Читать книгу The Gravitational Leap - Darrell Lee - Страница 10

Timo and Alyd waited for the guard to open the metal door that led outside. Once it was opened enough for passage, he waved them through.

They heard the timing bell being rung in the Tower courtyard. Out of habit, Timo and Alyd looked at the watches on their wrists and they corrected them to read 12:00. They turned toward home, without really thinking about it. The snow fell heavier than when they had entered the chamber. Fat, lazy flakes meandered down from the sky and stuck to everything. Mercifully, the wind had eased; when they stood on the lee side of the street it actually felt calm. Smoke billowed from chimneys and drifted and curled its way down the streets and alleys.

“A reactor is what they called it,” Alyd said once they were a block away. “That’s what makes the electricity that powers the lights inside the Tower and on the wall.” Alyd stopped and looked back at the Tower. “I bet that’s what makes steam come out of those vents.”

“Wow, did you notice how warm it is inside the chamber? I bet the Tower is the same way,” Timo said, trying to judge Alyd’s level of anger.

“Just shut up! I can’t believe you lied to the High Council,” Alyd said.

Yep, pretty damn mad.

“I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell them everything. What difference could that knife make anyway?” Timo said, vainly attempting to defend a position he knew he couldn’t.

“Evidently, they think anything that scout carried is important. Maldor even had the radio in his pocket.”

“That is strange. Usually intel goes to Bartel’s office. Why would he have it?” Timo asked.

“Because it’s important. Really important. We don’t have to know why; we are just supposed to give the leaders all the information we have and let them decide. Clearly the Denock and Asus have joined together—they far outnumber us. That radio was new and different; either they made it or they stole it. The same thing applies to any weapons they may have. Just like that knife!” Alyd struggled to keep her voice calm.

Timo didn’t respond. Alyd silently fumed as they walked without talking. The fresh snow crunched under their boots. Children came out of their dwellings and began their walk to the school near the center of the village. Unhappily, they trudged through the snow, stopping at street corners to gather in groups of three and four and then head down the street, leaving tiny footprints behind them.

At the end of the autumn season, as the threat from the Denock appeared to increase, the High Council ordered all the families that farmed to move inside the wall for the winter, along with their cattle, horses, and poultry. It made a crowded situation that much worse. Timo and Alyd could spot the families that had just moved inside the walls. They were always clothed in drab, soil-stained clothing and worn jackets that had spent a lot of time in the elements. The children played about in the street, not yet enrolled in the school. They were enjoying their holiday and exploring their new surroundings.

A horse-drawn cart passed them, going in the same direction they were. The clopping horses’ hooves kicked up snow behind each step. In the back were a half dozen wooden crates. The driver stopped a half block ahead. A barrel-chested man, who made the cart squeak and sink to whichever side he stood, got out and took one of the crates into a café. By the time Timo and Alyd got there, the man was coming back out.

“Good morning, Jacob,” Timo said, smiling broadly.

“Timo! I haven’t seen you since graduation.” He shook Timo’s hand and looked at Alyd. “I heard you got married. They told me she was beautiful, those liars. My horse is beautiful—she’s gorgeous! I don’t have to ask how married life is treating you. I can see it’s very well.”

“Jacob, this is my wife, Alyd. Alyd, this is an old friend from school, Jacob.”

Jacob extended his meaty hand, which swallowed Alyd’s. “It’s a pleasure.”

“Thank you.”

“And you, Jacob—have you found a wife?” Timo asked.

“Not yet. I am conducting oral interviews as often as I can, though.” Jacob gave a sly wink, and they all laughed. “Well, I must be going. I have five more deliveries to make this morning.”

“What are you delivering?” Alyd asked.

“Eggs. Fresh eggs just laid yesterday. Since all the farming families are inside the wall now, we have an explosion of eggs. I buy them from the farmers and sell them to the café owners.”

