Judy was hunched over an embroidery hoop, of all things; she said that embroidering flowers relaxed her. People were endlessly surprising in their hidden corners.
Marianne said, “How can you even see what you’re doing? The light’s mostly gone.”
“Yeah. I’ve pricked my finger twice.” She folded up her work and said abruptly, “Why do you think Stubbins is so hot to go to World?”
“I’ve wondered about that myself. I imagine he smells profit. He’s proven to have a good nose for it.”
“A lame pun. But profit of what kind? You know him better than I do, Marianne.”
“I don’t think anybody really knows him.”
“Yeah. ‘A grand, ungodly, godlike man,’” Judy said, making air quotes with both hands. Her embroidery slipped off her lap and fell onto the ground.
Marianne said, “I don’t recognize the quote.”
“Ah, you scientists. Deficient in the humanities.”
“Come on, Judy—you’re a scientist, too.”
“Yes, but only by default. I wanted to be an English professor.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“An overcrowded and underpaid field. But Melville remains my first love.”
“So—Ahab,” Marianne guessed.
“Correct. Ahab and our very own silver whale. As long as I don’t end up being Ishmael.”
“Let me ask you something,” Marianne said, because she’d been wondering on and off. “Do you think Stubbins uses those pheromone concoctions of his—I’m In Charge or whatever it’s called—to get people to come here and carry out his wishes?”
“You’re not the first to ask. My opinion is no, but who understands where the line is between pheromonal influence and the power of suggestion? Or the lure of plain old power? It isn’t—Uh-oh, visitors to the Pequod, escorted by the captain himself.”
Three figures emerged from the dusk. Stubbins hit a wall switch behind Marianne and a floodlight shattered the sweet gloom. Marianne blinked in the sudden harsh light, waiting for her eyes to adjust. When they had, she blinked again.
Oh, the poor things!
The woman and child with Stubbins, clearly mother and daughter, were both incredibly ugly. They had sallow skin, lips so thin they almost disappeared, and small eyes set too close together. Both of their lower faces sloped back so abruptly that they seemed to have no chins. The girl, who looked about six, also had a low forehead covered with bangs, so that her nose seemed to fill her entire truncated face.
“Marianne, Judy, meet my fiancée, Belinda Parker, and her daughter Ava. We got ourselves engaged this morning.”
It was a moment before Marianne could find her voice. Until three months ago, Stubbins had been married to an ex–super model, the fourth Mrs. Stubbins. All his wives except the first had been leggy blondes, so perfect in face and body that they scarcely seemed human. If Stubbins was engaged to Belinda, she must have something he desperately wanted. More money? Was he running out of funds to finish and launch the starship? But if Belinda was an heiress or ultra-rich widow, why hadn’t she paid for plastic surgery for, if not herself, this pathetic child?
Manners took over. Marianne stood and held out her hand. “Congratulations, both of you. Welcome to the Venture, Belinda.”
“Thank you.” The woman, unsmiling, studied Marianne and Judy. Ava gazed down at her shoes, which looked orthopedic. Judy rose and added her congratulations, her eyes glowing with curiosity.
Stubbins said, “Ava, here comes your teacher, lil’ darling. And here come your classmates. Hooboy, Ms. Blake, you’re sure enough going to have your hands full now! Jason, Colin, Luke, Ava.” He pointed to each as if choosing melons at a fruit stand.
The four children stared at each other. This is not going well, Marianne thought.
“You wanna play a video game?” Jason asked, and in his voice Marianne heard the echo of his uncle Noah, always quick to compassion. “We got Ataka! That means ‘attack’!”
Ava said, “Nah.” And then, fiercely, “I don’t know how.”
“I’ll show you. C’mon, Luke and Colin, let’s teach her.”
The boys started indoors. Ava didn’t move. Marianne waited for Belinda to say something like, “Go on, honey,” but Belinda said nothing. Finally Stubbins said, “Go on now, lil’ darlin’, y’all have fun with your new lil’ friends.”
Ava raised her face to glare at him, then followed Jason. Belinda continued to study Marianne. Finally she said, “Yer grandkids? They can hear spirits, too, huh? What’d he promise you to get here? How high was yer price?”
Judy’s eyes widened. Belinda raised her left hand. On the fourth finger gleamed a huge diamond, glinting in the floodlight. Belinda’s misshapen face looked as fierce as her daughter’s, but in the woman’s eyes shone the light of pure, unadulterated crazy.
The new girl looked strange. Luke was slow in his head—Grandma had explained it carefully—and Colin was a bad person because he’d deliberately hurt Paul with that tree branch, maybe even killed him although everybody said no. Ava wasn’t slow or bad—at least, if she was, he didn’t know it yet—but she was really ugly. All three of them weren’t normal, only Jason was. But the starship camp was a good place for people who weren’t normal, because here everybody was kind. So Colin had to be kind to Ava.
“We got an extra remote,” Jason said, handing it to her and plopping himself down on the floor before the big computer screen. “This game is Russian but it’s not hard to understand. First you gotta pick a character…”
Ava hit the remote from his hand and it fell on the floor. “I don’t wanna play.”
“Okay, what do you wanna do?”
“I’ll play. I’m just telling you I don’t wanna.”
Luke looked bewildered. “If you don’t wanna, then why—”
“Stubbins says I have to. You was there. Are you a retard or something?”
“Hey,” Jason said, at the same moment that Luke said simply, “Yes.”
Ava’s face changed. She peered at Luke from her small eyes and then turned on Jason. “And what’s wrong with you?”
Jason said, “You apologize to Luke!”
“It’s okay,” Luke said.
“No, it isn’t. We don’t call people derogatory names!” Jason said. Colin recognized Grandma’s words.
Ava said, with unexpected meekness, “Sorry, Luke. But you’re a… you’re slow, and I’m ugly. So what’s the problem, you two?”
Colin saw that Ava was making a club, like the clubs at his old school. Paul had a club at recess and he’d said that Colin couldn’t belong. But Colin and Jason belonged here, and so did Luke. If Luke was in this club of people with problems, then Colin wanted to be, too. He had to tell Ava something, or she and Luke would be in the club and he and Jason would not.
“Well?” Ava demanded.
Jason said, “We don’t have any problems!” Which wasn’t true. Colin didn’t want his brother to be a liar, and he did want to be in the club. So he said, “I hear things.”
“What things? Voices? Like my mother? My mother is wacko. She hears angels and demons.”
Colin blinked. But he’d started this, and he was going to finish it. “Not voices. I hear the ground.”
Ava’s squinty little eyes widened and her mouth fell open. One tooth was black. “Really? You’re fucking with me!”