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him.
"So, what's your name?" Cassidy asked.
"The woman that adopted me called me Ukiah Oregon."
"Like the town?"
"Yes." He balanced on his crutches to take out his wallet and dug awkwardly
into it to pull out his business card. "She found me in Umatilla Park just out
of Ukiah and took me to Pittsburgh, eight years ago." Then, because he had
tucked the picture into his wallet, he pulled out the photo of him at
thirteen.
"This was what I looked like back then."
She ignored the card, taking the photo instead, carefully as not to smudge it
with grease. Some of the laughter went out of her eyes. She looked up at him
again, studying him.
"Actually, you haven't changed much." She went off into a side room. There was
the slight hum of a machine. "I'm surprised to see you up and around. Jared
gave the family a full report on your injuries, including the hocus-pocus
stuff."
"I heal quickly." Ukiah cringed at the thought that all the Kicking Deers knew
about the mice.
"You've got Zoey convinced, but she always believed." She came to the door of
the small office, using a paper towel to wipe cleanser off her hands along
with the black grease. She considered him silently, her face skeptical. "Jared
says you're a fake, but Jared has never believed any of the family stories
about
Uncle."
"I haven't asked anyone to believe anything," Ukiah protested. "I just wanted
to ask a few questions. Who was my mother? What was she like? How did I get
lost? What age was I when I was lost?
Why did you call me uncle? Are we related? Did my mother have other children?"
"But you have asked us to believe you," Cassidy said. "Don't we have to first
judge your right to an answer before we give it?"
Ukiah met her dark eyes much like his own. "Can you fairly judge someone
you've refused to talk to?"
Cassidy gazed at him in silence that went on for several minutes. Ukiah
waited, sensing that she was trying to be fair. His patience in listening, Max
said once, was one of his greatest strengths.
Cassidy spoke to the youngest man without looking away from Ukiah. "Simon, can
you do me a favor?"
"Anything," Simon answered, leaping to his feet.
"I didn't bother to refill the machine until I was sure I could repair it."
Cassidy went back into the office and returned with a printout and the photo.
She handed the printout to Simon. "Could you go to
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Swire's and pick up a case of each in bottles?"
"I'll do it in a little bit." Simon looked pointedly at Ukiah.
"Oh, don't be jealous." She handed Ukiah his photo. "Didn't you hear? He's my
long lost great-great-uncle."
Grudgingly, Simon went and Cassidy considered Ukiah, arms folded over her
chest. "The boy we lost was grandfather's uncle, so that's what we call him,"
she admitted grudgingly. "Jared told me about the mouse thing. He's positive
you faked it. I've been dying to know. How did you do it?"
Ukiah was startled at her directness. "What?"
"The trick with the mice. How did you do it?"
He glanced at the listening men.
"Oh, don't worry. Its just family now." She indicated the men in turn,
starting with the oldest. "This is Uncle Daniel, and Uncle Quince, and Cousin
Lou. That's why I sent Simon out for soda. He's not family."
"I don't want to talk about it," Ukiah said.
"If you want us to tell you about our missing Uncle," Cassidy said, jerking up
her chin, "you have to tell us about the mice."
Ukiah considered the four Kicking Deers. An exchange of trust. It felt like he
was getting the short end of the bargain, but perhaps they felt the same way
too. He tried for a vague explanation. "The mice are just something that
happens when I'm hurt." Oh, that sounded stupid. He winced, and decided to
keep his mouth shut.
She laughed at the look on his face. "So, it's been seventy years! What have
you been doing with yourself, Wolf Boy?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. Running with the wolves is all I remember. Season
after season."
She walked around him, scratching her chin. "Well, you look damn good for
being eighty!"
"I'm not eighty," Ukiah said quietly. "My father's people told me how old I
was."
That startled them.
"Your father's people?" Cassidy echoed.
"Who are your father's people?" Uncle Daniel asked.
How did one describe the Pack without using the word "alien"? "They are
dangerous, brutal people.
Killers. They told me how my mother was taken. How I came to be." Hex had
stunned his mother and taken her to the ship. Prime used the ovipositor to
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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