With a shrug she moved through the meandering tourists and headed for a meal she could barely afford. She studied the menus displayed on the electronic screens outside each of the four restaurants, then entered the least expensive.
She hardly felt any surprise at all when she saw that Mr. Briem was already seated at a table by the window, alone. Yes, they are certainly watching me.
He saw Dolores as she approached his table.
«Buenas tardes Mr. Briem,» she said, with a gracious nod of her head.
«Ms. Alvarez!» He scrambled to his feet and pretended to be surprised. «Would you care to join me? I just came in here a few moments ago.»
«I would be very happy to. It is very lonely to eat by one’s self.»
«Yes,» he said. «It is.»
Dolores sat across the little square table from him, and they studied the menu screen for a few moments. She grimaced at the prices, but Briem did not seem to notice.
They tapped out their orders on the keyboard. Then Dolores asked politely, «Do you come here often?»
He made a small shrug. «When I get tired of my own cooking. Often enough.»
A young woman walked up to the table, petite, oriental-looking. «Hi, Cal. A little early for you, isn’t it?»
«I’m going to the concert tonight,» he answered quickly.
«Oh so?» The woman glanced at Dolores, then turned her eyes back to him. «Me too.»
«I’ll see you there, then.»
«Good. Maybe we can have dessert or coffee together afterward.»
Briem nodded and smiled. It was an innocent smile, Dolores thought. It almost made her believe that he truly was in this restaurant because he was going to a concert later in the evening and the young oriental was not an agent of the immigration department or a bodyguard assigned to watch over him while he dealt with this would-be infiltrator.
«Your first name is Calvin?» Dolores asked.
«Calvert,» he replied. «I prefer Cal. It sounds less like an old British mystery story.»
«I am called Dolores. My especial friends call me Dee.»
His smile came back, warmer this time. The robot rolled up to their table with their trays of dinner on its flat top. They started to eat.
«I was thinking of buying my son a present,» Dolores said, «but I don’t know what to get him. What are twelve-year-old boys interested in these days?»
«I really don’t know.»
«There is so much in the store windows! It’s rather overwhelming.»
«You haven’t gone shopping for a while?»
«Not for a long time. Where I was, there were no stores. Not gift stores. I suppose I have missed a lot of things in the past ten years.»
They fell silent for a few moments. Dolores turned her attention to her broth. It was thin and delicately flavored, not like the rich heavy soups she was accustomed to.
«Ms. Alvarez—»
«Dolores.»
«Dolores, then.» Cal Briem looked troubled. «I suppose I shouldn’t bring up the subject. It’s none of my affair, really …»
«What is it?»
«Your political activities.»
«Ah.» She had known it would come up sooner or later. At least he was bringing it out into the open.
«You were quite an activist in your younger days. But over the past few years you seem to have stopped.»
«I have grown older.»
He looked at her, really looked at her, for a long silent moment.
«I can’t accept the idea that you’ve given up your beliefs,» he said at last.
«I was never a radical. I never advocated violence. During the times of the great labor unrest I served as a mediator more than once.»
«We know. It’s in your record.»
She put down her spoon, tired of the whole charade. «Then my political beliefs are going to be counted against me, aren’t they?»
«They don’t help,» he said softly.
«You are going to prevent me from returning home because my political position is not acceptable to you.»
«Did you marry again?» He changed the subject. «We have no record of it if you did.»
«No. I did not marry again.»
«For ten years you’ve remained unmarried?»
She recognized the unvoiced question. «After the terrible mess of my first marriage, I never allowed myself to become so attached to someone that he could cause me pain.»
«I see,» he said.
«Besides,» Dolores added, «where I was, out on the construction jobs, there were not that many men who were both eligible and attractive.»
«I find that hard to believe.»
«Believe it,» she said fervently.
«Your political activities broke up your marriage, didn’t they?»
She fought an urge to laugh. Raoul’s father owned half of the solar system’s largest construction firm. «They did not help to cement us together, no,» she said.
«Have you given up your political activities altogether?» he asked, his voice trembling slightly.
Dolores spooned up another sip of broth before answering. «Yes,» she half lied. «But I still have my beliefs.»
«Of course.»
They finished the brief meal in virtual silence. When their bills appeared on the table’s display screen Briem gently pushed Dolores’s hand aside and tapped his own number on the keyboard.
«Let the immigration board pay for this,» he said, smiling shyly. «They can afford it better than you.»
«Muchas gracias,» said Dolores. But inwardly she asked herself, Why is he doing this? What advantage does he expect to gain?»
«Would you like to go to the concert?» he asked as they got up from the table.
Dolores thought a moment. Then, «No, I think not. Thank you anyway. I appreciate your kindness.»
As they walked out into the broad passageway again, Briem said, «Your son’s been living all this time with his father, hasn’t he?»
Again she felt the stab of pain. And anger. What is he trying to do to me? Dolores raged inwardly. «I don’t think you have any right to probe into my personal affairs,» she snapped.
His face went red. «Oh, I didn’t mean—I was only trying to be helpful. You had asked about what the boy might be interested in …»
The anger drained out of her as quickly as it had risen. «I’m sorry. I have always been too quick to lose my temper.»
«It’s understandable,» Briem said.
«One would think that at my age I would have learned better self-control.»
«De nada,» he said, with an atrocious accent.
But she smiled at his attempt to defuse the situation. Then she caught a view of Earth again in the window across the passageway. Dolores headed toward it like a woman lured by a lover, like a sliver of iron pulled by a magnet.
Briem walked beside her. «I really should be getting to the auditorium. The concert.»
«Yes,» Dolores muttered, staring at the glowing blue-and-white panorama parading before her eyes. «Of course.»
He grasped her sleeve, forcing her to tear her eyes away and look at him.
«Tell me what you learned in the ten years you were away,» he said, suddenly urgent. «Tell me the most important thing you’ve learned.»
She blinked at the fervor in his voice, the intensity of his expression. «The most important?»
«I know you still have a political agenda. You haven’t given up all your hopes, your ideals. But what did the past ten years teach you?»
Dolores put aside all pretense. She knew she was ending all her hopes for returning home, killing her only chance to see her son once again. But she told him anyway, without evasion, without pretense.
«They need us. They cannot survive without us. Nor can we truly survive without them. This enforced separation is killing us both.»
Strangely, Briem smiled. «They need us,» he echoed. «And we need them.»
Dolores nodded dumbly, her eyes drawn back to the gleaming beckoning sprawl of the world she had left.