Hope of Earth (77 page)

“You will be met inside,” the guard said.

They entered. A woman in a clerical uniform rose from a desk just inside. She wore a gun, and looked vaguely familiar. “What is your business here?”

“You already know it,” Jes said tersely.

The woman smiled. “So you understand the situation.”

“No.”

“The boy made illicit contact with one of our members. Further contact is denied.”

“Let
her
tell me that,” Bry said.

The woman lifted one hand to make a small beckoning signal. A door opened behind her, and Tourette emerged. She was in a black uniform: military cap, close jacket, trousers, boots. And a wide belt supporting a holster with a gun at her right hip, and a sheath with a knife at the left hip.

“So you came,” she said to Bry.

“I love thee.”

She glanced at him, startled, and he realized that he had used the plain talk. Fay to Faience to him: it seemed to be contagious. But he realized that it was also because he now identified with Dreams, and did want to be a part of it. Well, so be it.

After a strained pause, Tourette spoke. “Please leave.”

“Thee knows I can’t.”

“Bry, I told you. It can’t be. Please.”

“Tell me thee doesn’t love me.”

“I—” Then her face crumbled. “Mom—”

Mom?
But there was indeed a family resemblance. That was why the woman had looked vaguely familiar.

The woman shook her head, “My daughter does love you, Bry. But she may not associate with you at this time.” She lifted a hand, forestalling Bry’s objection. “It is not just her father’s disapproval. Were you to qualify to join this community, it would be possible. But there is illness, and we do not wish to spread it to you. Separation is a kindness at this point.”

“Illness?” Jes asked.

“It seems to be the flu, a deadly form. We fear that secondary infections will be resistant to treatment. My husband caught it in Africa, but it did not manifest until he arrived here. Otherwise he would not have returned. The least we can do is confine it.”

Bry exchanged a glance with Jes, knowing she was as surprised as he was. “Maybe—maybe we could help. I mean, the Dreams community. They have herbal medicines—”

“I doubt it. Now please go. You may be at risk here.”

Bry looked at Tourette, and saw tears streaming down her face. Surely what they said was true. The sensible course was to leave immediately.

But he wasn’t sensible. “Come with me,” he said to Tourette.

She didn’t move. “I’ve been exposed.” Then she started to twitch. She must have been controlling it, but she was under such tension that it was getting away from her. Her shoulders jerked and her head tossed wildly.

Something buzzed in his mind. He stepped across, so quickly she did not react, and took her in his arms. Her body relaxed. He kissed her, steadying her face with his own. She returned the kiss, avidly. He tasted the salt of her tears.

He lifted his head and looked around. The woman was standing with her hand on her pistol, and Jes was standing with a knife drawn. Threat and counter-threat.

“Now I have been exposed too,” Bry said.

“You have done a foolish thing,” the woman said, and Jes nodded agreement.

“Whatever Tourette suffers, I want to suffer too. If you won’t let me in, let her out. Maybe she doesn’t have it. Maybe she’ll be safer in Dreams.”

“They will not speak to an armed person,” the woman said.

“They speak to me,” Jes said.

The women studied her, appraisingly. “Will you join Dreams?”

“I don’t know. As I see it, there are occasions when pacifism simply doesn’t work. I would have to give up my weapons if I joined, and I’m not sure that’s wise.”

“You might be more comfortable here in Bones.”

They called it Bones too? No, probably that was just a facetious acceptance of the term, leaving the real community anonymous. Just as was the case with Tourette.

Jes stared at her. “You are inviting me to make a trial visit here?”

“With your husband, of course. We have need of organizers of his caliber. We would also be interested in your closest brother, as we are a high-tech community.”

Jes seemed intrigued. So was Bry. How could the woman know so much about their family? “What of his wife?”

“We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of color or past condition of royalty.”

“But you do on the basis of ideology,” Bry said.

“And Dreams does not?”

“Touché,” Jes said. “I will think about it. But our family is unified. We won’t split between hostile groups. We’ll all go to one, or to another. And there are those of us who would not come here.”

“I know. You will have a difficult decision.”

“What of us?” Bry asked. “Tourette and me?”

“You must stay, or she must go. If you stay, you risk the illness. If she goes, she risks spreading it.”

“If she has it,” he said. “If she doesn’t, she can escape it.”