Timo’s and Alyd’s eyes widened. “They have fresh eggs at this café?” Timo asked.

“Yes, they do.” Jacob climbed in the driver’s seat, the cart groaning under his shifting weight. “For as long as they last. Good-bye, Timo. It’s nice to see you again, and very nice to meet you, Alyd.” With a jerk of the reins the horse began trotting, and Jacob was gone with a backward wave.

“Let’s have eggs for lunch,” Timo said, taking Alyd by the hand and pulling her to the front door of the café.

“We can’t afford eggs.” She resisted being pulled.

“I have been saving credits. I have ten saved up just for something special.”

“You have saved ten credits behind my back?” Alyd raised her eyebrows.

Damn it, don’t get mad again.

“Only so I could spend them on a date with you. Today is the perfect day for it. We have the whole day off, and the café has eggs.” Timo continued to tug on her hand.

“All right…but I am still mad at you.”

A dim warmth greeted them inside the café. Not quite all the smoke from the oven in the kitchen had found its way up the smokestack. The only window, kept shuttered to keep the cold out, provided no light. The only light came from candles sitting on the five tables in the room.

None of the tables were occupied. They pulled the hoods back on their parkas. Timo selected a table by the wall. The owner, a round, middle-aged woman with dark frizzed hair, a large red nose, and tiny slits for eyes, came from the kitchen to the table with two earthen cups of water. “What can I cook for you soldiers?”

“Two fried eggs for each of us,” Timo answered.

“I guess word gets around fast.” The woman wiped her hands on the tan apron, heavily stained to testify to the decades at her profession. The apron barely covered her oversized breasts and belly.

“Do you have bread?” Timo asked.

“Yes, sir, we do. Just baked this morning.”

“We would like a loaf.”

“Anything else?” the smiling owner asked.

“Do you have butter?” Timo could visualize the breakfast he was building.

“I do.”

“And butter for our bread,” Timo added.

“How much is it going to cost?” Alyd asked.

“Twelve credits.”

The smile faded a bit from Timo’s face. “How about without the butter?”

“How many credits do you have to spend?” the café owner asked.

“Ten,” Timo answered.

“Then, for two fine soldiers as yourselves, I’ll only charge nine.”

The smile returned to Timo’s face. He removed the credit booklet from his pocket and gave nine copper-colored papers to the owner. She left to prepare their eggs.

“We should go to the market when we leave here and get my mother some salt and chicken,” Alyd said. “She asked the day before yesterday, and we may not have a chance again for a few days.”

“Of course,” the still-smiling Timo said. “The snow looks like it’s settling in for a while. Now may be the best time.” The light from the candle resting on the aged, smooth table danced in Alyd’s big brown eyes.

“You can stop it,” she said.

“What?”

“Being so agreeable.”

Timo heard the eggs being cracked, and then sizzling on the hot skillet in the kitchen. “What’s wrong with making you happy?”

Alyd tried unsuccessfully not to smile. “You know I can’t stay mad at you, especially when you act all charming. So just stop it because I do want to stay mad a little longer.”

“You don’t want to stay mad at me.”

“Yes, I do.”

The owner came from the kitchen and placed wooden utensils on the table in front of them and hurried back to the kitchen.

“Not when you remember how much I love you,” Timo said.

“Stop.”

“And how much you love me.”

“Yes, I do love you, and that’s why I don’t want to see you in jail.”

“I’m not going to jail. Even if they found the knife, they couldn’t prove it came from that scout.”

“They’d sure know it didn’t come from our clan.”

“Alyd, I love you. Stop worrying. I would never do anything that would hurt you. It’s just a knife, and a very nice one.” Timo leaned forward and grabbed her hand resting on the table and pressed her fingers to his cheek. “See how smooth it shaves?” He stroked her fingers across his chin. “Smoother than any shave I’ve ever had. So smooth that I could kiss you, without any roughness, anywhere you wanted.”

“Stop it.”

