Allotropes (an Ell Donsaii story #8) (19 page)

The door opened on a dour woman who looked Viveka up and down. “You’re looking for the housekeeping position?”

Viveka nodded.

The woman sniffed, “Why aren’t you wearing a sari?”

“I’m a student at IIT and don’t have any saris any more.”

The woman rolled her eyes and didn’t invite Viveka inside. “I need someone with a flexible schedule. Students are always having to attend class. Give me your number, I
might
call you back.”

Dismayed Viveka gave the woman the number to her mobile, hoping she didn’t call when Viveka had so few minutes available. She memorized the woman’s number so she could recognize it and avoid answering unless desperate, then turned her phone off to be sure.

At the next house a cheerful woman in her late twenties opened the door with a little girl on her hip. “Hi! You’re Viveka?”

Viveka nodded, a tentative smile on her own lips as the little girl hid her face.

“Come in, come in! Let me show you around.” Viveka followed the smiling woman about the house. The family had an
entire empty room that Viveka could live in. The room was small but, so much better than living on a cot in the laundry! They couldn’t afford to pay much beyond room and board but only wanted Viveka to clean and straighten in the evenings after the children were in bed. She would do one load of laundry each evening and cook breakfast five days a week.

To Viveka’s astonishment,
she wouldn’t be expected to do errands unless paid extra and wasn’t expected to provide childcare more than one evening a week, and then only if the parents went out.

She could use their computer if the family wasn’t using it and would have her days free to attend class!

Before she left, they’d signed an agreement for Viveka to start the next day.

Viveka
left for the market in a buoyant mood.

She started back to Moman’s house in a foul temper, having been groped twice while shopping. She daydreamed of vengeance on the walk back from the market. If only there was a way to teach those men a lesson?

Perhaps spraying them with cheap perfume for their wives to smell when they got home? She retired that idea on the realization that such a man would likely take his own vengeance on her when she assaulted him with the perfume.

Viveka raised an eyebrow over a new concept. She could apply sticky signs to their backs! “I groped a woman today,” the signs would say. They could be applied gently without the man even knowing. She imagined him getting home to his wife with the sign still in place. She raised an eyebrow,
maybe I could sell the signs to other women and start a revolution?

As she opened the back door to Moman’s house
, Moman’s shrill voice grated on Viveka’s ears. “All afternoon for a trip to the market! And you aren’t answering your mobile! I had to make dinner without rice.” As Viveka set them down Moman peered into the bags, “Where’s the rice? You didn’t get rice?!”

Viveka gritted her teeth, “You didn’t give me enough money to get all these items and the rice also.”

Moman’s eyes widened, “And you couldn’t use your own money, even for a little rice?!”

Viveka narrowed her eyes, “Moman, I have forty rupees. That’s all. The change for your items without the rice was fifteen rupees.  Fifty five rupees wo
uldn’t buy even the smallest rice.”

“You’ll just have to go again after dinner.”

“I won’t. It’s not safe.”

“Pssh, it’s fine.
” She raised an eyebrow, “You’ll
go
after dinner if you want to stay here.”

Alagan had been staring at them over his dinner. “Moman, I
agree with Viveka, it
isn’t
safe for a young girl at the market after dark.”

With some satisfaction Viveka said, “It’s OK, I’m not staying here anyway.”

Alagan looked horrified. Moman narrowed her eyes, “Where are you staying?!”

“I’ve found a family to stay with. I’ll have a room instead of sleeping in the laundry. I’ll do less work than here.
They’ll
pay
me
, instead of my family having to pay them.”

Moman hissed, “What? Are you going to whore yourself to the husband?”

“No!” Viveka said, hatred in her eyes.

“Why are they
paying
you then?”

“It turns out that normal people
do
pay their housekeepers, Moman. I am so sorry for my family that I never thought to look into this before.” Disgust and loathing on her face, Viveka said, “You must feel very proud Moman, using your cousin’s child as a housekeeper and
charging
her family for the privilege. I
don’t
wish you luck finding another fool to dupe.”

Alagan turned wide eyed to Moman, “You’re
charging
her to stay here?”

Tears pouring down her face Viveka turned and went to the laundry to collect her meager belongings.
I can’t believe that I went to the market for that woman after realizing what she has been doing to my family for years! I am
such
a fool! Always trying to be so nice. Never looking out for myself.

Or for my family,
she thought with disgust, lifting her bag and turning to the door.

“Viveka!” Alagan said behind her, “Surely you aren’t going out at night!”

Huddled fearfully at the door Viveka sniffed and nodded. Voice cracking she said, “I can’t stay here.”

“You can.”

“I won’t.”

Alagan looked at her sadly for a minute and then said, “OK
then, I’ll go with you and we’ll take a taxi. I’ll stay until we’re sure they will take you in tonight.

True to his word Alagan went with her and
even had the taxi stop at a street vendor where he bought Viveka some chaat for dinner. Then he stayed until he could be sure her new family had taken her in. Before he left, he pressed a bundle of rupees into her hand and said, “If something happens, come back. If I had known that Moman was charging you I would have put a stop to it years ago.”

Viveka nodded
, a frog in her throat. She felt immensely grateful to have a backup place to live and a little money to start her new life.

***

As Keldap stalked in to see Sigwald, Querlak found herself pulled into TS with Keldap again. Her point of view moved around as Keldap examined Sigwald from all sides, wondering at the fact that Sigwald didn’t seem to have changed at all in the weeks since they had bound him to the wall of the repair shed. They had expected a frenzied response to the immobilization but such a response hadn’t evinced itself.

