A Perfect Life nd Other Stories (11 page)

At the edge of the field, where two stone steps dipped down to a
thin ribbon of lawn, Lin shook away the notion that this could be Jan. Unless
Jan had not aged in the last twenty years, it did not seem possible that she
could look this young and fit. Lin herself, despite a life outdoors chopping
wood and tramping up hills, had grown gray and paunchy, now well into her
forties. Could this be some ghost of Jan? Was she hallucinating after so many hours
of dehydration?

The woman, clearly nervous now, unfolded her arms and shoved her
hands in her pockets, mimicking Lin. She stepped off the porch and raised a
hand to shade her eyes. They stopped a few feet from each other. No further
territory could be crossed without some acknowledgement. But who goes first?
The intruder or the intruded upon?

Lin waited. The stranger coughed to clear her throat, then spoke
in a soft southern drawl. “Are you my mama?”

A Perfect Life

“AHOY, ME HEARTIES!” Tate cried out. She swung her cutlass high,
the blade sparkling in the sunlight, and jumped onto the bridge of her beloved
ship, the
Sea Devil
. Striding across the deck, she shouted orders to her
crew. Wind whipped through her auburn curls. She inhaled the briny sea air. It
was a glorious day to set sail. “Arrrgh!” she growled for effect.

“Pirates don’t talk like that,” a small voice called out.

Tate stopped, lowered her arm, and searched for the source. A girl
she didn’t know peered up at her.

“That’s a rock you’re standing on,” the girl said, “and this is a
desert, not an ocean.” She scuffed the hard-packed sand with her bare foot.

Tate regarded her coolly. A layer of dust coated the girl’s dark
hair, dulling it to an indistinct hue. Her clothes were mismatched—the pullover
shirt too big and the trousers too short. She clutched the hem of her shirt.

“It’s just a game,” Tate said, slipping her
cutlass, a curved stick she’d stripped of bark, into an imaginary sheath in the
rope that served as her belt.

“Well, you can’t be a pirate. You’re a girl.”

The other children stopped their pretend chores to listen to the
exchange. Someone snickered. Tate scowled. “What planet are you from?”

The girl looked down at her feet. “Earth.”

“Oh, well, that explains it.” Tate jumped down and stuck out her
hand. “I’m Tate.”

The girl shook hands tentatively. “Emily.”

Since they were the same height, Tate guessed they were close in
age. “How long you been on this godforsaken rock, Em?”

“It’s Emily, and about a week. I think.”

“Okay,
Emily
. Well, you’ll get used to it. Don’t worry.”

Emily started to cry. The other kids groaned and moved away. Tate
threw them a disgusted look. “Oh, like none of you cried your first week here.”
She put her arm around Emily’s shoulders and guided her to the rock. They sat
as Emily shook with silent sobs. Tate waited for them to lessen, then spoke
softly. “Do you know what happened?”

Emily shook her head. New tears streamed down her cheeks.

“You alone?”

Emily nodded.

Tate hugged her. “Not anymore, you’re not.” She waited for the
crying to ease. “I’m from Luce.”

Emily wiped her cheeks. “I’ve never heard of
it.”

“You probably call it something else. We called your planet Zeek.”

Emily looked at her. A tiny smile formed then vanished. “Zeek?
That’s a funny name.”

Tate gave her a squeeze. “I’m hungry. Want to get something to
eat?”

Emily nodded, so Tate took her hand and led the frightened girl
across the dusty field toward a cluster of crude, wood-framed tents of worn
cloth. A hot wind sent twists of sand scurrying over the ground, scattering dry
leaves from the skeletal trees. Rocky hills rose at the edge of the settlement,
and Tate picked their way among the boulders and entered a cave. Cool air
soothed her parched skin and burned eyes. They approached an older girl sorting
crates and jugs.

“Bella,” Tate said.

The girl turned and smiled. Blue eyes glinted against the bland
background of her dust-covered skin, hair, and clothing. “In need?”

Tate nodded.

“These just arrived,” Bella said. She reached into a crate and
held up two large red balls.

“What is it?” Emily asked, taking one.

“I don’t know,” Bella said. “But it tastes good and quenches your
thirst for hours. Try it.”