“Your mouth is saying stop, but your eyes are saying don’t stop.”

“Listen to my mouth, not my eyes.”

Timo lowered her hand to the table, but kept holding it. She didn’t pull away. Alyd stroked his hand with her thumb and tried to let the issue about the knife go while they silently waited for their food.

The café owner came out of the kitchen with two plates of fried eggs, slices of bread, and thick slabs of butter. Timo leaned back as she put them on the table. The smell of the eggs filled their nostrils.

“Let me know if there is anything else you need,” she said, heading back to the kitchen.

Timo and Alyd looked around the café. All the tables were still empty, and the cook was busy in the kitchen. They bowed their heads and quickly held hands over the food.

“Bless this food in the nourishment of our bodies. Guide and direct us in everything we do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen,” Timo whispered.

They cut into the yolks and let the yellow liquid run and mix with the white. They rolled each bite in the liquid. Each mouthful was savored and devoured. They spread the slabs of sweet butter on the slices of warm bread, and used them to sop up the last of the yolk. Neither could remember a breakfast so scrumptious. The warmth of the food matched the warmth of the love between them.

After they cleaned their plates, they left the café with an appreicative good-bye to the owner. They slowly walked down the snow-blanketed street. Alyd wrapped her arm inside Timo’s and she leaned into him as they walked.

The children were off the street, school having started. Only a crew of village workers moved about as they scraped snow from the rooftop of a dwelling into a cart below on the street. The warm food in their stomachs lifted their mood. As they passed a doorway they heard a baby cry inside the dwelling. They paused and listened, then continued.

“I was wondering if you have thought about it?” Timo asked.

“Yes, I have, a little bit.”

“Anything decided?”

“Not really.”

“I love you,” Timo said. “You know that nothing would make me happier. A real family would mean so much to me—you know that. I never knew my mother, and my father was less than ideal. I’d like to give our child something I never had.”

“I know, and I love you too. I’m just scared. What if it has a deviation?”

“It won’t. Neither of our families has ever had a deviation.”

Timo wrapped his arm around her, and they walked quietly the rest of the way to the market. Alyd got a small bit of salt and a half kilogram of cut-up chicken. The market owner debited the joint account they had through the army, taking a quarter of their monthly allowance. They walked two snowy blocks to Alyd’s mother’s dwelling.

Alyd knocked on the door. She could hear the soft, shuffling steps before the lock clicked and the door pulled open. Her mother, Wen, smiled at her from underneath a worn, gray blanket that covered her head like a hood. She held it together below her chin with a wrinkled hand. Soft white hair, which extended below her shoulders, framed a weathered face. She hugged Alyd, and then Timo, as they stepped inside.

“Bless you, come in,” Wen said.

A small fire burned in the fireplace. “You need a bigger fire. It’s cold in here,” Alyd said.

“It’s fine. I use less wood this way,” Wen responded.

“I’ll get you some more,” Timo said, exiting the door before any objection could be made.

“He is always so nice,” Wen said.

“Since Javin died last year, I think he has been extra attentive to you,” Alyd said.

“God bless her soul. His real mother couldn’t have loved him more. There wasn’t a godlier woman in the clan. I know it helped her having you and Timo by her side when the Lord called.”

Alyd saw that the table beside the fireplace had the wooden cross standing in the middle and seven half-burnt candles and a handwritten Bible lying open.

“You had a prayer meeting again last night?” Alyd asked.

“Yes,” Wen answered.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that so often…somebody could report you.”

“Oh, let them report me. I’m too old to care about that now. And especially with the rumors of war with the Denock coming, our clan needs all the prayers it can get.”

“Well, at least put the Bible and cross away after the meeting is over in case somebody comes by who’s a nonbeliever. You know assembly is forbidden.”

Wen simply sneered. “Proverbs 15:29…what does it say?”

“That’s not the point—”

“What does it say?” Wen repeated.

“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous,” Alyd said.