glad you're happy," he said when she finished. "Cara is a nice person." And then he moved the lunch tray out of the way and rolled over in bed and closed his eyes.

So he still wasn't ready, Gina guessed.

Sometimes Gina wondered what the future was going to hold; she thought of the farm, always in the background somewhere, and wondered what would happen when Willis got well again, if he would want to go back, how he could manage if he did, what would happen if he didn't. The harvest was going on, she knew, because the supervisor sent regular bulletins to the Hardesty house, although Willis never looked at them. The supervisor and the department foremen seemed to be handling it by themselves.

And during the week after Wark's Ferry, she thought about her father also, the man named Chazaerte, and wondered where he was and when, or if, she would see him again. But no one in the neighborhood saw him, or Maud, or anyone else they thought was one of their people.