Unnaturals (18 page)

Hands still trembling, old Codes showed Mel how to crack and cook eggs.

Mel and the other girl cooked them in silence, while old Codes fried bread slices in another pan and poured cold milk into glasses, then the three arranged everything on a tray for Mel's Mom and Dad.

"Thank you for your help," Meliora told the girl. "Do you make breakfast for your parents, too? May I help you?"

The old woman's eyes narrowed and the girl cringed as if slapped again, though no one had touched her. A long moment of uncomfortable silence followed.

"You did nothing wrong," the girl said five minutes later. A tight-lipped old Codes had ushered them both outside with the tray, telling the girl to help Meliora this morning. "It's all my fault—or, my parents'. They were both women, you see."

"So? What about it? My name is Meliora, by the way. My interweb address... " She grew silent. It didn't matter. The interweb was too far for it to matter.

"My name is Elizabeth—Lizzy. And the answer is
decay.
"

"Lizzy, there's nothing wrong with having two women as parents. I'm a Doctor, I know how everything works—do you want me to explain?"

"You can't think like this, Meliora!" Lizzy grabbed Mel's hand. "You are better than I am! You knew you should work, even though you're new. Old Codes was impressed with you! She told you something about healing, and she doesn't even tell Belinda much, though Belle is her apprentice! You know, many years ago old Codes had an apprentice who ran away, and now she doesn't tell... But I talk so much. You don't. You should understand everything much better than I do. We all carry decay. We are
designed
to carry decay by those evil devils of cities and corporations, no matter who our parents were—but such as me are even more decayed. You can't say there is nothing wrong, Meliora, you just can't!"

Can't? She had just said it. Months or years ago, she'd have explained Lizzy's erroneous statement with people's tendency to forget what had happened a second ago. But not here. Not now. Lizzy did remember.

"So, in this city, people forbid you to say certain things," Mel said.

"Oh, Mel, please, don't let old Codes or the chief hear you say this. It is not up to
people
to forbid or allow. Those who are wise only interpret the holy scripture and advise us. No, Mel—forbidding can be, and is, only done by the gods. Besides, this is not a
city.
This is the village, the only good and right place for people in the world."

***

Meliora had read an old article about gods. It said that the gods had temples, places that people built for them. People went there to talk to the gods, though the gods didn't truly live there. She'd not been surprised. It was on old article, after all, perhaps it was old enough that there hadn't been any personal or portable computers yet. There must be common computer terminals in the temples, young Meliora had reckoned, a means for everyone to exchange messages with the gods.

There were only two computers in the temple of the Village of Life, and they were both portable, almost as small as Mel's own. Both were scratched and dusty and would have been thrown out long ago in Lucasta. The screen of one of them was cracked, and both screens were dark and lifeless.

Lizzy grabbed Mel's hand when Mel reached to take one of them.

"No, Mel! Please, take your tray to the blessing's table." She'd brought Mel for the gods' blessing of the food, she'd said. Mel's mom was supposed to say a prayer over the family's food, but she wouldn't yet know how, so Lizzy thought Mel should ask the gods to forgive Mom and bless the food themselves.

There was a small table by one of the temple's walls, across from the wall beside which the gods-communication terminals were located.

"That is the food for the gods themselves," Lizzy said. "You put yours on the empty table... No Mel!"

Meliora had started towards the computers again. There would be a way to start them, of course, a Doctor of Computers could...

"No, Mel! That side of the temple is
the devils'
side! Those things are devils! We don't go there! We just remember."

Devils? Mel had read about them, too. They were the enemies of the gods and lived under the ground with bubbling cauldrons and such, while the gods lived in the sky.

Lizzy had Mel turn her back to the computers. Mel felt foolish. How could you talk without a computer? She repeated the words of Lizzy's prayer, but the gods must have heard none of it. At least, they didn't answer.

As for the devils, according to the old article they had eyes of fire that could burn through you.
Old Codes must be a devil,
Mel thought when she and Lizzy finally opened the door to the chief's kitchen and found her waiting for them.

