Chapter 63

 

Jared

 

 

Leaving the doctors and practitioners and nurses to handle things at Clyde's house, Jared went outside into the quiet street. The sun had set and the summer night had spread itself over the neighborhood. The D'ubians played their music. There were a lot of lights on in the Hardesty house, a few in the Bahtan house. The living room lights were on in Issio's house, but no one was taking advantage of them; Cara and Sofi and Gina were all on the front porch, talking with some animation, and Issio was trying to edge around them without Sofi noticing him. He had almost made it to the front steps when she grabbed his tail; he stopped short and froze in place.

Jared walked down the street to join them.

"I cannot help that she is still in Clyde's house," Issio protested. "This is not my business. This is between her and Clyde. And perhaps the doctors."

"You think also that I should be nicer," snarled Sofi, giving his tail a yank. "You are also on her side."

"We are not on her side!" said Cara. "We're on your side. You know that perfectly well! We just think, everything considered, that you really don't have that much choice. We certainly don't, do we, Gina."

"No, we just have to make the best of it," said Gina, and Issio reached back with his free hand and tried to unlock Sofi's hand around his tail. It didn't seem to be working.

"I do not have to make the best of it," said Sofi.

"Sofi. My love," said Issio, in a soothing and patient tone; a mistake, Jared knew, from years of experience, the precise tone guaranteed to set his partner's teeth on edge. And Sofi's teeth were very sharp. "You must try to be reasonable."

"I do not have to be reasonable," said Sofi, giving his tail a twist; he winced.

Jared usually stayed out of such arguments, and Sofi was strong enough to shield her thoughts if she didn't want to share, but he put out his mind now, anyway, and found that Sofi was upset enough to forget to block. And it all involved the baby; Sofi was terrified, which surprised Jared; he had not known her to be so frightened before. But she was terrified now, that Zarei and all the others of her kind were interested in the baby, too interested, interested enough to seize her and take her away. Their objectives had to do with the baby, and their objectives were unknown, and Sofi did not trust them for a second.

She felt him in her mind; she turned her head, yanking at her husband's tail as she did so, and met Jared's eyes.

Jared left Issio to ease his tail out of her grip, Cara and Gina to try to calm her down, and he turned and went back to Clyde's house, walking past the little music group on the porch. Evvie was just coming out of the bedroom, where the night light, turned down low, showed Mimi silent and motionless in their bed. The two doctors were still by the breakfast bar, deep in consultation, and Wundra and Zarei were by the couch, also consulting. Clyde had Sofi's flowers out in the kitchen, where he filled a vase at the sink.

"Zarei," said Jared, and she turned from Wundra. "I have a question for you," he said, walking over to join them. "Your people tell us that Sofi's child will be special."

"Extraordinary," said Zarei, with a touch of pride. You could have thought her an everyday grandmother, Jared thought, amused and wary at the same time.

"How extraordinary?" he inquired. "And what do you intend to do about her?"

"What do you mean?" said Zarei, taking a small step backward as if he had transformed into Issio, claws out, fangs showing.

"I am wondering what you plan to do with her," said Jared, and Dr. Maarchesin turned from Dr. Frank at the breakfast bar.

What plans? She was as clear in his mind as Gina could be. Clyde glanced over from the sink as if he had heard something.

Sofi is afraid you mean to take her for yourselves, Jared said to Dr. Maarchesin. Perhaps she is right. I want to know.

"Take the baby?" said Lalia. "Gods, no. Under no circumstances."

"No!" said Zarei aloud, sounding horrified. "No, she belongs with her mother. Tell her, please, we do not intend to separate her from her baby. What would we do with an infant?"

"Good point," said Jared. "Your people have certainly avoided caring for your own babies. I don't suppose you have much experience. But what about when she grows older? When she doesn't need all the care an infant does? When she's more – convenient – to be around?"

Dr. Frank leaned back with an elbow on the breakfast bar, observing them all with great attention. Clyde thrust the flowers into the vase and set it down on the counter by the sink. "Anyone," he said conversationally, "who tries to take Sofi and Issio's child away from us, who tries to lay a hand on her, in fact, is likely to find that hand missing. Maybe the other hand, too."

"Oh, yes," said Jared. "No question."

Dr. Maarchesin laughed. "I absolutely believe that," she said. "Luckily our plans don't include kidnapping the baby. It is better that she be brought up here, among all of you. She will be very much like the McIntosh children," she continued, "only, we think, even more powerful. And I am very much of the opinion that we need to be involved in her life –"

"As opposed to the way your child, and Sofi, and Cara, and the McIntosh children were brought up?" said Jared.

"Quite a different matter," said Dr. Maarchesin.

"I don't see how," said Jared. "And I think Sofi is having a little trouble seeing this, too."

We won't take the child; tell her, said Dr. Maarchesin. She was trying to let him see enough of her mind to read her sincerity, but what he saw were layers of truths and half-truths and underlying purposes he could not read at all. He drew back, shaking his head.

