by Amy Thomson
“So you’re the father of my new niece!” Anetta said when Juna had introduced them.
“Well, I suppose I am,” Bruce acknowledged, looking suddenly embarrassed.
Just then, Moki came out of the barn. “Bruce!” he shouted, and broke into a run. He took his bag. “Bruce! I’m going to have a sister! Isn’t that great!”
“Moki, why don’t you help Bruce get settled, and show him around the farm?” Juna suggested, relieved to be passing Bruce along to someone else for a while. “I’ll go help Anetta in the kitchen.”
“Okay,” Moki said. “Danan and I got the crusher put back together. It runs much better now.”
“Good for you!” Juna said. “You’re turning into a real mechanic.” She smiled. Moki was sounding more like Danan every day. Sometimes he sounded deceptively like a ten-year-old boy.
Bruce followed Moki around the farm. Moki clearly liked the vineyard, and was intrigued by the winery, with its tall steel vats, and the crushing and bottling machines, as well as the small, immaculately clean lab for testing the wine. But it was clear that the little alien was even more excited by the prospect of having a sister. Listening to him made Bruce’s blood run cold.
How could this alien child blithely assume such a close relationship to his daughter? And how could Juna and her family allow it? It all seemed deeply, profoundly wrong to Bruce. Finally, he excused himself and retreated to his room on the pretext that he needed to wash up before dinner. He winced as he lay down on the bed. The bruises from the beating he had received during his arrest were still tender. He closed his eyes, shutting out the high-ceilinged room, and tried to remember how he had gotten himself into this situation.
Juna had seemed improbably beautiful when he had first seen her on Tiangi. Brilliant colors and patterns flickered and slid across her naked body like some strange light-show. Walking in the forest with her was like stepping into Eden. She was graceful and completely at home in the alien forests of Tiangi. Then she had cried in his arms like an abandoned child. He had been touched by her loneliness and vulnerability, and flattered that someone as famous as she was would be drawn to him.
She remained beautiful after the aliens had given her back her original creamy brown skin. But on board ship she had gotten more and more wrapped up with the aliens and their problems. The final frantic flurry of sex during the quarantine had been exciting, but he had been secretly relieved to have the relationship end. Only, now, it wasn’t over.
At first he’d thought the arrest was a joke, some kind of mistake. He had argued with the police, and instead of reasoning with him, they hit him with their rubber truncheons, threw him in their hot, filthy jail. He swallowed against the tightness in his throat as he remembered the smell of the place. And here he was, his life turned inside out by a woman he thought he had said goodbye to.
Dinner was long and tense. The food was good, the wine was excellent, but it was all ashes in his mouth. Juna’s father, Teuvo, tried to draw him out, but Bruce felt too nervous and out of place to talk. Instead he worried about what he was going to say at the upcoming meeting.
At last the dessert plates were empty. Bruce pushed away from the table with a sense of guilty relief.
“Mr. Bowles,” Juna’s lawyer said, consulting her watch, “it’s nearly time to call Bernie Frishberg for our conference. Is there anything you need before we start.”
Bruce shook his head. “We might as well get it over with,” he said.
“You can use the library,” Juna’s father offered. “It’s very private.”
Bruce followed the others into the library. He felt like a condemned man being led to the firing squad. At least, he thought sourly, it was a handsome room, lined with books. One whole set of shelves was devoted to technical books on winemaking and grape-growing. They looked well-thumbed. There was a low table in the middle of the room with comfortable chairs set around it. But the comfort and dignity of the room did nothing to quell his worries as he sat down and set up his comm unit.
“Well,” Counselor Gheisar said when they were all settled and Brace’s lawyer was listening in on the comm link, “Juna has expressed an interest in trying to work out the custody issues with your desires in mind, Mr. Bowles. But in order to do that, we need to know what you want.”
Bruce took a deep breath and leaned forward. “Before all this happened, I was planning on getting on with the rest of my life, hoping to get married. I’ve worked for years to get enough money to afford a second child. I don’t want to lose my child-rights.” Anger surged as he spoke.
