Here's the weekly best of what I've gleaned from I Can Has Cheezburger efforts. There are some really creative folks out there. And the first one on this page is by little gator.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
LOLCATS WEEKLY ROUND-UP 24 AUGUST 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
PYA: CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
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)
Owl Manage on Saya Island, original plans
Saya Island Eastern End After Development
Map of Pya with Description of Each Island
Map of Skene (but not Pya)
Map of Saya Island and Environs When Pyosz First Arrived
Map of Saya Island, Teppe and Pea Pods Environs After Development
Skene Character Lineage at Midway Through Pya Novel
Skene, Chapter One (With Cultural Notes in Links)
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
The following day, Thleen reported Ziri had been absent from school, and Xoan wouldn't speak to her. She kept asking any elder nearby why Ziri stayed home, was she all right or was it punishment. Finally Qala said "If I tell you, will you keep it to yourself no matter what? Including Thont?"
Prl glared at them but Thleen swallowed and said "On my honor, habibi."
"Her emmas took her to the clinic to have her tested for pregnancy. Briel confirmed she's fertile" -- (As fertile as her aggie is what Ko had said) -- "but didn't turn up pregnancy. And yes, it's partly punishment. She won't be allowed to see Xoan any more except on school grounds, and they'll be watched closely there."
Thleen tried to hide her pleasure at this news. Qala erased it for her by adding "After school Xoan was taken to the clinic to test her fertility two years early. Is there any reason we need to do that with you?"
"No, habibi" said Thleen in a hollow voice.
Pyosz and Maar were up late that night talking about the problem with Ziri, who had as far as they could see had been given an excellent upbringing, yet had brought near disaster on herself. They felt great empathy for the Heaps emmas, and worried they were not really on the beach yet with Thleen, no matter what Qala said.
In the greenhouse the following afternoon, Thleen dropped her bookbag on the path and followed it to the ground, announcing "Ziri was back today."
Qala looked up from the graft she was splicing. "How was she?"
"Kinda bad. Like a light had been turned off." Unusually poetic for Thleen. "She avoided Xoan, even though Xoan kept trying to get her to look at her. I mean, I know it's a mistake and all, but it seems kinda harsh. And she didn't act mad at me a bit."
"Good. You did her no harm, truthfully. And...well, depending on what you do, your first time at real sex, as you call it, can be frustrating or even hurt you. Maybe the first few times. She may be in shock by how it turned out."
Thleen's mouth was agape. "Hurt? How can you get hurt?" She sounded almost indignant.
"You need a good flow of juices, and to go very slow, and learn each other. Thleen, you know very well how abrasion can happen. It doesn't work quite right until you're older, physically and emotionally."
Thleen sucked the inside of her cheek, thinking for a minute. "Xoan didn't look like it hurt her, or went wrong for her."
"Everybody's different. But having to lie about intimate behavior diminishes pleasure, always. I learned all of this the hard way, without people I could talk to about it." Qala put bark dope on her graft and set it on some moss to start a second. "Being kind to Ziri right now will be something she remembers for the rest of her days."
Qala heard the cheek-sucking continue. It was a sound that drove Pyosz half-crazy, but it never bothered her. Thleen said softly "I think she might be mad at Xoan for telling another kid at school. That's how it got around."
"I'd be mad, too" said Qala. "Xoan may be older than you but she's not nearly as mature." She saw Thleen take that in. After another minute, Thleen said "I was wondering if for next Mchele Fair, for the puppets at the end, if we could somehow make a giant chicken that squawks around a bit, then lays an egg. And somebody small in a chick costume could hatch out of the egg. Wouldn't that be great?"
They began discussing construction materials.
Two weeks later on Roku after Market, Pyosz answered a knock at the door to discover Ziri standing there, with Koben and Meamea behind her. "Since when do you knock?" asked Pyosz, giving her a hug as her two sibas pushed past her inside.
"Emma sent over some tempeh and mutton, and asks for bread and butter" said Ziri.
"And pie!" added Meamea, likely an improvisation.
"Come in the kitchen with me, let's get you something warm to drink" said Pyosz. Merrl and Qux had fallen on Meamea with adoring cries. Koben went to the piano and began plunking out a tune.
Yoj was already pouring milk in a pan to heat. As Pyosz emptied Ziri's basket and refilled it, Ziri leaned against the counter, fidgeting, before asking as casually as she could muster "Thleen around?"
"She's on Teppe practicing kickball with Thont. I'm sure they'd like it if you joined them" said Pyosz, putting two pies in the basket. There are heaps of Heaps.
Koben's voice rose over the ivories "Emma said you could only come to Saya, nowhere else." Ziri made a vicious face in Koben's direction. Yoj said "Well, Saya's glad to see you. Cocoa will be ready soon."
Once mugs were filled, Pyosz asked Ziri out to her studio to see a new design and managed to keep Koben from tagging along. She sat on her stool and said "You have my sympathy, Ziri, I know it's been rough, being talked about in public."
Ziri shrugged, looking away.
"You know, Maar was first lovers with someone when she was only 15. Nobody found out about it but she said it still went very badly."
That got Ziri's attention. "Who was it? Are they friends now?"
"Someone back on Skene, and no, they're not particularly friends." She was two years older than Maar, barely in sui, and I frankly loathe that woman thought Pyosz.
"I just wanted to know what it was like" said Ziri heatedly. "My emmas do it all the time, and Nezi did it with Aleri when she was only fourteen -- they don't think I know about it, but I do!"
"They were very lucky to have it work out" said Pyosz, stashing away that nugget of information. "I'm sorry you didn't have the same kind of luck."
A knock came at the door and Koben stuck her head in, obnoxious superiority in her voice as she said "Emma told us we could only stay a few minutes." Pyosz took Ziri's empty mug from her hand to keep it from being hurled at Koben.
"Let's get your basket and I'll walk you to the ferry" she offered. "Do you want to leave a note for Thleen, or just have me tell her you stopped by?"
"Do you have an envelope that seals?" whispered Ziri. Stifling a sigh, Pyosz showed her to the study and the stationary drawer. Ziri put her envelope on Thleen's bed, taking in the room for a long minute, before reluctantly returning home.
When Pyosz told Maar about it that night, Maar asked "What did her note say?"
"I didn't read it, of course. Thleen holed up in her room for an hour before dinner."
Maar rubbed her forehead. "Dekkan told me today that Thont's been crying at night because Thleen doesn't want to date only her. But stars, Pyosz, I don't want her dating Ziri instead."
"As friends. Being friends for a long time is a good thing" said Pyosz, and Maar smiled at her, the furrow still in her brow. She whispered "I'm terrified of what Merrl is going to throw at us when she gets to be that age."
"Strong-willed, lava-spirited emmas can expect to produce at least some children in their own image" laughed Pyosz. "Oh -- put your hand here, she just kicked hard!"