Emily eyed it suspiciously. Tate took the other one and bit into
it. A pink liquid squirted out and she slurped and chewed on the fibrous flesh.
She nudged Emily in encouragement. “It’s tart at first, but then sweet.”

Emily took a bite. She squeezed her eyes shut then opened them
wide and devoured the fruit without stopping. She wiped her mouth and licked
her fingers. “That was good!” She looked at the piles of food. “What is all
this?”

“She’s new,” Tate said to Bella, then
introduced them.

Bella nodded. “Always the same question.” She told Emily how the
food materialized periodically. “We’ve come close to starving on occasion, but
it always shows up, eventually.”

Emily looked about to ask another question, but Bella continued,
“No, we don’t know where it comes from or how. It only appears in this cave,
though, so we assume it’s a space portal. That our families are sending it.”

Tate reached for Emily’s arm. “Look,” she said, as she fingered a
small scar on the inside of Emily’s forearm then pointed to a similar scar on
her own. “I’ve got one, too.”

“We all do,” Bella said, holding out her arm.

“These might have something to do with what happened to us,” Tate
said.

Emily’s expression darkened, and her eyes
welled.

“I know,” Tate said, patting her back. “Overload. It happens to
everyone in the beginning.”

Tate took a jug of water and a bag of food from Bella, then led
Emily out of the cave to her own tent. She spread the food out and watched as
Emily dug in, alternating between eating and crying. When she could speak,
Emily said she had been hiding in the hills until her hunger drove her down to
the settlement.

“Someone should have met you,” Tate said. “So many have been
coming at once, though, we can’t keep up.”

“I stole food and these clothes,” Emily said, her voice filled
with guilt.

“It’s okay.” Tate smiled. “We all arrive naked. No one minds. And
we share everything. You should slow down, though. You’ll get sick if you eat
too fast.”

“What is this place?” Emily asked between
bites.

Tate shrugged. “What were you told?”

“My parents said I’d be safe here. That they’d come for me. Do you
know if they have?”

Tate shook her head. Many children arrived with the same story,
and no one came for them. She didn’t mention that after seven years, she no
longer waited for her own parents.

“When it happened, I thought I was dying,” Emily said.

Tate nodded. “That’s what a lot of kids say. Was there a light and
a loud noise?”

“Yes,” Emily said. “I felt so strange, like I was breaking apart.
Then I woke up . . . here.” She looked around the tent. “This is very different
from Earth. Is it like your home?”

Tate shrugged and picked at the mat. This was the only home she
remembered. “A few years ago, the oldest ones started disappearing.” She didn’t
tell Emily how unnerving that was, seeing someone vanish in a flash of light,
their clothes and anything they’d been holding left behind, dropping to the
ground as though released by an invisible hand. “We finally pieced together
that it happens to those who are in their twentieth year. Maybe we go back home
then.”

“Twenty!” Emily said, her eyes wide. “But that’s ten years from
now.”

Tate grinned. “Hey, we’re the same age.”

Emily turned the piece of bread in her hand then set it down. She
didn’t say anything or move. Tate finished her own meal then cleaned up,
sneaking glances at Emily now and then to see if she was crying. Only her brows
moved, knitting together then relaxing, as though she were trying to digest
this new world the way her stomach would these strange new foods.

When Tate finished, she stood over Emily and held out her hand.
“Come on, I’ll show you around.”

Emily looked up at her and smiled. Tate felt a jolt within her
that she couldn’t explain, but she knew then they would be friends.

As the day’s light faded to darkness, they returned to the tent.
Emily stifled a yawn while Tate unrolled her sleeping mat. Emily looked toward
the opening. “I should leave.”

Tate shook her head and patted the mat. “There is nowhere you need
to go. You can stay here. Tomorrow we can build you a shelter of your own, if
you like.” She lay down. Emily hesitated then lay beside her.

As Tate drifted toward sleep, Emily cried out
and began to sob. Her grief tore at Tate’s heart, and she wrapped her arms
around the lonely girl, who clung to her, crying until she wore herself to
sleep. When all she heard was quiet breathing, Tate wiped Emily’s cheeks in
wonder. Until now, she had never felt compelled to befriend a new arrival. Each
was a painful reminder, not of what she’d lost, but of what she no longer
remembered losing.