“Bruce, I— ” Juna began.
“And now you’ve involved me in this scandal, I’m going to have to spend all my savings on legal fees.” All his plans were in ruins because Juna hadn’t thought to have her contraception checked.
“Bruce, don’t worry, the Survey is clearly negligent. They’ll wind up paying the court costs on this one,” Bernie said reassuringly. Bruce’s lips tightened. He would believe that when it happened.
“Juna intends to pay for the fractional child-right,” her lawyer told him. “You’ll still be able to afford a second child.”
Bruce nodded grudgingly. It was the least she could do.
“What are your feelings about custody?” Counselor Gheisar asked.
Bruce looked down at the worn rag rug that covered the floor. This was the hardest question to answer. “It bothers me to know that the child is going to be raised with the aliens. I mean, I like Moki and Ukatonen well enough,” he said, glancing up at Juna’s lawyer, “but I don’t want them looking after a child of mine. Juna’s all alone. What kind of mother can she be, without support? And she has the aliens to take care of. That’s a pretty demanding job. I don’t want my daughter raised in a situation like that.”
“Do you want custody?” Sohelia asked him.
Bruce looked at Juna, who was watching him, her dark eyes intent on his face. He dropped his gaze to the rug. This was going to be hard enough to say without looking at her. “I think the whole thing is a bad idea,” he said quietly. “I don’t think Juna should have the baby.”
“Bruce, I— ” Juna began again, but her lawyer laid a cautionary hand on her arm.
“You’ve brought up some very genuine concerns,” Counselor Gheisar said. “First, the matter of money. You are not being asked to give up any of your child-rights. Juna has agreed to buy the remaining fraction of a child-right that she needs on the open market. Second, as Bernie pointed out, the Survey will very likely pay all legal fees and fines. They should have checked to see if her contraception was still intact, and they’re clearly negligent under current law. They’re responsible for Juna’s becoming pregnant.”
Gheisar stood. “The matter of custody is a good deal more complex. As an unmarried man whose child-rights are not involved, you have very little say in the custody of the child. Juna would be well within her rights to never allow you any access to her child at all. Instead, she has agreed to allow very liberal visitation rights. As far as your other reservations are concerned, Juna has the support of her family, and of her brother’s family. They will help her raise the child. It’s not a marriage, perhaps, but it is a family, and a solid one.”
“Bernie, what do you think?” Bruce asked, appealing to his lawyer for support.
“Basically, Counselor Gheisar is correct. Juna is being extremely generous here. Custody is a long shot. You have some options, but they’re expensive and time-consuming. If you like, we can discuss them later.”
Bruce examined the carpet again. There was no easy way out of this. He raged inwardly at the situation.
“This brings us to the matter of the Tendu,” Counselor Gheisar continued, “Why, exactly, do you object to them?”
“Because Moki is planning on being my daughter’s brother! It isn’t right, it isn’t natural! It can’t be good for the child!” Bruce exploded, venting his frustration.
“Bruce, I don’t understand,” Juna said. “You like Moki. Why don’t
you want him around our daughter?”
“I don’t trust the Tendu,” Bruce replied, scowling. Juna and her lawyer were herding him into a very small corral, and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it. Why couldn’t Juna let go of the baby? She already had fame, money, and the Tendu. Wasn’t that enough? Why was she dragging him through this?
“Bruce, I’ve known Moki and Ukatonen for years,” Juna told him. “I’ve trusted them with my life. I wouldn’t go through with this if I thought that the Tendu would harm our daughter.”
“But Juna, they eat their young!” Bruce blurted out. “How can you let them near a baby!”
Juna’s eyes widened in surprise. “Ukatonen and Moki understand the difference between a human baby and a Tendu tadpole. If you don’t believe me, we can call them in and ask them!”
“That’s an excellent idea, Juna,” Counselor Gheisar said. “I can’t think of a better way to deal with this question. Please, go ahead.”
Bruce glared at her lawyer as Juna went to the door and called the Tendu in. The aliens came-in and sat down, deep purple with curiosity.
“Go ahead,” she told Bruce. “Ask them.”
