PYA: CHAPTER SIXTEEN

To begin reading this sci-fi novel or for background information, go to my Chapter One post here. To read about the background of the first novel, read my post here, which will also direct you to appendices.

For more detailed information, posted elsewhere on this blog are:

Pya Dictionary from Skenish to English (complete up to present chapter), with some cultural notes included
Pya Cast of Characters (complete up to present chapter)
Map of Pya with Description of Each Island
Map of Skene (but not Pya)
Map of Saya Island and Environs When Pyosz First Arrived
Skene Character Lineage at Start of Pya Novel
Skene, Chapter One (With Cultural Notes in Links)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The following day, Qala walked in to the Genist Manage kitchen where Lawa and Prl were sitting down to afternoon tea holding a crate with a bundle of letters on top. "Mail from Pya!" she declared. They unwrapped the string-sealed envelopes and read in silence for a few minutes.

Lawa said "She writes that Tu was there when she opened the hoe and remembered it was the first one I ever bought for myself. She says it made her cry; that's a good kind of crying, right?"

"Best kind" said Qala. "She says here that Dodd is giving her chicks descended from the double-yolk line at the Manage down the hill, she plans to reinvigorate the chicken flock on Saya. She also says she's set up a killing field near a cliff where blood can drain into the ocean." She looked askance at Lawa, who replied "Makes sense to me."


"I've got photos" said Prl, trumping them both. She'd been through them twice already, not reading her letter yet. She handed them over to Lawa and Qala, going to her office and returning with a thick sheet of chart parchment which she pinned to the wall next to the table. Once Lawa and Qala had pored over the pictures as well, Prl sorted them into clusters and began pinning them to the parchment. The one of Pyosz in her kitchen drew a simultaneous exclamation from Qala and Lawa, who got up to come look at it closely.

"That's her, that's her down to essence" said Qala.

"Who's she looking at behind the camera?" asked Lawa. Prl pointed to the photo of Maar and Pyosz together. "The pilot whom she's been asking me questions about" said Prl with disapproval in her voice. Beside that snap, she'd put the photo of Pyosz and Uli together. "And this is the mapmaker who went to University here on Riesig."

"Looks to me like we got a competition under way" said Qala. "Oh, look at the one of Pyosz and Dodd together, that's beautiful!"

"And here's the pilot frolicking naked with Abbo" continued Prl, her jaw tight.

"Doesn't she have a name?" asked Lawa.

"Maar" said Prl tersely. She could see Lawa trying to work out where she'd heard it before. However, what Lawa said was "Sounds like you've made your mind up about which one she should choose. Because University means smart, and pilot who helps her on Saya means stupid, right?" She stalked out of the kitchen into the large larder.

"Don't I get to have an opinion about my child's life choices?" complained Prl to Qala.

"No" came from the larder. "You totally fell for Sey, you used up all your barter credit."

Prl glared at the larder door, waiting for Lawa to return. Qala pointed to the photo of Pyosz with Dodd again and said "Look at her arm muscles, those are new." Lawa emerged and came to peer through her bifocals.

"Stars" said Lawa. "She looks like a Jiang Giant."

There was an old and endlessly expanded-upon children's story about Jiang Giants who lived beneath Skene's crust, massive beings made of sizzling rock, swimming in magma which was also their sustenance. Every now and then, lava would find a fissure to the surface and erupt into the open air, where it died. This would enrage the Jiang Giants, and they would stomp around, throw boulders, and rage in stony roars. This is what children were told caused earthquakes.

Qala laughed. "That's a great description."

Prl said to Lawa, in a challenging but kind tone, "Why do you do that?"

"What?"

"Act like if some reference is made to intelligence or education, that what's being hinted at is that you are stupid" said Prl. "Lawa, I've never ever heard anybody question your smarts. I've leaned on your mind for decades now. So why do you have that tender spot?"

Qala was exulting inside at someone else confronting Lawa about this, and doing a nice job of it.

Lawa pursed her lips and thought for a minute. "I don't know." And that was one of Lawa's most golden attributes, when she was asked a hard or painful question by someone she loved, she never showed resentment. After another minute, she said "I'll think on it."

Prl hugged her lightly and said "Thank you. I guess I've got some thinking of my own to do, huh." She refilled the teapot with hot water from the aga and sat down at the table. Lawa was now peering at the photos of Tu.

Qala sat down across from Prl and poured herself a cup of tea. "Aren't you going to open the crate? I imagine it's a duplicate of what Yoj's Manage received."

Prl opened the latch and began pulling out bags of dried fruit. Lawa came to her side and examined the label closely. "She's been there two weeks, and look at all this" she marveled. Prl opened the honey jar and put a teaspoon of it into her tea, taking a long sip.

"Mill certainly knew who to ask to come help" she said not quite neutrally.

"I think Mill lucked out" said Qala. "She asked Vants, I know that for a fact, and Vants turned her down. Let's give Pyosz all the credit here and leave it at that. Hand me those apricots, will you?"

She and Lawa began sampling each bag of fruit.

"Speaking of stupid...." began Prl, her voice soft. "I have no wisdom or experience at all in the ream of romance, lovers, dating, whatever you want to call it. It's hard for me to acknowledge. I don't have anything to offer my child. Maybe that's why I'm herding hard in a direction where it looks like I can have a rational judgment." She laid her head on her arms.

Lawa looked around at her. "You're her emma. We don't take questions like that to our emmas. I mean, Ng was an open door, but I never once told her who I was sweet on."

"Who did you talk with?" asked Qala, feeling an old flicker of jealousy that there had been lovers before her.

"Mostly nobody. Sometimes Tu or Halling" said Lawa.

Qala grinned. "And Halling is who told you I had feelings for you."

"I didn't need to be told twice" said Lawa with an answering grin. "I actually ran down the hill that night toward the Lofthall."

Qala saw that Prl's eyes were closed, and signaled silently to Lawa that they could reminisce another time. Qala said "You know, Prl, I can imagine Pyosz actually bringing some of her questions to you. They'd be indirectly phrased, and she'd float a windsock kite first, to see if you were going to be all lecture-y. But you and she have been closer than any other emma and child I know."

Prl's eyes opened. "The odds are, I'll piss her off right away."

"Mebbe not" said Lawa. "You're already thinking on it, that's a sign."

Prl sat up. "You realize we're spending as much time dealing with her as our youngest, despite her being half a world away, as we often did when she lived here?"

Lawa chuckled. "Remember that time when she was four and you discovered she was getting up in the middle of the night to cook stuff?"

"Oh, lev" said Prl, her face losing a little color. "I walked into this kitchen and she was standing on a chair right there, the aga door open, trying to stir burning oatmeal with the sharpest cleaver I owned, and the hem of her little shati was so hot it was about to burst into flames."

"Well, you got to let her stir this pot now with whatever she's got to hand" said Lawa.

"Or you could mail a bunch of eks to the pilot and see if you could buy her off" said Qala, deadpan. After a long moment, Prl and Lawa both burst into laughter. Prl looked at the clock and said, "Crap, I have to go tell a couple of 19-year-olds they're not suitable to add a child to their mix." She carried her cup to the sink. She almost never talked about her duties, and Qala stared after her.

"How do you tell someone that?" asked Qala.

"Well, in their case I'll simply suggest they wait a year, until they're 20, making it sound biological rather than emotional" said Prl. "They won't be together in a year. One of them is cheating on the other with her partner's siba. Or so rumor has it. If I'm wrong, they'll come back in a year and I'll take another look."

"How do you hear all this gossip?" demanded Lawa, part of her mind trying to figure out who Prl might be talking about and the other part of her mind insisting she leave it alone.

Prl turned to grin at them a little wickedly, and lowered her voice to say "I go to Market every week, right? And it's well known that I duck under a canopy and take forever looking over selections before I actually barter."

"You're a reverie kind of shopper, that's true" said Qala.

"No, I make up my mind right away. But if I stay quiet, I can hear the conversations going on five and six stalls away. People are appallingly indiscreet about what they discuss in public. I store it all away in my memory, and if a rumor persists, I find some subtle way to refer to it with emma. Bux, that is. She's like Qen, she knows what everybody is doing." Prl kissed Qala's cheek and said "I don't actually like that part of my job, not like emma does, but everybody lies when it comes to their children, real or hoped for." She kissed Lawa's cheek as well and went to her office to retrieve her carryall.

Lawa sat down close to Qala to say "If it's not the University thing, then she's heard something about the pilot. But she don't have no dirt on the mapmaker."

"See, you just put that together lickety-split" whispered Qala. "Let's go next door, Yoj is deep in the stacks and the Manage is empty."

On Pya, Saya Island had been sunny and bustling since goats were released to pasture. Pyosz finished adding soil to her new raised beds, using leftover planks to make sequested areas for aggressive plants like mint and fennel. She built trellises for future beans, at the opposite end of her tillage from the onion/garlic/shallot bed. She also built trellises for cucumbers, next to the beans but well away from potatoes, and capers in the area most protected from the northwest prevailing wind. She made hills for an entire field of corn, enough to make her abbas crow, and buried a core of enriched dung at the base of each hill.

Until soil testing was completed, however, she couldn't rearrange her tillage according to her new chart or put in new seeds. Instead, she planted starts in the special trays her abbas had sent and put them in the sun on top of her grill cover. She folded tiny envelopes for half of each seed type, labeling them and adding a small drawing, to pass on to Tu and Pank. She felt the txikadiis watching her avidly from the rafters as she poured seeds from one envelope to another.

She cleared the table, scrubbed it down along with her hands, and brought the latest batch of dried fruit from the drying room to bag and label. She made a marinade for her lamb of mashed peaches and juice, lime juice, honey, vinegar, and a dash of allspice. Before she rubbed it over the carcass, she cut slits into the meat and inserted slivers of garlic, then returned it to the coldbox. She called Arta to make sure there would be room in the aga for roasting, and Api told her they were planning to build a fire in their massive outdoor covered grill, despite the hot weather, because Dodd was also bringing a dish for roasting. "We're planning to grill asparagus, onions, squash, whole heads of garlic, and onions" said Api. "Plus potatoes."

"I'm hungry already" said Pyosz. "I can't wait until the corn harvest comes in."

"Best time of year" agreed Api. "It's not too late for you to get in a crop before fall, you know."

"I'lm planning on it" said Pyosz.

"I need to come inspect your renovations, by the way" said Api. "Maybe this week."

"Any time after 9:00 most days" said Pyosz. When she clicked off, she made lunch with warm-yolked eggs for her wilted escarole salad. She gathered her orchard gear, plus scrub, towel, and clean clothes, and trundled her wain through the kissing gate.

Halfway across her pasture, she heard the distant drone of aircraft approaching. She looked around at the nearest goats and grabbed Yams, a large yellow-brown doe who was easy-going to the point of near somnolence. She whipped off her red cap and tied it over Yams head, which brought all the kids in for a hopeful nibble. She lifted Yams into the wain, jumped in after her, and lifted Yams as high in the air as she could. Yams decided this was really too much and began struggling, and it was all Pyosz could do to hang onto her as the lighter zipped overhead. It made an instant banking curve and swing back around for a second look. She was laughing wildly, goats running in all directions, and she wished there was a camera in the lighter to photograph her, but it was unlikely. After a waggle of flaps, the lighter went on and Pyosz set Yams down in the wain. Yams promptly urinated, narrowly missing the pot holding towel and scrub, before leaving the wain with a complaining bleat at every step.

