Unwillingly to Earth (v1.0), page 2
And I cannot Speak.
When a bunch of strangers are mooning over your problems because you are a Poor young thing you cannot tell them you walked in looking for a fight.
Truly, I could swear out loud.
In two shakes of a vibrator they have it fixed, Knotty will give me a job as long as I need one and I can have a room above the pub and at least fifty husky miners have sworn a personal guarantee no one within Miles will lift a finger in any way I could not wish.
So what can I do?
I thank them and I walk out into the bar, when I get there I find the laws of human nature are not wholly Suspended, there is a fight going on.
My bodyguard behind me gives a concerted roar and the fight stops and they look sheepish at me.
It is so clear they expect me to look shocked and sorrowful that I cannot help it, this is just what I do.
I ask the cause of the fight and they shuffle and the bigger one says he is very sorry and would like to apologize Miss.
It turns out he has come in since I arrived and wishes to get drunk with Minimum delay, the assembled party tell him Damsel in distress back of the bar and he says to Hell with that, she is probably faking it anyway; he sees this was error and regrets it very much.
And I have to make a production over forgiveness, he will never believe me unless I do.
So I am Stuck.
You think all this will wear off in a day or two? Brother, so do I. At first, that is. But it does not. I have reformed the place overnight.
I begin to think getting drunk each night and working it off by fighting are not really their personal choice, all they need is a stimulus to snap them out of it; such as the influence of a Good woman maybe and looks like I am elected.
I get so busy listening to assorted troubles and soothing fights before they come to the boil, apart from any job Knotty can give me such as putting glasses in the washer and dishing the drinks, I hardly have time to think about Dad except at the hospital each day.
He is dead out for seven days just like they said, while the blood clots get loose from his brain; also they set his ribs and arm and tack up things inside. My miner friends all cheer me up, they say This is a good hospital and tell me all the times they have been put together again themselves. I say Oh and Ah so often I am quite tired, it seems to please them anyway.
Then Dad comes awake.
He does not do it while I am there of course, but I am allowed to sit with him two hours the day after; they have shifted him out of the tank into a proper bed and taken the Plumbing away. Towards the end while I am there he comes round and says Hello Liz, how have you been?
And I want to cry but I am damned if I will. I say I am fine. And he is already asleep again.
I ring home like I do every day. Charlie is out so I leave a message, then I go back to the pub. I feel truly I could sing all the way. I do not notice until Knotty says so that I am singing anyway. Knotty is in a sour mood but when I tell him about Dad he fetches out half a smile and says will I be leaving then?
I say No Dad has another one month and twenty-one days of Hospital to go.
At this his face falls under three gravities and he says All very well for me. I say why? can he not afford to pay me?
He says what troubles him is the pub. Since I came liquor drinking is down two fifths, if anybody starts to get drunk the rest stop him in case something occurs to Sully my pure girlish mind, it becomes clear that to Knotty this sobriety is not pleasing at all.
Well it is far from being my wish either, at least I think that at first then I think again Do I really want my pals back to the old routine drunk every night Dead drunk Friday to Monday? This do-gooding is insidious stuff.
I go on thinking about it when I have time, this is not often because the boys are so pleased to hear Dad is better they allow each other to get quite Lit, I have to head off one row after another.
I begin to think anyway this situation cannot last long, the pressure is building up visibly something is going to Blow they need outlets for aggression and getting none just now. Also I must do something for Knotty. I could tell him Dad will pay back his losses but Knotty’s head is solid bone; if I once got into it that I am not a Dear little down-and-out, he would let it out again at the Diagrammatic wrong time.
Things have got to end but they have got to end tidy with no hard feelings, I shall need help for this.
I get out that night as soon as Knotty is in bed and get to a public visiphone. I dial home, never mind that it is one in the morning I want Uncle Charlie.
What I get is Buffalo Cole looking sleepy, he lets out a Yip he learned from an old stereo and asks where I am and where I have been so long and so loud I cannot tell him for quite a while.
Then he tells me Charlie is here in Town.
He has assumed I am staying at the Hospital. They phoned today as usual, he asked for me and found I was somewhere on my own; he busted into town straight off like a kor calf in a cornfield and been hunting for me all over tearing out hair in bunches.
He is staying with a friend on the far side of town. I ring.
Brother.
Now he has found me he has no wish to talk to me I am to stay in the visiphone booth and not move till called for well I suppose I can wiggle my ears if I like?
Charlie arrives in a heli four minutes later and mad enough to bum helium, he gives me the kind of Character my pals sketch for one another when I am not supposed to be by.
He is not interested in Excuses, he will get me out of whatever mess I am in for my father’s sake; I will come to a bad end some day but I can have the grace to keep it until the old man is on his feet again.
I have learned something these last few days; I do not yell back. I say I have been very foolish and need advice.
Do not think this Fools him but he is taken aback slightly. I get something said before he recovers and in the end I tell the whole thing hardly interrupted at all.
