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41. A THICKENING PLOT: Treachery On The Home Front.
Omah = Mother.

The road... the trace... toward home... is bumpy. There's no true rest, awakening every few minutes, if not seconds, for the up and down, the slalom roadway. Still, some condition of blackout imposes itself on me.

Then, there's a slowdown, a steep tilting. I know we're going up the ramp to the patio level! I roll toward Eenunh, twist to look out. Yes. Red sandstone. A balcony profile, around the cliff face. I see the spindle-door into the Government corridor. It's opening! Thin Man takes us in, a darkening, smooth ride, that makes me want to sleep. Daylight flashes through the big round windows. Eenunh stirs, spins to sit up. Tinunh is stretched out on the bench across from us, eyes open, and shut again. I sit up.

"Home," I say, in Emoilihn.

"Home," Eenunh says, in English.

I think to have Thin Man stop and drop us, close to the apartment. But I sit and watch as he follows the others up the corridor. At the end there's a stop, the lead escort truck converses with commannh on the ground, and we are escorted by those on foot, carefully through people on foot, coming to the prison complex. I see the water-truck cavern! The lead truck goes down the near-side dock, down a ramp into the area where the waters flood in rainy season, and circle back, lining up at the ramp angling back up the way we just came. They stop. Troops disgorge, and we do too. The troops are orderly. The only voices I hear are commanders, and others repeating orders.

Where will they all stay? Thin Man said we'd be here a couple days? Can we feed them? Can we get them into heated rooms? Will we...need security...on the trucks, constantly, twenty-one hours a day? Security on lodging, when they...we...go out? I'm exhausted. I'm leaving it to them. They organize very well. I'll assume they'll be taken care of.

"Leave your weapons bags," Thimiannh commands. "We'll secure this location."

We gather our pack-bags, blankets, the mirrors. Eenunh takes the bathroom wall mirror from her old apartment. I carry the oval mirror, leave the broken legs, and we head for... home. My roadie carries my guitar.

I have to stop and rest. The mirror is unwieldy. Tinunh takes the one from Eenunh. Eenunh takes my guitar.

"Go on," I tell them. They do. Eenunh keeps looking back to check on me. That attracts Tinunh's attention and she looks back too, turns backward, keeps moving, holding up that mirror. I get going again. We come out into the... octopus chamber where all the ramp accesses are. Someone calls Eenunh's name. It's a neighbor. She comes and takes the mirror from me, carries it easily under her left arm, catches up to Tinunh. Eenunh takes my arm, pushes and pulls me along. My legs feel rubbery. She's laughing. I only have energy to grin. The ramps...are tedious. There are only two. Tinunh's in, and has already hung the mirror in the bathroom! There was a pin embedded in the stone. It hangs perfectly. The neighbor has leaned the oval mirror in the corner by Tinunh's bed-hollow, where I used to sleep. She turns, says,

"Welcome home!" to Eenunh, glances at me, a wave, brushes fingertips, and goes out. Eenunh closes the door, drops her pack-bag to the floor, unrolls her blankets in her bed-hollow. Pulls me by the hand and climbs in ahead of me, fully dressed. Tinunh goes to her bed-hollow, climbs in, fully dressed. And sleep can have us all!

I awake. It's night. I don't know whether it's late evening, middle of the night, or early morning. I have no sense of it. Eenunh is warm. I've no need to get up, to go anywhere. I'm home. I sleep again.

I hear them talking, Tinunh, Eenunh. Eenunh is pushing me to the back of the bed hollow, pulling Tinunh in beside her. They talk about how tired they are. I like their voices, drowsy, no anxiety, no urgency, no shrill.

"I'm hungry," Eenunh says. Tinunh doesn't answer. Just about the time I'm falling back into that wonderful stupor, surrendering to sleep, Eenunh rolls against me.
"Are you hungry, Gary?" she asks. I decide to be hungry... because she's hungry.

"Yes," I lie. Tinunh's up. I hear the bathroom door grind on its spindle. Hear her brush her teeth. Eenunh kisses at me, just finds my chin. She's up! I'm... I don't want to get up. I get up, sit on the edge of the bed-hollow, hang my head, feel good just sitting there. They go down the ramp, talking, the voices fade as they get to the living room. I get up. Go in, splash water on my face. I get in my pack-bag, retrieve my toiletries, brush my teeth, look at myself in Eenunh's mirror. What a ragged specimen! I'm unable to get into my face! I'm just staring back at myself like a... like... I don't know what. I barely recognize the guy.

