Half Share (30 page)

Chapter 22

DUNSANY ROADS ORBITAL
2352-APRIL-18

The Dunsany Roads flea market was something else. The influence of the cotton and flax fields below were immediately apparent. Lightweight fabrics abounded. Several booths featured yarns and cordage of both flax and cotton fibers. There were bolts of fabric in both solids and various weaves including checks and stripes.

“What are we looking for?” Brill asked.

“Normal stuff. Low mass, high value. Pip said there was a small silk industry here in addition to the cotton and flax.”

“Silk scarves? Ties?”

“Yeah, those would be good. I think.”

We wandered through the maze of booths for over a stan before we came to the ship’s booth. Rhon Scham wore the Booth Boss button and grinned when she saw us coming.

“Hi, Rhon,” Brill greeted her with a small wave. “How’s business?”

“We’re down to the end here. I don’t think we’ll open tomorrow unless somebody comes out of the woodwork. Sean and Tabitha came up earlier selling the last of the shawls and afghans. The shawls went very well and Sean seemed real pleased. He paid his cap. We’ve had several people up here today selling like crazy.”

I thought of the stones in Pip’s locker and wondered if they would sell on Betrus. It was not worth opening the booth just for them.

Rhon turned to me and asked, “You shopping for Betrus?”

“Yeah, I spent all my money on clothes and I’ll need to start earning it back.”

She looked me up and down frankly. “Turn around so I can see the back?”

I turned obediently and when I turned back Rhon looked a bit flushed and fanned herself with one open hand. “Enjoying yourself?” I asked archly.

“Oh, yeah. Trust me. Whatever you spent it was worth every penny.”

I chuckled. “Thanks, Rhon. But I still need to make some cash back.”

We waved and headed off down the aisle. After we’d gone about four meters, I leaned over to Brill and asked, “She’s looking, isn’t she?”

“Yup, but ya can’t blame a girl for lookin’, Ish.”

“I’m still trying to get used to being the one looked at.”

“You’re bearing up under the strain remarkably well.”

I just laughed.

“No, trust me. I have experience in this department.”

We wandered along a few more aisles. “This is so frustrating,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“It’s all the same stuff. I’ve seen this stuff in four systems now.”

“Yeah, but remember the first trip you made to the flea? All this stuff was there, too, but it was just the first time you’d seen it so it seemed new.”

I did remember my first flea market. “Boy toy,” I murmured.

“Boy toy?”

“Yeah. My first flea market was with Beverly back on Gugara. That’s where we found Drus Martin and the belts. I think I got spoiled by the success of that and I keep looking for the next Drus Martin.”

“What’s that got to do with boy toy?”

“Bev did the dickering with Drus.” I smiled at the memory. “They went back and forth and pretty quickly came up with a price. In the end, Drus told Bev, ‘Your boy toy can have the same deal if he wants’ and so we both bought the first of the belts.”

“That’s priceless.” Brill laughed.

“I thought it was terribly embarrassing at the time, but the story gets better.”

“What’s better than that?”

“Pip went back the next day and bought a big bundle of belts at a great price. In part because Drus remembered us from the previous day as, ‘tough fem with leathers and an attitude with a skinny boy toy.’ As Pip was picking out the belts, Drus was working on her bench and by the time Pip had his selections and they’d done the deal, Drus handed him a belt to give to me. It has the words ‘boy toy’ worked into the pattern.”

“You’re kidding me?”

I turned around and lifted the hem of my jacket to expose the belt. Behind me I heard Bev giggle and two other women make appreciative little
oh my
sounds.

“That wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever made, was it,” I said without turning around.

A strange woman’s voice answered, “Oh, I don’t know. I kinda liked it.”

I turned to find Brill stifling laughter behind her hand and standing beside a couple of smiling gray-haired women. One turned to the other and with a wink at Brill said, “I didn’t know this flea market had a floor show, Mary.”

“We’ll have to come more often,” the other one replied.

“Thanks,” I told them, but I fought back the urge to do my
you’ve been a wonderful audience
routine. I could not do that part just yet.

They smiled at Brill, and the one who was apparently named Mary told her, “He’s a keeper, dearie.”

“Oh, I know. I’m just trying to figure out what to keep him in.”

The not-Mary one just patted her arm and said, “Your heart, dear. Your heart.” They were still smiling as they wandered off.

“Well, you certainly made their day,” Brill said after a bit.

“Only fair.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly.

We kept moving, following in the wake of the two ladies.

Three booths later we found the batik merchant. Brill spotted it first, of course, over the heads of the crowd. His booth was draped with the most spectacular colored fabric. Bold patterns in rich colors dominated his selection. He had several variations on a bamboo theme and dozens of others. Each piece was a work of art. The vendor was a potbellied man with long, gray-streaked hair flowing down his back. He wore a tie-dyed linen shirt, simple black trousers, and the first pair of sandals I had seen since leaving Neris. He introduced himself as Chuck.

We stepped into the booth and Chuck grinned, first at Brill and then at me. “You two look like individuals of exceptional breeding and taste!”

Brill burst out laughing. “Does that line work?”

“No,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “but the laugh usually does. How can I help ya?”

“Tell me about this fabric,” she said.

“Batik is an ancient form of dying. You put wax on the raw cloth in the pattern you want, then dye the cloth. The dye soaks into the fabric where the wax isn’t. Repeat the process for each color you want to use.” He indicated the panels of fabric around him. “These are the result.”

“Can I take a few digitals of your booth?” I asked the man. “I think my partner would like to talk with you about buying a quantity of this to take out of the system to sell. I’d like him to see it.”

“Sure, mister. You want me in the picture or out of it?”