She took a long soak and washed her hair, scrubbed every inch of her body, and then laundered her red cap in the pot with shampoo, setting it on a wain upright to dry. She missed Maar's company during the rinsing process and also during the fruit picking. Back in her kitchen, she sorted dutifully for allotment, preparing half for drying or sale as is, the other half for jams and preserves. At one point she heard the jae calling repeatedly. She walked out to spot it, and discovered it was sitting atop her red cap still drying on the wain, trying to remove the fluffy red ball at the peak of the cap. She ran toward her wain yelling "Stop! You there!" The jae waited until she was only a yard away before taking wing. She carried her cap back to dry in her kitchen.

It began raining before she was finished milking. She had hung her silks earlier to air, but as she ate dinner, she began to feel dread about the impending dance. She wondered if the downpour was enough to excuse her absence. Chewing, she picked up her radio and dialed the Genist Manage.

"This early, I knew it must be you" said Prl happily. Pyosz thought she could hear the cast-iron lid on the aga cistern being lifted for tea water in the background. "We have a wall covered with your photos here, and I've eaten so much of your cheese I'm going to need some of Lawa's stewed prunes to unbind me."

"Emma, I went out to eat at a fancy restaurant in Pertama with Uli last night" began Pyosz. "But I told her it wasn't a date, and I realized as I said it that dating is simply not something I can handle right now. I mean, I'd already said something similar to Maar, but this made it official."

Prl sat down abruptly. Listen, just listen she reminded herself. "How does it feel, a day later?" she asked with light interest.

"Good. I had a good day. Curds and Ember found a nest of baby shu and killed them all, and I lavished praise on them, though I suspect the shu were easy pickings because its emma was hunted by an owl this week. I can't imagine shu being emmas, but I guess they are" said Pyosz, off on a tangent.

"Well, reproduction and emmadom are not necessarily the same thing" said Prl.

"You oughta know. I mean because of your career, not you personally" added Pyosz hastily. Prl laughed and said "Clarification not necessary." Qala came in the back door with a basket of eggs, and Prl wrote hastily on the kitchen pad: "Pyosz. I was right, pilot and mapmaker both chasing her. She said no. Brought it up with me!"

Qala gave her a thumbs' up, whispered "Give her my love" and left again.

"Emma, why do you think Ngall and Abbo were treated so differently? Ngall has always lived up to expectations, at least until she scratched dirt in her emmas' faces to go marry Ehuy, but Abbo still got treated like she was the favored child" said Pyosz. "Makes me really glad I didn't have sibs."

"I don't think Oby treated Ngall differently than Abbo, I think that's mostly Mill's doing" said Prl. "And isn't it obvious why? Look at Abbo."

"What about her?"

"She's an almost exact duplicate of Oby" said Prl. "Physically, I mean. Especially if you knew Oby as a teenager, which of course you didn't. Mill and Oby fell in love by the time they were 13 or 14, and had known each other all their lives, so I'm fairly sure when Mill looks at Abbo, she sees the young Oby who's had her heart nearly forever. And Oby doesn't interrupt that because ego is human nature, after all."

"Do you think Abbo is good looking?" asked Pyosz. There was a note in her voice that caught Prl's attention.

"Yes, I do" said Prl honestly. "She's every bit the looker Oby was. But I don't think she's really at all like Oby in other ways. Oby was raised by two emmas who are profoundly service-oriented and on the conservative side, in an intelligent way. She pursued adventure only in realms where it enhanced public good. At heart, she's not self-absorbed." Prl didn't need to make the comparison. She suddenly realized this was on a public frequency. Before she could ask if that were so, Pyosz changed direction again.

"Emma, have you ever been in love?"

There was a long silence. Pyosz said "I'm sorry, I'm prying -- "

"No, it's a good question. But will you call me back on a private frequency?"

"Oh. Yeah, right away."

Prl got down a sip of honey-laced tea before the radio buzzed again.

"All right. Yes, I've been in love. Only once, but for a long time." Prl felt dizzy. She'd never told anybody, not even Dodd or Yoj although she suspected they both knew.

Pyosz was stunned. Even the request to change frequencies hadn't altered her expectation that Prl would say no. "Wow. I guess I can't ask you who."

"I'd rather not say" admitted Prl.

"Which means it's probably someone I know" said Pyosz. Prl closed her eyes. "Did she know how you felt, emma?"

"We didn't speak of it...directly. But yes, I think she did. She chose someone else" said Prl.

Which means it must have been before you became Genist thought Pyosz, this time not saying it out loud. "Do you still have heartache?"

"For her specifically? Not really. I think my love for her was, shall we say, misplaced. You know what I mean" Prl dared. "But I wish I'd had a lover. I'm not sorry to be Genist, and I certainly pushed the boundary lived by any other Genist on Skene, but I'd like to have had a partner. Or partners."

"Wow" said Pyosz again. "I can hardly wrap my mind around this. I don't think I would have liked sharing you with someone else."

"She would have been your emma, she would have given you double what I could" said Prl.

"I can't imagine that" repeated Pyosz. "You could retire, emma, and go find love again."

Prl was close to crying. "I have more work to do, Pyosz. At least one big piece, one problem yet to resolve, before I can feel okay about turning it over to the dullard." She whispered the last phrase so softly Pyosz only understood it because she'd heard it so often from Prl.

"I really thought I was in love with Sey, emma. I think I wanted to be in love, I wanted to be like everybody else. You know, even if I don't fall in love again, I mean to have a Manage and children. Several children. You showed me I can do that no matter what" said Pyosz.

"That may be the finest thing you've ever told me" said Prl softly. "We're all so proud here of what you're doing, how you're leading your life, we can hardly contain ourselves."

"We're going to run out of time. There's a dance tonight in Koldok and I really don't want to go, but the rest of the family is expecting me. I guess I'll write you all about it" said Pyosz.

"Thank you so -- " Static cut in. Prl lay down the radio very gently before bursting into tears.

Pyosz sat for a long time, staring into the slanting quicksilver of nighttime rain. Finally she went into her cabin and lay her gold commencement outfit on her bed. She stripped down and wiped off her otos before changing into clean underwear, then donning the silk, which felt luxurious in a new way against her skin -- it had been over two weeks since she'd worn silk. As she was lacing the jirekinu, she heard Maar's voice from outside calling "Hello? Are you still here?"

"Getting dressed, I'll be there in a minute" she called back. She pulled a small pot of gold glitter from her cupboard and dropped a sprinkle onto her damp hair. She put back on her otos, tucking her calças legs into the tops to keep them dry, then donned her burzaka and red cap. She found Maar sitting at the table, drinking fresh tea. Maar said "I thought you'd appreciate a ride in this weather."

"And how" said Pyosz. "Are you hungry, I could -- "

"No. Hard as it is to pass up your cooking, I'm full enough and don't want to try dancing after the kind of gorging I do with your food" said Maar. Pyosz grabbed her flash and they splashed their way to Maar's lighter. Two minutes later, Maar was tying down the craft at the Lofthall jichang, shouting into the rain "Go on ahead, I'll meet you there."

Pyosz ran for the schoolhouse, entering through the mudroom and finally locating a free hook to hang her burzaka. The buzz of voices from the adjoining assembly hall was louder than the rain. She stuffed her hat into the burzaka pocket. As she turned around, Maar was coming in the door. Maar froze and gaped at Pyosz.

"Thunder me down, but don't you clean up well" she said. She bent closer to look at the glitter in Pyosz's hair.

"Oh, dear, I'm not overdressed, am I?" worried Pyosz.

"No, folks deck out for dances. But I've lost the crease in my kalsongers, and, well, you look dazzling, that's all" said Maar. She held out the crook of her arm and Pyosz took it gladly, suddenly shy to walk into the next room alone.

There were appreciative looks cast their way as they entered, and Pyosz could see people whispering "Who is that?" Before the gauntlet got too embarrassing, however, Tu was waving them down from a table crammed with family. Pyosz hugged them all exuberantly, even Abbo who said "You'll have to save me a dance, cousin, you're going to sparkle on that floor out there." Dodd and her band were already on the small stage, but Dodd waved at her. Pyosz sat down next to Qoj and they started talking excitedly. Nk went to get her a glass of cold tea, and before she returned, the music began, a swinging two-step.

Oby asked Pyosz to dance, and Pyosz said "Thank you so much, S'bemma, but I need to just sit for a while and take it in. The idea of not moving my body is most attractive at the moment."

Oby turned to Mill and they swept onto the floor, along with Abbo and Maar, Tu and Pank, Briel and Api, Frahe and Qoj. Nk returned with her drink, and they listened to the band for a while. In addition to Dodd on the fiddle, there was a mandolin, a bodhrán, an accordian, and a small silver trumpet. Nk said the squeezebox player would switch on and off to the piano there in the schoolroom, as melody required.

Pyosz managed to avoid the dance floor for a few more songs, either by engaging herself in conversation which it would be rude to interrupt or going to get drinks herself. Her family was dance-happy, and there was an even number at the table plus Maar, which meant Pyosz sitting it out didn't keep someone else from taking a turn. Finally, however, thankfully during a relative sedate number, Maar said "All right, it's time for you to let Pya see you on your feet", grabbing her hand and tugging her upright. As they reached a clear spot and Maar pulled her closer, Pyosz whispered "I'm a terrible dancer, Maar. I truly am."

"You haven't had me as a partner" said Maar gallantly. She smelled of rain and juniper, Pyosz noticed. Their hands were almost exactly the same size, clasped together, and their matching height helped Pyosz relax a little as they began moving slowly in unison. Every muscle in Pyosz's body was trying to guess where Maar was going to direct them next, and almost half the time, it was a wrong guess. Maar demonstrated no impatience, however. Her grin was wide and Pyosz had fleeting seconds of enjoyment between the times when she stepped on Maar's feet or brought them to a brief halt because she had jerked them in the wrong direction.

When they reached the end, Pyosz was sweating hard. Maar stood beside as they applauded the band and said "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"You tell me" said Pyosz.

Maar bent to her ear to whisper "I'll keep Abbo off your back, okay?" Pyosz felt a flush of something move through her, and she was grinning when they returned to the table. "Save one for me" said Tu as she was heading onto the floor with Nk. Abbo grabbed Maar before she could sit down, and Pyosz sank into her chair gratefully.

A few seconds later, she recognized the song Dodd was beginning. It had been written by Yoj not long after she, Halling and Bux had partnered. She'd once told Pyosz it was about a weekend they'd spent on Pomar, surrounded by orchards and nature without other people nearby. The verses were about trees, about unobstructed views toward a distant coast, and about falling in love with a new place. The music had long chord stretches with high, sweet notes.

As she listened now, however, Pyosz realized it applied much more forcefully to Pya than to Pomar. At the end of the first verse, Dodd stopped playing to sing the chorus, and most of the dancers halted as well to sing with her, Dodd's clear tenor almost piercing with emotion:

I embrace this good green earth
Rising safe I am this hour
Above the ocean's salty scour
Rising safe for each new birth
This is my home above the sea
This is my home, embracing me

Pyosz felt tears sting her eyes, looking around the room. This is a kind of anthem for them here she thought. She wished the abbas could see this, could see how Yoj's words had been claimed by the new world. She resolved to find a way to describe it in a letter.

At the end, the dancers again stopped moving to repeat the final verse. They all then flung their arms into the air and shouted "To Pya!" Pyosz came to her feet belatedly, and remained standing as her family returned to the table. In their wake was Uli, who hugged her and said "Can I join you for a while?"

"Of course" said Pyosz. Maar had sat down on the other side of the table, next to Abbo, and Uli took her chair. Tu and Pank returned immediately to the dance floor.

"That last song was amazing!" Pyosz said to Briel. "Does Yoj know what it's become here?"

"I don't think so" said Briel. She said to Abbo and Maar's questioning faces "Dodd's emma wrote that."

"I never knew that" said Abbo, looking shocked. "We sung it every day in school, I just thought it was some old piece from before I was born."