The girls are back!

"There's no food in the house!" Tinunh says.

"We have to go to the pub!" Eenunh says. "We have to shower! We can't go down there looking like this!" She tosses her hair. She looks wonderful to me. "You have to get out of here so we can shower!" she says, pulling me to my feet. She kisses me. I kiss her. I want to kiss her more. I want to lay back down. I want a lot of things. She giggles. I wonder if she knows what I'm thinking. She turns me, pushes me toward the door. I pick up my pack-bag. It's heavy with mirrors. I half drag it out the door, down the hall, Eenunh pushing me all the way. She comes in, closes the door, makes me drop the strap of my bag, pushes me to the bathroom, starts undressing me, stops and leaves. I watch her close my door, finish undressing. In the shower I just let the water run until it starts to feel cooler. I do a quick shampoo, soap-up, rinse off. I come out, put on clean underwear. I pull on my jeans, sneakers, pullover shirt. I look in my small mirror to comb my hair. Why didn't I buy myself a hand mirror? I need to get these to all the troops, and the kids, and The Machinist's girls. Later. Surely I'll find time and a chance. Two days. Maybe. Now, I want to lay in the bed-hollow and wait for them to come get me. I raise my left knee to climb in, and they're here, come to get me. i stop in my track because I know they're here. I turn, cross the room. Yep! I open the door and they stop in their tracks, turn, and we go, to the ramps, down and down, to the octo-chamber, to the pub ramp and down. It's early. There's no one there. The Blueboys hail us, invite us to sit near the counter. It's warmer here, heat from the kitchen I guess. They bring fresh leaves to the table, set cutlery in front of each of us. Eenunh orders something for us all. I could sleep here.

Tinunh's come alive. She's lively, animated, talkative,

"I want to go see Eevannh!" she says. "I want to go to the bakery!" She prattles. She worries about missing school. Eenunh tells her to turn in the homework she did while we were away, and to tell them about having to go north now. The Blueboy comes back with a mounded concoction covered with what looks like yellow scrambled egg, and... pancakes! When we're all served I cut into mine with a spork. It's rice and vegetables inside, steaming. That surface covering tastes like scrambled egg! I savor it, on my tongue, chew it finely, get another large bite full ready! Yes! Delicious! I'm awake. There's milk, in a gray stone pitcher, cold! I pull the three mugs together and pour each as full as is reasonable. It's delicious. I go again into the food. It's very satisfying. Sip my milk. Eat. Look at my girls. They're beautiful! Their eyes flicker. They look at each other, me, grin, talk. Oh. I could... stay here... forever. It's good to be home. Great to be home!

When we're done Eenunh pays. I have a handful of coins in my pocket. I lay them on the table, half count them. It's... a pretty good tip, I think, considering how much we've eaten, drank. Eenunh grins, nods.

We go out, back to our respective dwellings, brush teeth. I come to their house. They're just inside. I know. I open the door. I look for the gray paper box. It's there on the floor by Tinunh's bed-hollow. I take it back to my apartment, load up the mirrors. I go back, leave it in the hall.

"I want to deliver these mirrors to as many people as I can, right now!" I tell them. They laugh. We go.

In the mall I stop at the underwear store. They sell all kinds of clothes but all I ever bought here was underwear and socks. So... it's the underwear store. I see the girl I think was one of Thin Man's troops. She looks tired. I think that's confirmation. I ask Eenunh, "Is that one of Thimiannh's troops? The girl in the truck behind us?"

"Neh!" Eenunh confirms. "This is where I want to bring the mirror we brought back. The one with the broken legs. I think the legs would be in the way. But the mirror can be mounted to that pillar and no legs will be needed. Then everyone can see themselves! We'll do that later." I ask her to take in one of the hand mirrors for the girl. She does. I watch as she talks about the pillar, pointing, gesturing. Eenunh reaches and puts her hand on the pillar, the place to put a hook or pin to hold it. We'll need wire and eye-hooks to put on the back. The Machinist will have that!

We stop at the bakery. Tinunh goes in. We wait outside. She comes out with a gray-paper bag. We go on down the hall, past the restaurant, around to the east side corridor. We go to the school. Tinunh goes in to explain things. She comes back.

"I have mirrors for your friends, Eevannh, the other two," I tell her.

"I don't want to disturb their classes," she tells me. "We'll see them later. I saw them inside. They know I'm back. They'll probably come straight to my house later."

