Another individual walked into the area of visual transmission. Like the first, his skin was an unfortunate shade of furious.
Eight hundred angry little strangers.
Once again, the universe was changing. She-who-had-been-Ragil had never wanted to be Grandmother during such monumental adjustment, but the waterfall would not change course for the Rownt who complained to it. She would lead her people and hope that this change did not end with her sitting alone in an empty temple after all the sane Rownt fled Janatjanay the way they had Prabrateakil.
Responsibility and Regret
When Dana walked intotheir apartment, she expected to find Luke passed out in their narrow bed. Instead he sat on the end of it, a boot propped on the lower rail of their best chair. He wore his vid set and a furious expression.
When he saw her, he faked a quick and unconvincing smile as she pushed the door shut. Hopefully, there wasn’t a problem.
Scratch that. Given Luke’s thunderous expression, some problem had come up, but Dana hoped it didn’t involve money. With both of them working, they struggled to pay the bills on this place. Dana didn’t think either of them could pick up any more hours, and if Luke tried, he would fail out of school. In the long run, that would cost both of them. His education—his innate talent with math and AI design—could buy them a ticket out of poverty, but only if he finished his schooling.
That didn’t stop Luke from arguing that he should work more to take the weight off her. Even now, he was pushing the chair toward her with his foot. Dana dropped her tool belt into the bucket on the floor and got off her feet with a happy sigh.
“Put your feet up here,” Luke said.
“I’m fine.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m on hold anyway. Give me your damn feet, woman.”
“Bitch, bitch,” she shot back, but she pulled the laces on her work boots. “What’s wrong?”
“Fucking idiots at the bank, that’s what’s wrong. This world would be a better place if I could press a button and send all the incompetent morons to the front lines.” He mimicked pressing a button. He then pressed his imaginary button harder before pantomiming mashing it with his thumb.
That was not good. If the bank had screwed up, she and Luke would be in deep shit when the rent came due. They’d already used their one free late payment allotment for the year, so a second late payment would create huge penalties. Dana wasn’t sure how to keep Luke in school if that happened.
She wiggled her toes and plopped her right foot in Luke’s lap. “How much did they lose?”
“Weirdly, they mysteriously gifted us with an extra two hundred and twelve credits.” He rubbed her feet, pressing his thumbs against the arch of her foot. Shivers of pain ran up her leg, but when he released it, all the tension drained away.
“Oh thank God.” The fear that threatened to crush Dana’s heart eased. She’d feared he’d been conscripted, although that was unlikely. Talk of peace filled the vids, at least it had until the Rownt had shown up, hovering over Earth with that big-ass ship of theirs. But Dana had seen the government talk about peace in the past, and the damn colonies always pulled out one more campaign, one more damn suicide bomber. And that always led to another round of conscription.
Dana was safe because of her medical problems, but the war was an ever-present threat to Luke, and the university was his only protection.
“You say that now, but they’ll come looking for this money later.” Luke pointed a long finger at her. Every time he got angry, his movements got jerky, like a scarecrow in the wind. The fact that he was tall and lanky reinforced the image. But even if Luke hadn’t outgrown his gawky stage, Dana still adored him. He had dark blue eyes, and his sandy hair flew in opposite directions, even on a still day. Luke complained that his hair did that because it was too fine, but Dana loved running her fingers through it. Luke had smarts and more loyalty and love than any other human on the earth.