"Well, it was" said Mill, mussing her hair. "Seems like half the popular music on Skene was composed by emma."

Uli leaned toward Pyosz and said "Those hanshan and jirekinu are gorgeous. And clearly Skene-made. Which shop do you use?" Pyosz told her, and Uli pointed to her own dubikun, saying "They made these, too."

Api and Ollow went to the snack bar and returned with a platter of ikan, salted tomatoes, rice balls, and assorted fruit, along with a pitcher of cold tea. The dancers ate lustily, talking at volume over the hubbub around them. People kept stopping by to visit, and they were all introduced to Pyosz, who quickly lost track of names but found she was happy to gaze into interesting faces, press hands in her own, and accept the welcome being extended her. Uli showed no signs of wanting to return to her own family table. She was charming the sokken off Qoj, Pyosz could tell, and very deferential to all the older women, but hardly engaged with Maar at all.

Two songs later, Dodd stood in front of the mic with her fiddle lowered and said "I have a new song for you all tonight. It's from ancient Yrth, lyrics translated by my emma Yoj, music hopefully translated correctly by me. The band has worked all week to learn the words, but before we sing it, I'll play you the melody. We're calling it 'Oak Grove'." A murmur went around the room. Pank said to Pyosz "Good name change."

The room had gone silent by the end of the second bar, except for thuds from children playing on the second floor above them. When Dodd lowered her fiddle again and the band broke into the lilting ache of the first line, Pyosz realized she was going to cry all out, no stopping it. Uli held her hand as Pyosz stifled her sobs enough to hear the beautiful words. Dodd was smiling at her. After the last chorus, Dodd played the melody again, and there was a thunderous roar of applause.

The band began a clogging melody, and Uli said to Pyosz "Care to take a turn with me?"

"Oh, lev, not right this minute" said Pyosz, wiping her face with her palm. Uli turned to Qoj and they melted onto the floor, adding to a cacophony of leather on wood. Half a minute later, Maar was in Qoj's chair, leaning toward her to say in her ear "What did that song make you think of? Missing Skene?"

"Um, I guess some. But more, about those poor people who were stranded here against their will, never to see anything familiar again. I mean, I'd have gone crazy too. Memory is linked to the soil, you know? I'm so attached to Saya already, it's a little frightening." Pyosz was close enough to Maar's face that she had an impulse to touch her forefinger to the dimple in Maar's chin.

"I know what you mean" said Maar. "My third week here, I was flying over Zold and even though a cloud had covered the hot springs, I could see the beetle green of its color in my mind as if it were clearly visible. And I said out loud 'Zold, you're quite the beauty.' Unfortunately, my radio was on and Jiips heard me."

Pyosz giggled. "You know, I realized while I was biking precariously to Pertama with Uli, I haven't gone beyond Koldok since I got here. One of my intentions this summer was to explore Pya as an adult. I need to start venturing out on the weekends, instead of work, work, work."

"I concur" said Maar emphatically. The song ended, and Maar stood to grab another chair for Qoj before returning to sit beside Pyosz again. Abbo leaned across the table to say "You're the talk of the Lofthall, cousin. There's a raging debate about how many points are awarded for a redcap sighting on a goat with a two-person lift in a wain." Pyosz and Maar erupted into laughter, and Abbo explained to the others.

"Whatever possessed you?" asked Qoj.

"Oh, public scrutiny is something you have to not take seriously" said Pyosz. "I learned that early. My next plan is to find a way to put my cap on an owl." Maar and Pank roared, and Tu said "Take a photograph this time, before it removes your kidneys for you."

When the band resumed, Tu said "My turn with the capriste" and extended her arm to Pyosz. Tu's frame was very much like that of her sib Halling, with the long bones that Pyosz herself had, but elegant and light. Pyosz hoped to do better with her cousin than she had with Maar. Tu seemed to sense her limitations immediately and moved them into the center of the dance floor, where elders and small children traveled at a slower pace. This plus Tu's decades of practice kept Pyosx from repeatedly crushing Tu's feet beneath her otos. Pyosz was again breathless at the end of the dance, mostly from strain, while Tu had not even a flush. As they returned to their chairs, Pyosz said "It's so crowded, I'm beginning to think the entire population is here." Tu replied "Folks on Pya never miss a dance. It's our main form of community gathering. Even the Owl People are here."

"The Owl People?" said Pyosz. "I thought that was some yarn Mill spun us when we were kids."

The older folks at the table sat out the next dance in order to talk with Pyosz about the Owl People. When Pya had first been explored, not every island had resident owls, though most did. In particular, the medium-sized island of Chwet, choked with a mixed forest of oak, beech, hickory, chestnut, and pine, seemed to have great numbers of owls.

There were two different owl species which the original colonists had apparently introduced as their form of shu control, one which preferred to live in rocky burrows and one which required large trees as a habitat. Any island which had a respectable forest would have the latter, and over time, these owls had become the massive creatures which struck terror into those back on Skene who heard the reports: Flat-faced birds with wing spans averaging eight feet and often up to 10 or 12 feet from tip to tip, a height of 3 feet, and talons like elongated razors. The rock-dwelling owls had wing spans under five feet, and were a buffy-grey instead of the dark brown plumage on the tree owls.

Despite the extreme efficacy of owls as shu-hunters, Skene had adamantly refused to allow this species a foothold on their own set of islands. So great was their fear, that only a single specimen was allowed to be kept by the botanist. It was aversion which determined this vote, but in practical terms, it also made sense: Katts on Skene prowled at night, and to an owl, a katt was as good a meal as shu. So were lambs, kids, chickens and other fowl. Those who immigrated to Pya learned to keep all small stocks and pets indoors once darkness fell. Skene was unwilling to make that change.

Early on, a set of three families from Bosco had migrated to Pya together. They had expertise with forestry and farming wild pigs, and they were offered their choice of the wooded islands as their home. After a stay in Pertama to get acclimated, they had surprised Api by asking to settle on Chwet.

Api explained to them that Chwet, like Pabo, had been set aside by Skene law as primarily inhabited by a now-native species, and therefore human development would be limited to activities which would not substantially threaten the habitat of the owls on Chwet or the turkeys on Pabo. This partial observance of environmental law, in place since the Troubles 500 years earlier, was being circumvented on Pabo by the decision to build a small community on the coast, adjacent to meadows avoided by turkeys (likely because of human proximity). A small group of wild turkeys were caught and "observed" for a couple of years, during which time they hatched many young who were declared by the people on Pabo to be "no longer wild" and therefore available for breeding and farming. Thus, early on Pya had earned a steady income from importing turkey meat to Skene, who had no environmental qualms about consuming vast quantities of the protected animal.

In the case of Chwet, Api said, there could only be cutting of trees which were clearly impeding the growth of other nearby trees, or which were already dead or dying. The wild pigs of the forests could be hunted and eaten, because Skene did not recognize the rights of wild pigs on Pya any more than they recognized the rights of wild pigs on Bosco in Skene. But hunting and consumption had to not threaten the ongoing numbers of pigs on Chwet. Further, there was no ferry to Chwet and none planned for the coming decade, because it was never going to be a high population or industry center. And, of course, Chwet was simply crawling with owls. Wouldn't the new immigrants prefer to settle on Mti or Nec, instead?

No, they said, they wanted to live in a wilderness and they rather liked the idea of the owls. They were dropped off with an allotment, their belongings, and a set of tools, plus the little metal cabins used by the first Skene arrivals on Pya, identical to Pyosz's on Saya. Oby returned after three days to check on them, and discovered they had begun building houses made of entire logs, not boards. They were observing the tree-cutting guidelines, and were employing an ingenious method of notching the logs at either end so they would stack without much gap. When Oby asked where they had come up with this technology, one of them produced a translation of ancient, pre-Skene texts written by Yoj.

It turned out, they had read Yoj's translations extensively, and were keen to reproduce life as it might have been on the planet before Skene.

One of them had a nasty gash in her leg from a wild boar attack, and said boar was roasting on a spit. Oby stayed to eat with them, discovering they also had located in one of Yoj's translations a means of leeching the tannins from ground acorn meal so it was edible. She said the acorn mush she had was appetizing and filling. They requested a few more basic items -- wire mesh to build pig-proof fences around their small settlement, tin roofing for their cabins, and red lenses to place over their flash so the light would not disturb nocturnal creatures. Owls, it was presumed.

Over the next year, they dug wells, set up solar panels for electricity, and fed themselves well from their tillage, a pen of chickens, and the allotment. One member of each family went to work as a forester on other islands, hitching rides to and from Chwet on the school sinner. Their children proved to be above-average students and voracious readers. On Market day, one individual from Chwet arrived with a load to barter. What little income they earned was often spent on ordering more books. Otherwise, they all stayed on their island. They accepted one radio for emergencies, which was used primarily to call in a comadrona as their numbers increased.

After a few years, one of the Chwet foresters working on Mti was part of a crew which unwittingly disturbed a tree whose trunk was the home of a large owl. The owl emerged, making an angry cry and flying around their heads. Most of the crew scattered in stark terror, but there was one who remained and served as witness to the Chwet woman holding up her arms and beginning to answer the owl in its own language. The owl settled down quickly, the Chwet woman led everyone away, and despite repeated questions, she refused to pass on what she might have said or how she had learned to speak owl. That was when those on Chwet began to be called the Owl People.

After ten years, a ferry to Chwet was constructed. Visitors were not treated badly but they weren't especially welcomed, either. Teenagers now grown to adulthood took jobs elsewhere on Pya long enough to stash a nest egg of eks and, occasionally, to find sweethearts who would move back to Chwet with them. New cabins were built, and rumor had it that the Owl People were extraordinarily good lovers.

At the next annual tasting and Vote, all of the residents of Chwet showed up, listening to arguments on issues, asking intelligent questions, and relishing the food at the tasting. Two of them approached the botanist and strongly requested that the following year, she regenerate an ancient species called squirrels. The Owl People said squirrels were endemic to forest environments, made a tasty stew, and had highly desirable pelts.

Intrigued, the botanist complied with their request. Six squirrels were brought into being and allowed to breed in number sufficient to provide meat for the tasting on both Skene and Pya. Skins were cured and on display. Everyone on both locations agreed the meat was all right, though not plentiful given the animal's small size. The botanist, however, was alarmed by the rapid reproductive capacity of squirrels and their utter lack of domestication: Finding them for slaughter would mean endless hunting through woods with snares and traps. Some members of the population found them a little too much like small katts to view them as food. The decision was near unanimous to leave squirrels out of Skene and Pya's animal roster.

Six squirrels remained alive at the Pya ejida. While the botanist was trying to decide what to do with them, two nights after the Vote a heretofore unnoticed break appeared in the enclosure which held the squirrels, and they escaped. A panicked search was made throughout wooded areas on Dvareka, and Skene demanded a thorough search of all crates and imports from Pya. The squirrels were never found. That is, until the pilot flying the school sinner noticed two long-tailed red-furred creatures racing up and down a tree trunk near the jichang on Chwet. Api and Mill talked it over, and finally decided if the Owl People wanted squirrels badly enough to steal them, they could have them. There was no guarantee they could now be removed from the forests on Chwet, anyhow, and spread from the island to the rest of Pya was unlikely.

Two years later, Chwet children were seen coming to school wearing coats and hats of luxurious dark red fur. Again, no action was taken. Mill said quietly to Oby that she bet owls liked the taste of squirrel as much as the Owl People did.

At last year's Vote, the contingent from Chwet had another request, this time for return of a herbivore called deer who lived primarily in forests, again reportedly had excellent-flavored flesh and large skins which made superior leather. The botanist had researched this organism extensively and had decided they would appear on the menu and in pens at the Midwinter tasting. Api said "This time we'll keep a close guard on them."

