"I didn't discuss price with 'em," Yana said to Bunny.
"Naw, that comes later, if you like what they do. And they're good, Yana. Aisling sews like a dream, and Sinead is a wizard with the beads and trims. You don't need to worry they'd muck up material like that! And gee, I've never had such pretty stuff for a latchkay blouse." The girl's eyes shone. "I can't thank you enough…"
"Pshaw! That's my thanks for your help, Buneka. But the latchkay's coming up soon, isn't it? Will the blouses be finished in time?"
"Sure." Bunny grinned. "They left so they could start. You wait and see. We'll be the fanciest-dressed females there!"
Diego was surprised to see the snocle-driver girl again, but at the same time, in one part of his mind, he knew he had been waiting for her. Or if not for her exactly, he had been waiting for something to happen to relieve the heaviness that had fallen on him since he had returned to SpaceBase. He had come outside, the cold air being a change from the smelly stuff inside his quarters. It was also something to do, and the only sure way he knew to keep from trying to choke that dickhead of a colonel who kept on and on with questions Diego was sure his father didn't even hear. Why didn't they leave his dad alone?
"Diego? Hi. It's me, Bunny," the girl said, keeping her voice low and looking around her, as if she was worried about being seen.
"Hi. Did you bring me a cake with a file in it?"
"Huh?" she asked.
"Just an old joke I read in a book someplace. Sorry. Nice to see you again but-"
"Look, I just came to find out if anybody told you yet."
"Told me what?" Diego demanded. He hadn't meant to be surly, but that's how it came out. He was feeling pretty impatient with all of the guessing games and little hints being passed over his head all the time.
The girl merely looked at him, exasperated, then said slowly and patiently, as if talking to a very small child, which he supposed was how he was acting, "My friend, Major Maddock, got her friend the captain to send for Steve."
"She did?" Diego sat upright, staring at her. "How d'you know?"
"She told me. Didn't anyone tell you?"
"Nope. Wow, that's great," he said. He'd be okay; Dad would be okay, if Steve was coming. Steve would straighten everything out. Steve would believe him, even if the colonel and the others didn't, and Steve would know how to handle these assholes, get them to leave him and Dad alone. His relief was so intense it scared him. Maybe this was some sort of scheme, raising his hopes like this. "You sure?"
"Sure, I'm sure." She gave a disgusted flick of her hand. "I don't go about spreading rumors. Wanna come to the latchkay?"
"Latchkay? What's that?"
"Party. Everyone's coming. Good singing, good music, good eating," she said, and Diego could see that she was excited.
"Dunno," he said. "I don't feel much like going to a party with Dad the way he is. Besides, I'm not sure Giancarlo will let me." § Bunny grinned smugly. "So don't ask him. Ask Captain Fiske. Just tell him that Major Maddock told me to ask you, and he'll let you come for sure. He likes her."
"Yeah? Well, as long as my dad's condition doesn't change or anything, you know, I guess I could. Nothin' else goin' on around here."
Her grin broadened. "You'll be glad you did," she told him. "Get to meet a lot of good people and hear some good songs."
"That'd be a change. Sure is no one here you could call 'good.' What kind of songs?"
"Ones my people know. Ones they write about us and our history. Good songs," she said.
If things had been normal, if he were back on the ship and his father had never come here and he had never come here and they had never found the cave, he might have made a smart remark, might have said something to make fun of her. But now that seemed like kid stuff. She was serious, and he felt as if he owed it to her to be serious, too. "What are they like?"
"Well, some are things you sing and some are things you chant. Some rhyme and some don't. But they all tell you stuff about things that happen to people, things that happen on the planet."
"Like poems?"
"I guess so. We just call them songs. What're poems like?"
He grinned and said, "Wait a minute," and went back to his bunk, pulling one of his precious hard-copy books from his pack. His nose was half-frozen, but he didn't care. He took the book back out and thumbed it open to a page. "Here's one I bet you'll like.
" 'A bunch of the boys were whoopin' it up At the Malamute saloon…' "
He read her the whole poem, and she really seemed to like it, and then she recited something of hers, what she called a song. He had to admit it was pretty good, but he suddenly felt too shy to tell her then that he had tried a few himself. Besides, he was about to freeze to death standing outside the ugly blocky building talking poetry with a girl who dressed like a gorilla. "Guess I'd better go check on Dad," he said apologetically.
"Is he any better today?" Bunny asked.
"He'll be a lot better if Steve gets here. You sure you're not spoofing me about that?"
Bunny shook her head slowly. "I don't do that kind of trick, Diego. None of us would."
She left then. Diego watched her drive off in the snocle, wondering how a girl got the chance to drive one of the few decent vehicles on this iceberg. Maybe when Steve got here… He wouldn't let himself count on that. Not that he still thought Bunny would lie to him: Why should she? Why would she? But maybe it wouldn't be as easy as she thought. Maybe Giancarlo wouldn't let Fiske send for Steve. He liked Bunny, but she hadn't been around company crews like he had-she couldn't know how untrustworthy people could be, how unreasonable. She sure was a funny girl. And she really seemed to like this place.
Chapter 8
A scratch on the door heralded Sinead's arrival at some O-dark-hundred hour. Yana was on her feet instantly and opened the door, dancing about on tiptoe as the cold of the floor ate through her bedsocks.
"I'll stir the stove," Sinead said, loosening her outer garments. "You'll need something warm in your belly today. Sometimes I think it's colder just before spring than it is midwinter. Good day to check the traplines though."
As she busied herself, pouring water from the thermos into a pot to heat, shaking down the ash from the embers, Yana inserted herself into the layers she felt she would need on this expedition.
"Wha… arrrre… we trapping?" she asked, her teeth chattering. She wondered that everyone in Kilcoole seemed to have whole teeth. She was certain one morning her front ones would crack off.
"Whatever's willing," Sinead said with a droll grin.
"Which leaves me no wiser."
"It's a good time to see what's available," Sinead repeated. "The time of year when some are more happy to die than live."
"How can you tell which is which?"
"You'll see. Here, drink this!"
Yana was quite willing to, cradling the cup in her hands and occasionally, carefully, holding it close to her cheeks to warm her cold face. As carefully as she wrapped her quilts about her prior to falling asleep, her face insisted on being out in the open, and was always cold in the morning.
Sinead had made a single serving of porridge, as well. "Aisling fed me," she said with a grin. "Can't get out of the house in the morning without being stuffed."
Yana grinned back, for a moment envious of Sinead, who had a caring partner who saw to her comfort. Then, warmed by the hearty meal, she was ready to go. Sinead had damped down the energetic blaze so that there would be coal to start up again when Yana returned. Clodagh's cat went out with them and whisked away on some business of its own.