Turnabout

by Carmen Webster Buxton

I cleared my throat. “I don’t get it. What happened?”

  Marjani crossed her arms over her chest and stared into the coals. “I thought I could be happy living just as haru to my sisters, and only sometimes finding women for sex. But then I met Esi.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  After a moment, Marjani went on. “When I decided I wanted to share my life with her, I left my household.” She stopped abruptly like the memory was painful.

  “Is that illegal or something?” I didn’t want to pry, but I needed to understand what had happened.

  “No.” Marjani finally looked up from the coals and met my eyes. “It’s not against Egume law, but it is against clan custom. And so the Rufaro disowned me. I lost my job as a construction engineer and had to take work as a laborer.”

  “What happened to your brothers?”

  She looked confused. “Nothing happened. They all married. So far as I know they’re happy enough in their households. The youngest has seven wives, the other two five, and they each have at least four sons. My youngest is my full brother; we have the same mother. After I left my sisters, he persuaded his senior wife to let me and Esi stay with them for a few weeks.” Her expression got bleaker. “But even my brother urged me to return to my haru and leave Esi, so we didn’t stay long.”

  It sounded rather sad. But it was interesting, too. Her brothers had married into small households by Egume standards, so most likely their wives were well off.

  I cleared my throat. “Were any of your brothers like you?”

  She lifted her brows. “What do you mean like me?”

  I wished I knew the Neluan word for gay. “Did all your bothers want to get married to women, or did any of them want to be with another man instead?”

  Her mouth twisted in a wry smile. “No, none of them were like me.” Her shoulders dropped a little, like she’d been tensing up but now she was relaxed. “Although with three of them, if one of them had been, the family would probably have let him go to an insemination site.”

  That got my attention. “What?”

  She grinned. “Who do you think supplies insemination sites? It’s men who don’t want to make children with women, that’s who. The fees provide for the upkeep on their compounds and for a staff to care for them. That’s why it’s so expensive to use their services.”

  The way she said ‘care for them’ it made it sound like men were children or mental patients, unable to care for themselves. Then I remembered how quickly I had been snatched up when I arrived in Egume. A compound of gay guys might feel safer behind walls than loose in the streets of a city full of women—very aggressive women.

  “I think the meat is cooked,” Marjani said.

  I lost all interest in Egume customs. I wolfed down my share of rabbit without even a thought for Mr. Wiggles.

  Esi didn’t eat much. Marjani coaxed her into eating a few bites, but she couldn’t get Esi to show any real interest in the food. Marjani put Esi’s share aside with a comment that she could eat it in the morning.

  “I’m cold,” Esi said suddenly. “Can I have a blanket, please?”

  Marjani and I exchanged glances. It was quite comfortable in the cave with the embers of fire so near to where we sat. Marjani got up and fetched a blanket, but after she draped it over Esi, she pressed her hand to Esi’s forehead.

  “You’re burning up with fever,” Marjani said. “Jason is right. You need to see a doctor.”

  “She would just say I need to keep off the ankle for a few weeks,” Esi said, clutching the blanket around her. “Besides, we don’t have any money.”

  “I could ask my family for money,” Marjani said. She tossed a few small pieces of wood onto the fire, and it flared up again.

  “No!” Esi shifted her weight like she couldn’t get comfortable. “They might help if you were hurt, but they would never help me. They would probably make me promise never to see you again or something.”

  Marjani didn’t answer, but she moved closer to Esi’s injured ankle and pushed up her pant leg.

  Even in the flickering light, I could see the red streaks running up Esi’s leg. I recalled my first aid class from scouts. Blood poisoning—septicemia, to use a fancier word. Not good.

  Marjani looked Esi in the face. “I have to take you to a hospital.”

  Esi jerked her foot back. “Ow! No! No, Marjani! I won’t let them cut off my leg.” Her eyes welled up. “Especially now, when—” She broke off and looked at me.

  Especially when she might be pregnant.