At the end he gives me a peculiar look like when one of the Chicken hatcharies gave birth to a parrot and says nothing for a while.
I say Look Charlie my idea is this; he says Liz your ideas are the start of this trouble in the first place, you have been getting Ideas ever since I knew you and every one worse than the one before, just let me think about this.
Then he says Well if you leave without explanations I suppose we will have these desperate characters hunting for you all over Town and if the truth gets out there will be a rumpus because of that, I guess you better go back there for tonight anyway, how are you going to get back in?
I say I have a key, does he think I Crawled out of a window? From his look I rather gather he does, Men are children at heart.
All the same I go back quietly and sleep like a tombstone.
In the morning I see Charlie at the hospital and he says he has an idea but seems he prefers to sit on it and see how it will hatch, I do not tell him what I think of this.
Then Dad wakes and says a few words and things look brighter and afterwards Charlie swears he has a real idea how I can get Out of this without any hurt feelings, it just needs a bit more Work on it.
* * *
I go back to the Arms thinking my troubles are half over, Brother what error, this is where they begin.
That evening I am chinning to some types who cut up yesterday, I tell them how Shocked I am how surprised how sad because they have Backslid, they are always sure I feel like this. If I do not say it they get upset because they suppose my feelings too Deep for words; I can do this sort of thing No hands now.
Just the same it takes concentration, when the stranger comes in I hardly notice him at all.
He is a tall chap in the usual Evercleans with filter mask over his shoulder, all that is strange is that I have not seen him before, men stick to their own pubs as a rule.
He slides into a comer and swaps words with the regulars and I forget him altogether.
The clock strikes twelve, two hours to midnight closing, enter a tall dark stranger.
Short hair and big shoulders and the face that launched the campaign for Great Outdoors Shampoo, maybe twenty-two years old, he takes a quick look round and I guess he does not think much of the place.
Well he should have seen it a week ago, now there is only one single jukebox going and people are just chatting over drinks, not a Fight in the place.
He comes up to the bar and taps someone on the shoulder to make way; try touching anyone a fortnight back and Stand well clear! This time the fellow stops his fist before it goes six inches and then Moves over an inch or two and I am face to face with the stranger over the gap.
He looks at me and registers more Surprise than I thought his face could hold, I say What are you drinking Sir?
He swallows hard and says Beer please; something is displeasing him like mad but I cannot see how it is Me.
I give him his beer and he gives me an unloving look and moves away, he horns in on one of the gatherings and starts to Chat.
I am busy but I keep an eye on him and it seems to me the chat is getting too emphatic for health, I beckon over a miner called Dogface and ask What goes on?
He says That character been annoying you Liz? I say No is he annoying anyone else? Dogface says he asks too damn many questions, someone will paste him any minute now.
I sign for another miner called Swede, these two are the steadiest around; I say Ride herd on this character and keep him out of trouble.
They say How? I say Get into conversation and stop him talking to anyone who is too prone to get Mad.
They look doubtful so I tell them to talk to him, he is asking questions well tell him Answers, tell him about life on Excenus, you can see he is a fresh-out Terrie, tell him about mining; that will be Instructive for him.
Next time I look Dogface and Swede are one on each side of him talking away, the other types have all drifted off.
The stranger stays for an hour and they stick by him all the while, when he leaves no one has laid a finger on him, I have done a Good deed this day. Dogface and Swede say they never knew they had so much to talk about, just the same the stranger did not look Grateful to me.
Next day I go to the hospital as usual wondering if Charlie has hatched his Idea.
Halfway there I feel Eyes on the back of my neck. I look round and there he is again, the tall dark stranger I mean.
He strides up and says he wants to Speak to me.
His tone is such that I think of Buffalo’s judo trick but he looks the type to brush it off with a careless Reflex, I could wish there were more people around.
I say What about?
He says I know damned well what about, this is Poaching and he will not stand for it, he will Complain to something I do not catch.
I say he must be thinking of somebody else.
He Sizzles between his teeth and says I need not think I can get out of it by playing innocent because he will be able to trace me perfectly well. I obviously come from that establishment for muddy-minded morons Pananthropic Institute of Social Research; everybody knows Ex-cenus is Russett’s fieldwork place and no other school would crash it, let alone homing in on a Practical that way.
Furthermore the dodge I am using was corny in the Ark or earlier.
I am much perplexed but more angry and ask What he is proposing to do?
He says Don’t worry I will find out later, I guess he does not know either; but before I can say so he goes striding away.
I walk on getting madder as I go, this Mystery on top of everything else is enough to drive one round the Fourth dimension, and he will catch on to his mistake and I shall never hear it explained; however when I arrive I forget him because Dad is awake and fit for talking to.
Several times I wonder Shall I tell him the whole thing? but he is still sick, this is no time to tell him I am serving in a Bar in the toughest part of the town.