“It is a serious gamble, either way. I take it upon myself to make that decision. She may go.” Her mouth quirked. “With thee,”

“Oh, Mom!” Tourette cried.

“It is a rational decision. May God forgive me if I am mistaken.” She touched a button on her desk, and the door slid open. “Go quickly.”

They went quickly. The guard was waiting outside. They got into the Jeep, and rode back to the front gate. Then on out to their van.

“She let me go,” Tourette said in awe. “I never thought she would.”

“She loves you,” Jes said. “She wants to spare you the plague.”

“Yes. But what if I have it already?”

“We must warn the Dreams.”

Something bothered Bry. “When I kissed thee, and thy mother started to draw her pistol, and Jes warned her off with her knife—doesn’t Bones have better protection than that?”

Tourette laughed. “Mom could have had the room flooded with nerve gas, knocking us all out in an instant. But she liked your sister’s look. She got downright friendly after that.”

“And she knew about us, about our family,” Jes said. “Did you tell her?”

“No. I said nothing at all. But we have personnel who research in the computer data bases and on the Internet. They must have made files on you. Knowledge is the best defense. I didn’t know they had it in mind to recruit you.”

“Then why didn’t they want me to see you?” Bry asked.

“I think Mom thought you were just using me. But when you kissed me in the middle of a twitch, she changed her mind. Maybe she saw that you had committed to Dreams, and to me too, because you addressed me with the plain talk. And she does like your sister.” She snuggled against him. “But if I carry the plague out—”

“We’ll warn them,” Jes said as she pulled into the parking lot.

But Marc shrugged it off. “We have people going in and out all the time. We are constantly exposed. We’ll handle it.”

“But this is really bad,” Tourette said. “A killer flu.”

“We are equipped. If the malady is in Africa, with a several day lag time, it is elsewhere too. We’ll be exposed to it from some other source, sooner or later.”

“I’m not sure it’s smart for Dreams to be isolated from Bones,” Jes said. “We need to talk with the Dreams community elders.”

“To what point? We have no common ground with them.”

“Please,” Tourette said. “I wish I could talk to the elders. There are things that need to be understood.”

Marc looked at her. “As long as thee evinces thy lack of sympathy with our philosophy, by bearing weapons, there is no point. I think thee will encounter a similar attitude wherever thee inquires.”

“But it wouldn’t be honest for me to disarm myself,” Tourette said. “I am as I am, and I don’t care to hide it.”

“Then perhaps thee should return to thy community.”

They let it go. The elders might be pacifists, but that didn’t mean they weren’t tough-minded. They had their standards, and would not abridge them. “You can stay with us,” Jes told Tourette. “With Bry.”

“But the propriety—”

“We have seen it all. You do as you choose.”

Tourette clutched Bry’s hand. “This is so unexpected. I hardly know what to feel.”

“Neither do I,” he confessed. “Except for love.”

That afternoon Bry spoke to Flo. “I brought Tourette home. I think she needs to meet the family.”

Flo always knew what was serious. “Half an hour hence?”

“Okay.”

They were all there. “Some of you already know Tourette,” he said. “That’s not her real name, but it will do. I love her, and want to be with her. But she’s from Bones, and there’s plague there. She’s afraid she has been exposed.”

“We know about illness,” Ittai said. “We’ll cross that bridge if it comes.”

“And—she has Tourette’s syndrome,” Bry continued. “That’s an involuntary twitching and grunting. It comes and goes. It’s okay just to ignore it.”

They nodded.

Then Tourette spoke. “I love Bry, but I’m a militant and I think he’s a pacifist. He’s using the plain talk now, anyway. I don’t know if this can work.”

“Join the throng,” Snow said. “Several of our couples split along those lines. We can’t decide whether to join Dreams. We may have to return to the big city.”

“But that’s where the trouble is,” Tourette said. “We built Bones to escape all that.”

“Which is exactly what Dreams is doing,” Flo said. “Similar solutions to a similar problem—and the two communities don’t speak to each other.”

“And one set of leaders is as stiff-necked as the other,” Ned said. “It is an irony.”

“Isn’t there any way to get them together?” Tourette asked. “I don’t think either community can survive alone. Oh, they think they can, but can they really? I mean, if civilization collapses?”

“I think they can’t,” Jes said. “Dreams will be overrun by the first wave of teenage thugs looking for drugs. Bones may never run out of bullets, but what about fuel for its generators, and food? Stored supplies won’t last forever, after the crunch comes.”

