“Thanks for the warning,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to be rude or upset you.”
“Forget it.” Melanie said. “How do your folks feel about you dating my brother?”
Kelly shrugged. “They’re not crazy about the idea, but they’re trying to live with it. I know my mother likes Michael. My father, well, he’s polite anyway.”
“At least you can bring Michael home to meet them. I doubt you’ll get to meet my parents. And I don’t think you’d enjoy meeting my father.”
“Well, my folks enjoyed seeing Michael levitate. I had to really beg him to do it. What’s your talent?”
“What do you mean?”
“What mutant ability do you have?”
“Nothing. I’m a null.” Melanie sank back in her seat, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
“Really? I didn’t know there were mutant nulls.”
“Yeah. Happens occasionally. I’m the only one in my family not to have a milligram of ability. Hard to believe, isn’t it? My parents try to be nice about it, but I know they’re disappointed. Sometimes I think that I’m not really a mutant at all. Maybe I was just switched for a mutant baby at birth, at the hospital.”
“Then where’d you get those eyes?”
Melanie sighed. “Even my theories are dysfunctional.”
Kelly chuckled sympathetically and pulled up in front of Melanie’s house. She shut off the motor and turned toward her.
“Look, I appreciate your telling me this stuff, Melanie. I really like your brother. And, despite everything you’ve told me, I hope we can be friends.”
“Y-yes. Sure, if you want.”
Kelly nodded.
“Thanks for the ride.” Melanie got out of the skimmer and closed the door. She watched Kelly back out of the driveway, yellow headlamps burning a path through the gathering fog. How odd, she thought, to have found a new friend because of a fight. And she’s nonmutant.
Bill McLeod stared in horror at the bruise on his eldest daughter’s face. What was that reddish stain on her clothes? Beside him on the couch, his wife looked up from her reading with alarm.
“What happened?” he demanded.
“I walked into a fight at the Hardwired.”
“A fight?”
“Yeah, in the bathroom. Two girls were riffing with Melanie Ryton. They had a vibroblade.”
“A knife?” McLeod’s stomach tightened. Was that blood on his daughter’s shirt? “Were you cut?”
“No. And the knife was a small one.”
“I’m relieved that you’re such an expert on knives,” he said acidly. “And who is this Melanie Ryton? Any relation to Michael?”
“His sister.”
McLeod shook his head. Yet another Ryton. Would he never get away from that damned family?
“You’re sure you’re all right?” Joanna asked.
“Fine, Mom. Just messy.”
“Did you have to get involved?” McLeod demanded.
Kelly gave him a disgusted look. “What was I supposed to do,” she asked, “stand there and watch?”
The tone in her voice infuriated him. “Kelly, you could have gotten hurt. And I’m beginning to think you might have deserved it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you’re looking for trouble,” he said. “Hanging around with mutants. See what it brings? Don’t you have any other friends?”
“Bill!” Joanna sounded shocked.
Kelly leaned against the wall, hands in her pockets.
“Dad, Melanie is harmless. She doesn’t even have any mutant powers. Just weird eyes. But everybody gives her guano for being a mutant. I don’t like it.”
“Of course not,” Joanna said. “We’ve always told you to stick up for your ideals, haven’t we, Bill?”
He nodded impatiently. “Yeah, of course we have. But that’s not the point,” he said. “Don’t you know enough to keep your nose out of trouble? Mutant business is not yours. Why can’t you find some nice friends with normal eyes?”
Kelly’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Fine. First thing tomorrow, tell Cindi that she can’t see Reta. Let’s have a moratorium on mutants. We’ll become known as the McLeods, famous mutant haters.” Her voice was shrill. “I don’t care what you think about the mutants. I like them.”
“Bill, this is giving me a headache. Can’t you let up for a while?” Joanna said irritably.
McLeod began to feel like the entire situation was his fault. “I will not let up,” he said, his tone defensive. “Kelly, I don’t want to forbid you to see any of these mutants, but I’d be a lot happier if you’d spend more time with others besides them. And if you’d stop this romance with Michael Ryton. You’ve always had your pick of boys. Why must you date a mutant?”
