Fish Swim in the Lake

Part 4.3 | He said one word to me

In spite of herself, alphaDana started to relax. She saw Lola's back and Tony... well, Tony was only her ride home. There'd be someone in this lush and wealthy crowd that could see her back to Ottawa, even if she was clinging to the roof of a silvery vehicle. Colin asked her to dance and she said she might as well. It wasn't until the third song that she noticed the astronaut.

Not just any astronaut, of course -- they were all but commonplace now -- it was Vas Gagarin, grandson of Yuri Gagarin. Vas had the puckered expression of someone resisting Earth gravity, as though he was continually finding the stairs one step higher than he'd expected. This expression was new. New to alphaDana. But then, she hadn't seen him in a year and a half.

He'd seen her. He was labouriously making his way over.

"You're here with me," alphaDana whispered furiously in Colin's ear. "I'm your thing. OK?"

"What?"

"Kiss me!"

"What?"

"Audrey?" Vas said to her sculpted back.

alphaDana dug her fingers into Colin's hand. She turned around with a sickening smile.

"What a surprise," she said. "I thought you were still Up There."

"I was there for about a year. I've only been back a few weeks. This is the first day I've been let out. I was going to call." His eyes jittered over her, to Colin, and past her shoulder into the crowd. "Who's your friend?"

Colin introduced himself and Vas asked what he did. "He's a cop. A mentech," alphaDana said.

"How useful for you," Vas said. "Well. I'll call you."

"You do that."

"I suppose I should mingle. Vlad won't like me wasting my cachet by talking to nobody."

"Sure," alphaDana said. "I'll talk to you sometime."

Vas turned and cut through the crush. alphaDana watched him going and felt loosely relieved. Until he stopped, turned back, looked at her with wide, sharp edged eyes, and started coming back.

Posted by gtaylor at May 01, 2002 06:34 PM