  “Excuse me, but I need to pee.” More than willing to give them some privacy, I got up and scrambled for the cave opening, then started down the hillside carefully. I really did have to take a leak, but I didn’t want to break a limb doing it.

  After I took care of business, I sat down a ways from the cave entrance and surveyed the countryside.

  In the far distance, the lights of the Kabarega camp flickered and winked in and out as the women there moved about, having their dinner. I watched for a while, remembering the position of the camp fires and the tents, wondering who it was walking between me and the firelight. If I’d had binoculars or a telescope, I might have been able to see their faces.

  I didn’t have to see her face to know Dorscha was there. I shivered in my denim jacket, but it wasn’t from the cold. I knew exactly what Dorscha would do if she found me.

  I looked back over my shoulder at the cave, wondering if Esi and Marjani were through arguing. To my horror, the cave entrance shimmered. Even with the stones to block the actual fire, the firelight sparkled on the quartz in the cave walls and the whole place glowed like a giant night light.

  I jumped up and rushed up the hill.

  “Put the fire out!” I ordered as I dashed inside.

  “What?” Marjani had been holding Esi. She let her go and stood up. “What’s wrong?”

  I frantically scooped up dirt and tossed it onto the fire. “The damn place is glowing from the firelight! You can probably see the cave entrance for miles.”

  I got the fire out, but it began to smoke.

  Esi coughed. At least I thought it was Esi. I couldn’t see well in the dark.

  Marjani fumbled around and in a moment I heard the scritch of a match lighting and then I saw Marjani was holding the lantern. It looked pathetic with its glass chimney tied together with twine, but the dim light was better than total gloom.

  Marjani cranked the flame down as low as it could go without going out. “We’ll have to be sure we don’t have a fire after dark anymore.”

  I thought about the view from the plain. If I could see them, they could see me. Realistically, I couldn’t expect to hide here any longer. Between the Kabaregas and the city police, my chances of getting caught were darn good, and I’d much rather get caught by the police.

  Esi let out a tiny moan.

  “I don’t think it will be a problem,” I said. “I don’t think I should stay here.”

  “Where will you go?” Marjani asked.

  I hesitated, not sure I really wanted to say out loud what I had decided. Once I had said it, it would be hard to take it back.

  “It’s not safe for you on your own, Jayzoon,” Esi said. “You can stay with us.” She looked around. “Why is it so dark? Marjani, turn up the lantern.” She shifted her position. “My leg hurts.”

  I wondered if she was out of her head. “Marjani, do you think you could get me into the city without us getting caught on the way?”

  Marjani stared at me. “I thought you wanted to get away from the city?”

  I swallowed hard, then set my shoulders and made myself speak. “I don’t think that’s a practical thing to hope for. I think I’m going to have to settle for going back to Hobart’s house—the Omdur house where you found me.”

  “So you want me to take you there?”

  I shook my head. “No, I think we should go to City Hall—or whatever it’s called—so you can claim the reward for finding me.”

  Esi
didn’t seem to understand, but Marjani got to her feet. She held out her hand. “I thank you, Jason, for what you’re offering.”

  I let out a long breath of regret as I shook her hand. If I had to go back, I might as well make sure Esi could afford a doctor before her leg got any worse. “I just hope you can get me there.”

  Marjani glanced down at Esi and then up at me. “I’ll get you there.”

  The resolution in her voice reassured me. If I could have been sure I’d made the right choice, I would have been much happier.

  “We’ll have to leave in the middle of the night,” Marjani said. “That way we can arrive at the Ocan Garun’s palace when the streets are still empty.”

  Always assuming we made it past Dorscha and the other Kabaregas.

  We left almost right away. I didn’t have anything to pack, so it was just a matter of making Esi comfortable before we left. Once we were ready, I said goodbye and gave Esi a hug, but I wasn’t sure she understood what was going on.

  Marjani kissed her on the forehead and embraced her tightly. “Stay still, Esi. Keep quiet.”