Sigwald hadn’t even asked for food, which Querlak thought must mean that
Sigwald was a robot.

Finally Keldap said, “Are you ready to tell us how to get to the stars?”

As he had several times in the past few weeks, Sigwald said only, “No,”

Keldap’s temper boiled up and for a moment Querlak thought he would do Sigwald
some harm. But a push from the TS calmed him. The TS had concluded that it had no reason to rush. Sigwald couldn’t go anywhere. Rather than trying to harm Sigwald, imprisoning him until he broke from hunger or boredom would be the best strategy. Eventually and reluctantly Keldap said, “We can afford to wait a very long time. You
will
tell us eventually.”

Querlak wondered to herself if that were true.
The rest of the TS hadn’t seemed to take any notice of her observation that Sigwald hadn’t eaten and what that might mean. Although such immobilization would break a sigma, if Sigwald was a robot he might have almost infinite patience. Then the TS dropped away and Querlak lost the processing power she had been using. As her intelligence dropped, so did her interest in the question.

***

Andrea guided the young couple up the steps to one of her rental properties. “You are making the honeymoon?” she asked, using her own English.

“Yes,” the pretty young woman said. “Though our wedding was actually in May. We had some other things going on then, so July was a better time to get away.”

Andrea glanced admiringly at the young woman’s tousled blond and oh so handsome husband. “Well, here. Now you see this is your little apartment. The room with the bed is in there… Here I show you… over here is small kitchen. I can show you a small market if you want buy food. But, Venice is famous for its cafés and restaurants. Is
easy
eating out all the time here.”

“We’ll probably eat out most of the time but we don’t speak much Italian. Do the people here accept AI translation?”

“Oh, don’t be worried. Most of the selling people speak fair well English. Those who not, they not complain about AI translation.” Andrea knew that there were always a few people who would be rude to tourists who didn’t speak Italian. But, competition to sell had been slowly driving those people out of the tourist businesses for years. Most sales people gratefully used AI translation nowadays. Andrea tried to use her own English because she hoped it provided a personal touch, though she felt pretty sure that people would understand her better if she just spoke her native Italian and let her guests’ AIs translate her words for them.

Once Andrea had shown them the rest of the features of the small apartment they had rented
for the next several weeks she took them back out to the street. “I point out some features of the neighborhood?”

“Oh, yes please.”

Andrea showed them to the nearby Campo Santo Stefano. From there she gave them general directions to the Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti, to the Galleria D’Arte Contini, and the Fiorella Gallery as well as pointing out her favorite cafés and shopping. She put a hand on Ell’s arm, “A caution?”

Ell frowned, “Yes?”

“Is safe here but…” at this point she launched into Italian which Allan translated for Ell. “Recently there have been some… young hooligans stealing packages. You may know that in the past there were criminals called pickpockets. When people carried actual money they would take your wallet surreptitiously without your notice. Now that almost everyone is using digital money, at least here, those kinds of people are taking things you bought. They watch shoppers. If they see you buy something expensive, then they bump into you and snatch the bag or package from your hands. They are gone
very
quickly. Sometimes they are able to take it without you even knowing it’s gone, like a pickpocket used to work. Other times, you know it’s gone but they are vanished around a corner and you cannot catch them. Because they usually are able to do this so the victim’s AI doesn’t see their faces, the police haven’t been able to catch them yet.” She shrugged, “Even
if
your AI, or a friend’s records them, they wear hats and disguise their faces… So I am warning you, if you buy expensive items? Protect those packages.”

Ell shrugged, “OK.”

Andrea looked at Shan, “She not worried?”

He grinned and raised an eyebrow, “No, but I don’t think they’ll get anything from ‘Raquel.’”

Shan rolled over on the bed. Bright light poured in the window hurting his eyes. Squinting he looked around.

Ell sat across the room in front of a schematic on the room’s big screen. “Hey sleepy head.” She grinned at him, “That thar big bad jet lag knock you on your ass?”

“Jeez!” he grumbled, “I feel hung over!
Why are there bright lights outside the window?”

“Those lights,” she giggled, “are our friend the sun. It’s nine AM here in Venice.”

“Aw man, what time is it back home?” he asked, eyes squinched shut.

“Three AM.”

“So, when we went to bed at…?”

“One AM last night.”

“It was…?”

“Seven PM back home. But you
were all tired out ‘cause you didn’t sleep very well on the flight over.”

“Arggh! I thought all those people who complained about jet lag were a bunch of wussies.”

Ell snorted, “They are…
And
you’re one of ‘em boyo. You need to get your butt up or you’re never gonna get onto Italian time!”

“Hey!” Shan glared at her with one eye held partly open. “I thought you were supposed to be sweet and loving on our honeymoon?”

Ell laughed again, “I thought you were supposed to sweep me off my feet and entertain me, not lay around in bed like a lump of lard!”

“OK, OK. I’ll sweep, I’ll sweep,” Shan said, getting out of bed. “Let me take a shower.” He squinted at Ell again, “How come you look so fresh?”

“‘Cause
I’m
stalwart and
non
-wussy,” she grinned at him.

“Now I’m
starving
,” Shan said as they got to the bottom of the stairs leading out of their little apartment. “We just going to the first café we see?”