They did not build a shelter for Emily the next day, or ever. Instead,
Emily joined Tate in her morning pirate games with the other young children.
When the heat of the day became too much for games, everyone gathered in caves,
where the older children taught the younger ones what they had learned in
school before school became something they missed as much as their families. At
night, Tate held Emily as she cried herself to sleep, knowing the things they
did during the day kept her grief at bay only so long. And each night Tate
curled around her friend, filled with a newfound purpose.

“I’ll protect you,” she whispered.

TATE SAT UP soaked in sweat with only the last thread of her dream
caught in memory—
She’d lost sight of Emily amid a blinding flash, a
thunderous roar, and the sensation of her body disintegrating
.

It had been five years since that dream had
been a reality, since she’d left the desert planet. Why dream about it now?
This was the third night in a row, and all she ever remembered was the ending.
She looked around to anchor herself in the present. The lights slowly
brightened, mimicking dawn in the windowless cabin. She could just make out the
blank gray walls, a sink in the corner, and clothes strewn across the floor.
Overhead, the ventilation system hummed and behind the wall, pipes pinged. She
felt the thin mattress under her and clutched the sheet that pooled across her
legs.

“Emily?” she called softly.

She felt a hand on her back. Cool fingers spread across her damp
skin. “You have that dream again, T?”

Tate rubbed her hands through her hair. “Yeah.” She turned to
Emily and smiled, reassured. They’d made love last night and both were still
naked. She leaned down to touch Emily’s face, then slid her hand over her full
breasts and across her warm stomach. She moved to kiss her, pausing to inhale
her scent. Earthy and organic, refreshing compared to the stale, manufactured
air around them.

The intercom crackled. “Bridge to Captain
Hart.”

Tate sighed and lay her head on Emily’s chest, listening to her
heartbeat quicken. Emily reached for the comm button on the wall. “Hart.
What’ve you got?”

“Space train in two hours. Looks like a mother
lode.”

Emily rubbed Tate’s back. “Let’s make ready. Hart out.” She gave
Tate a playful slap. “Time to go to work, Mate.” Tate groaned and rolled off
her. Emily kissed her, then jumped down from the bunk and hummed as she washed
up. She ran wet fingers through her short-cropped dark hair, then shook it out,
leaving shining spikes.

Tate smiled, watching Emily pull on a one-piece flight suit over
her slim, but muscular, frame. She didn’t mind waiting her turn with this view.
They’d removed the bottom bunk but still their quarters were cramped. Emily had
refused the larger captain’s quarters, instead filling it with ammunition. It
was one reason her crew adored her. The first mate’s cabin, Tate’s, stored
extra medical supplies.

Emily stood on tiptoes for another kiss before leaving. “See you
on the bridge.”

Tate hopped down and wet a rag to wash with. She ran the cool
cloth around her neck and down her arms. Water was scarce in space. Ironic, how
she’d left one desert for another.

TATE HAD BEEN too young to remember arriving on the desert planet,
but she sure remembered leaving—when she and Emily were twenty, just like the
others. They had already been naked when she’d lost sight of Emily amid that
blinding flash, thunderous roar, and the sensation of her body disintegrating.
They materialized in a forest, entwined around each other on a bed of moss,
breathless. They blinked and looked at each other.

“Hell of an orgasm, Tate,” Emily said. They broke into giggles.

Voices echoed through the woods. Tate grabbed Emily’s hand and
pulled her behind thick ferns.

“You can come out,” a female voice called.

Dense shrubs covered in green needles and leaves screened the
view. Tate had never seen anything like this. Water gurgled behind them and the
ground felt damp and cold on her bare feet. The voices grew louder. They ducked
low, peering through the ferns. Several humans jogged along a path. Tate saw
two of their friends from the settlement, naked like them. The clothed humans
carried no weapons.

“Two are missing,” a man said.

“Here they are,” a woman said from behind them.

Tate recognized the voice. “Bella!” She turned and ran into the
arms of her old friend.

Bella wouldn’t answer any of Tate’s questions until the group had
been led to a pool of cool water and years of dust soaked out of their pores.
Afterward, they all put on soft, clean clothes. Then, sitting with the others
in a clearing, Tate huddled next to Emily and waited for Bella to speak.