“God, half the time I feel like a mutant in this family,” Kelly said. “Why shouldn’t I like them? I don’t want to stop seeing Michael. He’s more interesting than any other boy I’ve ever met. And if he’s a mutant, well, so what?”
“Kelly, calm down,” Joanna said. “Your father is just upset about the knife fight,” Joanna said. “And can you blame him? You come in with a bruised face, clothes covered in blood—”
“It’s just a few spots.”
“—and tell us you were in a fight in some bar.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kelly shifted from one foot to another, looking uncomfortable. “I’m sorry. But would you rather I lie about it?”
“No, of course not. And I’m proud that you stuck up for Melanie. Your father is too.”
McLeod felt his temper flaring again. “Jo, don’t talk about me as if I’m not even here.”
“Dad, she’s just trying to let you calm down.”
McLeod wondered when his daughter had started using that condescending tone with him. He didn’t like it.
“You can see our point, can’t you, that it can be dangerous to be too friendly with mutants?” Joanna asked.
Kelly shrugged. “I understand what you’re trying to say, Mom. But if it had been me in Melanie’s position, wouldn’t you have wanted my friends to try and help me?”
“Of course.”
“Then what’s the difference? So what if Melanie’s a mutant? She’s my friend. And she can’t even do anything mutantlike.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” McLeod said sharply.
“Well, it’s true.”
“That must be rough on her,” Joanna said, frowning.
For a moment, McLeod’s mood softened. Poor little Melanie, caught between worlds. Then he thought of her father, the coldly aloof James Ryton, and his irritation returned.
“Look, I’m sure Melanie has a hard time at school. But so do a lot of other people. And some of them aren’t even mutants. She’s got other friends. Mutant friends. So save your sympathy, Kelly.”
“I wish I’d been a mutant for about fifteen minutes back there in that bathroom. I’d have floated Tiff Seldon right into the john and washed her hair for her.” Kelly giggled.
McLeod knew she was trying to amuse him, and he smiled reluctantly. But an image formed in his mind of Kelly’s face, familiar in every regard save for golden eyes, and he repressed an urge to shiver. His anger had burned out, leaving only flickering embers and depression.
“Let’s just forget about this, okay? Why don’t you get some clean clothes on.” He turned away from his family and switched on the roomscreen, dialing up the zero-g basketball finals. He wanted to think about something other than mutants.
The house was dark, lit sparsely by track lights in the usual blues and greens soothing to mutant eyes. A guttural chant wafted toward Melanie from the tubular copper speakers in the living room. The prayer for endurance from the third book of the Chronicles; it was one of her father’s favorite invocations. The rest of the house was silent, brooding. The entire world outside seemed remote. Banished.
“I assume there’s an explanation?” James Ryton’s voice was icy as he took in the sight of his di
sheveled daughter. Melanie cringed inwardly, wanting to hide. She’d known better than to expect comfort from her father. If only she could have gone home with Kelly.
“Well? What have you got to say, young lady?”
Melanie looked toward her mother, sitting curled like a cat on the sofa. She smiled encouragingly. With a deep breath, Melanie plunged in.
“A couple of girls jumped me in the bathroom. One had a knife. She’d been drinking. She wanted to cut me.”
“Damned normals. They won’t be satisfied until they’ve killed us all!”
“James!” Sue Li gave him a sharp look. Then she turned to Melanie. “Keep going, dear. What happened next?”
“Kelly McLeod came in and helped me fight them off.”
“McLeod’s girl helped you? A nonmutant?” Her father sounded surprised.
“Y-yes.”
“How do you know this girl?” her mother asked quietly.
“She’s in two of my classes.”
Melanie watched her father pace angrily across the blue carpet. His face was haunted. A vein throbbed in his forehead, always a bad sign.
“And what were you doing that made these girls attack you?”