On Roku, the extended family returned to Saya for a late lunch. Children finished early because they wanted to play on the new quarter-scale sinner in front beside the now less-appealing boat. Thont was whispering to Thleen -- No doubt to persuade her off somewhere alone, thought Pyosz -- when Yoj said to Nioma "I got that page translated last night."
"She had the light on til midnight" complained Halling.
"What page?" asked Dodd.
"It's the first sheet of the rotting journal left behind in the cave at Pertama by the original colonists here at Pya. There were gaps from mold and disintegration, so even with the best of copies, it's taken me a while" said Yoj.
"Shall we go up to the study and peruse it?" asked Nioma.
"Well, I thought everybody might want to get in on it" countered Yoj, to which Dodd and several others nodded animatedly. She shuffled slowly to her room while some of the table was cleared and Dodd plinked bits of melody on the piano. Pyosz remembered Prl telling her that whatever anyone's expertise, in the Manage where she had grown up, all puzzles were brought equally to the dinner table in the belief that every vantage point was essential to a balanced solution. She had told Pyosz about the night they had realized, without a doubt, there was other land on Skene besides the islands of Skene itself: the first proof of what would become Pya. She said she had been in the arms of an abba, and she had felt a shuddering thrill pass from the older woman's body into her own, a kinesthetic understanding that bypassed her toddler mind.
Pyosz saw Thleen take a chair at the table and was glad. When Qux chose that moment to run in, yelling "I hafta use the privy!", Pyosz said to Halling "Wait for me" and went to help Qux. She returned holding her firstborn, whispering "I think we're about to hear something very interesting, let's find out." They took the chair next to Thleen.
Yoj polished her lenses before setting them on her nose. "So...I believe this to be a summary description of Pya sent back to the original planet by a scout ship. It's mostly statistics, scientific readings, as it were. Since the page is mostly numeric or dry, unwieldy terminology, including several abbreviations or acronyms, it's gone unselected for translation before now."
Nioma, sitting next to her, was looking at the sheet of paper. "Most of these numerals are similar enough to ours, I think I can -- is that a 9?"
"8" said Prl over her shoulder. She pointed and said "That's what they used for a decimal holder, this means greater than, this is less than, and this -- emma?"
"A unit of measure equal to 2/3 of our square meter, I believe" said Yoj. "Most of this table here is a tabulation of the area of each island in Pya carried to the fifth deceimal point, which will be valuable for comparison, I imagine."
"It certainly will" said Nioma. "Prl, can you bring me a calculator and a pad, I want to -- "
"That's not what you were so worked up about last night, is it?" asked Halling, sounding disappointed.
"No, indeed" said Yoj with a wide grin. "I went to the Poly library to get a reference to be sure I was reading it right."
"What?" said Mill. suddenly leaning forward. Prl, too, was fixed on Yoj's face. "What?" echoed Qux, whispering in Pyosz's ear.
'This" said Yoj, tapping the sheet "in the most general way is a count of species fond on Skene at the time of human arrival, categorized by sea-based, land-based, airborne, fauna, and so on."
Nioma bent over it, then gaped at Yoj. "You must be in error. Even by my rudimentary read, these numbers are huge."
"Yes, they are" said Yoj quietly. "There's a codex meant to accompany this which gives a name and description to each life-form. I can say with certainty I've never seen that document -- well, it would be a volume, really, or several volumes. We do not have it in any archive on Skene. But I believe these totals are real."
"Thunder me down" said Nioma. "What in lev happened?" She sagged back against Prl. Pyosz was whispering in Qux's ear, whose eyes were wide but her expression unafraid, her small fingers interlinked with Pyosz's hand.
But Yoj had already hit this realization, had time to get used to it. She went on "And this is a list of minerals available from land and sea; this appears to be a chemical analysis of seawater as it was then, which even with my poor comprehension of that science is quite deviated from what we have now; and this one, charting the composition of land masses, is most intriguing for what it doesn't show." She waited a breath before answering everyone's question: "Soil. There wasn't anything like what we consider soil back then, just rock and mineral, and things that grew without needing roots in dirt."
"No dirt on Skene?" repeated Lawa, incredulous. "What kind of nightmare -- why would people come here, then?" Qala took her hand tenderly.
"We made it all, then" said Nioma, as if something had been confirmed for her. "But how?"
"And when" added Yoj. "Answers not on this page. We just have some new questions."
There was a long silence. Finally Pyosz said "If it wasn't so cold out there, I'd go dig my bare toes into the tillage and give thanks." Qux giggled and said "Like you was planting youself, aggie?"
Pyosz squeezed her and said "Saya already took my seed and gave me new growth, truth be told. Why don't you go play now?" Qux slid from her lap and trotted toward the door.
After a little more converation, talk turned to other topics except for Nioma. Prl, and Yoj meticulously translating numbers and ratios. Then Dodd struck up a song, during which Thleen and Thont vanished out the back door.
The rest of the family left by 9:00. Halling said she wanted toast and tea, and the children chimed in for the same. Halling made a tray and brought it back to the table, loosening her belt buckle before she ate. The little ones were allowed jam even though it was bedtime. Fruit grown in rich Pya soil thought Pyosz.
Yoj had Qux on her lap and they were alternating sips of milky chamomile tea. She mused "Pilots' kalsongers are so baggy, only those of us with a Lofthall connection know how muscular their thighs and asses are. Ripped, really. A treat for the lucky few."
Qux echoed "Ripped", then added "You mean emma?"
Maar's face was so red it looked combustible. Yoj nodded down at Qux "Yes, your emma and my sweetheart Halling." Halling grinned at both of them and said "My sit-down zone is not what it once was." Qux began giggling, repeating "Sit-down zone" while Yoj picked up Halling's hand and kissed the back of it. From the corner of her eye, Pyosz saw Lawa caress Qala's rump, and Maar managed to look even more embarrassed.
Prl said crisply "If everyone's done at the table, I'd like to clear it and finish the dishes."
"I'll help" said Maar swiftly. Had she known that much of the room turned to look at her as she bent over to pick up food particles dropped by Merrl, she'd have probably passed out, Pyosz thought.
That night in bed, Pyosz said to Maar in the dark "Don't take this the wrong way, but maybe the leviathans have reason to hate us."
Maar gave a long sigh. "I don't think I can go there, sweetheart," Pyosz pulled her close and said "Yeah."
---------------
Merrl of course could not yet tell time but she had learned that when the hands of the kitchen wall clock reached a certain configuration, it meant school was letting out or that Maar might be coming home. That Moja she was underfoot, demanding Pyosz hand her scraps of dough or vegetable cuttings which she could use to "cook" at her own small-scale stove. When she noticed the clock approaching the magic hour, she began asking every minute "Sibas coming home now?"
Finally Pyosz removed her pot from its simmer and said "Go put on your wellies and manteau, let's walk to the dock and wait for them there." Merrl rushed to comply. They met Qala on the porch, bringing in a basket of freshly dug potatoes and turnips. "I'll go with you" she offered.