Pank said with a grin "You'll never hear the Owl People at night, though; they fly in on massive silent wings."

During lulls in the music, those at the table had lowered their voices so as not to be overhead. Pyosz now whispered "So they're here, at this dance? They've started coming to dances?"

"All but the infirm" said Briel. "And no, I'm not going to point them out to you, that would be extremely rude."


© 2009 Maggie Jochld.

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Summary only...

PYA: CHAPTER FIFTEEN

To begin reading this sci-fi novel or for background information, go to my Chapter One post here. To read about the background of the first novel, read my post here, which will also direct you to appendices.

For more detailed information, posted elsewhere on this blog are:

Pya Dictionary from Skenish to English (complete up to present chapter), with some cultural notes included
Pya Cast of Characters (complete up to present chapter)
Map of Pya with Description of Each Island
Map of Skene (but not Pya)
Map of Saya Island and Environs When Pyosz First Arrived
Skene Character Lineage at Start of Pya Novel
Skene, Chapter One (With Cultural Notes in Links)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On San morning, Pyosz took a quart jar of honey and comb each to Kolm, Gitta, and Taamsas, thanking them for all their help. Her delivery of dried fruit, fresh fruit, beeswax and honey to the allotment center managed to wipe the condescending look off the face of the clerk there. She had to search quite a while for the proper forms Pyosz needed to sign, acknowledging receipt of her production. Pyosz left with more bags of flour and grains, pectin, another 500 count of plastic bags used to package her goods for allotment, and various perishables like bacon. She decided she always wanted to have bacon in her coldbox.

It was misting lightly when she got back to Saya, a warm rain, not good for moving soil but she figured she could pick fruit in it. She hauled her wain and the empty supers back to the western end, restored the hives to a clean condition, and picked several bushels more of everything she'd been processing plus a good load of early apples and plums. She stopped to feed plums to goats, testing herself to see if she knew the name of every one except the buckling kids, which Vants had advised her to never name.


She started her sponge and between risings processed fruit. For the first time, she pulled from her cupboard the small music disk player she'd brought and popped in one of the disks Yoj had assembled for her. It helped ameliorate the sense of endless repetition and a drenched world beyond the eaves of her kitchen.

She made asparagus, a frisia salad, and of course bacon for her lunch. She noticed the txikadiis were fearlessly coming under the kitchen canopy, hopping between the rafters and darting down for either morsels of fruit cast-off or insects, she wasn't sure which -- they moved so fast, she could hardly follow them with her eye. She'd noticed them in the goat barn, too, and thought they must have nests in there, a safer habitat for helpless babies than out in the trees. The wonder is that any of the songbirds survived, given the triple threat of owls, shu, and katts.

She was overdue for a load of laundry; a small part of her mind was trying to decide what to wear for her dinner with Uli. But the drying room was full of fruit and the outside line was pointless in this weather. She did a load and then hung it on wire strung across the tool room, which was far larger than she actually needed. In fact she thought, walking to the outside wall of the tool room, I could steal this space for shelves to store preserves and bins to store root crops in the autumn. It wasn't until she was back at the table, drawing a design and calculating lumber, that she remembered she wouldn't be here in the autumn. Well, I can build it for whoever comes after me she thought, and continued.

Once the pies were cooling and her bread was baking, she sloshed to the recycling pile and returned with two empty olive oil cans and more baling wire. Trying to consciously channel Pank, she turned one can sideways and cut out the sides, leaving a 2 inch well at the bottom and posts at the four corners. She pressed the metal back with pliers until all edges were safe for contact. From the sides of the second can, she fashioned a steep roof and attached it to the little house structure of the first can. She punched two holes through the bottom well and slid peeled twigs through them tightly, making perches for tiny feet.

She'd never heard of anyone making a feeder for songbirds, and she wasn't sure what they'd eat, but she wanted a better look at them. She mixed barley, millet, rice, and cracked corn from the chicken food bin. There was a tree to the right of the kitchen, in good line of sight, and she used her orchard ladder to hang it from a long branch, filling it with her grain mixture at the very end.

She grabbed her camera and binoculars, and sat down at her table to wait. It took less than five minutes, which astounded her. They must be watching every move I make she thought. The txikadiis arrived first, and she used the small zoom on her emma's camera to get a creditable close-up of their excited flickers from side to side of the feeder. She was looking through the binoculars when the next explorer arrived, and she nearly fell off her chair as a large grey and blue bird with a head crest like pilots used to wear landed on one perch with such force, the feeder began swinging and some grain fell onto the wet ground. Txikadiis scattered to go after the spilled grain, and the blue behemoth issued a harsh call that Pyosz realized she'd been hearing all day, not knowing what bird it was. She opened Yoj's guide and discovered it was called, easily enough, a jae. She got a startling photo of it. She then got her paintbox and began trying to capture its swagger. She thought of it as a new pilot, loud and filling the space around it with insecurity.

She almost forgot about her bread, pulling it out just in time. She arranged it in rows to cool, cutting open one of the rosemary rolls and slathering it with butter to nibble while she continued painting. When she was done, she pinned it to her larder door and went to the barn where she had stashed her gallon jugs of fruit juice in a cool, dark corner of the toolroom. She strained the juice into clean jugs, adding a half cup of white vinegar to each jug in hopes of jump-starting the process which would lead to her own fruit vinegars. On an impulse, she spread the fruity mast she'd strained out, as well as cores and peelings from fruit processing, onto a flat rock she could see from her table. Within minutes, birds were there as well, squabbling over the tidbits.

She returned to the kitchen to assemble identical packages for the two Manages of her family in Skene, sending them each honey, dried fruit, nut meal, and a 5 lb. wheel of goat cheese. She was about to head to the kissing gate to call in goats when Maar appeared on the path from the jichang: She hadn't heard any aircraft because of the music.

"Hey, what group is that playing?" asked Maar, setting down a cloth-covered bowl with icy frost on its undersurface.

"You won't know them, it's a band called the Kinusanders from 40 years ago" said Pyosz. She turned down the volume and said "You've saved me an after dark trip to the Lofthall, I have packages and mail for Skene."

"Well, I needed to talk with you" said Maar seriously. "And, by good fortune, the fish harvest today included a heavy run of kahe." She pulled back the cloth over the bowl. A second bowl, nestled on ice in the larger bowl, was filled to the brim with fresh golden-orange roe.

"Is that ehr?" breathed Pyosz, leaning over for a sniff. "I haven't had ehr in over a year!"

"I'm counting on you knowing some spectacular way of eating it" said Maar. "Besides just burying my face in it and lapping away." The minute the sentence was out of her mouth, she began turning red.

Pyosz laughed. "I have to go milk. Listen, here's your assignment to help with dinner. First, slice half that loaf of black bread into slices as thin as you can make them, and put them to toast in the oven at the lowest setting, so it mostly gets crisp, not brown. Then pull out the bowl of rice from the coldbox so it comes to room temperature. Go the tillage and grab three shallots, two cucumbers, and two carrots. Grate the carrots on the rasp, cut the cukes and shallots into paper-thin slices, and I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I'll feed the katts and chickens, too" offered Maar.

When Pyosz got back to the kitchen, Maar had made a pitcher of cold tea with lemon slices, set the table with two plates, and all the other tasks were completed. Pyosz washed her hands and said "Cut the toast into thirds." She began adding vinegar and spices to the sticky rice, shaping it into small ovals on a platter. "Now we feast" said Pyosz.

They piled the ehr alternately onto rice balls or toast, topped with a teaspoon of the raw vegetables and a drop of aged vinegar plus a twist of pepper. There was almost no talking until the ehr bowl was empty. Maar leaned back and pulled up her shati, patting her rounded belly to say "I've starting calling this my Pyosz pot."

"You've got a good palate" remarked Pyosz. "You never learned to cook?"

"Not in my Manage" said Maar, her grin fading a little. "But I've always wanted to learn, and it would stop me feeling like I'm not doing my share when I come to see you, if you'd care to teach me."

"Trust me, you showing up with a bowl of chilled ehr is more than your share" said Pyosz. "But yes, I'd love to teach you. We could have pie, or, I have a cold melon, Gitta saved me one from the first arrivals today."

"Melon" said Maar, getting up to retrieve it. "No, let me, I can handle cutting open a melon. By the way, that's a very good painting of a jae there."

"You know the name" said Pyosz.

"You pick it up here, after a while."

Pyosz looked at the single uneaten slice of dry toast and decided to crumble it for the birds in the morning. "You said you needed to talk with me. Is this about Thleen?"

"Uh...no." Maar sat down with a bowl of melon slices. Pyosz took one on her plate and felt uneasy at Maar's expression.

"You seem to have this image of that includes me not being a completely honest person. Which, I have to say, really bothers me, Pyosz, because the opposite is true. I hope to change your mind about that. But, to get to the point today: Since you're turning out to be the kind of person who'd rather bring things up than let them go unspoken -- which is different from almost everybody else I know -- well, I need to tell you something you'll find out eventually anyhow. I figure you'd rather hear it from me."

Pyosz suddenly wished she hadn't had that last serving of ehr. "Go ahead."

"Uli -- she and I had an affair. It was just an affair on my part, but she was unhappy with how it ended, and you may hear negative things about me from her" said Maar.

Well, of course. And that explains Abbo's nasty comment about Uli moving fast. Pyosz licked her dry lips and said "When?"

"My first year on Pya. It lasted less than a month. I thought I was clear from the outset about my availability, that it was -- momentary pleasure. And honestly, Pyosz, I think I was clear. I think Uli decided to change her version of it after she couldn't -- I think she liked the chase. A lot more than she liked me."

I don't want to hear this thought Pyosz. She met Maar's brown eyes and said "You do this a lot, then? Have affairs for 'momentary pleasure'?"

Maar's face stiffened. "Not a lot. I've had a few. And I never conceal what my status is. Not once I -- sense the need for disclosure."

"And what about Abbo? Does she have affairs, as you call it? For that matter, has she slept with Uli, too?" Pyosz could hear the anger in her voice and didn't quite know where it was coming from.

"I don't think I should talk to you about Abbo. You two clearly have a canker with each other" said Maar.

"But you think it's fine to come poison me against Uli. No doubt because you've heard we have a date tomorrow night" Pyosz spat out. From the dismayed surprise on Maar's face, it seems she hadn't known about the date. Well, good, you know now.

"Maar, I think I need to -- cool off around this. It would be better if we didn't talk right now." Pyosz used cold formality as a fence against her irrational anger.

Maar stood swiftly, her melon untouched. "All right. Thanks for dinner, as always. Are these the only two packages you have for Skene?"

"I have letters, too" said Pyosz, getting them from the cupboard. "This one is for Thleen, and it's breakable, so please don't crush it." Maar's eyes went to the decoration on the envelope, her affronted expression briefly showing a glimpse of heartache.

"I'll walk you to the jichang" said Pyosz, getting her flash.

"You don't have to do that -- " began Maar.

"I'm your owl buddy, that hasn't changed" said Pyosz, reminding herself as much as Maar. They walked single file down the trail in silence. At her lighter, Maar climbed in without offering a hug. Pyosz said "Morrie vaseo."

"Thanks" said Maar stiffly. Pyosz stepped back as the hatch swung shut. She stood in the dark for several minutes, until she saw the lighter land at the Lofthall, two blue lights at the end of each wing dropping down behind the warehouse. She was doing her best to keep her mind from creating a picture of Maar and Uli together. She heard a tiny sound from the rocks of the cliff nearby, and that spurred her into returning to her kitchen, leaving shu to her owl.