"Maybe you should talk with Sofi directly," he suggested, an idea that seemed to alarm Zarei; Sofi had made a very strong impression on her biological mother. "If you expect to be involved with her child, you have to be involved with Sofi," he pointed out. "If I were you, I'd try to build some sort of relationship with her, preferably now, before her daughter is born. Trust," he said, and both Zarei and Dr. Maarchesin eyed him doubtfully. "Unless you're lying," he said, "about your plans."

"If she's as easy to convince as you are," said Dr. Maarchesin with a wry smile, "that should be no problem at all." She shook her head. "Go talk to Sofi, Zarei," she said.

"No," said Zarei, with great conviction.

"Practice," said Clyde pleasantly, putting the vase down on the breakfast bar, "by convincing us, why don't you? Because now that Jared has brought it up, I can't help wondering if he and Sofi have a point here."

"If you think," said Dr. Maarchesin, "that we are strong enough to go up against the whole lot of you –"

"We don't know that, do we," said Jared. "We don't know how strong you are. We don’t know how strong we are; we don't know much about it, in fact."

"You're learning," said Dr. Maarchesin, and then Jared felt it again, the sudden apprehension that swept over him; the shadows that descended, muffling sound and view; he looked quickly toward the bedroom door as Evvie and Wundra, perhaps feeling the same darkness, started toward Mimi's bed. It was, he saw through the open door, empty.

"Mimi!" exclaimed Clyde, and he stumbled past the breakfast bar and thrust himself into the bedroom behind the Bahtans, and Jared, behind Clyde, saw them all come to an abrupt halt, staring toward the bathroom door, out of sight from where Jared was.

"Clyde!" cried Mimi's voice, bringing the two doctors to their feet.

Jared backed away from the bedroom door and let himself out onto the front porch and swung over the railing, heading around to the back of the house. The houses were all built to the same plan; the long back porch had doors to both bedrooms and the bathroom, and he could, from the bathroom, perhaps, come up behind Mimi or whatever was holding her there.

He was aware of Issio, coming from the other direction, and Cara and Sofi and Gina behind him; Cara seemed to be trying to get Sofi and Gina to stay behind, and neither of them were having any of it. Jared and Issio reached the back porch at the same moment; unlike Jared's porch, it was open, unscreened, and Issio swung over one end of the railing and Jared swung over the other. Issio glanced through the big bedroom window and kept on moving, and they met by the door to the bathroom.

Mimi has her pistol, said Issio, and put his thumb on the pad and the door popped open.

By the bathroom door? asked Jared, and Issio nodded. They ducked into the room, keeping as quiet as they could. Issio pointed to the left of the door; she would see them coming out, Jared thought, and they would have to hope the surprise would keep her from shooting at once.

He could hear voices in the bedroom. Clyde was telling Mimi to put it down, now, just put it down, everything is all right, and Evvie and Wundra were urging her to take a deep breath, just concentrate on taking a deep breath.

"Clyde!" said Mimi.

"Put it down, Mimi," he said. "Don't point it –"

"She's got me!" screamed Mimi, and Jared shoved the bathroom door open, so that it swung back hard and hit the wall, and Mimi in her flannel nightgown spun toward them, holding the pistol in both hands as if she were target shooting. Jared grabbed her wrists before she could take aim, and yanked them upward, so that the pistol was pointed at the ceiling, and Issio seized her around the waist and lifted her off the floor, bare feet dangling over the Bahtan rug.

"She's got me!" Mimi shouted, and Dr. Frank's voice said something by the door and Evvie moved in on Mimi's left with an infuser, and Mimi made a great plunge and the pistol went off and they were showered with plaster and foamwood fragments from the ceiling. Hanging on to Mimi's wrists, Jared ducked and put up an elbow to catch the falling chunks and Mimi ripped her hands away from him and twisted the pistol around so that the barrel pointed directly at her own chin.

"I won't let her kill you!" she said to Clyde, and in a nightmare instant Jared saw her finger tighten on the trigger button and he knocked the pistol and her hands away from her chin and the pistol went off again and blew a sizable hole in the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom.

Evvie triggered the infuser and Jared held on to Mimi's wrists and the pistol and Mimi resisted for a moment and then slumped in Issio's arms. Her hands relaxed on the pistol and Jared took it away from her; Issio let her sag back against his shoulder and he and Jared shared a look of great relief before he bent to get an arm under her legs and carry her back to bed.

"Get rid of this thing," said Jared, thrusting the pistol into Clyde's hands.

"What she?" asked Clyde. "What she got her?"

"The fly," said Gina, standing with Cara and Sofi just inside the door to the back porch, trembling. "The fly got her."

 

"So what do we do?" said Phyllis. "If the fly has her –"

"She tried to kill Clyde," said Evvie. "The fly tried to kill Clyde, and no doubt any of the rest of us she could. Using Mimi. Strength," she added, looking darkly at Dr. Maarchesin and Zarei. "What strength had Mimi, against this thing?"