  “I’m fine,” Esi said. “Except my leg hurts.”

  “Try not to move it.” Marjani kissed her again, and then stood up. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  I took a quick look around the gloom. This was one place I’d be happy never to see again.

  Esi looked up at Marjani. “Are you going somewhere?”

  Marjani knelt down and stroked her forehead. “I’m just taking Jason into the city. I’ll be back in the morning.”

  Esi half sat up and clutched her arm. “I love you, Marjani.”

  “I love you, too.” Marjani pulled herself free gently. “Go to sleep now. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  Esi lay down, and Marjani turned to go.

  I waited for her to lead the way, and took one last look at the cave.

  I really hoped we made it to the city so I could go back to Hobart’s house. If I continued my trend of leaving a place for somewhere much worse, I’d end up in a pit.

  Fifteen

  I hadn’t enjoyed being dragged along through the streets of Egume with a bag over my head. It wasn’t much fun without the bag, either. Marjani set a wicked pace to begin with, and then she pulled me by my arm whenever I lagged behind. After we passed through the suburbs, it didn’t take more than an hour before we were well into the downtown area.

  We cut through an alley. It was dark, and I was walking with one hand on the crumbling, uneven wall to guide me, when I heard a laugh that turned into a snort. It sounded damn close. I saw a shadowy cluster of people about twenty feet ahead of us, and I froze.

  Marjani muffled a curse and shoved me backwards into a crevice in the wall. I hit my head on the bricks, but I didn’t dare protest. Marjani pressed herself against me like she wanted to make out—or maybe she was just trying to blend in with the wall. I could feel her breathing really fast.

  Barely able to breathe myself, I waited until the sounds of drunken women arguing got farther and farther away. “Ow!” I said, trying to rub my head.

  Marjani grunted and moved away from me. “Sorry. I didn’t realize the opening was shorter than you.”

  I hunched my shoulders and bent my knees to get a little room between the top of my head and the bricks of the crevice. “That’s all right. I didn’t want to be out in the open with those women around.”

  I had a feeling Marjani was nodding, but I really couldn’t see her well enough to say.

  “They’re gone,” she said. “I don’t hear anyone else.”

  I stepped out carefully and listened. The city of Egume seemed quiet, which was a relief.

  I was exhausted. It was probably after four in the morning, and I had walked damn fast for several hours with no sleep and little rest. “How close are we?”

  “Hmm.” She paused. “Very close, I think.” Her shadowy shape darted back and forth in the alley. “This way.”

  She tugged on me again, and I let her pull me along. We came out onto a broad boulevard, much more brightly lit than any part of the city we had seen so far. Across the street I saw the tall steps of the imposing building I had been taken to months ago when I first arrived in Egume—the Ocan Garun’s Palace.

  I stepped into the lighted street, but Marjani pulled me back.

  “Wait!” She looked up and down the street. It was empty. “It’s clear. Let’s go.”

  I felt like a kid being walked across the street for the first time—except we didn’t walk, we ran. Once we set foot on the Palace grounds, I felt suddenly exposed. A series of flood lights on the lawn illuminated the walkway, the grounds, and the building itself. It made me want to run like hell the other way.

  When we got to the bottom of the steps, two women stepped out from the shadows of the portico. They stood at the top of the flight of stairs and leveled weapons at us. “Stop where you are!”

  I froze with one foot in the air.

  “Don’t shoot!” Marjani said. “We’re not armed.”

  “Who are you, and what’s your business at the Ocan Garun’s Palace?” The first woman aimed her gun at Marjani.

  The second woman aimed at me. In the stark spotlights that shone onto the porch from the lawn I could see her eyes widen as she stared at me. “She—he’s a man!”

  “His name is Jason Omdur Miller,” Marjani said. “He wandered away from an Omdur household, and I’ve come to claim the Ocan Garun’s reward for finding him.”

  “Wandered?” The first woman looked me over and grinned. “I heard he climbed out the attic window.”