She put away the melon and did the dishes, setting aside the two bowls Maar had brought for the ehr. She dared not go to bed yet, not with the turmoil inside her ready to drip into her dreams. She pulled out Vants' letter and reread it. Vants was a good writer, always full of ideas and quotes from whatever books she was currently digesting, but her last letter was crammed with what Pyosz thought of as "goat talk", and she found it even more fascinating as a result. She took some notes in her logbook, got her reference books from the cabin and created a year-long schedule for the duties of a capriste on Saya. By the time she was done, she was exhausted. Even so, when she went to bed, she felt despair well inside her heart again. She got one of the books Taamsas had returned, an adventure based on imaginary notions of what life had been like on the original colonist's home planet, and read herself to sleep.

She had a headache when she woke up. The air outside was still and unusually warm for that time of morning. A storm on its way she thought. She hoped it didn't make trouble for the huolon on its way to Skene; that was as much as she'd allow herself to think about Maar.

Before leaving for Koldok, she looked through her clothes cupboard. She could wear her silks, but that would be clearly signaling it was a special occasion. She didn't want what Maar had said about Uli to influence her. She compromised by pulling out her nicest linen shati and a pair of nadraj, hanging them to remove wrinkles.

She went to the allotment center to get soil testing kits and was referred to the ejida in Pertama. Instead, she went to the mercantile where Taamsas had them on shelves near the door. She had more labels printed at Naki's, then hurried back to Saya, not wanting to run into Uli early.

She cut up apples to make applesauce, plums and cherries to make jam, and peaches to can in halves. She boiled canning jars and took a photo of a black bird with red wings checking out her toast crumbs on the flat rock. At 9:00, she called her emma.

"I was hoping to hear from you soon" said Prl. "How are you doing?"

"I'm busy, and that's good. But...I'm troubled. Emma, I think I have residue from Sey's leaving that I've not touched" said Pyosz.

Prl sat down at her kitchen table. "Tell me what you mean."

Pyosz rambled on, and after ten minutes Prl still had no clear idea of what was bothering her child. "Anyhow" Pyosz finally said, "It's good to hear your voice. Mail and packages are on your way."

"I have a package ready for you, too" said Prl.

"Oh, emma, don't go overboard" said Pyosz.

"It's not overboard" hedged Prl.

"Actually, emma, there is something from Skene I could use, if you can send it. You know the kind of lightweight ronyang rocks that people put in their hearths to hold heat? Pank said they're perfect for lining the bottom of an outdoor grill. They don't have them on Pya, do you think you could locate them there?"

"I know where to ask" said Prl. "You have an outdoor grill?"

"I wrote you about it" said Pyosz, telling her the story. "Oh, the storm just arrived. I don't know if I should leave the goats out in it -- do goats ever get hit by lightning?"

"I can't answer that one, darling. But people do, be careful" said Prl.

"My first batch of jam should be done right about now, I need to go pull them off the stove. I'll call again soon, emma. Thank you for staying up with me."

Prl made a note on the kitchen pad reading "Ronyang upset goats lightning?" which mystified her apprentice in the morning.

After setting out a half-dozen jars on the counter to cool and putting another batch into the pressure cooker, Pyosz donned her burzaka and walked to the kissing gate. The rain was blowing in sheets across the width of Saya. Kids were huddled near their emmas, but most of the does were grazing without apparent concern. She stopped by the barn to check on the current racks of drying fruit. She picked up her two milking stools, one of which was lopsided from loose joints, and decided to repair them. First she sanded them well. She stabilized all the wobbly places with wood glue, and, grinning to herself, painted them both wain orange, leaving them to dry on top of the feed box.

She put on music again as she made a quick lunch, and spent her afternoon setting row after row of jewel-bright jam on her larder shelves. No birds came to her feeder, which was blowing sideways in the wind, but she spread a handful of her grain mix on top of the coldbox and the txikadiis appeared, flitting down to grab a bite and retreating to the rafters. Ember and Curds sat on chairs, watching them raptly. Every now and then Curds made a chittering sound in her throat. Pyosz said "Compensation for the threat of owls, eh? Pya is a whole other place."

She gave up on the idea of washing her hair, but stripped and took a quick shower, running out of hot water before she was done. She went into her cabin to dry and huddled under her blankets for half an hour to warm herself again. She brought in the goats, wet and fragrant (she said to herself nicely), for milking and an extra handful of grain apiece on this weather-smote day. She dressed in her cabin with katts watching her curiously, and gave up on the idea of cleaning her otos. The rain had slackened somewhat by the time she started across to Koldok on her ferry.

Uli was waiting at the wharf with a pair of the thick-tired municipal bicycles found in every town on Dvareka. Most of the roads on Dvareka were paved at least with gravel, despite how hard it was to come by rock of any sort for construction purposes. A public bus, powered by solar batteries, ran every hour between all the main towns, but this vehicle was small and the back half was given over for cargo, including farm stock. For quick transit between towns, folks grabbed a bicycle from a rack and took off. On Sju afternoon, the bus driver went from town to town hauling bikes to make sure there was a viable number available come the start of the work week.

Pyosz had learned to ride bicycles on Pya as a child, but not well, and she'd spent no time on them as an adult. "Oh, dear" she said, laughing, "I'm liable to fall off. Or worse, crash into somebody."

"We'll go slow" promised Uli. "The buses will be crammed, and it looks like the storm has blown itself out." Uli had clips to tuck up the hems of their burzakas, keeping them from getting caught in the spokes. After a start that sent one teenager in Koldok leaping over a tillage fence to escape Pyosz's trajectory, they wove onto the main east-west thoroughfare, Uli patiently calling encouragement over her shoulder.

When a bus appeared coming from the opposite direction, Pyosz decided to leave the road altogether. She didn't intend to embrace a row of corn, but she and Uli laughed it off and resumed once the bus was past. Once in Pertama, they walked their bikes to the downtown area, where the restaurant Uli had chosen showed a gilt sign in the window and had no counter, only tables.

They hung their burzakas in a cloakroom, and Pyosz saw that Uli was wearing silks. Pyosz felt a flicker of relief that she had not. At the table, covered with a thick red tablecloth, a waiter offered them wine as well as other choices to drink. Uli ordered wine, while Pyosz asked for lemon-water.

The introductory salad was very good, and the bread all right, though no one's bread outside her abbas' Manage was up to Pyosz's standards. They swapped stories about University days and people they knew in common until the main course arrived, lobster for Uli, urchin for Pyosz because cracking lobster shells was a messy proposition.

Pyosz had mentioned sharing a room her first year at University with Ngall. Uli replied she'd been in the same grade as Ngall at Pya School and had carried a small crush on her when she was 14 or so.

"She's wonderful" agreed Pyosz.

"And Abbo, are you having a chance to enjoy her now, too?" asked Uli.

"Ah...Abbo and I have never been cut from the same weft" said Pyosz, with a rueful smile.

"But you're already on friendly terms with Maar?" continued Uli.

"Yes" said Pyosz, wondering where Uli would take this. When Uli busied herself with extracting claw meat with a pick, Pyosz said "Maar told me you and she had once been involved."

"She did, did she?" asked Uli with a quizzical smile. "How, I wonder, did that topic arise?"

"We cover a lot of territory, me and Maar" said Pyosz, suddenly remembering how good she'd been at this kind of incomplete conversational exchange when she had been with Sey but now finding it a little tiresome.

"If I presume, please let me know, but are you and Maar -- dating?" asked Uli.

That's a little more like it thought Pyosz. "No, we are not" she said crisply. "I'm not dating anybody. I'm less than one month out of a two-year relationship that ended badly, and what I'm doing in Saya leaves me time only for friends."

Uli's smile never slipped. "Then I hope to be among them" she said easily.

"I hope so, too" replied Pyosz. She felt a definite relief at her declaration, and began to enjoy herself without reservation. She couldn't tell any difference in Uli's attitude toward her after that -- it was interesting how Uli's demeanor was actually not nearly as transparent as Maar's, despite Maar's efforts at poise and politeness. However, it didn't matter. We're two new friends out for a lovely meal at the end of a hard week she thought. She didn't offer to pay for Uli's meal and Uli didn't offer, either. They rode around downtown afterward, Uli pointing out places Pyosz might like to shop or visit. The streetlights here were shaped like tree trunks, and the reflection from wet paving was beautiful.

Traffic was less on the way back to Koldok, and Pyosz already more practiced at biking. She declined a final cup of tea at the cafe, saying "Goats at dawn" and agreeing to look for Uli the following morning at Market Day. When she got home, she drew a picture of her crashing into the cornfield at the bottom of a sheet that she intended as a new letter for Thleen. She read more in her adventure story and went to sleep easily.

After dropping off her milk and bread, she went directly to Briel and Dodd's Manage, and they set out for Market together. Dodd was exuberant because their daughter Qoj had called the night before to say she had a few days off and planned to come home on a brief visit. "She'll be flying back with Maar and Abbo for Shmonah!" she said excitedly. Dodd's love for her children matched her devotion to Briel, bottomless.

"I hope she brings one of her small telescopes" said Pyosz. "I'll come back to Koldok after milking if we have a clear night to do some star-gazing."

They joined up with Uli and her emmas, as well as Ollow, Oby, and Lowitt, Oby's sibu. Pyosz bartered pints of honey and jam for double-wide thick writing paper, a dozen limes, waterproof cushions for two of her kitchen chairs, and a large bunch of escarole. She and Uli talked easily, mostly about the intersection of math and geography. Before she left for Saya, she returned to Gitta's and bought a lamb carcass, determined to make something special for Qoj's visit. She also went to Naki's and found a large record book which was long enough to accept one of the sheets of her new paper folded in half.

At home, she refilled her bird feeder, then took her wain to the orchard for another haul of fruit. After peeling and pitting, she set jam in pots to simmer while canning jars boiled. In between stirring, she began to draft a chart on her new paper showing the name, age, lineage, offspring, and average milk yield of each of her does, leaving room at the bottom for future doelings. She glued this into the back of her new record book and began transferring the information from Ferk's logbook into the new one. She created tabs to divide the book into sections: Goats, Honey, Orchard, and Woods. She got her colored pencils and illustrated the headings of each section with whimsical drawings.

She harvested mint from the tillage and started the process for making mint jelly. She took photos of new birds who showed up to pick through her fruit leavings and made a quick vegetable soup for dinner. After milking, she put more music on as she finished her jam-making and continued to make a thoroughly organized logbook.

Shortly after 7:00, she turned off her music and dialed the jichang office on Chloddia. After four rings, an unfamiliar voice said "Hello? We're not quite open yet."

"I'm sorry for the hour, I'm calling from Pya" she said. "By any chance, is Sinner Maar there?"

"Yeah, she's -- no, she's on her way back in, hang on" said the voice. There was a clank, and after a long minute, Maar's voice said "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Pyosz. Everything's okay, don't panic, I was simply wanting to talk with you a bit" said Pyosz.

"That would be all right" said Maar diffidently. "What's up?"

"I do very much appreciate you coming to tell me about you and Uli" said Pyosz. "I can't quite explain or defend my reaction, I'm like a volcano that can't decide whether to erupt or not, seems like, but after time to think about it, I want to thank you for your honesty."

"Well" said Maar. "That's good news." Her voice was guarded, and Pyosz thought Oh, no, I've jerked her around once too often. Maar continued "I can't tie up the line here too long, I should warn you."

"Oh, I get it, you've got someone sitting right there listening to every word, is that it?" said Pyosz.

"That's the picture" said Maar, with a grin Pyosz could now hear.

"How's Thleen?" asked Pyosz, her concern evaporated.

"I have to tell you, that photo frame is a work of art. She's over the moons, and it made me cry. Which, you know, drove her a little nuts until she finally understood it was a good kind of crying, but now she likes it even more because it had that affect on me" said Maar, her voice completely familiar again. "Plus, she's counting on more episodes in the Bunteen Thleen chronicle."

