Fish Swim in the Lake

Part 4.4 | Can't keep still

"You're Vlad's brother," Vas said accusingly to Colin.

"Sure," Colin said. "Is that a problem?"

"No. I just wonder that I didn't meet you before. We're cousins, Vlad and I, so so are you and I, cousins. How strange. Up There the population is so small that one almost never meets a relative by chance. We all know each other. Audrey, I was rude to leave you so quickly. We should dance once." He pulled her so hard by the arm that her sculpt flushed deep red. "I'll get her back to you in one piece," he said over his shoulder to Colin.

Vas put his arms around her, loosely, and half-leaned into her. His feet were limp, slow and heavy. "You're suffocating me," alphaDana snapped into his ear. "What's wrong with you?" She reflexively tried to uplink to find out the news and was blocked by the shielding. Viciously she forced down her panic and isolation. She said again, "what's WRONG with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" he muttered. "You're the one cohabbing in the corner like you don't have anything to worry about. With Vlad's brother! I'm too tired to laugh, Audrey, or I would."

"If you're so tired, why are you here?"

"Vlad put a lot of money in Up There. He funded most of the new Canericarm. It's a tax writeoff and it gets him good publicity, but still, there's resistance to spending money on other worlds. But that's not important. I should ask why you're here. Under the circumstances."

"What circumstances?"

"Audrey--"

"Stop CALLING me that!"

"Stop calling you what?"

"Stop calling me Audrey!"

"What am I supposed to call you then?"

"Oh, fasten it. What circumstances are you talking about?"

"Look, Aud--... look, you don't have to play dense with me."

"Since you know, you might enlighten me." Her voice was calm, calm as her expression.

He moved them awkwardly through the party toward the door. He brushed aside greetings and inquiries. Once alphaDana caught sight of the outside she needed no more urging. Now it was she that hurried, and he staggered behind, clutching her sexless chest.

She was about thirty strides away from Willson House before she could re-enable her vlogger. The familiarity and ubiquity of information, her information, random nonsense, advertisements, news, mail, calls, access to the vog search net, she absorbed it like a living sea sponge kicked off the dock into the water. When she looked back at the house it was blacked out, but she didn't care. It would take more than anything that could possibly be in that house to make her go back inside.

"...and that's why you need to talk to Vlad. He can protect you."

"What? Protect me from what?"

"Weren't you listening?"

"No."

Posted by gtaylor at May 02, 2002 07:56 AM