  “The reward is the same, no matter how he got out.” Marjani sounded on edge. The harsh light made her face look older, her clothes more ragged.

  “True.” The woman gestured with the point of what I hoped was only a stun gun. “Come up, then.”

  The other soldier was talking into a radio or a cell phone or something. They took us into a sort of guard room which soon filled up with women, some in uniform, some not. A tall brown-haired woman who wore a pale blue bathrobe over striped pajamas seemed to be in charge.

  Except for looking me over closely, they didn’t pay much attention to me. No one even asked me any questions. They had Marjani fill out an electronic form on a sort of oversized iPhone, sign her name, and press her thumb onto the screen, but all they did with me was park me on a bench and assign two armed women to watch me.

  After they had asked Marjani where she found me—she told them I had been running loose in the countryside—the woman in the bathrobe told her she could go.

  Marjani frowned. “When do I get the reward?”

  The woman tapped the iPhone thing. “The funds should be available to you at any bank in the city as soon as they open this morning. Just identify yourself.”

  Marjani gave me a last look. I couldn’t tell what it meant, exactly. Her expression looked grim, like she was warning me against giving the authorities too much information, but it could have just been worry for Esi. “Good fortune to you, Jason,” she said, and then she turned and went out the door.

  I swallowed, feeling suddenly more alone.

  And then they all jumped to attention as another woman came into the room, a woman in a charcoal gray pantsuit. I recognized the braid in her hair first, and her face second. It was the Ocan Garun.

  I could tell right away she was pissed at me. She glared at me in exactly the same way the principal at Clara Barton had glared when I got hauled into her office for bringing a tiny Swiss Army knife to school. I had caused the Ocan Garun trouble, and she wasn’t happy about it.

  “Has he been fed?” she asked, as if I were a stray dog.

  The woman in the bathrobe shook her head. “He hasn’t been here that long.”

  The Ocan Garun nodded. “Take him to a guest room and get him cleaned up and fed—but keep guards in the room—while I decide what to do with him.”

  “But—” I wasn’t sure it was smart to speak, but I couldn’t hold b
ack. “But, won’t you send me back to Ho—to Adeola Omdur Hamad’s house?”

  The Ocan Garun looked surprised, perhaps because she hadn’t realized I had learned to speak Neluan. “Your foster family lost their rights to you when they allowed you to escape.”

  The floor seemed to shift under me. It had never occurred to me that they didn’t have to send me to live with Hobart and Teleza and the others. “Where else would you send me?”

  She paused and looked me up and down. “I don’t know yet. Perhaps to an insemination site—although you’re young for that. Or perhaps to a more secure household.” She smiled like she was pleased with herself. “Now that you speak our language, I’m less limited in my choices.”

  She turned without any further words to me and swept out of the room. A moment later, two soldiers took me by the arms and marched me through the corridors of the Palace to a small second floor room, where they waited while I cleaned up in the adjacent bathroom.

  The shower felt great after days without one, but as I let the warm water run down my back all I could think about was where the hell would I end up next.

  “WAKE up!” The voice sounded annoyed.

  I had my own problems. The principal was mad at me, and I might get expelled. Mom would be furious and upset at the same time.

  It came to me that I was dreaming. I opened my eyes to find myself lying fully clothed in my own grubby clothes, on a fancy bed in a strange room.

  When I sat up, a man moved away from the bed to open the thick purple drapes. Light flooded the room and illuminated the elaborate carpet and posh furniture. I flinched at the sudden change. The shadows on the floor matched the pattern of the bars on the window and suggested it was late afternoon, which meant I had slept most of the day. Just then it dawned on me the man had spoken English.

  It was Max, the first guy I had met in Egume.

  “What are you doing here?” I said.

  He gave me a sour grin. “Visiting you. I had to beg to be allowed to see you, but I promised Hobart I would try.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I swung my feet to the floor and tried to bring myself fully awake. “How is Hobart?” It sounded lame, even to me.