Pyosz lowered herself to sit on the edge of the dock, feeling the ache in her feet and wondering how she'd get her bulk upright again from this position. Merrl insisted on emulating her, and Qala sat on her other side, one hand firmly gripping the back of Merrl's manteau as Merrl swung her feet vigorously and chattered about what it would be like next fall when she could join Qux and her cousins in first grade. And I'll be home with a quiet, sleeping baby thought Pyosz with equal anticipation.
Merrl was the first to spot the Pea Pod children gathering on Koldok's wharf. Ziri hopped into the ferry and helped Ura and Omill in first, followed by Qux and Raki scrambling down the ladder far too carelessly, Pyosz thought. Merrl kept waving and shouting as the ferry went first to Dou, then back to the pylon and chugged their way.
The ferry drew level with the dock and Thont grabbed the ladder with one arm as Thleen handed her pack to Qala, saying "At the noon kickball game, I scored a goal from almost half-field -- " Merrl had scrambled to her feet and now tried to pivot, but instead somehow pitched herself neatly backward into the swift water. Pyosz screamed and tried to shift her gravid torso. Thleen, however, had been looking right at them and she instantly dove from the side of the ferry.
Merrl's face appeared above the surface briefly, already choking, but went under again, swept away by current. Thleen kicked her way as Qala began shucking her otos and manteau. Pyosz found herself continuing to scream. She could see a dim shape under the surface, heading south to sweep past Arta, but Thleen was closing on it. A few feet away, she arced under and, after long agonizing seconds, resurfaced with Merrl's gasping head under her arm.
Merrl was out of her mind, flailing at Thleen, sometimes smacking her in the face, but Thleen doggedly began trying to swim against the current, toward the dock. "Let go!" Ziri yelled at Thont, shoving the lever to start the ferry on an intercept course. Thont was left hanging on the ladder. Qux began crying. Ziri shuddered the ferry to a stop still ten feet away from Thleen, who was now beginning to look grey with effort. Ziri bent and rooted through the underseat area, grunting as she located the boathook. She steaded herself against the side and extended it toward Thleen, yelling "Look here -- Thleenie, look at what you can grab!"
Thleen seemed to be having trouble focusing, but just as Qala was posed to dive in, her hand closed around the iron crook at the end of the pole. Koben and Ehall grabbed hold with Ziri to help pull Thleen toward them. Ziri bent and dragged Merrl, now terrifyingly still, over the gunwhale, dropping her at Qux's feet, before swiveling to pull in Thleen as well, which took three tries.
Koben dropped the boathook into the kuono in her haste to reach the level and start the verry back to the dock. Ziri had Thleen's face between her handsm forcing her to say a few words. Qux sat down in the wet bottom of the boat and cradled Merrl in her lap. Before the ferry reached dock, Lawa ran down the path, and she was first in the boat, handing Merrl up to Pyosz's arms.
Pyosz stripped the sodden manteau from Merrl's body, noting her hands were icy and one wellie was missing. Thont was there, saying "Lay her down, here, let me clear her lungs." As Thont began mouth to mouth revival, Lawa and Qala hauled Thleen up to the dock. Now all the younger children were crying. Nezi had come to the Kacang dock and was in a second ferry headed their way.
Pyosz heard Thleen behind her say through chattering teeth "I'm okay, I didn't swallow any water, I'm just freezing." Qala said to Qux "Sweetie, run to the Manage as fast as you can and start hot water running in the tub. Hot like for a bath, we have to get your sibs warm right away." Qux wiped her face and galloped up the path.
Suddenly Merrl retched, convulsing in Pyosz's arms, and then began crying, loud but normal shrieks. Pyosz stood effortlessly, adrenaline charging her body, and started for the Manage. Lawa and Thont put their shoulders under Thleen's arms and began walking her in the same direction. Qala waited to tell Nezi what had happened, thanking Ziri over and over again, before following with bookbags and Merrl's dripping manteau.
Lawa stripped Thleen on the porch, saying "Your new guibba, lev, it weighs as much as iron, however did you swim in it. And your otos -- I'll come clean them later, don't worry." Now shaking violently, Thleen was assisted to the steaming tub where Pyosz was holding Merrl in the water, repeating endlessly "I've got hold of you, I'll never let go, stay down in the warm, my darling." Thleen slid into the other end of the tub with a moan, submerging as much of her body as she could. Qala picked up the radio and dialed the clinic.
An hour later, when Maar landed the sinner, she shoved herself out the hatch first and left Su to lower the ramp, thudding up the porch steps past discarded garments of her children and bursting into the great room. Thleen was wrapped in quilts, asleep in the wide armchair before the hearth, her head on Thont's shoulder. She had dropped off after downing a cup of hot soup. Pyosz was in the other armchair with Merrl swaddled against her chest, Merrl also asleep after drops administered by Briel and a mug of hot cocoa. Pyosz began weeping silently when Maar knelt in front of her, spreading her hand over Merrl's back.
As the elders joined them, Pyosz told the story, slowly and with anguish in her voice. Prl sat on the arm of Thleen's chair and pulled her to her chest, waking her. Maar began crying too, pleading for Merrl to be in her arms, and as Pyosz handed her over, Merrl woke and wailed. Pyosz kept repeating "Thleen beat all of us, she saved Merrl, she saved her life." Thleen squirmed a little under the gazes leveled on her.
"What did Briel say?" Prl finally asked.
"Thleen will be sore tomorrow but otherwise fine. Thont got most of the sea out of Merrl's lungs but there's enough left to maybe cause bronchitis, infection, we're to watch for signs. Both are a little shocky. As we all are, really. Briel gave me some drops too" said Pyosz. "If Thleen hadn't been there, if it had been me jumping into that icy water..." Maar bent to kiss her, terror on her face.
Qala and Lawa were sitting together on low stools between the two chairs. Qala now said "All we have is soup, we haven't wanted to leave to go cook." Yoj kissed the top of Pyosz's head again and said "I'll go make a casserole, with all Thleen's favorite things in it." She picked up Qux and said "You keep me company, okay?"
Merrl's crying had slacked off and Maar tried to get her to blow her nose. "She sounds congested already" she said worriedly.
"We'll keep them in with us tonight, open the heat vents all the way" said Pyosz, allowing exhaustion to overtake her.
Maar looked around at Thleen. "I love you so much" she whispered. "Do you want Thont to stay over tonight?"
"Yeah." Thleen's voice was dull with fatigue. "I have a levvin' paper due tomorrow..."
"We'll write Dodd a note" said Prl. "You keep resting. Thont, let's call your Manage and then I'll help you with your homework, all right?" Thont unwillingly left Thleen's side and Qala took her place. Su asked what she could do, and Lawa said "Bring in that sea-soaked guibba and the rest, will you? I'll run fresh water in the cistern and let's see if we can rescue the leather and sheepskin."
