by John Bowers
Nick closed his eyes and pressed his cheek against her thick hair. It had been a long and disturbing day, and he was glad it was almost over. Coming home to Suzanne made it all worthwhile.
“How’s Mrs. Povar?” he murmured.
Suzanne pulled back and looked into his eyes.
“Her life is shattered,” she said, pain in her eyes. “I stayed a couple of hours, then some of her neighbors came over. They’ll help her through this.”
Nick kissed her on the forehead and nodded.
“Good. I know she isn’t thinking about this right now, but there’s an insurance policy that should keep her afloat for a long time. Hugh never left home because he wanted to provide for her, and now he has.”
Suzanne’s face crinkled and tears spilled down her cheeks.
“That is so sad! He was such a sweet kid! It just breaks my heart.”
Nick kissed her again and held her. They stood there for several minutes in silence, listening to each other’s hearts beat.
“Are you hungry?” she asked at last, pulling back.
“Yeah, I need to eat every four or five days.” He grinned, and Suzanne laughed, the spell broken.
“Nothing too fancy,” he added. “You and I have a date tonight.”
“A date?”
“Yeah. We’re going to a concert.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Eight o’clock. Make yourself sexy.”
She pretended to slap him. “I’m always sexy!”
He grinned. “Then it shouldn’t take you long. I gotta get a shower.”
* * *
Center Park was already jumping by the time they arrived. The sun was down and Centauri B was still behind the mountains, where it would remain all night. The air had cooled and the sky was a deep indigo, bluer than anything Nick had ever seen on Terra. People were streaming into the park, hundreds of them, mostly teenagers; Nick saw very few older than twenty-five, and the crowd must be approaching two thousand. It looked like every kid in town was there, or on the way. Street traffic suggested that others were coming in from the countryside, though he didn’t see anyone in cult clothing.
The bands—three of them—were already warming up. Three impromptu stages had been set up and the trees were wired with electronics. From the squeaks and squawks emitting from hidden outputs throughout the park, it promised to be quite a show. In spite of himself, Nick felt a sense of excitement, and a wave of nostalgia. He hadn’t seen anything like this since he was a teenager in his home town of Chowchilla.
“Goddess!”
Nick glanced at Suzanne and was delighted at the excitement on her face. She suddenly looked like a teenager herself, a little smile on her lips, a childlike sense of wonder in her eyes. She had lived on Sirius 1 since she was fourteen, and Kline Corners had little that one could call culture. No wonder her daughter had left there with Nathan Green—the galaxy was too big, too filled with wonder, to stay in a hole like that.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it! Does the whole galaxy live like this?”
“I dunno. I haven’t seen the whole galaxy yet. I know they do in North America, and I bet they do on Vega Three.”
“This is fantastic! I think I’ve wasted my whole life up to now.”
“And the show hasn’t even started yet.”
They strolled through the park, keeping out of the main traffic area, listening to the bands warm up, the laughter of teenagers, taking in the dazzle of balloons and strobe lights in the trees. Several vendors had set up stalls around the edges of the park and were selling hot snacks; the smell of beef and hotdogs added to the general party atmosphere.
Nick spotted a uniformed police officer and wound his way toward him. The officer was watching the crowd but also seemed to be enjoying himself. Nick hadn’t met him yet and didn’t know his name. He was young, not more than twenty-five, and smiled as he recognized Nick.
“Hey, Marshal Walker! It’s nice to meet you. I’m Kevin Dougherty.”
Nick shook hands, and Dougherty glanced at Suzanne. “Mrs. Walker.”
Nick opened his mouth, but Suzanne took the officer’s hand.
“Just call me Suzanne,” she smiled.
Nick closed his mouth.
“Chief Dwyer asked me to help you guys out,” he told Dougherty.
“Great! Glad to have you. We can always use more people.”
“Anything in particular you look for?”
