Satoshi sat on the floor cross-legged, shirting uncomfortably now and then. At a little distance, Victoria drew her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. J.D. sat beside her, arms folded on her chest, her legs
outstretched and crossed at the ankles.
Infinity listened contentedly as Florrie recounted her parents' story, in which a group of people tried to form their own rural tribe, despite being culturally maladapted to communal living and inexperienced at subsisting off the land. Of course it ended badly, when Florrie was very young, but Infinity had a high aesthetic appreciation for well-meaning tragedies.
150 Vonda N. Mdntyre
Suddenly the atmosphere changed. Infinity felt it as surely as a change in temperature or a sudden wind. Stephen Thomas turned. Infinity looked toward the door. Kolya entered, carrying a small package.
Griffith paused in shadows, right behind him.
Infinity moved to one side of the room, farther from Griffith, trying to act natural rather than surreptitious about his desire to get as far away from the other man as possible. Without meaning to he glanced back, and found Griffith gazing after him, the complete, deliberate neutrality of his expression more frightening than any degree of emotion. Anger, or hatred, or contempt. Infinity might have confronted. The neutrality could not even be commented upon, though Infinity knew, and Griffith knew, that it meant: I notice you. I'll watch you, if it pleases me.
Someone toward the front of the room noticed Kolya. Flor-rie continued to tell her story, but people were distracted by the unexpected appearance of the cosmonaut. They began nudging each other, glancing back, exclaiming softly in surprise.
As far as Infinity could tell, no one else paid the least attention to Griffith.
Kolya acted as if he never noticed that anyone had noticed him. He hunkered down in a clear space and listened. Infinity wondered if Kolya found it amusing to hear Home's tale of a failed fling with communism in the mid-twentielh-cenlury United States. If he did, he was too well mannered to laugh in any of the wrong places.
When FIorrie finished, her audience applauded and Kolya unfolded to his feet. People made way for him- He stopped beside Stephen Thomas, who still knelt in front of FIorrie.
'*! brought you both small gifts of welcome," he said to FIorrie and to J.D. He handed FIorrie the package. "It is rather delicate."
As she opened it, her fingers trembled. Infinity was afraid she would slip and drop it, whatever it was, but the wrapping unfolded and floated to the floor, leaving a delicate, intricately painted eggshell in her hands.
"A souvenir," Kolya said. "I believe that they do not make them in my country anymore. Or, if they do, they do not export them."
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"Why, thank you, Mr. Cherenkov," FIorrie said.
Kolya handed J.D. a slip of paper. J.D. unfolded it, read it, and looked up.
"Thank you,'* she said softly, and buttoned the slip of paper into her shirt pocket.
FIorrie held the eggshell up and looked at it against the light. Infinity wondered if she understood what giving gifts meant here. Gifts were, more often than not, nonphysicaclass="underline"
oners of help or time or the gift of a skill. The kind of thing Kolya, apparently, had offered to J.D. People did not have many things to give, up here. Kolya probably had fewer than most. He had not, as far as Infinity knew, been back to earth in two decades. Other people returned to earth on leave and came home with full allowances; Kolya lacked this luxury.
Perhaps he had brought the egg into space with him on an eariy trip, or the last one.
FIorrie looked around. "I don't know where to put this," she said. "If I were back home I'd put it on the mantelpiece, but I have none here."
"There is a thread strung through it, to make it easy to hang up."
"In the window, then."
"Oh—" Kolya stopped. He looked uncomfortable, unhappy, but he said nothing more. Infinity had no idea what troubled him.
FIorrie rose and turned toward the window, looking for a place to hang the egg. Before she found one, Griffith appeared. Infinity had not even noticed him move. Griffith took the egg from her hand.
FIorrie reacted to Griffith even more negatively, more noticeably, than Infinity had. She drew back; the egg would have fallen and shattered if Griffith had not taken it carefully from her hand. He was more concerned about the eggshell than he was about FIorrie, for he showed no reaction to her fright.
"Sunlight will fade it," Griffith said. He took the eggshell to the corner farthest from the window, stretched up, and hung it from a hook set into the ceiling.
FIorrie *s aesthetic sense was better than Griffith's. The eggshell looked odd and lonely high up in the comer, where it was safe. It would have looked fine in the window, but not
152 vonda N. Mcfntyre
at the expense of its existence. Infinity could see that someone would have to build Florrie a table or a stand or a little cabinet for the egg, maybe with a bit of mirror behind it.
"Well!" Defending herself with indignation, Florrie sat
stiff and straight on the window seat.
Both relieved and embarrassed. Kolya offered Florrie a small bow.
"I hope you will be happy on our expedition," he said. "I hope you will be happy, too, J.D."
"Thank you, Kolya," J.D- Sauvage said.
In a moment the cosmonaut was gone.
Though the party inside took a little while to ease again, the party outside had loosened up considerably. As the light faded to dusk, people put lines out to Arachne for music.
Couples and groups danced on the grass, unsynchronized, each to a different interior melody. Infinity would have to reseed the center of the yard, after all. He did not mind too much.
He kept an eye on Griffith, trying to figure out what bothered him about the man. After Kolya left, Griffith acted like everyone else, mingling, chatting. But every so often, when Infinity glanced around, he found Griffith gazing at him with that scary neutral expression.
Infinity went inside. Florrie sipped lemonade. Stephen
Thomas still knelt at her feet—as far as Infinity could tell, he
had not moved. They chatted.
Infinity admired Stephen Thomas's new earring. He wondered who had made it and whether they would make a similar one for him, only with synthetic rubies instead of emeralds.
He joined Florrie and Stephen Thomas.
"You let me know if you get tired, Florrie," Infinity said,
"and I'll chase all these folks home."
She peered out the French doors. "Who is that man?"
Griffith stood alone on the porch.
"He said he's with the GAO," Infinity said.
"The GAO!" Victoria frowned, doubtful. "What's he doing, auditing our books?"
"Could be, I guess."
"He's a narc," Florrie said.
"What?"
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"A narc."
**I heard you, I just don't know what that means."
"Is the government going through anti-drug hysteria again?" she asked. "I gave up reading local news years ago."
"The main tantrum the U.S. is going through right now is about Sfarfarer and the expedition," Infinity said. "Plorrie, please, what's a narc?"
"Be careful around him," she said. "If you use any kind of drugs, he'll put you in jail."
Infinity and Stephen Thomas looked at each other, confused. What kind of drugs could get you put in jail? Most recreational substances were designed so their effects wore off quickly, and anyone who chose something more powerful ought to have the sense to check out their tolerance for it and make adjustments. Infinity had known people who too frequently sought out effects that were too strong—watching them was one of the reasons he did not drink—but he could not imagine involving the law in the problem. A supervisor, or a doctor, sure. Even the community council. But the law?