"All right, I'll work on it" said Pyosz. "Mostly, I just wanted you not to have to wait until Shmonah to know I'd come to my senses. Oh, and my cousin Qoj is coming back with you, did you know?"

"Yeah, Abbo told me, that's great" said Maar. She paused and said "How was your date?" Pyosz could still hear the grin.

"It wasn't a date, and I made that very plain to her" said Pyosz. "I'm not dating, not any time soon. And, to answer your question, we had a wonderful time. I rode a bicycle and ate urchin and wore my blue-striped shati, which you've not seen but it's the color of Bohaira Lagoon."

"Kudos for you" said Maar, the grin still in her voice. "Listen, they need the radio, but I have a quick question. I may not have a kitchen but I'm a grown-up, I intend to do my share in the Shmonah potluck. What else could I bring from Skene, that doesn't require cooking?"

"Oh, let me think. Well, it isn't my cup of tea, but you'd thrill Tu and Pank if you got some baicang from Seda" said Pyosz. Baicang was the leftover pupae from silkwork larvae after the silk had been harvested. It was deep-fried, sprinkled with spices, and sold in bags as a crunchy delicacy.

"I've never had it, what's it like?" asked Maar.

"About what you'd expect. But they adore it" said Pyosz.

"I love watching them chow down. Okay, thanks. Especially for calling" said Maar.

"Carynn bye" said Pyosz. After she clicked off, she noted that Abbo had never brought anything to family potlucks, on Pya or Skene. She turned her music back on and kept working on her logbook as part of her mind concocted a new story about Bunteen Thleen.



© 2009 Maggie Jochild.

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Summary only...

PYA: CHAPTER FOURTEEN

To begin reading this sci-fi novel or for background information, go to my Chapter One post here. To read about the background of the first novel, read my post here, which will also direct you to appendices.

For more detailed information, posted elsewhere on this blog are:

Pya Dictionary from Skenish to English (complete up to present chapter), with some cultural notes included
Pya Cast of Characters (complete up to present chapter)
Map of Pya with Description of Each Island
Map of Skene (but not Pya)
Map of Saya Island and Environs When Pyosz First Arrived
Skene Character Lineage at Start of Pya Novel
Skene, Chapter One (With Cultural Notes in Links)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

On Moja morning, Pyosz was slightly sore from a combination of the carpentry and swimming. Hauling three times her usual load of milk pushed her endurance but nothing like what she remembered from her first few days, and she sweated it off. She dropped off bread and pies, took her photos to be developed, and then, very conscious of the weight in her carryall, went into the Lofthall office. Mill was talking with a factory owner and Pyosz signaled to her, going to the canteen for a cup of tea and whatever cake they might have ready.

She was standing in the hall when Mill came looking for her. "I need to talk with you privately" said Pyosz.

"Jiips just went on a break, we can be alone in the office but I'll have to answer pilot radio" said Mill.


Pyosz let Mill get seated before she removed the moneybag from her carryall and said "My abbas -- your emmas -- have make a colossal cock-up and I need some help fixing it."

Mill looked guarded, and Pyosz knew instantly Abbo had told her about the money. She lies like she breathes thought Pyosz.

"I don't want their assistance" said Pyosz. "I didn't request it, and I don't need it, I'm earning income plus I have excellent barter, thanks to you and Saya. I'm going to return this to them."

Mill interrupted to say "Have you talked with them?"

"Not yet. I will when I go back to Saya. If they claim this is my inheritance in advance, well, they can either give everybody their share or hold this until it's actually time to inherit" said Pya. "In the meantime, it's not safe for me to have this on Saya. I'm requesting you lock this in the Lofthall vault until I go back to Skene and can deliver it personally."

Mill leaned back in her chair. "I'll need to know what's in the bag to write you a receipt."

"I don't want to break the seals. Can't you just fill out the form 'contents unknown' and let me absorb the risk? Unless you think your fault isn't secure" said Pyosz.

"No, it's secure, only Oby, Api and I have a key. But you'll have to trust us with what may be a fortune" said Mill.

"I trust you" said Pyosz instantly. Mill looked her in the eyes for a long moment. "Does your emma know about this?" asked Mill.

"I don't know. I'll be asking her. I'm furious about it, s'bemma. It's not right, what they've done."

Mill opened a drawer and pulled out a receipt book. She slid her fountain pen from inside her guibba and began writing. "If you do need cash, in an emergency, you can come retrieve this, of course" said Mill.

"I'd rather take an advance on my salary, if it comes to that" said Pyosz. She signed the receipt and handed the bag to Mill. "Thank you for your discretion."

Mill gave Pyosz her copy and began to say "I'm honored -- " but the radio buzzed and Maar's voice said "The rice load here on Pirinc wasn't crated yet, Jiips, I'm going to be delayed at least 10 minutes."

"I'll see you later" whispered Pyosz and left. The door to the hall had been left partly open, and as she pushed it all the way open, it thumped against someone standing there, eavesdropping. Pyosz poked her head around the door and said in a venomous undertone to Abbo "You can now inform all your lowlife friends that the money is no longer on Saya, and if anyone shows up I'll be slicing off fingers and toes to feed to the owl." She smacked the door again harder against Abbo and steamed out to her cart.

It began raining before she reached Saya. She didn't have her burzaka but she didn't care, she put away the cans first and made tea in her new pot before sitting down at her table to call her abbas.

Halling answered. "Hey, Pyosz!" she said happily. "Did you get a bunch of packages yesterday?"

"I did, abba, and the lamp is exactly what I needed, and the binoculars are almost too precious to use. Are Yoj and Bux there?"

"No, I'm on my lonesome, but I have lots of time to talk" said Halling.

"I don't, this is a private frequency and I'm also expecting a delivery this morning. So I'll have to start with you. Abba, I cannot imagine what you were thinking, sending me that moneybag, but it's caused a world of trouble and I'm very upset with you. Was it partly your idea?"

Halling's voice was tragic. "Well, yes. Yoj and I put it together, because of something Qala said. We haven't told Bux yet, we were going to tonight..."

That was interesting. She wondered if they had deliberately kept it from Bux.

"Sending it by Abbo, what a monumentally stupid thing to do. She's deeply offended at you throwing money my way, when I'm technically fully employed, and thinks it is because I cried on your shoulders. She said you only gave her 3 eks when she graduated flight school and, well, I haven't opened the bag, it's currently in the Lofthall safe until I can return it to you because I haven't earned it and also, frankly, it's enough for someone to think about sneaking out here and killing me for. And you better bet Abbo has spilled the beans, she's about as reliable as a shu, abba, don't you know that by now?" It was hard for Pyosz to yell at Halling, but she couldn't stop herself.

"I guess we didn't -- wait a minute, I personally gave Abbo two platinum eks, that's 4, and I know Bux and Yoj did the same -- " protested Halling.

"So she lied about that too, big surprise. It's baffling to me, abba, that someone who could know we well enough to send the rest of those things in the crates could think I am so helpless that I needed to be showered with money, if that's your perception of me I don't quite know what to do" said Pyosz, refusing to let her anger slip into tears.

"It's not my perception of you, it's just that you're spending all your own money on fixing up a place you'll be living in one season, it's not fair -- " Halling couldn't finish her sentences with Pyosz in her current state.

"Like you haven't spent an untold amount over the years on the Lofthall, I know you cut your own salary, and abba Yoj gave away her family's Manage and island for the good of all Skene. Well, Saya is just as important to all Skene, and it's my responsibility now, and I'm not stupid, abba, I know what I'm doing, is this because Sey hoodwinked me and you think I'm just permanently gullible? Because I'm NOT, abba, I'm not letting anybody mess with me at the moment, you have no idea."

Halling jumped in when Pyosz paused for breath. "Clearly we've made a big mistake, Pyosz, I'll call Mill -- "

"Don't you dare call Mill, it's not her problem, it's yours and if you call anybody you should call Abbo, find out what crawled up her ass to die. It's a good thing I love you all so very much, because of course we'll talk this out and fix it, but right at the moment -- " The radio sent into static.

Lev. She stared at the radio, trying to decide if she should call back. She'd just want to yell some more, and she'd gotten her point across. Let them talk it over first she decided. Instead, she pushed the buttons for the Genist Manage, again selecting a private frequency.

"Emma? We've got 15 minutes, and I'll start by telling you all your gifts are spectacular, I slept in a nest of pillows, well, me and Ember did" said Pyosz.

"I'm so happy" said Prl. "We're all still swapping around your letters -- "

Pyosz cut her off. "Emma, I need to know if you were in on the sending me money idea."

"Money? What money?"

Pyosz couldn't tell if Prl was dissembling. She told Prl what had happened. "I just called abba Halling and unloaded on her, and you need to be honest with me if you knew about what they were doing" said Pyosz.

"Honestly, honey, I didn't. I can't claim to not make huge mistakes with you, but even I recognize that would be a bad idea, and I'm inordinately relieved to be able to not get blamed for this one" said Prl. "How much money was it?"

"I don't know, I didn't break the seals. I stashed it in the Lofthall safe, because of course Abbo isn't going to keep quiet about it. I'm afraid Qala may have been involved, is she there?"

"She's next door, Pyosz, I can have her call you later."

"Tell her to go talk with Halling, I have an extremely long day ahead of me, harvesting honey among other things. At least I had a great day off yesterday, despite the tension with Maar. Emma, I know now why you reacted to her name the way you did -- " began Pyosz.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry, that was unprofessional of me" apologized Prl.

"Unprofessional? What are you talking about?" When there was a silence, Pyosz said "Were you reacting because of something you'd heard in your capacity as Genist?"

"I'm afraid so, that's why I feel badly" said Prl.

Lev, lev, lev, what was going to roll out from under the bed next?

"Then you're right, emma, it was a crappy thing to do. Now I'm wildly curious. Must be about her emmas, because I'm pretty certain Maar hasn't consulted you -- oh, can't you give me any kind of scrap?" pleaded Pyosz, something she had never done. Prl was shocked. And tempted.

"I suppose...it's public record, in her school report. Her first grade leraar characterized her as 'brilliant but wretched'" said Prl. "That's all I can tell you."

"Not news" said Pyosz. And not what I wanted to hear she thought. "All right, emma, before we get cut off, I'll try to call the abbas tonight but I can't promise, make sure they know I'm not shunning them, it's just that kind of day, all right? And thank you for not sending me money."

"As you pointed out, you're not going to starve" said Prl. "Another time, let's talk about the whole Abbo mess."

Let's not thought Pyosz. But she heard a sinner overhead and said "There's my extractor delivery, I have to go, emma."

She pulled her gloves from her waistband and put them on as she walked to the jichang, saying under her breath "Not Abbo or Maar, any pilot but them." Sure enough, it was Maar who crawled from the hatch, but Pyosz guessed it was her before then by the deft landing of the crate containing her honey equipment.

Maar smiled at her, not quite as openly as she once had, and said "I ate that brownie in my bunk last night when nobody was looking. You make those for sale at Gitta's, you'll clean up. Not that you aren't already the talk of the town."

"Thanks" said Pyosz, sliding the catch-bolt from the crate. "Oops, I forgot my wain, be right back."

They loaded the extractor and hot knife in the wain and rumbled it to the barn, where Pyosz would have to work because of the rain. Not ideal, she didn't want stray bees pestering her goats or trying to get into the milk, but it was better than attracting them to her kitchen area. She set up the extractor over a tarp, Maar sticking around to help.

"You want a snack?" asked Pyosz.

"What you got?" countered Maar.

"Um, various leftovers. And I held back a rhubarb pie from Gitta's" said Pyosz.

"I have a break, I could eat lunch here and pay you by helping you bring honey from the other end" offered Maar.