I pulled out my tablet and popped a couple of snaps off to Pip while Brill was looking at the various panels.

“These aren’t whole bolts of fabric,” she noted.

“Correct, miss,” Chuck said. “I carve up bolts because it’s a lot of work to wax, dye, wax, dye. Some days, I’m feeling lazy so I only do little pieces like these.” He pulled out a stack of pieces that were only about a half a meter square. “I think that one over there is my biggest.” He pointed out a large piece clipped to the drape at the back of his booth that had to be two meters wide and four long.

“What do people use this material for? It seems a shame to cut it up for clothing.”

“Oh, it depends,” Chuck said, warming to his subject. “Lots of people use the bigger pieces for drapes. The larger patterns and more pictorial pieces go for wall hangings. You mount a couple of them on a hinged frame and it makes a nice screen. Down below these smaller pieces get made into throw pillows. Some of the smaller patterns actually work pretty well as skirts. There are some textile grade patterns, really small stuff, that are done in big bolts that could be used for shirts, and even slacks. I don’t do those. I’m too lazy.”

Brill looked at me and I nodded. Between us we bought about eight pieces in various shapes and patterns. We took one of Chuck’s cards and I gave him Pip’s name.

When we left, I felt much better. Brill walked with something more like her old stride.

“It’s gonna be okay,” she said suddenly as we walked away from Chuck’s booth.

I looked up at her and nodded, “I think so, yeah.”

“How’d you get so worldly?”

“My mother was a lit professor. She had the wisdom of the ages in the literature that was her profession and she kept trying it out in her life. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, but she never backed down and she taught me to be the same way. She didn’t hide her pain from me. And she got hurt a lot. In spite of that, she never stopped living. She tried to teach me to see things as they are, not as I’d wish them to be, and that’s probably the hardest thing to do. I haven’t mastered it yet. Someday, maybe.”

The ping-ping-ping of the closing warning sounded across the flea market, so Brill and I headed out with the crowd and didn’t talk much all the way back to the docks. On the way from the lift to the lock, she started chuckling.

“What’s tickled your fancy this time?” I asked.

“Al.”

“I wasn’t joking.”

“I know. That’s why I’m laughing.”

“You find the notion funny?”

She shook her head. “No. I used to be on the
Hedley
with her. I’m laughing because you’re right. She’s a fascinating woman, and you knew it within just a few ticks of meeting her while most people would have dismissed her as a freak on sight.”

“No woman with that much confidence could be anything other than fascinating. I think that’s why you were so awesome the other day heading up to Henri’s. I didn’t tell you what he told me in the dressing room, did I?”

She shook her head. “No, you been holding out, you rat?”

“I’ve been rather busy the last couple of days. Cut me a little slack.”

“Well, tell me now, before we get back.”

“Well, I was standing there just wearing those little briefs.”

“Thanks, I don’t have enough problems? You had to leave me with that visual?”

“You want the story or not?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll be good,” she said contritely.

I savored the idea of just how good she might be for a heartbeat or two before continuing, “Anyway he’s got me looking at myself in the mirror and asks me who I think I am. I told him ‘just a guy.’”

“You are not just a guy!” she interrupted me.

I laughed out loud. “That’s what he said!”

“You’re kidding?”

“I’m serious. He got this little pursed-mouth expression and said something like ‘You arrive in the company of not one, but three of the most delightful and strikingly beautiful women in this end of the galaxy, and you say you’re ‘just a guy.’”

“He was just trying to suck up to you.”

“Why would Henri Roubaille feel the need to suck up to me by complimenting the women in my entourage?”

“Who you calling an entourage, buster? But you’re right, he probably wasn’t sucking up. He really thought we were beautiful?”

“No, he thought you were delightful and strikingly beautiful. That’s at least two steps up.”

“Well, that put a little spring in my step. Thanks, Ish.”

“You’re welcome.” We were almost back to the lock when I asked, “Since we’re talking about being at Henri’s, would you tell me something?”

“If I can.”

“Do you remember when I was doing up the buttons on my jeans?”

“Oh, I think I’ll remember that for a long, long time,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

I chuckled in spite of myself before continuing, “That was the point where I noticed, finally, that I’d been through at least two changes of pants without the robe. I saw it just lying there on the chair and I kinda froze for a second.”

“Oh, I remember.”

“I heard somebody from the couch make a little whimpering sound.”

She chuckled. “Yup, I remember that, too.”

“Who was it?”

“Henri’s assistant,” she said instantly. “She was standing right behind the couch.”

I laughed loudly at that. “Oh, gods, that’s funny. I thought it was either Bev or Diane.”

Brill shook her head. “No, it couldn’t have been any of us.”

“No? Why not?” I asked, amused by her certainty.

“None of us could breathe, let alone whimper.”

We were laughing as we went back through the lock.

Chapter 23

DUNSANY ROADS ORBITAL
2352-APRIL-18

Before I changed back into my shipsuit, I grabbed another quick shower to freshen up a bit. The night watch was likely to be long and I was going into it tired. I stashed my towel and civvies in my locker and the bag of whelkies caught my eye reminding me that I needed to get two more of them out. It took just a moment to pull the fox and wolf that I had spotted earlier and put them in the pocket of my suit.

The chrono said 17:30 and I slipped across the passage to deck berthing. Bev was there, getting ready to go on watch herself.

“Hey!” she said. “Good to see you survived your first night on liberty.”

Taking a closer look at my face, she asked gently, “You did survive?”

“You know how it is,” I told her and shrugged.

With a single quiet laugh she said, “Oh, yeah. You sure livened up what would otherwise have been just another boring evening.”