“Nothing. Combing my hair.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand why you’d want to go to a nonmutant place to begin with,” he said. “Where was Germyn? I thought you were going out with her tonight.”
“She took off as soon as the trouble started. As usual.”
Melanie watched her mother’s mouth twitch in what might have been a smile, quickly concealed. Her father, however, did not look amused.
“Wandering off on your own, you become a target,” he said.
“So this is my fault?” Melanie said angrily. “I asked to have a knife pulled on me?”
“Don’t use that tone with me, girl.”
Her mother cut in. “James, you’re too upset to discuss this now. Let’s talk about it later.”
“Don’t try to placate me, Sue Li. You know how I feel about socializing with normals. The dangers.”
“Yes, of course. But I think you’re overreacting. After all, this isn’t the nineties, James. And I don’t see any harm in Melanie spending some time with nonmutants occasionally.” Sue Li paused. “All the kids go to the Hardwired. She didn’t ask for any trouble. If somebody occasionally takes a drink from the wrong bottle and gets aggressive, well, that’s not our daughter’s fault. It seems to me this all could have been much worse.”
Melanie thought that her mother looked like a tiny female Buddha wrapped in her ginger-colored sweater. Serene. She wondered if she was trying to influence everybody’s mood. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d ended a family argument through subtle telepathy.
“Sue Li, I won’t allow you to distract me,” Ryton said. “Our children’s continued involvement with normals is dangerous. I don’t like it.”
“I don’t see how I can avoid it,” Melanie said. “There’s not enough of us to start a private mutant school And I can’t live my whole life avoiding normals.”
“Well, you can be smarter about where you choose to go, what you choose to do.” Her father’s voice was hard. “And I forbid you to see that McLeod girl again.”
Melanie’s lower lip trembled. “But Dad, she helped me. And she wants to be my friend.”
“You have friends within the clan.”
“Oh, sure. You know that nobody in the clan really wants to be friends with me. Yeah, they’re all very nice, but they treat me like I’m brain-damaged instead of just a null. And so do you.”
For once, her father was speechless. He stared at her as though he’d never seen her before. Melanie knew she should stop, retreat to her room and safety, but she couldn’t help herself. The words she’d dammed up for years burst out.
“I can’t seem to make anybody happy,” she cried. “At school, I get picked on for being a mutant. At home, and at clan meetings, you look at me like I have three heads. Oh, I know you think I don’t see you, but you’re wrong. And I know what you’re thinking, too: ‘Poor girl, a null, who’ll want her? Who will we find to marry her in the clan? It’s such an embarrassment having a dysfunctional daughter. Why did this have to happen to us?’”
“Oh, Melanie, you’re wrong.” Her mother’s voice was anguished, all serenity shattered.
Melanie turned on her. “Really? My own father is so busy blaming me for everything that he doesn’t seem to realize that somebody threatened to stab me! Of course, that would have made everything easier for you all, wouldn’t it?” She paused, feeling a sense of satisfaction at the sight of the color draining out of her mother’s face, the rigid, shocked posture of her father.
“Melanie, you don’t know what you’re talking about. How can you say these things?” Her mother’s voice broke on the last word. Melanie felt a prickle of guilt: she didn’t really want to hurt her, but wasn’t this the truth? Wouldn’t they all be better off if she wasn’t around?
Her father shook his head in dismissal. “You’re talking foolishness. Childish nonsense. Everyone likes you and treats you well. You’re imagining demons. Nightmares.”
The three of them stared at one another in frozen silence. Finally, her mother stood up.
“It’s late. We’re all tired. Let’s just go to bed. Tomorrow it will all look better.”
Melanie felt sorry for them. They couldn’t stand the truth. But she could handle it. She had to.
“Good night, Mother. Father.”
She left them standing behind her and went to her bedroom. Once she’d closed the door behind her, she turned off the infrared switch before it automatically responded to her body heat and illuminated the room. She wanted the darkness.