We go to the back of the grocery and down the long ramps to the water-truck cavern, up to the Machinist's. I tell him about hanging the mirror. He has pins, quickly shapes them, puts threads on them to screw into the wooden frame. Gives me wire, enough to pass three times across the back, a good strong hanging wire. He instructs me on how to do that, making each strand somewhat independent of the others, the three passes working together.

"I brought these for your girls!" I tell him, give him three mirrors. He is very grateful, shakes my hand, human fashion.

We go, down the service ramps, out of the flea market, across the basin of the cavern to the trucks. Guards see us coming. These are the escort troops. Thimiannh's people don't seem to be here. I leave the box of mirrors in the truck, get my, sleeping bag, the broken legs. It's a bundle. We start toward the ramp, the corridor back toward home. A soldier, one of Thin Man's, calls out.

"I have your mirror!" she says.

"I have yours!" I tell her. She looks confused. I go to the truck, set all my stuff down, get one of the hand-mirrors out, give it to her. She grins, beautifully. Groans. The girls all laugh. They're all so beautiful, and moreso when they smile. She looks at herself in the mirror, makes faces. I laugh. She laughs. She leads me to the truck in front of ours. I set out the mirror, the... premature wedding gift from Thin Man and Soda. The legs are a separate rig. The mirror just balances in it. I look to Eenunh and Tinunh for help. Tinunh goes and gets the legs for the other mirror. Eenunh gets my sleeping bag and the intact legs. I struggle with the unwieldy mirror. My arm isn't as long as the neighbor's. I need both hands. I hoist it over my head. It's surprisingly more comfortable to carry it there.

"Thank you!" I tell the soldier, in Emoilihn.

She hoists her mirror, says, "Thank you!" We go. Ennunh tells her where we live, invites her to come any time she's off duty.

I don't need to rest this trip. I keep trucking as long as they do. They look back, keep going. Soon we're home again. Eenunh positions the legs and I set the mirror in the bed-hollow room. The girls spend some time looking at themselves in it. They wave their hands at the ceiling to get more light.

"Now you can see how pretty my mother is!" Tinunh tells Eenunh! "She's the prettiest woman in Entemannh Garibe!" Eenunh laughs!

"You have to go to school!" she says.

"I want to go to school!" Tinunh says. "Tomorrow! Right now! Sleep! Sleeeep!" She's funny!

"I want to sleep too," I tell Eenunh.

"You have to go see Patrick!" she tells me.

"Now?" I ask.

"Now," she says.

We've been gone, so we're off schedule. We determined to go every fourth day, milking the interpreting money, serving the purpose, keeping him rational, I hope, and seeing that he doesn't... invite... mistreatment, legal complications, distractions from the tactics of moving forward, him out and on to Earth, me... on... to... paradise.

"Okay," I tell her.

"Take him a new book," she commands. I go to my room to find one. I see "The Grapes Of Wrath". I haven't read it. My mother told me there's a 'scene' where an old man is dying. A young woman is nursing a baby and someone tries to convince her to 'nurse' the old man to save his life. I'm not sure whether she does! That should get Patrick's interest, if nothing else does.

We go. I'm getting tired of walking these corridors. With our lanyards the trip back should be shorter, out of the octo-chamber and down to the Government corridor.

We sign in. The commannh are friendly. They simply ask about weapons, don't search us. We go in. They bring Patrick in, our usual table. Eenunh joins the commannh at the wall. They brush fingertips, exchange pleasantries. Patrick's not manacled! I decide not to mention it.

"Oh!" he says. "You brought me a new book? Good. I finished that other one." Eenunh translates. "I forgot to bring it. I'll bring it next time.
I don't want this interpreted," he says. "Can you tell her not to?" I hear Eenunh making up stuff about the book.

"She knows," I tell him. I point at the back cover of the book. "What's up?" He looks at the front cover.

"There's a guy in here, comes in here to do work, some kind of work," Patrick says, "who says... they're going to get you up north."

I'm... speechless! I process the information.

"What... what guy," I ask. Eenunh's having trouble fabricating fake translation. "I need to give her something to work with," I tell Patrick. I read the back of the book, a line, two lines. Patrick feigns interest in the book cover, takes over,

"Guy... he's not a guard, just like, a trustee or something. He comes in and out, maybe doing maintenance work, something, but he started giving me a hard time, just a... I don't know, snarly personality. He seems to go out of his way to find me. I ignore him. Guards will tell him to move on if they catch him. But he said, 'I'll get your buddy'... and he said your name. He said it in like a human voice. He speaks English." Patrick reads the next two lines on the back of the book. Eenunh interprets. "Guy with a big chest," he says. Seems to know stuff. Talks about a city up north, you have to go there, Goobers or something plotting."