That night, Maar slept poorly. She kept waking up to listen to Merrl's breathing and look at her face in the moonlight. After milking, Pyosz called Briel who came to confirm Merrl had a fever and heavy mucus but said "It's not pneumonia, she'll shake this off. Keep doing what you're doing."
At the family dinner on Shmonah, Halling struggled to her feet and made two toasts. The first was to "our Chloddia line, who are all exceptionally brave, quick thinkers and devoted to others." Su blushed as deeply as Maar and Thleen. Then Halling commended the "exceptional children of Pya, who grow up to find balance with whatever nature presents to them, including the vagaries of the sea." She nodded at Ziri then, and Yoj blew her a kiss. Pyosz thought The vagaries of a sea permanently unbalanced by us, but smiled at Thleen without showing any uncertainty.
(Copyright 2010 Maggie Jochild.)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELIZABETH ESTHERCHILD!
I particularly remember the day she taught us the "Emergent Norm" theory in a semester's look at the sociology of mass movements. After giving us the dry basic -- which were still never really dry coming from her, because of her mix of incredible vocabulary and rich vernacular -- she stepped away from the board and leaned back against her desk to tell us a story. She grew up on a farm in Kansas, and one day when she was a girl, their barn caught fire. The smoke drew everyone from the neighboring farms. but it was too late, the barn was engulfed.
Even worse, there was a high wind blowing directly toward their farmhouse and already embers were landing on the second-story roof. The men, thwarted by the barn's inferno, charged into the house to save its possessions from what looked to be imminent destruction. So the norm they were operating under, she explained with her wide grin, was remove objects from the path of a fire. At this point, everyone was operating collaboratively according to that norm.
However, there was only one steep and narrow staircase to the second floor, and the furniture upstairs was massive armoires, bedsteads, chests of drawers. The rooms were filling with smoke, as all the windows were open, and the visible timeline did not appear to be enough to carry furniture down those stairs.
So somebody, in a moment of stress-induced anomie, carried a rocker to the nearest window, yelled at the onlookers to stand back, and tossed it to the ground below. It landed more or less all right, and the other men began following suit with featherbeds, clothing, drawer contents.
But in the minds of these otherwise extremely practical and rational farmers, a new. slightly altered norm emerged: Save the upstairs by throwing everything out the windows. And it turned into a frenzy of objects being hurled out the nearest opening -- bed frames, trunks, then jugs, mirrors, photographs, all joined a growing pile of debris. The women were screaming at the men to stop, but the men could not hear past their own group norm and frantic activity. Elizabeth watched most of what her family owned destroyed by those who had come to save it.
I never forgot that vivid lesson, the images she painted in my mind's eye. And as I went on to become a revolutionary activist, I used it over and over again, exerting just enough leadership in situations of anomie to shape which new norm emerged to be seized on by a group -- particularly the night of the White Night Riots.
Today is Elizabeth's 68th birthday. She is now Elizabeth Estherchild (gotta love those women who rename themselves in honor of their mothers), and I want her to know what an impact she had. Thank you for giving me a path and tools to keep cutting my way forward. Happy, happy birthday!
HUBBLE THURSDAY 19 AUGUST 2010
(Little-known nebula IRAS 05437+2502 billows out among the bright stars and dark dust clouds that surround it)
Every Thursday, I post a very large photograph of some corner of space captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and available online from the picture album at HubbleSite, followed by poetry after the jump.
THROWING AWAY THE ALARM CLOCK
by Charles Bukowski
my father always said, "early to bed and
early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy
and wise."
it was lights out at 8 p.m. in our house
and we were up at dawn to the smell of
coffee, frying bacon and scrambled
eggs.
my father followed this general routine
for a lifetime and died young, broke,
and, I think, not too
wise.
taking note, I rejected his advice and it
became, for me, late to bed and late
to rise.
now, I'm not saying that I've conquered
the world but I've avoided
numberless early traffic jams, bypassed some
common pitfalls
and have met some strange, wonderful
people
one of whom
was
myself—someone my father
never
knew.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
LOLCATS WEEKLY ROUND-UP 17 AUGUST 2010
Here's the weekly best of what I've gleaned from I Can Has Cheezburger efforts. There are some really creative folks out there. The first two on this page are by little gator.
Monday, August 16, 2010
AFTER THE BYPASS, AFTER THE DREAM I HAD LAST NIGHT
(Mammatus clouds, photograph by Carsten Peter)
I went home and began frantically packing. My roommate was there, Renee, with whom I had only that week become lovers. I was desperately in love with her and didn't want to be separated from her. But neither of us could afford her plane fare.
In the prior year, I had come out to my family as an incest and abuse survivor at the hands of my older brother Craig. It was still completely raw. Further, Daddy had said Craig was driving to Dallas from San Antonio and would be there when I arrived. I was terrified about the meeting.
At the gate, I was the last to board, clinging to Renee. The gate attendant, a woman, seemed very moved by our embraces. I cried "I don't know how I'll be able to sleep without you."
"Here" said Renee, pulling off her flannel shirt and then the T-shirt underneath, leaving her bare-chested in the middle of SFO. "Take my T-shirt and put it on your pillow, it smells like me. I'll be here when you get back." I walked backwards onto the plane, clutching her smell talisman, as she stood there half-naked making the "I love you" sign at me.
Mama was in surgery at that point, and I might never see her alive again.
In Dallas, my heart plummeted when I saw waiting for me at that gate not Daddy but my little brother Bill. Bill and I had not yet made our peace with one another, and he was frequently caustic about anything to do with my life. He was massive, furious, a heavy smoker and usually high.
He said when he'd left the hospital, Mama was still in surgery, no word. We didn't have much else to say to each other. Once in his pickup, he put on loud headbanger music and lit a cigarette. I opened my window which didn't help enough. He was driving way too fast, grinding gears and riding people's asses, flipping them off if he didn't like how they looked or drove. I stuffed Renee's shirt into my pack to keep it from the cigarette smoke and closed my eyes.
I opened them again when Bill said gruffly "Craig is there."
"Daddy said he was coming."
"I told him to stay away from you."
I turned to look at Bill. "What?"
He didn't meet my gaze. His face was stony. "I told him to not even try to talk to you, or else he'd have me to deal with. I'm taller than him now, you know, I can take him and he knows it. He won't bother you again."
I was gobsmacked. In that instant, everything shifted. I remembered how Bill had stood, a toddler, pounding at the locked door behind which Craig was telling me to suck him off or else he'd bring Bill into the room too and I'd have to watch what he did to Bill. Craig took my "cooperation" as proof that I really wanted what he did to me. On a deep gut level, Bill knew what I'd done for him all the years until Craig finally left the house. His guilt about it was part of the gulf between us. In one move, he'd now paid me back and become the protector against our family monster.
Finally I said "Thank you." He grunted in reply.
There was a small waiting room off the ICU and that's where we found Daddy. He eas agitated, said Mama had done okay in the surgery but they couldn't get her to wake up. Without acknowledging Bill or asking me anything, he grabbed my hand and began pulling me into a semi-lit room with a circle of beds and machines in the center. Nurses tried to stop him but he pushed past them, saying "This is my daughter, she just flew in from California, she has to see Jo."