"All right. But I have to warn you, I'm in a sparky mood" said Pyosz as they walked to the kitchen.

That got Maar's attention. "Sparky how?"

"I just reamed out my abba, Halling I mean, and I'm still simmering in some acid about that stunt they pulled" said Pyosz. She better not pretend like she doesn't know what I'm talking about.

"What stunt?" asked Maar, slicing bread on the new cutting board.

"Oh, Maar" sighed Pyosz in exasperation. "I'm sure Abbo told you, she probably never shut up about it on the flight home. That special package she had to deliver?"

Maar looked at her flatly. "If you're going to accuse me of lying again, you need to be more direct. I don't know what was in whatever she had to give you in private, she was very furtive about it."

Pyosz told her, watching her face intently to catch her in deceit. But she became convinced Abbo had not, in fact, told Maar about it. I don't understand these two she thought.

"Thunder me down" whistled Maar. "I thought they were more sensible than that, your abbas. And I can just imagine Abbo's reaction. Please don't tell her I know, I'd rather not have to listen to her about it."

"They almost always are more sensible" said Pyosz, not sure how she felt about keeping a secret for Maar from Abbo. A guilty pleasure. She was making chicken salad with the last of her uncurried stewed meat, as Maar sliced carrots into a bed of spinach. Maar suddenly giggled, and Pyosz said "What?"

"I'm just trying to picture you reaming out, as you put it, the Sheng Zhang" said Maar.

"She's not the Sheng Zhang to me" snapped Pyosz, "She's a sentimental old woman who apparently has too much time on her hands since she retired."

"Whew" quipped Maar, wiping her brow in mock fear. Pyosz finally giggled with her. As they sat down, Pyosz reached out and took Maar's hand.

"What are you doing?" asked Maar, squeezing her hand slightly.

"It's something we always did at home, and I've been missing it here. We take a minute to look at what we're about to eat, think about where each item was grown, maybe who grew it, what it's going to taste like, welcome it into our bodies. They we look at each other and thank each other for sustenance" said Pyosz. Maar followed her instructions solemnly, and again squeezed Pyosz's hand before letting go and taking a giant bite of her sandwich.

"Oh" said Pyosz. "If you promise not to get food on them, I could show you all the photographs you haven't seen yet."

"Yes, please" said Maar. She kept wiping her hands obsessively after each bite, going through the pictures one by one, dwelling on them. She was stopped for a couple of minutes by the one of her and Pyosz in this kitchen. She also lingered a few seconds longer over the one of Pyosz and Uli sharing flavored ices, laughing into one another's face. When she was done, Pyosz said "I can make you copies of any you want, but I was thinking about sending the two that are of you to Thleen, what do you think?"

Maar wiped her hands again to sort them out. "The one of me and you, yes, and I definitely want a copy. Plus -- the one I took of you alone? But don't send her this one of me and Abbo in the pond."

"Whyever not?" demanded Pyosz.

"Because we don't have clothes on, and my emmas will see it, and they already think pilots are degenerates, it could affect my ability to see her" said Maar sharply. "I do want you to write her, but you have to be careful, Pyosz, she's very young and open, and you have to protect her connection to me at all costs."

"Of course" said Pyosz, abashed.

"I'll be heading back to Skene on Ot morning, I could take your letter to her then if you like" said Maar.

"Ot. Okay. Does that mean you'll be back for the dance on Sju, or --"

"I'll make the dance, don't worry about that" said Maar firmly.

They left the lunch dishes and stopped by the barn where Pyosz loaded her bee gear, the ladder, and a quantity of fruit baskets into the wain. Maar marveled over the ladder's design. She asked "Are we picking fruit, too?"

"Well, I am. You can leave whenever you need to" said Pyosz.

"I'm actually off now, I shouldn't have had to work today except somebody was sick and I'm going to meet up with Oby at the office over dinner to look at fish migration charts" said Maar. "Since you're not quite as sparky as when I first got here, I might stick around." She grinned at Pyosz. "Besides, you shouldn't be scrambling around tall ladders in the rain without a spotter."

When they went through the kissing gate, kids came scampering, more bored than usual on this dreary day. Pyosz unbuckled the sides of her burzaka and began spinning in a fast spiral, making the burzaka flare around her. At first, the kids fled in flight, bleating for their emmas, but soon enough they decided chasing her was a wonderful game. Pyosz spun all the way to the margin of the woods, glad to stop because she was getting dizzy.

"Look at how much bigger the trail is" said Maar. "And what are all those ribbons?"

Pyosz explained. They hunted silently for the owl trees, and spotted one but not the second.

They took turns picking fruit, one of them up the ladder, the other holding it steady and receiving the basket when full. Finally all the baskets were overflowing, and as Pyosz cleared a space at the back of the wain to hold a stack of supers, Maar began pulling off her clothes, folding them neatly under her own burzaka.

"You going for a soak first?" said Pyosz.

"Yep. It's my reward for contributing to fruit production on Skene" said Maar. Pyosz decided to join her, wishing she'd brought her scrub.

A drifting mist hung over the springs, steam from cold rain hitting hot water. It was delicious to lie on the surface, experiencing both forms of moisture simultaneously. Pyosz suddenly remembered what Prl had said -- "Brilliant but wretched" -- and she turned her head to look at Maar, who was in fact watching her.

"I don't remember who your friends were in school" said Pyosz.

"I didn't really have any" said Maar. "I mean, I had playmates at recess, and kickball teammates. But not real friends. I had to go straight home after school to help look after my sibs, and I studied hard, too. In the summers, I got any kind of job I could to earn a little coin. I had more dates than friends." She wasn't bragging, Pyosz could tell.

"My only real friend was Ngall, and she lived here, we only saw each other in summer and at midwinter break" confided Pyosz.

"But you had family" pointed out Maar. "Ferry lines full of 'em."

"I did indeed" said Pyosz. After a minute, listening to the pulse whooshing through her ear that was under water as she kept looking at Maar, she asked quietly "How did you survive?"

"Thleen" said Maar. "I made it until she was born, and then I had someone who loved me just the way I was, no question about it."

"But you've had to do all the looking after" said Pyosz.

"It's enough" said Maar. "It's still love."

"We've barely met each other, Maar, but I have to tell you -- I feel like I need your friendship. Not just want it, but need it. I want us to find a way to keep it clean and honest and growing, despite all the -- other tangles around us" said Pyosz. She held her breath, frightened at how vulnerable she'd just made herself.

"I need you too" said Maar, her voice partly muffled by the mist between them, partly amplified by bouncing through the water over to Pyosz's submerged ear. "Let's do our best."

The gaze became too intense, and Pyosz broke it by standing up. "I just realized two things: We don't have towels and it's raining, so we're going to have to put back on dry clothes over wet skin. And -- I have to find dry bark to get the smoker working." She waded to the steps and got out, feeling alittle overwarm. After she dressed, she said melodramatically "I'm going foraging for bark into the deep recesses of you-know-what territory, if I don't return, tell the Sheng Zhang I didn't mean to call her an oily turd." Maar burst into laughter, revealing a little anxiety.

She was dressed and sitting on the wain when Pyosz returned, holding up the smoker triumphantly. "Mid layer of forest floor!" she said. "And, I stumbled across the other owl tree."

"So what do I do if the bees attack? I mean, even with smoke, are they really going to let you steal half their hive?" asked Maar.

"They're not going to be aware it's going away" said Pyosz. "I put escape boards in, I'll show you. The bottom half is the brood section, where the queen and young live, and that will get defended to the death. But in these upper parts, they've just been stashing honey. And see, bees have terrific directionality except in their own hive, they crawl down through this hole in the escape board but they won't go back up. So it's like these sections have already vanished. You go stand on the trail and mask your silhouette by a tree, if you're nervous. I don't anticipate any problems, though." Pyosz got her smoker blazing hot, put on her veil, hat, and gloves, and decided to shuck the burzaka because it would simply trap curious bees, she was soaked anyhow.

Maar stood five feet away, occasionally backing into the orchard to avoid bee inquisition, but she came forward to help Pyosz carry the extremely heavy supers once the seals had been broken and enough smoke sent most of the bee into the brood section on rescue duty.

"This is at least 50 pounds of honey" grunted Pyosz as they loaded the first super box. "Or honey and comb, I'm hoping. I love fresh comb."

Once all four boxes were in the wain and the side latched, Pyosz replaced the lid of the hive, gave a final smoke, and went to push the back of the wain as Maar pulled. "Go slow, a few of them will follow us a ways because we've got honey and fruit, but we should leave them all behind by the time we reach the pasture" Pyosz called up to her.

Later, Pyosz wondered how she would have managed the extraction without Maar's assistance. They laughed their way through it, gorging on comb and taking turns using the hot knife to magically melt free stuck wax. Finally Pyosz locked the draining wax plus the tubs of honey into the bug-proofed drying room. "I'll have to strain it again" said Pyosz. "But let me scrub out the extractor with boiling water, and you can take it away with you."

"What about all this fruit?" said Maar, helping herself to a handful of cherries.

"Mm...sorting, peeling and coring with my new gadget, then slicing about half onto the drying racks. That will also take me a couple of days" said Pyosz. "That's going to become a daily chore, like the milking, until -- well, until I leave, and afterward for whoever replaces me."

Maar's face went sad and still. Pyosz cleaned the extractor and they loaded it back into the crate. Pyosz said "I'd invite you for dinner, but you have plans, I gather."

"And you have to talk with your abbas again" said Maar.

"You've saved me from working late into the night" said Pyosz. "You're a good buddy. You want a piece of rhubarb pie to take with you?"

"Yes" said Maar. "And you're a good buddy, too."

After Maar left, Pyosz changed into dry clothes before her evening routine. The kids were very curious about the area where the tarp had lain and kept going to sniff at the door of the drying room. For her dinner, Pyosz dipped her last four slices of thick bacon into fresh honey, lay them atop planks of eggplant, and baked it in the oven until crisp. With a barley salad and sliced tomatoes spotted by dark vinegar, she felt ready to handle talking with her abbas again. She began a sponge before picking up the radio.

Yoj answered at her abbas' Manage. "We've been hoping you'd call, Pyosz. I'll begin with an apology, and we can discuss in detail what that means, but first I want you to know, when I came home from the Archivist Manage I found my darling Halling sitting on the couch here crying her eyes out from your call, and that's simply not all right with me, Pyosz, you should have called back." Pyosz could hear Halling in the background saying "Don't tell her that!" Yoj said to Halling "She wants to have grown-up relationships with us, she's going to hear about all the effects of her actions."

Pyosz kept calling back on a new private frequency until, an hour later, everything had been talked through. Qala and Lawa were at the abbas' Manage as well, so she got to talk with them, too.

She went to bed very late because, although doing what baking she could with a radio in one hand, she still had to wait for bread and pies to cool before she could bag them. As she waited, she wrote a letter to Thleen. She had learned the names of two more songbirds -- txikadiis and bunteens -- and she drew them in colored pencil along the margins of her letter, making up a little comic about Thleen the Bunteen. At one point, she imagined telling Maar about having made the Sheng Zhang cry, and she giggled at how scandalized Maar's expession would be. She went to sleep without reading by her new lamp.

It was damp but not actually raining when she got up. She still wore her wellies to Koldok. After getting extra prints made at Naki's, she bought a used photo-fold made of what looked like polished bone, just the size to hold the picture of her and Maar. A leather pouch clasped over the frame, making it safe to carry around. She gave Naki one rhubarb and one peach-currant pie, but still had credit, so she bought two more 10-shot memory disks.

Next she stopped by Taamsas' and swapped four new books for the ones just read. She found a stainless steel grill to fit her new outdoor oven, bought bone meal and kelp flake through allotment, and asked Taamas if she had a seed mix for Pya wildflowers.