"She had the strength to try to kill herself instead of me," said Clyde, sitting in the armchair with his hands over his face. "Dear god, she would have done it if you hadn't stopped her. Thank god you stopped her." Ann sat down on the arm of the chair and put her arms around him, and Ollie, on the other side, patted his shoulder.

Al picked up the pistol and looked at it. "You got any more of these?" he asked. "You'd better let me take them, if you do."

"But that leaves knives," said Dr. Maarchesin by the bedroom door, "and hammers and power drills and saws – "

"Thank you, we have the picture," said Jared. "What we need are some constructive ideas." He sat on the couch on one side of Gina, Sofi, not looking at Zarei, on the other. Gina had not yet stopped shaking; he had an arm around her and so did Sofi, but it wasn't helping.

"The hospital," said Dr. Frank doubtfully, and Evvie and Wundra and Issio and Sofi and Clyde all shook their heads at once. "She has to be confined," he said, "unless this fly thing goes away. Would it go away?" he asked Dr. Maarchesin.

She shrugged. "They haven't left their vehicles before," she said, "unless the vehicle dies."

Sofi frowned and put a protective hand over her little daughter. The child will be extraordinary, thought Jared, even more powerful than the McIntosh children; Sofi looked at him sharply over Gina's head and he looked back, letting her see whatever she could of that interrupted conversation with Zarei. She took it in, and Gina's head came up too, and Issio, leaning against the wall by the bedroom door, turned his eyes upon them and then crossed the room and sat down beside his wife, putting his hand over her hand on her abdomen, looking darkly at Dr. Maarchesin.

"I told you," she protested. "We have no designs on your child! We would like to be involved with her, but we don't mean to take her away from you! I swear! How can we convince you?"

"With a great deal of effort," said Jared, feeling uncooperative, feeling tired and grouchy and depressed. He kept seeing Mimi's finger on the trigger button; he kept feeling Sofi's fear. He kept feeling Cara, tense beside him, her thoughts remote, out of his reach. He kept feeling Gina's young body, trembling between him and Sofi.

"Let's just concentrate on Mimi now," said Phyllis, beside Clyde. "What are we going to do about her? We can't lock her up, tie her in bed."

"We can't let her kill herself," said Ann.

"We cannot let her kill one of us," said Issio with a sigh.

"We can keep her sedated," said Wundra. "I do not like it; it is not a long-term solution. But it will do for now."

"We will move the folding bed into the bedroom, for one of us," said Evvie, "and you will sleep out here, Clyde. You say that the couch makes into a bed. You will sleep on that bed. It is not safe in the bedroom," she told him as he raised his head to protest.

"And if the fly forced Mimi to – do something," said Ann, "she would never forgive herself, Clyde; she wouldn't live with that. It isn't just you; it's her too."

"Can you keep her sedated?" Cara asked.

"Bahtan drugs," said Dr. Frank. "Not ours. They can keep her asleep for now. Tomorrow, during the day, when we're a little better rested and there are several of us around to help, we can let her wake up, try to talk with her, and make decisions then. Tomorrow is what, Sunday?"

"Can you be here?" Jared asked him, and he nodded.

"Barring emergency," he said, "and I must say most of my emergencies have been coming from this neighborhood lately." He turned his glance on Dr. Maarchesin and Zarei. "How about you two?" he inquired. "Can you be here in the afternoon tomorrow?"

"We need them?" inquired Sofi between her fangs. "I do not see that they know more than we do."

"I'll take anything," said Dr. Frank. "We are not in a position here to pass up any possibility. So we will figure on tomorrow afternoon, and now we had better all go get some rest." He nodded at Sofi, who glared at him and flexed her claws. "I'm one of your doctors, anyway," he reminded her, and she muttered darkly.

"Tomorrow, then," said Dr. Maarchesin, and she and Zarei vanished. Dr. Frank looked thoughtfully at the space they had been occupying, and sighed, and went back into the bedroom for one more look at Mimi.

"Really, he's taking it very well," said Phyllis.

Jared and Cara walked him back to his car, parked in the space between the Hardesty house and Issio and Sofi's place; he seemed fairly cheerful for a medical man lacking not only the answers, as he said, but even a great many of the questions. Nevertheless he thought it an improvement over the state of confusion he had been in, say, last week.

And it was certainly interesting, he said.

He drove away; Jared took Cara's hand and they strolled down the street together through the velvet summer night. The D'ubians had moved their music inside, where they could barely hear it on the street; it seemed to sooth Mimi, Evvie reported. Sofi and Issio were already leaving Clyde's house, hand in hand, taking Gina with them.

They met in front of Jared's house. "We must find a way," Issio greeted them, "to learn their plans for our daughter. Sofi is correct. There is no reason to trust them."

"You," said Sofi, "you two must not start a child for yourselves until we understand better what is happening. Your child, also, will be extraordinary. If they are interested in our child, they will be interested in yours."

And that, Jared thought, was an unpleasant idea.