Mama looked terrible, flaccid, pale, her hair dirty. Daddy touched her hand and said "Honey, Maggie is here. Please wake up, it's Maggie." He put my hand on Mama's, which felt icy. I took it between my palms to warm it and began talking to her. I wanted to tell her about Renee, about being in love in a new way, but I couldn't. Still, in less than a minute her eyelids flickered open and she tried to focus on me. Her lips were dry and she could only whisper "Maggie? You're here?"
Daddy yelled "Yes!" and then almost jeered at the approaching nurse "I knew it would work." I was separated from Mama by medical personnel then, moving in to care for her. Daddy had already left the room, to trumpet his success in the waiting room. I followed slowly, drained.
Craig was sitting on a couch. He looked old and terrified, and I realized in that instant how pathetic he had always been. My fear of him evaporated. Also in the room was Daddy's brother, Vern, and his oldest and youngest sons, Barney and Fay Thomas. Six Barnett men and me. I said hello to everyone, even Craig, and he said hello back without looking at me. I winked at Bill and got a grin from him.
That was a major turning point in my life. Of course, I didn't sail through it perfectly. I slipped away to a phone down the hall whenever I could to call Renee and draw sustenance from her, and I was heroic in helping my mother start her new, good-heart existence. But once I got home, I shut down and couldn't let Renee touch me sexually. I refused to face my terror, and instead played dreadful mind games on her, eventually going off for a weekend of fucking with a woman I picked up at a poetry reading. Renee waited on me six months and then left forever.
But I did keep working on the damage. Bill and I regained our connection and the intimacy we had had as small children. Mama had three more good years before she died, and there was nothing left unsaid between us when she did die. And I apologized to Renee, though I don't believe she heard it, really.
Last night I dreamed I was camping on a wild, stunningly beautiful coast with my father, brothers, that uncle and those two cousins. A storm was coming in and I knew it would send waves over our flimsy tents. I tried to tell them reasonably that we had to move, but they wouldn't listen. Finally I yelled at them that we were leaving and began throwing gear into the van.
I drove us to a kind of rough hostel with an open air kitchen. We had enough food for one meal. I decided I would make a feast and then leave forever. It was up to them to eat or survive after that. I started pinto beans to soak, cooked rice, began cutting up a chicken. I was starting on the panzanella when I woke up.
Below is a poem I wrote about that surgical aftermath.
AFTER THE BYPASS II
After the bypass, when Mama finally
came out of ICU and went into
a private room, every time
she moved, she winced
The veins they'd used to replumb her chest
came from unholy mining of her thighs
Her chest itself was Frankensteinian
Pried open like a mussel, then
wired back shut with stainless steel
She wanted to see. She wanted to know
what had been done to her. I helped her
sit up, folded back the sheets, looked
at her legs first. No wonder it hurts
My brothers stood up and went to the window
Talked stiffly to each other as if we were not there
She said "You'll have to untie this gown
in the back," and at that my father
walked out the door
We traced the red faultline with
my hand over her fingers, warm flesh
laced by cold metal
She sighed, and lay back down
I covered her up as she slept
© Maggie Jochild, 11 May 2006, 8:50 p.m.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
PYA: CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
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)
Owl Manage on Saya Island, original plans
Saya Island Eastern End After Development
Map of Pya with Description of Each Island
Map of Skene (but not Pya)
Map of Saya Island and Environs When Pyosz First Arrived
Map of Saya Island, Teppe and Pea Pods Environs After Development
Skene Character Lineage at Midway Through Pya Novel
Skene, Chapter One (With Cultural Notes in Links)
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
Mrebbe grumbled a little when Thleen asked for the week before Mchele Fair off, as well as the week of, so she could go to Adon's partnering ceremony in Skene, but the timmer acquiesced. She was much more cranky when Thont decided she had to travel to Skene that week as well.
Pava at first opposed the idea of Thont leaving, accurately blaming it on Thont's unwillingness to be separated from Thleen for even a week, no matter how much Thont tried to claim she wanted to see her emma and sibu again. Vants pointed out that Thava getting to see Thont as she was now, after only a month away, newly muscled with clear bronzed skin and refreshed manners, would do much to persuade the emma to relinquish another child to Pya. Pava relented but insisted Thont actually visit her family while in Skene instead of tagging after Thleen. Vants bought Thont some new clothes, including a set of silks, and loaded her down with gifts for her emma from Pyas's midsummer largesse.
Thleen herself was more concerned about missing a week of practice stilt-walking and rehearsal with Tu and Pank's theater troupe. She had landed two walk-on roles this year, her first time on stage, and in one brief appearance she actually had a line. Pyosz began to feel that if she had to listen to one more interpretation of "The rice harvest is feared to be scant this year", she'd faint from ennui.
Prl reported that lodging was proving hard to find. Speranz had generously offered a cot in the tiny room which had once been Yoj's study, and Prl accepted that for herself. Maar and Pyosz wanted a private room in a bucky where there was also space for the little ones, Su, and Thleen, and this was eventually found on Verzin. Thleen was assigned the bunk over that of the little ones, with Su on one side to help keep watch. When Thont indicated she hoped to sleep in the bucky as well, Maar surprised Thleen by saying Thont could share her bed, then. She later grinned at Pyosz "Between all the onlookers and the excitement of her sibus, Thleen won't be able to get up tp much with Thont."
"Sleeping together will be feverish enough" predicted Pyosz.
The day of the flight, Maar went into a cold sweat about how many family members she would be responsible for piloting the huolon, even with all the elders staying home at Owl Manage. She pulled Su and Thleen aside and gave them such dire instructions about who to rescue if the craft went down that Thleen found herself unable to focus on practicing her line once they took off.
After they reached altitude, Merrl began crying, then shrieking in real pain. "It's her ears" Prl said, "it's very hard on babies." Maar looked like she wanted to turn over the stick to Abbo and crawl back to somehow fix it, although Prl had Merrl on a bottle and it wasn't helping. Finally, after half an hour, she began trying to convey the process of blowing out ear pressure to Merrl, promising a piece of cake if she could manage it. It took another 20 minutes before Merrl more or less accidentally pulled it off. She looked as relieved as everyone else. Cake was distributed, and Merrl barely managed to down hers before falling asleep, exhausted, against Prl's chest.
Qux had the window seat with Pyosz and while daylight lasted, she pointed out every Morrie Strati they passed, looking at Pyosz with a troubled face. As they hit darkness, her attention transferred to the illuminated instrument panel. Pyosz passed her up to Maar, who explained every button and light pointed to by Qux's pudgy finger, then let Qux "fly" the huolon for a while.
