A Thing As Good As Sunshine Read Free

laundry pod over the past few cycles; I'd gone more than once to re-wash
clean clothes. I didn't ask, but I was sure he had some clean tunics in his
load occasionally. We spent our time mostly sequestered in the dark cubby-hole
between the bank of spinners and the far wall of the room, panting hard as we touched
each other beneath clothes we kept partially on, an arm in a tunic or a leg
still in pants, just in case someone else came to do laundry on the off-shift.
    Good
memories. Good as sunshine. My body heated up just recalling the way his hands,
his lips, his body, felt meshed with mine. A hot blush crawled over my scalp,
again.
    But it had
not all been physical. We talked. Hours passed wrapped in each other's arms as he
told me about his life and I distracted him with more kisses when he got too
curious about mine. I think, sometimes, he asked hard questions just to see how
far I'd take it. I surprised him, a time or two. Or more.
    "We
have to know," Auntie said. "She's fertile."
    Sheng
Tian buckled at the waist, almost to the point of falling over, and I heard him
let go a small cry. It was agony to my heart, but I couldn't go to him. Fear
trapped me in the corner. Fertile? I'd never heard the term used to refer to a
person. Somehow I was a good spot to drill? Ore rich? None of it made a damn
bit of sense.
    "I
didn't know," he said.
    Pria put
a hand on his back and helped him sit down on the chair next to Momma. He
looked at her, sadness and fear on his face. "I'm sorry. I didn't
know."
    Momma
bowed her head, seemingly unable to look at him. I'd never seen her back down
like that before. "It's not your fault. We hadn't told her, yet." She
shook her head. "I thought we'd have more time."
    Sheng
Tian looked up in surprise. "How old is she?"
    Momma
was quiet.
    Auntie
Pria answered him. "Fifteen." Sheng Tian's mouth dropped open. "Maybe,
sixteen. We're not really sure."
    The
silence stretched more than I could handle. "Would someone please talk to
me?"
    The
three of them looked at me and I swear I didn't know any of them. Auntie had
lost the softness in her round face. Momma looked at me the way she sometimes looked
at her thin Ledger before she stuffed it into the back of the bunk drawer after
shift. And Sheng Tian, he looked at me like he'd never laid eyes, or hands, on
me before.
    "Sheng?"
I begged him to explain, to cut through the confusion and just be the best
thing in my life again.
    He
smiled, but there was no sunshine behind it.
    "I
need you to keep this between us," Momma said to Sheng Tian. "I need
time to get ahead of this situation. Do you understand that I'm asking you for
a personal favor?" she asked, emphasizing the last two words in a way that
confused me.
    Sheng
Tian shook the sad smile off his own face. "I'm not looking to trade
favors, ma'am." He looked up at me. "I love her."
    His
words worked like a magic spell, cutting my bonds of fear away and releasing me
from the corner. I went to him and sat on his lap, wrapping my arms around his
neck. "I love you, too."
    "Then
do it for Honey-Girl," Auntie Pria said.
    Sheng
Tian smoothed my long hair out of his face. "I won't say a word to anyone.
On my honor." He paused and buried his face in my hair. "Such as it
is."
    Momma
reached a hand out to Sheng Tian. "This isn't your fault. You behaved with
honor, a man of your place and your station. You could not have guessed what we
did not want you to know." I'd never seen a deeper frown on her lips.
    "Time
to go, before somebody happens upon this secret counsel of ours," Auntie
Pria said.
    I clung
to Sheng Tian, but he stood up and set me on my feet. I could feel his honor
growing between us like a shield. Those invisible hard edges nearly sharp
enough to cut.
    He
looked to me, then to Momma, then back again. He finally turned to Momma and
asked, "When can I see Honey-Girl again?"
    It felt
so odd to hear him asking permission to see me. I teetered on the edge of fury.
I knew my life was not entirely my own: a