I had excess white fluid…”
“Ah, yes,” Nicole said with a smile. “I remember you now, Milky. Didn’t we have a long discussion at lunch one day about old age? As I recall, you had a hard time believing that we humans remained alive, whether we were useful or not, until we died of natural causes.”
“That’s right,” Milky answered. “Well, I don’t want to disturb your lunch, but my friend very much wanted to meet you.”
“And to thank you also,” said Nikky’s companion, “for being so fair about everything. Dr. Blue says that you have been an example for all of us.”
Other octospiders began to rise from where they were sitting in the cafeteria and to line up behind the first two octos. The colors for “thank you” were visible on most of their heads. Nicole was deeply moved. At Max’s suggestion, she stood up and spoke to the line of octospiders. “Thank you all,” she said, “for your warm welcome. I really do appreciate it. I hope I have a chance to visit with each of you while we are living here together.”
Nicole’s eyes drifted to the right of the line Of octos and she saw her daughter Ellie with Nikki standing beside her. “I came as soon as I could,” Ellie said, coming over and kissing her mother on the cheek. “I should have known,” she added with a slight smile. She gave Nicole a vigorous hug. “I love you, Mother,” Ellie said. “And I have missed you so very much.”
“I explained to the Council,” Nai said, “that you had just arrived and did not fully understand the significance of the boycott. I believe they were satisfied.”
Nai opened the door and Nicole followed her into the laundry area. Using the washers and dryers they had seen in New Eden as a basis, the aliens who had outfitted the Grand Hotel in a hurry had built the free laundry room not far from the cafeteria. Two other women were in the large room. Nai purposely chose to use the machines at the far opposite side, so mat she could have a private conversation with Nicole.
“I asked you to come with me today,” Nai said as she began to sort the clothing, “because I wanted to talk to you about Galileo.” She paused, struggling. “Forgive me, Nicole, my feelings on this subject are so strong. I’m not certain—”
“It’s all right, Nai,” Nicole said softly. “I understand. Remember, I’m a mother too.”
“I’m desperate, Nicole,” Nai continued. “I need your help. Nothing that has ever happened in my life, not even Kenji’s murder, has affected me like this situation. I am consumed by anxiety for my son. Even meditation does not give me any peace.”
Nai had divided the clothes into three piles. She put them into three washing machines and returned to Nicole’s side.
“Look,” she said, “I’ll be the first to admit that Galileo’s behavior has not been perfect. After the long sleep, when we were moved over here, he was very slow to become involved with the others. He would not participate in the classes Patrick, Ellie, Eponine, and I set up for the children, and when he did, he would not do any homework. Galileo was surly, difficult, and unpleasant to everyone except Maria.
“He never would talk to me about what he was feeling. The only thing he seemed to enjoy was going over to the recreation room for muscle-building exercises. He has, incidentally, become very proud of his physical strength.”
Nai paused for a moment. “Galileo is not a bad person, Nicole,” she said apologetically. “He is just confused. He went to sleep as a six-year-old and woke up at the age of twenty-one, with the body and desires of a young man.”
She stopped. Tears had formed in her eyes. “How could he have been expected to know how to act?” Nai said with difficulty. Nicole reached out with her arms, but Nai did not accept her offer. “I have tried, but I haven’t been able to help him,” Nai continued. “I don’t know what to do. And I’m afraid now it’s too late.”
Nicole recalled her own sleepless nights in New Eden when she had often wept out of frustration about Katie. “I understand, Nai,” she said softly. “I really do.”
“One time, only one time,” Nai said after a pause, “did I ever have a glimpse beneath that cold exterior Galileo wears so proudly. It was in the middle of the night after the business with Maria, when he returned from his session with Big Block. We were out in the corridor together, only the two of us, and he was wailing and beating on the wall. ‘I wasn’t going to hurt her, Mom, you must believe me,’ he yelled. ‘I love Maria. I just couldn’t stop myself.’“
“What happened with Galileo and Maria?” Nicole asked when Nai stopped again for a few seconds. “I haven’t heard the story.”