“We plan to survive the bad times on supplies, then to emerge to re-colonize the country after it has cleared,” Tourette said. “We have supplies for a decade. We have trucks that will run on natural gas.”

“And if illness takes out half your personnel?”

“That makes me nervous,” Tourette admitted.

That was all. The family had been introduced to Tourette, and now knew her place: with Bry. He was the last to find his opposite number.

They joined in the folk singing in the evening, and Bry introduced Tourette to anyone who was interested, but did not explain the name unless asked. She was accepted as an addition to the visiting family, though she did not conceal her origin. The weapons she wore made it clear enough.

“I think it’s great,” Faience said. “You went in there and got her out.”

“Thee gives me more credit than is due,” Bry said.

“Bry! Thee has joined us!” She hugged him.

“Well, not without my family,” he said. “But I guess it’s true, for me; my vote is to join. But I’ve got to be with Tourette, too.”

“So are you changing sides?” Faience asked Tourette.

“No. I can’t turn my back on my family, on my community, or on my nature. I will return to Bones soon. When the threat of plague is gone, if I don’t have it already. I’m really only on temporary leave from there.”

Faience shook her head. “I think it’s great that you two are together. But you know, Romeo/Juliet romances don’t work out so well in real life. There are some awful differences to work out.”

“We know,” Bry agreed.

They shared a chamber that night, and a bed. But now Tourette was diffident. “Anything you want,” she said, but there was some reservation.

“What is it?”

“I’ve never been away from home like this, before. I miss Mom, and Dad, and everything. And I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t relax.”

“Then let’s just be together, until we’re sure.”

She turned to him. “Thanks, Bry.” She kissed him. He was gratified simply to be with her.

In the night he felt her motion and heard her grunt. He found her hand, and squeezed it reassuringly, and she settled down. He wasn’t sure she was even awake. He knew that he could touch her anywhere, and she wouldn’t object, but her hand was enough.

As daylight came, he woke and gazed at her. Her hair was messed across her face, and she was snoring. He liked that too. She was a real girl.

Sunday morning the family prepared to go to Meeting. “We don’t have to go,” Bry said. “We’re still trying to get the feel of Dreams, to know whether it’s really for us.”

“If you go, I’ll go,” Tourette said. “We have church services too.”

“We just sit quietly, and anyone who is moved to gives a message. It’s sort of nice.”

Several people glanced at Tourette as they approached the meeting house. She was wearing one of Wildflower’s dresses, but over it wore the belt with the pistol and knife in plain view. She was refusing to pretend to be anything other than what she was. Jes, also armed, came to join them, lending tacit moral support. They picked a pew and sat, Tourette flanked by Bry and Jes.

The first message was a prayer: “Lord, we thank Thee for Thy beneficence. Lead us down the path of righteousness and mercy. May we stand before Thee without affectation. May we remember that he who is noble needs not a weapon, needs no man to guard him; virtue defends him.” The last sentence was a quote from one of the songs they had sung the evening before, but the reference seemed rather pointed to Bry.

There were other messages. Tourette seemed uneasy. Then, to Bry’s astonishment, she stood and spoke.

“I am not of this community. I apologize for not knowing the proper forms of expression, and I regret that my presence here makes some of you uneasy. But there is something I must say. It is said that we are made of dreams and bones. You are of Dreams, and I am of Bones, and I think that it is a mistake to separate the two. I think that the two communities are not as far apart as they may think. Both seek to survive, when human civilization and culture collapse. We merely have different ways to achieve a similar objective. You are trying to build a self-sustaining community; so are we. You want peace. So do we. You want to see a better future. So do we. So we differ only in the means, not the ends. You believe in nonviolence. We believe that there are occasions when violence is necessary. We do not seek it, we don’t desire it, but we prepare for it in the hope that preparedness will make it unnecessary. But even here, we do not necessarily differ from you beyond the possibility of compromise. There is a martial art known as Aikido. An Aikidoka will not attack; indeed, he has no means to attack. But if another person attacks him, he will quickly immobilize that person. He doesn’t have to hurt the other, he merely makes it impossible for that person to hurt him. I think this is a form of violence some of you could accept. We would teach it to you, if you wished. It does seem better than standing helplessly by while others who are not pacifists come to kill your men, rape your women, steal your children, take your goods, burn your houses, and destroy your dreams.”