Bruce stared at the floor, embarrassed and angry at being put on the spot like this. He mumbled a curse under his breath.
“What did you say, Bruce?” Moki asked.
“Are you— ” he began, then shook his head. “You called them in here, you ask them,” he said, looking up at Juna.
“Bruce is concerned that you might eat the baby,” Juna said.
Ukatonen’s ears spread wide, and he turned a deep purple in puzzlement. Moki sat up indignantly, a lightning fork of red anger flickering across his chest.
“Why would we do a thing like that?” he demanded. “Why would I eat my own sister?”
Ukatonen touched Moki on the shoulder, and said something in skin speech. Bruce couldn’t follow what he was saying with the rudimentary skin speech he had picked up from them on the ship. Ukatonen stood, drawing himself up proudly. Suddenly the alien seemed like the largest person in the room, even though he didn’t even come up to Brace’s shoulder.
“I am an enkar of the Three Rivers Council,” Ukatonen declared. “I am about to render a formal judgment. As Eerin knows, my life is forfeit if this judgment is wrong. I say that no Tendu will harm Eerin’s daughter.”
He relaxed his formal pose, yet still seemed to dominate the room.
“We promised, when we came here, that we would abide by the Contact Protocols,” Ukatonen continued. “Eating a human child would be a clear violation of those protocols.” Bruce recognized the amusement that flickered across the alien’s chest, and his lips tightened in anger.
The amusement vanished as the alien turned to speak to Bruce. “Eerin’s child is important to both our people. By growing up with Moki and myself, she will learn about the Tendu. When she is grown, Eerin’s daughter will help provide a link between our two peoples. There is too much to gain for us to want to hurt her.”
“Eerin’s daughter this, Eerin’s daughter that,” Bruce complained. “She’s my daughter too. I want her to be a normal, happy little girl, not some half-alien thing I can’t understand! I don’t want her to grow up to be an alien. I don’t want to sacrifice her on the altar of alien diplomacy! She’s just a little girl who isn’t even born yet!”
“Bruce!” his lawyer cautioned. “That’s enough.”
“We don’t want to turn her into a Tendu, Bruce,” Ukatonen told him. “We want her to be a human with a deeper understanding of the Tendu. We will help Eerin raise her, but she will be Eerin’s child, and if Eerin does as good a job with her daughter as she has with Moki, then I think the child will be exceptional.”
Bruce looked down at the carpet once again, unable to find words that would express the dread he felt. They wouldn’t listen, anyway.
Juna’s lawyer began gathering up her notes.
“Perhaps we should all get a good night’s sleep and think things over,” she suggested. “We’ve gotten a good idea of how everyone feels, and that’s an important first step. Now we need to arrive at an agreement that we can all live with. We can work on that tomorrow.
“Bruce, we all realize that you’re hesitant about the child being raised around aliens, but the Tendu seem to care about her, and mean her no harm. Also, you should be aware that Juna is being extremely generous. She’s offering you liberal visitation rights, and carrying the financial burden of bearing and raising this child herself, freeing you to marry as you wish.
“Juna, you understand that Bruce has deep misgivings about the way you wish to raise your child. You need to think about how to reassure him that your daughter will have a normal childhood. Now, go,” Sohelia said, making shooing motions with her hands. “Go and think things over.”
As Bruce left the meeting, he saw Moki glance at him and turn away, his skin clouded with grey.
“Damn,” Bruce muttered under his breath. He had not wanted to hurt the little alien’s feelings. He headed upstairs to his room with a heavy heart. It had been a very long, hard day.
Moki walked out onto the front porch and stood in the darkness for a few moments, his skin a smoky roil of grey and purple. Bruce liked him. Why was he so afraid that he would hurt the baby?
Moki stood on the porch until the cold made him feel sluggish and dull. The cold numbed his body, but did nothing to erase the hurt he felt. With a slow ripple of sadness, he turned and went back into the house and all the troubles it contained.
He went into the kitchen to brew a cup of peppermint tea. He liked the warmth and reassurance of tea, and the sweet, pungent scent reminded him of the smell of fresh aka leaves. He huddled in front of the stove, waiting for the water to boil.
