Chapter One

WOMAN'S WORK

JILL UREGLIMI
HOPE

 

It rained in the morning. I woke to the peculiar tapping on the roof, listening to this odd noise, until I placed it. Having lived so long in space or in stone buildings, the sound of rain was almost unknown.

 

As I entered the sani, my eyes searched for drips, but it seemed Koli's patching of my roof had been quite complete. I pulled on a long robe, into my front room.

 

Koli had finished breakfast, gave me a nod, pointed to the door and was gone, before I could wish him 'Good Morning.'

 

I glanced through the window, he was walking in the rain as comfortably as were it dry. Perhaps he wanted to feel the rain on his face. Perhaps all of the Retrieved, maybe even those from the Applewhyte were out there reminding themselves how it felt...I didn't need the reminder.

 

To me the rain was an interloper in my day, a barrier between myself and my tasks. The path to the hospital would be slick and dangerous, my clothes would be drenched, my footware ruined.

 

I sat at my table, ate, and continued to sit for I was not going to walk in the rain.

 

I decided to do a little cleaning, and began. I was quite happy when the rain stopped so I could attend my hospital. I gave myself extra time, hoping the ground would dry, but it hadn't. The stones were slick and I stumbled more than once, thankful I didn't fall.

 

I entered my hospital, did my rounds, able to discharge a few more of the Retrieved ZeSha. They joined fishing/building brigades. My fears of them gazing into the void were dispersed.  I saw a group of them taking their daily cup of the Argali water, and impressed them into a ward cleaning brigade.

 

Impersonating an Administrator, I scanned my roster of zeduini and that's when I realised suPadry was 'missing'. And I knew to where she had gone.

 

She had somehow gotten iKhyarm alone, got him to drink some drug, had sex with him, and was now pregnant with his child. She would travel to another world, maybe Xenos to have the baby, probably semi-secretely. iKhyarm's father, eFriundita, would 'adopt' the baby, give him his own name, if a boy. A female would get one of his families names.

 

I assume suPadry would not officially be listed as the baby's mother, maybe she'd 'adopt' the baby or stand in the 'stead of a mother', or maybe eFriundita had another candidate, and suPadry would return to Zechia as if nothing happened.

 

She wasn't much of a loss, she was an offensive brat who proved why 'zychothesha', 'hopeless love', was considered perversion.
Still, her sister, seFranchay, who had been iKhyarm's wife, was dead. iKhyarm would never mate again. He was the only child of his parents, he must reproduce to keep their lineage alive. So there was a 'higher purpose.'

 

I left the hospital, flew up to the Comfort which orbitted the planet. I checked my patients, pleased with iDrhort's progress, still disappointed with iFhyu. I had iDrhort taken to Hope hospital, sent two zeduinis with him. My work completed, I then returned to Hope. It was now nearly sundown, and I hurried home, having neglected to give an order.

 

That's all it would have taken.  

" Put lights on the Path ," or " Clear a Path leading from the Landing Zone to my house ," that's all. Just say the words. Just say the words, and it is done. Done by ZeSha who want to work, who hate to do nothing. But I, so unaccustomed to command had not given an order.

 

I missed iKyimin as if he were a lover. Had he been here, he would of shadowed me, and every thought I had would be made real.
But no.  I had stupidly let him be taken, thinking oeTembi the better bargain. And now what? I had no Aides.

 

There was Koli sitting on the swing, standing as he sees me. Well, he was sort of an Aide.  As I came in he excitedly burst; "Jiwl, I got something...chi chi ken...look....!"

 

He led me into the bathroom. There was a chicken. And a lot of chicken droppings.

 

"Oh, look Koli! Look at the mess!"

 

"This thing shit a lot!"

 

"Koli don't use that word...it's obscene."

 

"Which word?" he gives me an innocent look.

 

"Koli, catch the chicken put it outside..."

 

"No Jiwl! It is to eat! It an eat food animal! They are eating it on the little island."

 

"Koli, the bathroom is...full of..."

 

"Shit."

 

"Don't use that word."

 

"What you call gnda in English?"

 

I never knew the name for feces in Shaz. I guess I should of realised it would be something with 'gnd'.

 

"Take it outside, tie it to a tree or something...."

 

"No, I have to kill it...and eat it!"

 

The chicken looking at me with one eye than the other, Exasperated I asked Koli; "Who is going to clean up this mess?"

 

"You?" he supplies.

 

"I didn't bring it into the bathroom, did I?"

 

He shook his head.

 

"Koli, I have no energy to kill, and pluck and cook the chicken. Carry it back to the islet, have someone kill it, pluck it, and cut it up...drain out the blood first..."

 

He looked at me, shook his head, studied the floor. I realised I had made a terrible error, and fortunately appreciated it now, not next week.

 

Koli had thought he would please me. He thought I'd be happy to have something to eat beside fish. He'd gotten this incontinent bird, hid it in the bathroom, revealing it as a gift, expecting me to be ecstatic.

 

Brightening my voice, trying to find some energy; "Koli, I can cook this chicken so it will taste wonderful. But ...just have someone from the Applewhyte prepare it for cooking, and I'll do the rest. Make them show you how they prepare it...just like Tony showed you how to prepare the fish ...they'll show you how to prepare the chicken."

 

He nodded dully, grabbed the chicken, which made a terrifed squawk, and out of spite, released another deposit. Koli went off with it, rather abashed, and I began to clean the bathroom. Well, it needed cleaning anyway.

Chapter Two

 WICKED WOMAN

BARI TABOR
East Coast

 

I had woken and lay abed, enticing my husband with my body. After sex, he mentioned Temi. I babbled as if I

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 18.04.2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-1211-3

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