The time on Skene was hectic and, for Pyosz, jarring without the Genist Manage as home base and all the changes evident at her abbas' former Manage. Qux was intoxicated by the bustle and the numbers of people. She bonded quickly with Adnes, whom Pyosz belatedly realized had the same uncontrollable hair as Maar and Qux. Merrl aimed her brash charm at Dru, who astonished Maar by responding with patience and humor.
Su and Thleen were very dapper in the new outfits Maar had bought for them, and Maar didn't interrupt when Su captivated a crowd at the post-partnering party with an embellished version of her speedboat race with levs. The next day, Dru and Adnes offered to take the two little ones on a tour of Chloddia's main mines. Pyosz felt fear hit her stomach but Maar instantly said "What a wonderful treat, you two will love it." Thleen accomapnied them, and after they left, Maar told Pyosz "It's a rare thing to have a family visit, they'll have a big fuss made over them." She looked gratified, and Pyosz swallowed her misgivings.
After their return, Qux climbed into Pyosz's arms and said "We was way down in the ground, aggie."
"How exciting for you" said Pyosz, looking into her liquid eyes. "You know, your ancestors have been doing the important work of mining for Skene since people first arrived here. You have 500 years of their blood in your veins, I'm very glad for you." As she hugged Qux, she saw Adnes watching her, eyes filled with tears, but Adnes looked away as Pyosz noticed her.
When it became clear that Dru and Adnes were flying back to Pya with them, both little ones began a campaign to have their new abbas live with them permanently. Merrl offered them her room, or even better, trotted out her frequently expressed idea that all mattresses be piled in the hall and everybody sleep together, her at the center. Qux said if they'd rather sleep "down in the ground", there was a rock shelter right next door, which got a big laugh from Dru. Pyosz explained that Su was moving out to the cabin and the visitors were being given her room, next to Thleen's. Which got a small wince from Thleen that Pyosz didn't miss.
During the climb, Abbo taking the first leg, Maar pulled Merrl up with her to nurse, but this didn't work any better than a bottle had. After another half hour of abortive attempts to clear her ears, Maar agitatedly handed her back to Prl, who eventually managed the trick again. Merrl lay her tear-stained face on Prl's neck and said "No more flying, 'kay, abba?"
"All right, my darling, not until your ears are as big as siba's and won't hurt you up here" answered Prl. Merrl said softly enough that only Prl heard "You my best abba, abba", melting Prl to her seat.
Adnes and Dru were very silent as they banked over Pya in morning light and landed in Koldok. They remained quiet and close to each other riding the ferry to Saya, with its glinting sign, greeted by all the elders at the dock. Pyosz thought it might be the expanse of the island and the size of Owl Manage, or simply the evidence of plenty everywhere. Maar showed them to their room, and Pyosz made a pitcher of cherry-ade, urging glasses on all the travelers to help with the time lag. They sat around the table, eating from the spread Yoj and Qala had prepared, telling stories about their visit.
Thleen offered to give her emmas a tour of the rest of Saya, and after hesitating, they agreed. Qux and Merrl clamored to go along. Pyosz conferred with Maar: "They could use a nap but I don't know if we can get them down right now." Adnes said, "Oh, do let them come" and Maar said "Of course. Thleen, go get towels in case any of you want to soak in the hot springs." Out of earshot, Qala told Thleen "Inform but don't brag."
Su vanished, either to her cabin or back to Koldok. The rest of them distributed gifts from Skene, gossip and letters, staying at the table and helping themselves to more corn chowder from the tureen.
The visitors returned after more than hour with damp hair and Qux squalling from a beesting she'd just received beside the porch. Lawa swiftly treated it, and Pyosz said "Now we lay down for a rest, both of you with me." Dru said "We'd like a nap as well, if that's all right." Thleen expressed her need for rehearsal and headed for Herne.
After escorting her emmas to their room again, Maar came to join Pyosz, the four of them jostled comfortably in a pool of afternoon sunshine. Pyosz forgot to set her alarm and they slept until Thleen came to call them for dinner. The downstairs was full of Pea Podders and Koldok family, and it looked like Dru and Adnes had only just gotten up as well. The variety of food and talk of Mchele Fair events seemed to keep them at ease. Thleen cajoled them into the twilight out front to see a demonstration of her stilt-walking, and Su returned in time to eat, with oil stains on her kalsongers.
During the music afterward, Yoj and Dodd both kept asking the Chloddians for songs they'd heard growing up. Once Adnes was convinced their curiosity was genuine, she began dredging tunes from her memory, and eventually Dru joined her. Dodd was able to grab each melody quickly -- many of them seemed ideal for fiddle -- and Qala's memory was sparked as well. Pyosz was sure these would become new fare at Pya dances. Thleen sang loudly and on key, though often got words wrong. The expression on her face, and on Maar's, made Pyosz want to weep.
The next morning, Maar was gone by the time her emmas got up. Su and Thleen both ate hasty breakfasts, rushing off to set up the carnival and create sets respectively, so it was left to Pyosz and the rest to usher the visitors into Mchele Fair. As they met up with other family, the buffer of friendly faces helped with what must have felt like overwhelm to them. Pyosz kept telling them with funny self-deprecation about her own first encounters with Mchele Fair as Pya did it, explaining everything they encountered, and the little ones' over-the-top enthusiasm was also a place for Dru and Adnes to focus. Ngall's children were openly jealous about their cousins' sudden conjuring of new abbas.
When they reached the carnival, Su, wearing only a revealing maillot on her sweaty torso and sporting a rakish hat, shoved a fistful of ride tickets at them and insisted they try everything. Her emmas gamely followed through, taking the little ones on anything safe for their small size, and they laughed like children themselves. Pyosz sat out everything but the giant wheel, for which she claimed Qux and Merrl as her seatmates. Qux babbled as they rose into the air about her own beloved toy, how it was just like this for the tiny figures which rode it.
Despite the harnesses, Pyosz kept a death grip on her babies, not quite enjoying herself as she once had, and wondered when she had gotten to be such an old fogey. Once back on the ground, she bolted for the nearest privy and threw up her breakfast. Qala got her a ginger soda and Prl used her scarf to wash Pyosz's face, but she felt much better after the purge.
As Thleen declared every year, it was the best Mchele Fair yet. Pyosz and Yoj won a black ribbon for their coconut cream pie with date-caramel drizzle, Qala also won a black for her lime-onion chutney, and Herne Island's smoked honey-glazed ham won a green ribbon. One of Kacang's wines came in second at the wine tasting, and yarn from Vants' fiber goats was the talk of the textiles tent.
Thleen was stretched in so many directions, she barely noticed Ziri and Xoan walking arm in arm everywhere. Though she did look after them sadly sometimes, Pyosz observed, and she also thought she saw Ziri frowning several times at how Thont laughed gaily at everything Thleen said, or played intimately with the baubles in Thleen's hair.
They had an early dinner from foodstalls before the theatricals. Thleen was barely eating, and Su said casually "That line you got about the rice harvest being scant? I was thinking about how funny it would be if you got flustered and instead say -- " She uttered the Skene word for dripping with pus, which was only one letter different from the word for scant. Color drained from Thleen's face.