“Hei, pikkuinen, what are you doing?” It was Eerin’s father.
“Making some tea, Isoisi” he said, using the Finnish word for Grandfather. “Would you like some?”
“You look cold, Moki. Go sit by the heater and warm yourself. I’ll make the tea. Let me guess, you want peppermint, right?”
“Yes, Isoisi” Moki said, “but I should do it. You are an elder, after all, and the father of my sitik.”
Teuvo smiled. “It’s all right, Moki, I may be an elder, but I’m not so ancient that I can’t make a mug of tea for my daughter’s bami. Besides, Juna just stalked up to her room without saying a word, and I want to hear about what went on in the library.”
“Now,” he prompted when they were settled near the heater in the living room, “tell me what happened.”
Moki told him about Bruce’s fears for the child.
“I don’t understand, Isoisi, I thought he was my friend. I thought he liked me. Why is he afraid to let me help Juna with her baby?”
Teuvo stared into his mug of tea. “Many humans are afraid of what’s different, Moki. When I married Juna’s mother, Mariam, both our families were extremely upset.”
“Why?” Moki asked, puzzled.
“Mariam’s skin was even darker than Juna’s, and my skin, as you can see, is light. She and I came from very different people. Our families were afraid of how different we were from each other. They wanted their children to marry someone like them.
“To be honest, it was hard at first. There were some terrible arguments.” Teuvo smiled, remembering. “Sometimes I think the only reason we stayed together was because we couldn’t understand each other’s insults. But there were good times too, lots of them. When she died, I felt like I’d lost my other half.” He paused for a moment, his gaze turned inward, lost in remembrance.
“Most of our relatives forgave us when Juna was born,” Teuvo continued. “It’s amazing how grandchildren can bring a family together again. Our children and grandchildren are very precious to us.
“I’ve had some misgivings about you and Ukatonen and the child,” he admitted. “But I know Juna better than Bruce does, and I trust her judgment. If she’s willing to trust you and Ukatonen, then you must be worthy of that t
rust.”
“You honor me. I will try to be a good brother to your grandchild,” Moki told Teuvo. He spoke as formally as he could, given the limitations of human sound speech.
Juna’s father chuckled. “Of course you will, pojanpoika, of course you will.”
“But what about Bruce?” Moki asked. “How can I achieve harmony with him?”
Teuvo shook his head, “I don’t know, Moki. You should talk to him, but he may not be as interested in harmony as you are. There may be no solution to this problem, Moki. But if there is, I’m sure you will find it.”
Ukatonen turned up the heat on his warmsuit. It was deadly cold this morning. In the shadow of the barn, the ground was covered with a thin white coating. He took off one of his gloves and touched a stone* covered with the white stuff. The rime coating the stone burned with cold, but disappeared when he touched it, leaving only a dark wet spot on the rock where his finger had been. Ukatonen sniffed his finger, smelling nothing but moisture. He shoved his hand back into his glove, grateful for the heated glove’s warmth. His whole body felt suddenly warmer, as though he had stepped into a warm room. He stood, feeling his hand slowly stop aching from the cold.
“What is this white stuff, Teuvo?” he asked Juna’s father, who was watching him.
“It’s frost, frozen water vapor. It settles onto the ground on cold nights. It’ll be gone as soon as it warms up a bit.”
“It will get warmer, then?” Ukatonen asked. He felt smothered inside the muffling warmsuit. While wearing it, he was restricted to human speech, or to small private words on his face, but in the cold, his skin became sluggish and unresponsive to his thoughts. He pulled his hood more closely around his face, leaving only his eyes and muzzle exposed to the numbing, burning cold.
Teuvo laughed, his breath becoming a white cloud in the cold air. “Of course it will. The pickers are already out in the vineyard, picking the grapes before they thaw for eiswein. I’ll have to go and oversee the crushing in about an hour. But for now”—he held up a pair of halters—“we have a little time to train the colts. They’ll be full of ginger this morning!”