“Yeah. No fighting, no drinking, no drugs. We warn them once and if that doesn’t do it, they have to leave the park. Anyone who gets rowdy goes to jail.” He pointed. “There’s a prison van parked in front of the church. We lock ‘em in that until the party’s over, then take everyone in at once. That way we don’t lose manpower here while they’re being booked.”
Nick nodded. “Good plan. How long does this thing run?”
“Five or six hours. They only do this a couple times a year.”
“Okay.” Nick shook hands again. “We’re gonna circle the park for awhile, see what’s going on.”
Dougherty smiled. “Have fun, Marshal. And it’s good to have you back in Trimmer Springs. I was here when everything went down.”
Nick nodded and waved as they walked away. He didn’t want to offend Dougherty, but he didn’t need any more hero worship.
They strolled the park for twenty minutes, holding hands. Some of the young people glanced their way, especially the boys; some seemed interested in Nick’s guns, but most were looking at Suzanne, whose Vegan beauty exceeded anything in the park. Suzanne didn’t seem to notice.
But when they had to detour around a group of giggling girls, one of them stepped into their path, forcing them to stop.
“Where did you get that necklace?” she exclaimed. Her eyes were wide with wonder at the glittering stones on Suzanne’s neck, and three more girls joined her to admire them.
“They came from Sophiastad,” Suzanne told her, “on Vega Three.”
“You’ve been to Vega Three?”
“Omigod!” another exclaimed.
Suzanne smiled. “I was born there.
“Omigod!” the second girl exclaimed again. “You’re a Vegan?”
Suzanne laughed. “Yes, I am.”
“Omigod! I can’t believe it! The saying really is true!”
“What saying?”
“That there’s no such thing as an ugly Vegan!” the first girl said. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen!”
“Thank you.”
“What kind of stones are those? I’ve never seen anything like them before.”
Suzanne removed the necklace and let the girls examine it. They crowded around like hungry children at a barbecue.
“They’re called teardrop stones.”
“Teardrop stones? Why?”
“Because they glitter like Sophia’s teardrops.”
One of the girls held the necklace up to the light, where they sparkled in spectacular fashion.
“You’re right! That’s why they’re so pretty!”
“Who’s Sophia?” another girl asked.
“Sophia is the goddess that Vegans worship.”
“Does she cry a lot?”
Suzanne laughed. “Only when someone is hurting. Her tears are tears of compassion.”
“That’s beautiful!” a fourth girl sighed. “A goddess of compassion.”
Suzanne only smiled.
“Are these very expensive?” the first girl asked, still examining the necklace. “They look really expensive.”
“Not really. They’re not considered precious stones, but they are only found on Vega Three and it takes a lot of skill to cut them. Even so, they cost less than diamonds.”
“How much did these cost?”
“Jillian! That’s rude!” the first girl said.
“Well, I just wanted to know.” Jillian glanced at Suzanne. “Sorry, Mrs. Walker, I didn’t mean to be rude.”
Nick’s eyebrows s
hot up and his mouth popped open, but Suzanne shot him an amused glance and he closed it again.
“I ordered these when I was still on Sirius,” Suzanne said, “and the most expensive part was the shipping. I don’t know what it would cost to have them shipped here. But I can find out.”
“Would you? I’d really like to get something like that.”
“There is other teardrop jewelry that’s even less expensive, like bracelets and pendants. I have a catalogue if you’d like to see it.”
“Did you get that dress from Vega, too?”
“Yes, I did.”
“It looks gorgeous on you.”
Nick had to agree. Suzanne was wearing a loose, somewhat gauzy affair cut low in front, tight at the waist, and flared below that; when she walked it trailed behind her, wraithlike, turning her into some ghost woman in a lady-of-the-lake vid. The effect would have been magical on any woman, but on Suzanne it was positively spiritual.
“And those shoes!” the fourth girl added.
Nick leaned against Suzanne’s ear.
“I’m gonna keep moving. Meet you back here in a little bit?”