Goobers? Koobahbahnn? I don't risk asking for details. I read the next line, say John Steinbeck's name.

"I appreciate your help, Patrick," I tell him. "I'll be on alert. How... how are you communicating with this guy?"

Eenunh interprets the appreciation part, makes it sound like I'm thanking him for cooperating, getting along with the guards.

"So no problems with food, treatment?" I ask. She interprets.

"No problems," Patrick says. "This guy speaks broken English. He's got that buzzy voice, but he can say things clearly, in English." I stop, wonder how this guy learned English. "I get what they're telling me to do. It's a routine. Not much different day to day. They don't push me, don't have to push me any more. I know what they want, where they want me to go. I'm just counting the days. It's going pretty fast!" Eenunh's interpreting perfectly.

"Yes," I agree. "The days are flying by. You should be finishing up and getting out of here. Soon you'll be homebound and to payday!"

"Yeah!" he says. "I like the sound of that. I ain't gonna do this any more. It seemed like an adventure and I wasn't doing anything back home but gettin' in trouble. But now I think I'll like being home, seeing people I know. Three years of... mining... and... this... that's enough for me for a while. I just... I just want... a simple life."

"Cool!" I say. "That's all most people want. And you can have that. You have a lot to look forward to."

We finish. He stands. I stand. He reaches to shake my hand. He reaches to Eenunh, brushes fingertips. He smiles. Patrick... Patrick smiles. He's not a bad-lookin' kid when he smiles! As Scout would say, 'He makes better use of his face.' He turns and goes. Eenunh brushes fingertips with the commannh, and we go. We sign out. Outside I go to the water-truck, jump down from the dock and retrieve the mirrors from the truck. There's a different soldier there now, and I give her a mirror. She points out two others. I give them mirrors, ask them to get mirrors to the others on Thimiannh's command. My load is much lighter. We head for home.

We talk about the 'guy' who gave Patrick the 'threat', which Patrick made a warning. Eenunh speculates that it's my... nemesis from day one in the pub, Chesty. She doesn't know his name. "I never needed to know his name until now. We'll tell Soda. She can find out."

At the apartment Eenunh goes in. I go to my place to use the bathroom. I've no sooner finished shakin' it when she comes to my apartment, says, "Tinunh's not here. She didn't leave a note."

My hackles go up. You can never let down your guard once you go to war with someone! I don't express my thought that our enemies may be 'getting us' here, since they missed us in the south, and instead of waiting for us to go north.

"We need to go see if she's at Eevannh's," I tell her. She leaves a note. We go. We cover the distance to the east side quickly.

"Eevannh went to Tinunh's right after school!" her mother says. Eenunh confides her concern, that the lack of a note is unusual for her daughter, and, adds, "We... have enemies." Eevannh's mother says,

"You also have friends!" She pulls on a coat, plots to go up through the mall looking for them, and circle down to Eenunh's. Eenunh plots to do the same, coming up to the mall if they're not at the apartment. We go back the way we came. At the apartment we go in... and hear the girls' voices. I go to my apartment, get my guitar. I need a session to settle my nerves. I come back out and Eenunh goes to meet Eevannh's mother.

I go down the ramp to the living room. The girls are on the floor, around the coffee table, homework, all greet me in one big buzz! Eevannh stands, comes to me for a hug. She expresses her... condolences. Tinunh has told her the story of our turomay, our appeal. I thank her, tell her, "It's not easy, but we keep going." I sit. Begin to play. Soon Eenunh and Eevannh's mother are back.

"Tinunh!" Eenunh says, not scolding, just... urgent. "You didn't leave a note!"

"Oh!" Tinunh says. "I'm sorry omah!" She gets to her feet, comes to Eenunh, hugs her. "We've been together for days! It's... like we're... not apart. I forgot I needed to let you know! I'm sorry!"

The tension eases, dispels. I play, sing, quietly. Tinunh comes by me, pushes the side of my head with her fingertips! I don't know what...

"Why didn't you tell me I was in trouble?" she says. They all laugh. Eenunh goes, laughing, into the kitchen. The girls do homework. The pastry bag is empty on the coffee table. The women sit in the kitchen and talk. I get occasional applause from the girls on the floor, sometimes from the kitchen.

It's just another night at home... with my family. Home.