Sitting on the bed, hugging her knees to her chest, Melanie reviewed the evening one more time. The fight in the bar. The conversation with her parents. She couldn’t keep living this way. She wouldn’t.
Bill McLeod rolled over and stared at the wall clock. It gleamed the time at him in soft amber numerals: four in the morning. Beside him, Joanna breathed deeply and evenly. He longed to join her but the sound of Kelly’s voice echoed in his head each time he closed his eyes, keeping sleep away.
Half the time I feel like a mutant in this family.
Well, it was just said in anger, he told himself. Kelly was fighting back against her old man and his bullheaded comments. She probably didn’t mean it.
But what if she did? She seemed so far away these days. A stranger. What had he done—or not done—to alienate her? Oh, hell, all kids felt alienated occasionally. It came with the territory. He remembered spending an entire night walking on the beach when he was fourteen. And his father had tanned his hide when he got home. But he’d grown out of the need for lonely beach walks, especially in the Air Force. And now, anchored to a desk job, he didn’t have time for much alienation. Too many contracts.
Joanna did a heroic job with the kids. He tried his best to share, to be there for them, to withhold his judgment whenever he thought they needed to learn for themselves…
His damned judgment. He clenched his fists in frustration. McLeod knew he ought to be decent about the mutants. But they gave him the creeps. Even in the service, he’d steered clear of them. His daughter had nearly gotten beaten up because of them. Or worse. And now she wanted to date that boy.…
Half the time I feel like a mutant in the family.
“Bill, if you don’t stop rolling around, I’ll never be able to sleep.” Joanna sounded cross and groggy. “What are you stewing over? Kelly?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got to be patient. You know it’s her age.”
“Thank God you can only be seventeen once.”
“Amen.” She snuggled up against him in the dark. “What in particular is bothering you?”
“That comment she made about feeling like a mutant. Do you think she really meant it?”
Joanna chuckled. “Sure. At th
e time. She was just trying to shock you. And it looks like she succeeded.”
“Well, she seems unhappy. It bothers me.”
“I don’t think she’s more unhappy than I was at her age. Or you were.”
“It’s not like we deprive her of anything.”
“Bill, you’ve got to stop worrying about this. You’re a terrific father. Just ease up on this mutant thing for a while. I think it gives her something to rebel against. I’m sure she’ll lose her fascination with them eventually. Be patient.”
“That’s your area, not mine.”
“Well, I’ve got an idea that should completely distract you from your impatience.…” She began kissing his back, rolled over to nuzzle his chest, then slowly moved lower.
“Why do I get the impression I’m being treated like a sex object?”
Despite the glow of the clock, he couldn’t see her smile in the dark. But he heard it in her voice. “Stop complaining. Just lie back and enjoy it.”
4
GLEAMING SILVER IN its track, the elevator door slid closed with a pneumatic whisper.
“What floor, please?” came the electronic drone of the cab’s voice.
“Fifteen,” Andie said, curtly. She disliked talking to machinery. The elevator rose smoothly, silently. Stretching in the luxury of the empty cab, Andie stared at her distorted reflection in the door’s burnished surface. Wondered idly what it would be like to go through life with a neck of Modigliani-esque proportions topped by a Picassoid face with two eyes on one side of the nose. That was how she’d first imagined mutants when she’d heard about them as a child. Before they were in the schools, the streets, the seat of government.
The cab stopped and the door whooshed open to admit Karim Fuentes, Senator Craddick’s senior aide, and Carter Pierce, chief lobbyist for Korean superconductors, Brazilian gene splicing and French plasalloys.
“Andie—looking good.” Fuentes gave her one of his dazzling smiles. “You know Carter?”
“We’ve met.” Despite herself, she liked Karim’s dark good looks and easy charm. But Pierce’s political connections and French silk cuffs left her cold. She’d never cared for blonds anyway. For his part, Pierce avoided Jacobsen’s office with almost phobic consistency. “How are you?”
The Mutant Season Page 5