“Okay, sure.” She kissed him briefly, then turned back to her audience, intrigued by their interest.
Nick walked away; seeing the girls react to Suzanne was fun, but she might be there all night.
Since becoming a U.F. Marshal, Nick hadn’t been around kids that much. His first posting had been to Ceres in the Asteroid Belt; that particular planetoid wasn’t conducive to family life and very few families lived there. Kline Corners, on Sirius 1, had been a small desert community with a small population—there had been kids, but not very many. Alpha Centauri was a totally different experience, like being back on Terra after a long absence. Trimmer Springs was loaded with families, nearly three thousand of them, and teenagers abounded.
It was fun moving among them, listening to them, watching their antics. Boys engaged in much of the same horseplay he remembered from his own youth, trying to best each other and impress the girls; the girls competed with each other for the boys’ attention, while pretending to disdain them entirely. Yet here and there he saw couples, mostly older teens, who paired off and were interested only in each other.
In spite of the loud, boisterous talk, ninety percent of them were just kids being kids, a little too rowdy sometimes, but perfectly normal. But there were others as well, the fringe element, and they were also easy to spot. Usually they kept to themselves, birds of a feather, and watched those around them, calculating. They tended to have the weird haircuts, tattoos, and swaggered more than necessary when they walked.
Ten minutes after leaving Suzanne, Nick picked up a whiff of tobacco smoke and followed it with his nose. Not surprisingly, he found the source sitting on a picnic table near the edge of the park, six boys in their mid teens wearing leather jackets, half-heel boots, and gold chains. One boy had rolled his leather sleeves up to show off his muscles. He appeared to be the oldest and, not surprisingly, the leader. A cigarette burned between his fingers and he seemed to be playing it cool, watching the festivities without concern as his younger friends tried their hardest to ape his coolness. Two of them were also smoking cigarettes.
Nick walked up and planted himself in front of the leader. The kid locked gazes with him and let his lips curve in a cynical grin. He didn’t say a word.
“Got some ID?” Nick asked casually.
“Yeah. Do you?”
“No, and I need to get some. Let me see yours so I’ll know what to look for.”
One of the kids snickered, but stopped when the leader didn’t react.
“You’re pretty funny,” the kid told Nick.
“Not as funny as you. You’re a real hoot.”
“You think I’m funny?”
“Sure. Don’t you see me laughing?” Nick extended his hand. “Why don’t you show me that ID?”
“And what if I don’t?” The kid nodded toward Nick’s gunbelt. “You gonna shoot me?”
Nick shook his head. “Naw, I’d rather just crack open your skull. Makes a lot less noise.”
The second kid giggled again, but this time the older boy elbowed him in the ribs.
“Shut up, stupid!”
He looked back at Nick.
“You don’t need to see my ID. I got rights.”
Nick pushed his hat back on his head and sighed, hooking his thumbs in his gunbelt.
“In every crowd in every city on every planet, there’s always one dipshit. Looks like I found the one in Trimmer Springs.”
The second kid giggled yet again, and this time when the older boy elbowed him, he struck back. He punched the bigger kid in the shoulder, which triggered a fist to his face that bowled him off the picnic table. Nick grabbed the older boy’s arm and spun him to the ground, pinning him with his knee. The kid struggled as Nick snapped the E-cuffs on, but stopped after a jolt of electricity numbed his arm.
“Motherfucker!” the kid snarled. “I wasn’t doing nothing!”
“All you had to do,” Nick said quietly, “was show me your ID. How hard was that? Now you’re going to jail for assault.”
Nick reached for the second kid and hauled him to his feet.
“Suck my dick!” the one on the ground retorted.
“Oh, wow, that’s original,” Nick said. “Did you make that up?”
“Fuck you!”
“Hey, you’re a real poet. I’m gonna have to write this stuff down.”
The second kid, rubbing his jaw, started laughing again. The other four hadn’t moved from their perch on the picnic table. They watched Nick with wary eyes.