We talk quietly about the farm and plans for next year and things we did when I was little, all of a sudden I want to cry.
Then Charlie comes. One visitor at a time I have to go, Charlie needs some instructions about the farm.
I think I will go out and walk around, I do not like waiting in the hospital much, they think Visitors get in the way; I am halfway down the outside steps when there is a shadow over me and a voice says Excuse me, Miss Lee?
I turn and stare.
Brother what is this, are they shooting a stereo on Ex-cenus? this is the handsomest man I ever came across. He makes the one this morning look like a credit for twenty all from one mold, I am certain I never saw him before.
He says We met last night though that was hardly an introduction, he is glad of a chance to make my acquaintance now.
I think No this cannot be, Yes it is, this is the gink I hardly noticed last night; same face same voice same hands and I never looked at him twice, how in Space is it done—?
Brother! He called me Miss Lee! I say There must be some mistake and turn towards the Hospital again.
He says the hospital clerk told him my name and he saw me come out of the Royal Arms this morning.
Sing Hey for the life of a Hunted Fawn, now I am good and Mad, just crazy. He says he thinks a talk would be Mutually Profitable, what I think is quite Different and I say it out loud. He has a way of doing things with his eyebrows to look amused, men have been Killed for less.
He says What would the clientele of the Royal Arms think of that?
I say What the hell is that to him?
He says he will be delighted to explain if I will give him the opportunity but this is hardly a suitable place to talk.
There are no places suitable and I tell him so.
He says he has a helicar there, if I would care to drive it anywhere I like he will give me the key.
I begin to see what will happen if this specimen opens his face to Knotty and Co.; I must know what his game is; I say OK.
We are just getting into the heli when the air is sundered, LIZ! here is Uncle Charlie and my reputation in pieces again.
He charges across and my companion says Mr. Blair? which is Charlie’s name though I hardly remember, and he hands over a card with a name and some words on it.
Charlie reads it and looks Baffled but not mad any longer.
I sneak a look, it says D. J. M’Clare and a string of initials, Russett Interplanetary College of Humanities, Earth, it has Department of Cultural Engineering in little letters lower down.
Charlie says Liz what in Space are you up to now?
M’Clare says he has to make Miss Lee a rather complicated apology, this being no place to do which he has suggested a ride, it will be much better if Mr. Blair will come along too.
I do not know how it is done but ten seconds later Charlie is inviting him for a drink to the house where he is staying and I am tagging along behind.
The house is close to the hospital and well-to-do all right the air is Humidified right through. I choose lemonade to drink, I never cared for alcohol much and I am more tired of the smell; when Charlie has done bustling with drinks M’Clare begins.
He says he understands Miss Lee had an encounter this morning with his pupil Douglas Laydon.
I say Great whirling nebulae not the lunatic who called me a poacher? He says Very likely, Laydon came here to do a Practical test and finding I had anticipated him was somewhat upset.
He explains that students in Cultural Engineering have a fieldwork test after two years, this one had to make a survey of the principal factors leading to violence and try out short-term methods of abating same in a selected portion of the Community on Excenus 23 namely the Royal Arms pub.
M’Clare says Excenus 23 is a very suitable spot for this kind of field work, the Social problems stay constant but the population turns over so fast they are not likely to catch on.
Charlie nods to show he gets this. I get it too and start to be angry, not just Mad but real angry inside; I say You mean that dumbbell came out here to push people around just for the exercise?
He says fieldwork is an essential part of the course for a Cultural Engineering degree. I say Hell and hokum nobody has any right to interfere with people just for practice; he says Not everybody posesses your natural technique, Miss Lee.
I says Look that is different, I was not trying to find out what makes people tick and then fiddle with the works and think I did something clever.
Charlie says Shut Up Liz.
This man does not believe me, well I did not start this on Purpose but now I remember all the times I listened to someone tell me his troubles and thought What a good girl I am to listen to this poor sucker, how wise how clever how well I understand; I do not like thinking of this,
Then I find Charlie has started to tell M’Clare the whole thing.
I will say for Charlie he tells it pretty fair. He does understand why I cannot just let my pals find out I have fooled them, whatever he may have said; but why does he want to tell it to this character will not see it at all?
Then he says Well, Professor if I understand what Cultural Engineering stands for this is a problem right in your line, I would very much welcome advice.
M’Clare says nothing and Charlie says It is a very minor matter of course: M’Clare says There he does not agree.
He says if these tough types caught on that their dear little down-and-out was really Rich it would not stop at personal unpleasantness, the whole relation between the mining and farming communities might well be Upset.
I would like to sneer but cannot because it is perfectly true. Dad is pretty rich and has a big effect on local affairs; if the miners think his daughter been slumming around making Fools of them no knowing what comes after.
M’Clare says However it should be simple enough to fix things so no one can catch on.
Charlie says it is not so simple, Liz has to be got away where no one will chase after her; fortunately very few people in Town are in a position to recognize her but Where can she go now?