“Oh,” Nai said, surprised, “I was certain that someone would have told you about it by now.” She hesitated for a moment. “Max said at the time that Galileo had tried to rape Maria and that he might have succeeded if Benjy had not come back to the room and dragged him off the girl. Later Max admitted to me that he might have overreacted when he used the word ‘rape’ but that Galileo had definitely been ‘out of line.’
“My son told me that Maria had encouraged him, at least initially, and that they had dropped to the floor while kissing. She was still enthusiastically participating, according to Galileo, until he started pulling down her pants. That was when the struggle began.”
Nai tried to calm herself. “The rest of the story, no matter who tells it, is not very pleasant… Galileo admits that he hit Maria several times after she started screaming and that he held her down and continued to pull off her pants. He had locked the door. Benjy broke it down with his shoulder and threw himself at Galileo with all his force. Because of the noise and the property damage, Big Block was there, as well as many onlookers.”
There were more tears in Nai’s eyes. “It must have been horrible,” Nicole said.
“That night my life was shattered,” Nai said. “Everyone condemned Galileo. When Big Block put him on probation and returned Galileo to the family unit, Max, Patrick, and even Kepler, his own brother, thought the punishment was too light. And if I ever hinted that maybe, just maybe, beautiful little Maria might have been partially responsible for what occurred, I was told by everybody that I was ‘unbalanced’ and ‘blind to the facts.’
“Maria played “her part perfectly,” Nai continued, with undisguised acrimony in her voice. “She admitted later that she had willingly kissed Galileo-they had kissed twice before, she said-but insisted that she had started saying no before he pulled her down on the floor. Maria wept for an hour immediately after the incident. She could barely talk. All the men tried to comfort her, including Patrick. They were all convinced before she even said anything that Maria was blameless.”
Soft bells sounded, indicating that the washing cycle was complete. Nai rose slowly, walked over to the machines, and put the clothes in a pair of dryers.
“We all agreed that Maria should move next door with Max, Eponine, and Ellie,” Nai began again. “I thought that time would heal the wounds. I was wrong. Galileo was ostracized by everyone in the family, except for me. Kepler would not even speak to his brother. Patrick was civil, but distant. Galileo withdrew deeper into his shell, stopped attending classes altogether, and spent most of his waking hours by himself in the weight room.
“About five months ago I approached Maria and basically begged her to help Galileo. It was humiliating, Nicole,” Nai said, tears entering her eyes again. “There I was, an adult woman, pleading for favors from a teenage girl. I had first asked Patrick, Eponine, and then Ellie, each in turn, if they would talk to Maria for me. Only Ellie had made an effort to intercede, and she informed me, after her attempt, that the appeal would have to come directly from me.
“Maria finally agreed to talk to Galileo,” Nai said bitterly, “but only after forcing me to listen to a harangue about how she still felt ‘violated’ by Galileo’s attack. She also stipulated both that a sincere, written apology from Galileo should precede the meeting and that I should be personally present during their discussion to preclude any unpleasantness.”
Nai shook her head. “Now, I ask you, Nicole,” she said, “how in the world could a sixteen-year-old girl who has been awake for only two years in her entire life have possibly become so sophisticated? Somebody-and my guess is Max and Eponine-had been counseling her on how to behave. Maria wanted to humiliate me and to make Galileo suffer as much as possible. She certainly succeeded.”
“I know it seems unlikely,” Nicole said, “but I have met people with incredible natural gifts who know intuitively at a very early age how to deal with any possible situation. Maria may be one of them.”
Nai ignored her comment. ‘The meeting went very well. Galileo cooperated. Maria accepted the apology that he wrote for her. For the next few weeks she seemed to go out of her way to include Galileo in whatever the young people were doing. But he was still a stranger in their group, an outsider. I could see it. And I suspect that