Pyosz reached over and smacked the side of Su's head, her partnership ring making an audible thunk on Su's skull. Su went rigid in shock, and Pyosz said "Pick on Maar but not Thleen. What she's doing is admirable." Adnes and Dru burst into laughter, and then everyone else joined in, even Su. Later when their theater troupe finally won the black ribbon, Thont said to Thleen "It's because you're performing with them now." Which was not the case -- Thleen had done a creditable job for her small bits, but it was Tu's rendition of the leading role which swept through the audience.
Thleen was also on second string for the Koldok kickball team, which impressed her emmas more than anything else. She didn't actually get any time on the field and they came in fourth this year, but the celebration afterward flowed as if they were champions.
Dru had been fascinated with the goat herd, and she asked to accompany Pyosz and Maar as they hopped back to Saya on the last day of Mchele Fair to get Killer, her kid Peril, and the two small wains. The larger of the wains, pulled by Killer, had been fitted by Lawa with a seat to hold Qux. A similar secure rig had been attached to the front of Halling's scooter to hold Merrl. but Pyosz predicted once the parade was underway. Merrl would realize Qux's conveyance was the more attention-grabbing and throw a tantrum. She said "Tough beans, she's too little to ride in a goat-cart yet."
Dru remained with Pyosz at the animal pens, holding Peril in her arms to calm her. They didn't talk much but Pyosz had become very comfortable with both of Maar's emmas. A distraught sheep in the pen directly beside them released a loud and noxious fart, and they laughed together for quite a while.
The Saya Island contigent marched early in the line-up because several of them were also walking elsewhere in the parade. Dru and Adnes lined up behind Maar and Pyosz with the goats, and they were flanked by Su and Thleen, beaming with family pride. Pyosz loved hearing children shout "Look, it's Killer!" as they came into view. Once their stroll was over, Adnes and Dru carried the little ones into the stands while Halling, Yoj, Prl and Nioma went to join the Polytechnic throng and Thleen rushed for the parade finale. Maar and Pyosz sat at the side of the speaker's circle, feeding treats to Killer and Peril while having a good view of Maar's emmas.
There was a reprise this year of the owl demonstration by some of Ulcha's kin from Chwet, and Pyosz saw the sick horror on Adnes's face. Not her little ones, though; they were unafraid and animated. She thought she could make out Qux's gleeful words, "That owl's not as big as ours on Saya." She repeated it to Maar, who grinned "Good thing they take after you in that regard."
Uli and Qoj marched with Cawl Fe, carrying hand drums to swell their percussion, and afterward they sat down in the dirt beside Maar and Pyosz. Dou and Arta Island marched together, but Kacang, Gisantes, Herne and Teppe each had their own contingent. Pava peeled away to parade again with her ejida crew, and Pyosz motioned for Thont to come join them. This whole fair, she had been moved by people recognizing Thont, crying out "Look, it's Poth's child, how much you've grown, we've so missed you!"
The final band were the bagpipers, tuba and rest from Cogio. As their thrum and skirl filled the parade ground, Pyosz could see the stilt-walkers above the gates at the far end. Thleen gave her a discrete wave. Pyosz had painted her mask for her, a metallic green dragon breathing fire with polished copper eyes, and it shone brilliantly in the sun.
Thleen claimed the inside rail as they gamboled in, her youthful energy carrying her a few strides ahead. She lunged at friends in the stands, who screamed and dodged in spite of themselves. As she approached her emmas and sibus, Dru's expression was one of complete disbelief. But Qux cried out "It's siba!" and reached forward to touch her fingertips to the talons at the ends of Thleen's multijointed limbs. Thleen tossed a shower of red confetti over them before moving on.
At the end, as the others vanished through the gates. Thleen sat down on a fence to unbuckle all her extensions and mask, stripping down to shorts and a maillot. She was soaked in sweat, her face beet red, and the emergence of a near-child from a stilt-walker persona inflamed the ambitions of every child avidly watching her in the stands. Pyosz noticed Ziri's eyes were also locked on Thleen. Thleen plopped down beside Thont, keeping her bright gear carefully away from Killer's mouth, and Thont planted a brief but daring kiss right on Thleen's mouth.
Two of the bagpipers had stayed behind, playing nearby, and their music now changed to a high-pitched drone. Thleen asked urgently "Where's Su, I want to see her face for this?" and Maar pointed her out in the stands, sitting among the carny folk with whim she'd also marched.
The far gate swung open with a crash, and a speedboat roared into the parade ground, its engine clearly audible in the bagpipe shriek. The "driver" was actually standing in a light papier-mache craft, her running legs providing all the locomotion but concealed by a seafoam drape underneath the hull. She tacked from one side to the other as there emerged behind her, in hot pursuit, a life-size leviathan, its dentrifigous maw agape, its rows of eyes flashing with malevolent light.
The entire stands either screamed or gasped. The lev's velocity was terrific, again provided my many running women inside the slimy torso and concealed by a wave-like curtain below. The body did not actually spiral like a real lev but that perception was provided by rotating sections of the trunk with Thleen later told them were extremely difficult to operate while at a full gallop.
The speedboat managed to elude the monster time and time again, once circling back behind it and running up the other side. Pyosz stole a glance at Su, who looked disturbed for reasons Pyosz didn't entirely trust. Pyosz had been keeping Peril's face pressed to her bosom, while Killer had so far managed every sight with relative aplomb that Pyosz suspected was a mix of emma bravery and having seen Thleen practicing in the pasture. Now, however, Killer gave a strangled bleat and Maar pulled her into her lap, covering Killer's face with her own cap.
Finally, in a cloud of dust, the speedboat escaped through the far gates. and as the levi kept up the chase, the bagpipes slowly died, to a thick silence broken here and there by a baby crying. Merrl, mashed against Dru's chest, was not weeping but she looked like she might at any moment. Qux looked directly at Pyosz, who forced a silly grin to her face and made the sign of "what a joke", relaxing Qux's squared shoulders.
Mill later said that not only had there never been a leviathan portrayed in any way at the Mchele Fair, there was an unspoken taboo against it. This time the puppeteers felt current events eked out an allowance for their depiction, although Halling said drily she was certain any family who had lost someone to the levs, or come close, would have gone home with a sick taste in their mouths. Pyosz wondered what on Skene the Chloddians would make of it all. And it was a huge secret Thleen had managed to keep, which was also something to think about.
The next day, Dru came to watch the milking and go with Pyosz on her delivery. She periodically asked questions about one of her children which Pyosz felt revealed some pain at the distance between them. Adnes went fishing with Thleen and the others at the point, then ferried with Thleen to Teppe to watch her at her timmer job for an hour.