“What’s his name?” Nick asked the second kid.
“Rip van der Pool.”
“How old is he?”
“Eighteen.”
“Shut up, Charlie! I’m gonna fuck you up!”
Nick ignored him. “And what’s your name?”
“Charlie van der Pool. I’m fifteen.”
“He’s your big brother, huh?”
“Big asshole is more like it. These are my friends, but Rip thinks we all belong to him.”
Nick turned and spoke to the group. “Anybody here over eighteen?”
Nobody moved, nobody spoke.
“Okay, then lose those cigarettes. Federation law prohibits smoking in public by minors.”
The cigarettes went out and everyone shifted uncomfortably.
“I’ll be back around,” Nick continued. “If I find anyone smoking, you’ll be ejected from the park.”
“Our dad lets us smoke at home,” Charlie said.
“I kind of doubt that. But even if he does, you can’t do it in public.”
Charlie looked a little crestfallen; Nick put a hand on his shoulder.
“Do you like girls?” he asked.
“…yeah.”
“Ever sleep with a girl?’
Charlie swallowed hard, glanced at his friends, and shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Well, let me clue you in—all of you. You keep using tobacco, and about the time you hit forty, your dick won’t work anymore.”
“What!”
“That’s a medical fact. Takes a little longer for some, but long before you’re ready for it, you won’t be able to get it up. And believe me, it’s no fun trying to sleep with a girl when the only thing between your legs is a piece of rope.”
The boys all stared at him in horror.
“Next time you feel like a smoke, think about that. I know that forty sounds a long ways off, but when you get there you’re gonna wish it was a lot longer.” He winked. “And a lot harder.”
Silence settled over the group for a moment.
“What’re you gonna do with Rip?” Charlie asked, apparently thinking of what his parents were going to say.
“Do you want to press charges?”
“For what?”
“He slugged you. That’s a criminal act.”
Charlie shook his head. “He does that all the time.”
>
“Well, you don’t have to put up with it. You can file charges if you want to.”
Charlie looked a little embarrassed. He shook his head.
“I don’t want to.”
“Okay. He’ll spend the night in a can. We’ll let him go in the morning.”
“He didn’t really do anything that bad.”
“It’s all about attitude. If he wants to be a man, he needs to start acting like one.”
Nick asked the other boys for their IDs and they complied. The oldest was sixteen, the youngest fourteen. They all looked a little subdued.
“Are you the new U.F. Marshal?” Charlie asked. “I heard there was one in town.”
“I heard that, too. Better be glad I got here before he did. I hear he’s a real bad-ass.”
Several of the boys grinned at that.
“If you want to have a good time tonight, then be my guest. But this—” Nick pointed at Rip. “—is not the way to do it.”
He leaned over and hauled the boy to his feet. He turned back to Charlie.
“Tell your parents to pick him up at the jail in the morning. He won’t be released until one of them shows up.”
Charlie swallowed hard and nodded.
“Have fun.”
Nick pushed his prisoner ahead of him toward the street and began the short walk to the prison van. Just before they reached it, Rip twisted around and looked at him.
“Are you really gonna lock me up?”
“Told you I was. Didn’t you believe me?”
“Hey, come on, I was just screwing around. Cut me a break, will ya!”
“I tried to, Rip. All I wanted was to see your ID, but you had to show everybody how short your dick was. So you get to skip the party this time.”
“Fuck! This is bullshit!”
“Yeah, no kidding. You ought to see it from where I’m standing.”
Nick reached the van and turned his prisoner over to a female officer, who smirked at Rip’s scowl.
“I see you’ve met our favorite son,” she told Nick.
“You know him?”
“Oh, yeah. He plays in our sandbox about once a month. What’s the charge?”
“Disorderly conduct. Just leave it at that. I told his little brother that we’d only release him to his parents.”
She nodded and noted the information, then unlocked the van so Nick could push him inside. Nick removed the cuffs and the officer locked the cage.