"Not as such, no" said Taamsas, interested. "Let's go look at the bulk seed bins, I can tell you what grows best around here." After conferring for half an hour, they came up with a mixture that Pyosz thought would work not only in scant sandy soil, but would actually help fix nutrients. She bought 5 lb. of it, and she helped Taamsas write down the recipe so Taamsas could create small bags of it for sale. When they returned to the counter to settle up, Pyosz deadpanned "Do you get a red cap point when I come into your store?"

Taamsas began laughing. "No, it has to be a spotting of you on Saya by someone not actually standing on Saya." Pyosz pulled out an extra copy of the glow-in-the-dark-wain photo Maar had shot and handed it to Taamsas, saying "You can put that up behind the counter here and start an argument over whether photographs of the wain count as half a point."

As she was heading back to the wharf, she spotted a large puddle in the middle of the packed gravel street and went directly for it, stamping waves and cascades as she charged through it.

"That looks like fun" came Uli's voice from behind her. Pyosz wheeled and said "Oh, you've only got on otos, you can't join me."

"Not for the mudplay, but I was about to get an early lunch at the cafe, could I impose on you to keep me company?" said Uli.

Breakfast had been only a boiled egg and a nectarine. Pyosz said "Gladly." Inside, Uli said "No, not the counter, I like this corner table, it's quieter."

"I've only had breakfast here so far, what's good?" asked Pyosz, looking at the slate on the wall behind the counter.

"Any of the chowders or soups. And they make a sizzling stuffed pepper" said Uli.

Over her cream of celery soup and stuffed pepper, to which she would have added more cayenne, Pyosz said "Are you the one responsible for the map of Saya Island that I have?"

"Possibly" said Uli. "Although I've only been cartographer for two years. Does it have a green or white border?"

"White" said Pyosz.

"Ah, not mine" said Uli. "Try this olive spread?"

"Good" said Pyosz, thinking Needs garlic. "Do you help make the fish migration maps, or the ones that show ocean currents?"

"Yes" said Uli. "For Pya, not for Skene."

"How far out does the range extend, then? I mean, are there maps which show the ocean currents which travel the globe between Skene and Pya?"

"That's a perceptive question" said Uli. "And no, not an updated version. We have the ones from the original colonists -- found by your family, as I understand it -- and one theoretical update. I'm hoping to eventually create a new one, although it requires cooperation from Skene that I can cobble together only from other academics so far, not the state."

"Why not? I can't imagine abba balking at the furtherance of science" said Pyosz.

"It's not the Ethicist who's in the way" said Uli. "It's the Sheng Zhangs, in particular of Tanyan and Verzinnen."

"Verzinnen?" said Pyosz. "That makes no sense, it has nothing to do with their sphere."

"Oh, but get this: The map publisher in Skene has a huge backlog of 20-year-old maps printed on the first good paper to become available from Pya. She says making new maps with information not actually necessary for the general public will destroy the value of her outdated stock. She's the sib of the Sheng Zhang, so there's a deadlock." Uli's voice was lilting when she was entertained.

"Would it be all right with you if I discussed this with my abbas?" asked Pyosz.

"I'd be honored" said Uli. "Are you involved with politics, then, or at least interested?"

"I can't help but be interested, it's mealtime conversation with my family" said Pyosz. "But so is every aspect of service to Skene. I mean Skene the whole planet, including Pya."

"Must be fun mealtimes" said Uli. "And maps, do you have a particular interest in maps?"

"Again, came to me with emma's milk" said Pyosz. "I am especially interested in Pya right now, on a learning curve, I guess."

"My office is at our Manage, and I still have half an hour before I need to meet someone, we could go look at some of my maps, if you like" offered Uli. They got rice-almond cookies to go and walked across the street to Uli's family's Manage. On the front porch, Uli said in a whisper "Emma has one of her headaches again, so we need to make as little sound as possible until we're in my office and I can shut the door." Her office was upstairs, spacious but still paper and books covered every available surface. A large back window gave a view of the tillage and, at one corner, Koldok Kuono beyond. Yoj would love this room Pyosz thought.

Uli pulled rolls from a bin and began spreading them on a cluttered worktable, using pewter paperweights to hold them open. "Now this is a project I'm doing on my own, trying to create a combined map of each island that shows not only surface topography, but also geothermal substrate, water tables, nearby currents and underwater geography, and even soil composition. Right now you have to consult several different sources to find all that data."

Pyosz stood with her side touching Uli, bent over the table in a concentration which didn't quite preclude her noticing Uli's warmth and scent. Lavender, I think. "See, Saya does have strong geothermal potential, I knew it must with the hot springs there" said Pyosz, pointing.

"Your end of Saya I believe is latticed underneath with caverns, some of which are connected, some of which may not be" said Uli, flipping between maps. "Here's the diagram created by whoever dug your privy, another from the water well construction. We lack a good soil composition picture of Saya, though. I guess the decision was made very early to use it as a capriste zone -- they were still thinking Skene-like at the beginning, unable to comprehend how much land they had at their disposal and that single-use islands weren't necessary. We have the orchard soil testing, and the tillage, and that's all."

"I've been planning to do soil testing for the pasture and most of my end" said Pyosz. "So I can do soil amendment and help milk production. How about if I make copies of the results for you directly?"

Uli laid her arm across Pyosz's shoulder, smiling into her face. "That would be marvelous! I'll share the draft I make from that."

"in the meantime, could I possibly get copies of what you do have for Saya?" asked Pyosz, moving infinitesimally closer to Uli. She noticed an anomaly on one map and tore her eyes away from Uli's to inspect it closer. "Why is there a large white gap here, in the middle of the pasture?"

"The early flyovers that provided data for mapping failed to produce a sensible substrate reading for that section" said Uli.

"Interesting" said Pyosz. "That's the region where only gorse grows, and the goats don't graze. I think I'll start my soil testing there."

"I'll get copies made as soon as possible" said Uli. "Maybe later this week -- Roku, if you're free -- we could go out to dinner and talk some more. There's a very good restaurant in Pertama you'd enjoy."

"Well, I'm free but only after milking" said Pyosz. "I could meet you here by 7:00, is that too late?"

"We'll have a leisurely evening of it" promised Uli. They were in the living room now, and whispering.

"Oh, I almost forgot" said Pyosz, reaching into her carryall. "I have goat fibers for your emma, will you pass them on to her?"

"She'll be so pleased!" said Uli. "I'll have her call you about barter when she's feeling better."

"No" said Pyosz firmly. "This is stuff that would simply blow away into the wind, and the labor involved in brushing brings pleasure to the goats -- " At least the ones who don't hate it -- "and it improves their protection against parasites, so it's not an item for barter. Call it my contribution to Pyan art."

Back on the street next to Pyosz's cart, Pyosz turned to face Uli and slid into her arms for an easy, close hug. Her eyes were half-closed, but still she saw across the street, in front of the Lofthall, a familiar figure gone stock still, watching her and Uli's embrace. Pyosz closed her eyes completely. When she and Uli pulled apart, Maar had disappeared.

"I'll see you on Roku!' called out Uli as Pyosz headed for the wharf. Pyosz waved over her shoulder and splashed her way through another puddle.

She was shocked at the lateness of the day when she reached Saya. She threw herself into action. First she started her sponges. It had dried out enough to dig small beds all around her cabin, for transplanting the vines Tu and Pank had brought, so she moved on to that. She created planter soil with her compost, bone meal and kelp flake, filling the boxes Tu had built and arranging them inside the eaves line around her kitchen. She went to the tillage and dug out chives, marjoram, sage, oregano, chervil, savory, tarragon, basil, thyme, and dill starts to plant in the boxes.

She scrubbed her hands before straining honey again. She sorted fruit and began pitting cherries, apricots and peaches. She rinsed and saved all the pits to return to the allotment center, where they would find use in various medicinal and commercial applications. She set up the large juicer and made several gallons of peach and cherry juice. The rest of the fruit she arranged on drying racks, except for enough to make her daily batch of pastries. Today she mixed honey-current scones, apricot muffins with small crisp nuggets of comb inside, and peach tarts, in addition to standard cherry pies.

Once the drying racks were loaded and the blower going, she hauled her honey to a spot near her kitchen and began bottling it. The comb was put into separate containers, and she left the wax in its strainer to be picked clean by bees venturing this far east on the island. She put labels on her jars of honey and stashed half of them in her larder. I'm going to need more room before this season is over she thought.

She put beans on to simmer and potatoes in to bake with the bread. She took baling wire from the barn and created a criss-cross of trellises along her cabin's outside walls stretching from stakes in the edge of her new beds to bolts near the roofline. She collected large round stones to border these new beds, then planted honeysuckle on either side of her door, scarlet runner and clematis on the side facing the jichong, and morning glories on the side facing the barn.

She pulled out her bread to cool, took a quick shower, and went to milk. Her hands were aching by the time she was done, from all the new small-muscle activity that afternoon. She steamed broccoli, spread cheese and tomatoes on bread, and had that with beans and potatoes, a quick and bland meal. When she went to the privy, she flushed it and decided hard labor was done for the day.

She sat at her table to bag and label cooled baked goods, packing them in a crate with honey, comb, and pits. Then she pulled out her paint set and on the little bone photo frame she was sending Thleen, she illustrated a sideways map of Skene on the left, a similar rendering of Pya on the right, and a silver huolon flying either direction at the top and bottom. She managed to create a passable likeness of Maar's face in the window of each huolon, looking happy as she headed for Skene, sad as she went toward Pya. She took a photo of it as the paint dried. She slid in the photo of her and Maar, wrapped it in padded paper and string, put that in a mailing envelope along with her letter, and regarded it with satisfaction. After a minute of thought, she emptied the outer envelope again to decorate it with a map of the neighborhood in Riesig where she had grown up, the Genist's and Archivists' Manages tucked into the Scatters, the school, the lane down to her abbas' Manage, and even a painting of the copper door at her abbas' with the mystical cao engraved on it. She addressed it to "Thleen, Maar's Sibu, Chloddia, SKENE."

For the next hour, she pored over her tillage planting chart with the packets of seeds from her abbas around her, feeling no limit now to what she could grow. She made a final pot of tea in her Qala-Lawa pot, as she thought of it, spread one of the fresh honey-currant scones with yogurt, and took it into her cabin to eat in bed. Ember and Curds decided to share her yogurt, and Ember settled in to sleep beside her afterward, a nightly habit now. She kept thinking about Uli once her lamp was off, as she had been intermittently all afternoon. Finally she turned the lamp back on her and got her rice paddy workers novel from under the mattress. She never advanced further than the second chapter, however, before falling asleep.


EXPLANATORY NOTES FOR CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

SHENG ZHANG (MINISTERS) AND THEIR AREAS OF ADMINISTRATION:
Health and Education = Rahat -- school, university, scholars, hospital, midwives, genist (including leave for aggies and partnering), vets
Agriculture = Tanyan -- ejidas, compost and recycling, silkworms, orchards, rice, livestock, seafood
Natural Resources = Recursos -- mining, lava, petroleum, wood, gravel, lasers
Utilities = Potenza -- assignment of Manages, electricity, water, geothermal, radios, plus ferries and mail
Lofthall -- all airflight and manufacture of craft; also includes dichter
Manufacture and Commerce = Verzinnen -- weaving, dying, metallurgy, ceramics, paper and book making, printing, glassmaking, shopkeeping
Ethicist -- answers interim questions of above plus runs prison island

Annual harvest and production report (nian cheng) is published in Raccolto, then two months later during Kall, entire community meets to vote on next year's plan. Voting during the coldest month tends people toward conservation and thinking of the public good.

© 2009 Maggie Jochild

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