Thleen took her afternoon break so she could be at the jichang to see her emmas off with the rest of the family. Dru and Adnes gave long hugs, appearing distressed at Merrl's wails and Qux's confused weeping. Maar ran the checklist with Abbo, no doubt irritating Abbo but Maar felt guilty about not flying her emmas home. They were handed a loaded hamper and waved off until all sounds of the engine were gone to the northwest. Maar then wheeled and flung her arms around Pyosz, sobbing onto her shoulder "My aggie, my aggie!" Thleen pressed into them, also starting to cry, and Pyosz waved Su in as well. That night at dinner. Pyosz thanked her family for their open-handed welcome and, breaking down herself, for never making her doubt how much she was loved all her life.
A few days later, Qala got up as Maar and Pyosz were finishing breakfast and told them quietly that she needed to accompany Thleen to the clinic before work.
"What's wrong?" demanded Maar as Pyosz said "I can take her when I do my delivery." Qala chose her words, saying "Her ginny is infected."
"What do you mean?" said Maar, half rising from her chair before Qala waved her back down.
"She has an inflammation around her hood that's showing signs of pus" said Qala. "I think it needs at least an antibiotic cream. It's quite painful and she's mortified about it, and she asked me to help her deal with it."
"How did she get an infection there?" challenged Maar. "Did she catch something from -- somebody?"
Pyosz turned and looked at the stairwell, wondering if Thleen was eavesdropping.
"No, she got this entirely on her own. From overuse of the area" said Qala, allowing herself to grin a little. "Which tells us worlds about what she's not doing with -- somebody."
Pyosz put her hand over her mouth to muffle a giggle, remembering periods during her own adolescence when she had needed inordinate amounts of time alone behind a locked door. Maar said softly "Poor little dummy. Thanks for doing this, Qala. Let us know how it goes."
"She didn't want me to tell you too, but I said I had to" added Qala. "Please don't take it any further."
"Of course" said Pyosz. Thont did not come home with Thleen for dinner that evening, and Thleen went to bed early after a long soak in the tub.
A month after school started again, Frank delivered her baby with the help of a comadrona and several family members on Herne Island. Once the child was swaddled and had eaten, Ulcha daubed blue on her forehead and carried her outside to present her to the four directions, singing something Pyosz was sure she'd never heard. They named her Chank. She had Pank's skin color, Frahe's curls, and a tiny blue spot on her lower back in the shape of a carrot.
That night, Maar inspected Pyosz's belly as she did every night and said "You are really showing."
"Two more months" said Pyosz. She added "I want you to wean Merrl before the new baby arrives."
"Why?" asked Maar. "It's my milk. not yours."
"I don't want to contend with Merrl demanding to nurse me as well" said Pyosz. "And I don't want to see Qux's face when she's the only child being denied. Plus it's just time, Maar."
After a minute, Maar said "All right" in sad resignation.
The autumnal slaughter this year felt newly hard to Pyosz because of being pregnant. Killing bucklings who had had only a few months on Saya was a betrayal to their emmas, she was sure. She sent two of the frozen carcasses to her Chloddia kin in expiation. As was their custom, she and Vants sat down to a day of planning next year's breeding with Nioma the weekend after slaughter, making sure the space they had just bought in blood went to maximum use.
As she got waddly in her walk, as she thought of it, she began spending time each afternoon on Herne with Frank and Chank, holding the new baby while her tired emma either napped or caught up on chores. She felt tugs in her breasts when she looked down at the tiny face trying to focus on her.
Mill reported each visit to Nastere revealed several untouched carcasses of crabs, shu, and seabeaks scattered on the beach near Su's speedboat. Maar hectored Su in for a complete check-up with Briel, who said she was extrenely fit but she wouldn't recommend trying to get pregnant for several years. Su snorted at the very idea.
Nevertheless, Mill and Halling conferred with the rogue gakusha about her idea of creating pipe barriers filled with dhakin as reef supplements. As long as the pipes didn't contact cortices used for kelp collection or abutt crab colonies, the radiation dispersed by water flowing over the toxic pipes would be swiftly dispersed by strong currents running through the Pea Pods. Oby wrote a proposal to try the pipes between Teppe and Saya, which would come up for a vote at midwinter. The faryaste between Isola Fling and Yanja in Skene copied the wording for a similar trial along her shaky morrie vaseo.
Thont was allowed to remain in Pya but "only if she gets her grades all the way up and stays out of trouble" Thava reluctantly conceded, "and I may change my mind". As the autumn term progressed, Thleen occasionally went on outings with other classmates that didn't include Thont. Pyosz and Maar raised their eyebrows at each other when they heard this, but didn't pry. Xoan resumed her once-good friendship with Thont but Ziri remained cool toward her.
As midwinter approached, one Moja Pyosz was in her studio working when Thleen burst in from school, looking turbulent. "Where's Qala, she's not in the greenhouse" she said urgently.
"She went to the rock shelter to bring in the oldest preserves for us to use up. What's -- " but Thleen was already gone. Neither Qala or Thleen reappeared until shortly before dinner, where Thleen showed signs of having been crying for quite a while. Maar decided not to chastise her for failing to do her chores. After the meal, Prl took her to the study for homework help, and Qala motioned Maar and Pyosz into her room.
"She begged me not to tell anyone, but..." began Qala. Her voice was very serious and Pyosz sat down on the bed. A small voice outside the door said querulously "Aggie, let me in!"
Maar went to the door and denied Merrl entrance. Lawa came to pick her up as she began crying. Once they were settled again, Qala said "On Sju, when we all flew to Doimoi to look over recycled materials for various projects? But Xoan said she had an upset stomach and stayed here on the couch?"
Maar nodded. She'd had the idea of building a play sinner for the little ones to go alongside The Saya out front. Pank and Lawa were collaborating with her on the construction.
Qala rubbed her hands together. "Well, The Heaps also had an outing that day to visit cousins on Dvareka, except Ziri claimed a stomach ache and remained home. Xoan went over there and...today it was all over their grade, that they'd had sex. Real sex, as Thleen put it."
"At fourteen?" Pyosz was horrified. "And Xoan is a Y, do they even know yet if she's fertile?"
"All I know is what I've just told you. Thleen was as upset as I've ever seen her, and I levvin' can't blame her" said Qala. "She said it was all Ziri's plan."
"I can believe it" said Pyosz. "Which one of those two spilled the beans, I wonder?"
"We have to tell" said Maar grimly. "Nioma and the Kacang elders, they have to be told."
"And Dodd" added Pyosz. "I understand Thleen not wanting to be a snitch, but this is too dangerous to keep quiet."
"Agreed" said Qala. "How about if you go tell Prl, let her call Nioma? I'll ride over and speak with Ko, she and I are good friends."
"I'll go talk with Thleen" said Maar, straightening her shoulders. "This is going to be messy." She stopped on her way to the door when Pyosz said "I'm so relieved it's not Thleen -- that Ziri decided to experiment elsewhere. Because Thleen would never have said no to her. Not Ziri." They all looked at each other in silent communion before heading out for their various difficult conversations.
(Copyright 2010 Maggie Jochild.)
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