Old Codes tried to hit Lizzy with the broom in her hands. Meliora caught one of her elbows, saving Lizzy but earning a smack for herself.

Old Codes ordered Lizzy to go out in the fields and work until sundown, without breakfast and without stopping for lunch.

"The chief has already gone, Elizabeth!" old Codes snapped. "He couldn't wait for you, you should have come straight here as I told you! When will you learn? Now, if the chief will go without breakfast because of your negligence, and him being a man and all, this is the least you can do to understand your fault and make amends!"

"And you"—Old Codes shook her broom at Meliora. "You watch her and learn, so that you don't repeat her follies. Not that you don't have follies that she, bless her, wouldn't even dream of having, even though she's a fatherless abomination. You aren't like her, but you aren't a proper girl, either—but what to do? Few are. Go see your mother now, if
mother
she can be called. Take the food to her now, I don't need to bless it in her stead today, like I would have. That silly girl Elizabeth at least took care of that."

If mother she can be called?
What did the old hag mean?

Hag was another word for a witch, Mel remembered. She also remembered that witches used brooms to fly. Before leaving Lucasta, Mel had imagined brooms to be similar to flying bicycles.

"I wonder if you can fly with that," Mel said softly. She grabbed the tray and slipped away through the door to Mom's bedroom before old Codes could smack her again.

"Knock! You knock on a bedroom's door, girl!" an irritated old voice came from behind her. Mel swiftly closed the door an inch before old Codes' nose. Since privacy was so valued, she'd have some of it, too.

"Oh, Mel, you should not do this. It is not polite at all. Go apologize to the nice woman, please."

"This is not Lucasta, Mom!" Meliora snapped. "From what I gather, Lucasta is even evil here. One doesn't have to be polite here like a Lucastan, Mom!"

Mom reached up from the bed with scratchy sheets and patted Mel's hand. Mom's hand seemed stronger than yesterday.

"Oh, Mel, my love, please don't be so angry. We are all here now. We are, the three of us, together. Everything is fine now."

"So where is he, then? My Dad. And why couldn't he be bothered to wait? Now my friend will work and go hungry because of him."

Mom smiled. Her eyes were jumping around normally, and she was holding something in her hand, of a similar size to a computer. Rough, homemade soap. She was alternately waving it around or cradling it, just like she had waved and cradled her computer. At least she wasn't humming into it.

"Oh, Mel, he had to go out early. He said it couldn't wait."

"He said just that? And that was enough for you?"
After all these years
?

"Of course it was enough for her. A man's word is enough for his wife," the nice, privacy-respecting old Codes said behind her back. Meliora hadn't even heard the door open.

Mom smiled again. At least she looked better than yesterday, and she wasn't talking about going anywhere any more.

Perhaps it had all worked. Perhaps Mel had done the right things. If Mom could stay here and be happy—if Mom could
live
here, what right had Meliora to be angry with old Codes, or with the temple with its broken computers, or with the father who hadn't waited to see her this morning?

"This is your place now," old Codes said minutes later, after the two of them had helped Mom eat and Mom had fallen asleep again.

"Can you see what is in others' minds?" Meliora risked asking, and old Codes' gnarled face gave the hint of a smile, while her hands were busy grinding something in a bowl on the kitchen table. It smelled like Stella's tea. Mel took another bowl with a grinder and started helping. Old Codes nodded in approval.

"No," she said. "And"—she gave her a meaningful look—"I don't fly with brooms, though old Carlos heard you through the door and now he won't leave me alone about this for as long as I'm alive, silly girl. Anyway, I don't see inside the mind, but I am old, and I see a lot, and I help people talk to the gods."

"The gods didn't talk to me today. Can you help?"

"They might have." The old woman sighed. "They don't necessarily talk like people." Her eyes were focused on her bowl, her hands busy with her grinder. "Pray to them, and one day they will answer. Pray for your mother, they will care for her like they care for all of us. They will make her right."

***

Mel didn't have much time for prayer. Old Codes put her to work, and she worked all day, stopping only to eat and check on Mom.

