The Call of Earth: 2 (Homecoming) Read Free Page A

Rashgallivak.
    “You’ll stay and finish the show,” said Tumannu.
    “The show is nothing but a . . . an
otsoss,
” said Kokor, using the crudest term she could think of.
    Tumannu gasped and Rashgallivak reddened and Gulya chuckled his little low chuckle. “Now
that’s
an idea,” he said.
    Kokor patted Tumannu on the arm. “It’s all right,” she said. “I’m fired.”
    “Yes, you are!” cried Tumannu. “And if you leave here tonight your career is
finished!”
    Rashgallivak sneered at her. “With her share of her father’s inheritance she’ll buy your little stage and your mother, too.”
    Tumannu looked defiant. “Oh, really? Who was her father,
Gaballufix?”
    Rashgallivak looked genuinely surprised. “Didn’t you know?”
    Clearly Tumannu had
not
known. Kokor pondered this for a moment and realized it meant that she mustnot ever have mentioned it to Tumannu. And that meant that Kokor had not traded on her father’s name and prestige, which meant that she had got this part on her own. How wonderful!
    “I knew she was the great Sevet’s
sister,”
said Tumannu. “Why else do you think I hired her? But I never dreamed they had the same
father.”
    For a moment Kokor felt a flash of rage, hot as a furnace. But she contained it instantly, controlled it perfectly. It would never do to let such a flame burn freely. No telling what she would do or say if she ever let herself go at such a time as this.
    “I must find Sevet,” said Kokor.
    “No,” said Rashgallivak. He might have intended to say more, but at that moment he laid a hand on Kokor’s arm to restrain her, and so of course she brought her knee sharply up into his groin, as all the comedy actresses were taught to do when an unwelcome admirer became too importunate. It was a reflex. She really hadn’t even meant to do it. Nor had she meant to do it with such
force.
He wasn’t a very heavy man, and it rather lifted him off the ground.
    “I must find Sevet,” Kokor said, by way of explanation. He probably didn’t hear her. He was groaning too loudly as he lay there on the wooden floor backstage.
    “Where’s the understudy?” Tumannu was saying. “Not even three minutes’ warning, the poor little bizdoon.”
    “Does it hurt?” Gulya was asking Rashgallivak. “I mean, what
is
pain, when you really think about it?”
    Kokor wandered off into the darkness, heading for Dauberville. Her thigh throbbed, just above the knee, where she had pushed it so forcefully into Rashgallivak’s crotch. She’d probably end up with a bruise there, andthen she’d have to use an opaque sheen on her legs. Such a bother.
    Father’s dead. I must be the one to tell Sevet. Please don’t let anyone else find her first. And
murdered.
People will talk about this for years. I will look rather fine in the white of mourning. Poor Sevet—her skin always looks red as a beet when she wears white. But she won’t dare stop wearing mourning until
I
do. I may mourn for poor Papa for years and years and years.
    Kokor laughed and laughed to herself as she walked along.
    And then she realized she wasn’t laughing at all, she was crying. Why am I crying? she wondered. Because Father is dead. That must be it, that must be what all this commotion is about. Father, poor Father. I must have loved him, because I’m crying now without having decided to, without anybody even watching. Who ever would have guessed that I loved him?
    “Wake up.” It was an urgent whisper. “Aunt Rasa wants us. “Wake up!”
    Luet could not understand why Hushidh was saying this. “I wasn’t even asleep,” she mumbled.
    “Oh, you were sleeping, all right,” said her sister Hushidh. “You were snoring.”
    Luet sat up. “Honking like a goose, I’m sure.”
    “Braying like a donkey,” said Hushidh, “but my love for you turns it into music.”
    “That’s why I do it,” said Luet. “To give you music in the night.” She reached for her housedress, pulled it over her