Old Codes watched Mom more closely—and she chased Mel away.

"It is the task of the healer to watch the sick, girl."

"I am a doctor," Mel said.

Old Codes gave Mel what Mel was coming to recognize as a startled look. It was specific to the world outside Lucasta. Lucastans could only look like this while sitting in the wonderful experiences chairs.

"You're no doctor," old Codes said. "
Whatever
you were in that vile city of yours. Only one who hears the gods can be a doctor. Off you go. Work is waiting."

It is all right,
Mel told herself outside, in the big common kitchen.
I don't have to be the one to heal her when she aches and no medstat is near. As long as someone does
.

Two other young women, Belinda and Mati, were showing Mel how to can tomatoes in jars.

Both girls were quiet and soft—somehow soft despite the rough skin of their bare soles and the calluses on their hands. Bare feet and calluses were sometimes fashionable in Lucasta, but never when softness was fashionable. In Lucasta, bare soles and calluses came either with short, spiky hair and a wiry frame, or with hard muscles and square jaws.

They boiled the jars in a big cauldron hanging over the fireplace. Then, later, they took the jars out of the bubbling water with long metal tongs and left them on a clean wooden table covered with cloth. Soon after that, the lids started giving popping sounds, and Mati smiled when Mel was startled by the first.

"That's what they should do, Mel. It means they are becoming sealed well for winter. If they don't pop like this, the tomatoes will go bad."

"Ah, it's the vacuum effect." Meliora knew that much from her Academy studies.

Mati shrugged. "I don't know about that. Is vacuum something you have in the cities?"

"Oh, Mati, why would you want to know about cities!" Belinda's voice was still soft, but she wore a facial expression that was uncommon, and impolite, in Lucasta. Exasperation. Belinda was older than Mati, perhaps older than Mel herself.

Mati lowered her eyes. Her hands were busy with kneading bread for the harvesters' dinner.

"Mati was born here," Belinda said. "A lucky girl. Many of us come from the cities."

"Oh, Belle, but I know you came as a very small child! Your Dad had to carry you, you could barely walk yet. Ma told me all about it. You can't have brought much decay with you, now, can you? You were so small..."

"Mati," Belle said sternly, "it doesn't matter how big or small one is." Then she smiled. "But the Village of Life's healing power is bigger than that. It comes from the gods themselves."

"I can see the village's healing power is great," Meliora said, looking at them both. "You're as calm and beautiful as Mati, Belle."

"It will heal you and your mom, too, you'll see, Mel." Both smiled at her. There was silence after that, and it felt peaceful.

Then Belinda started humming as she cut potatoes into pieces. "Let's sing a song, how about that, little girls?" The humming turned into words, and Mati soon joined in. Meliora laid down the knife with which she was paring early-season apples.

"You've never sung, have you?" Belinda looked at her with understanding. "You thought it was a job for those musicstat things? I remember them. Oh, Mel, nothing can sing like a person!"

They taught her the words and the melody of the song. At first she didn't want to join. She was afraid that her city-rusted voice would only mar the sounds that were was so pure despite the fact that they didn't come from a musicstat.

"Come on, Mel!"

They had her sing with them, and in the evening, before dinner, had her sing with tens of other people. Mom was there, too. She was better. She could sing a bit and hold her spoon in her own hand.

An old man winked at Mel as she brought a dish of soup to her mom. "Old Codes can fly with a broom, eh? And what can
you
fly with, pretty apple? Me thinks Codes might've found her match."

Old Codes hit him with a spoon.

That night, Meliora slept better, even though the only time she saw her dad was when he came home long after she was in bed. He opened the front door quietly and walked through the kitchen too softly for a man his size. Mel remembered him thin, almost as thin as Mom. It must have been a fashion, though she didn't remember him caring about fashions much. Now, his shoulders were broad and his limbs large. He glanced towards her kitchen bed before the bedroom door closed softly behind him.

Real World

On Mel's second morning old Codes raised her from sleep long before the sun was up in the sky.