?I know what it is! I know exactly what it is. So does Gabe. And I don?t think anything I could say would make him go through that again.?
?Call him,? Lilith said. ?He?s there on the hill.?
Tate looked up, saw Gabe. She stood up. ?I have to go.?
?Tate!? Lilith said urgently.
Tate looked back at her.
?Bring him to us. Let?s talk. What harm can it do??
But Tate would not. Akin could see that she would not. ?Tate,? he called to her.
She looked at him, then looked away quickly.
?I?ll do what I said I would,? he told her. ?I don?t forget things.?
She came over to him, and kissed him. The fact that Nikanj was still holding him seemed not to bother her.
?If you ask,? Nikanj said, ?my parents will come from the ship. They haven?t found other Human mates.?
She looked at Nikanj but did not speak to it. She walked away up the hill and over it, not stopping even to speak to Gabe. He followed her, and both disappeared over the hill.
1
The boy wanders too much,? Dichaan said as he sat sharing a meal with Tino. ?It?s too early for the wandering phase of his life to begin.? Dichaan ate with his fingers from a large salad of fruits and vegetables that he had prepared himself. Only he knew best what he felt like eating and exactly what his current nutritional needs were.
Tino ate a corn and bean dish and had beside him a sliced melon with sweet orange flesh and dishes of fried plantains and roasted nuts. He was, Dichaan thought, paying more attention to his food than to what Dichaan was saying.
?Tino, listen to me!?
?I hear.? The man swallowed and licked his lips. ?He?s twenty, ?Chaan. If he weren?t showing some independence by now, I would be the one who was worried.?
?No.? Dichaan rustled his tentacles. ?His Human appearance is deceiving you. His twenty years are like
like twelve Human years. Less in some ways. He isn?t fertile now. He won?t be until his metamorphosis is complete.?
?Four or five more years??
?Perhaps. Where does he go, Tino??
?I won?t tell you. He?s asked me not to.?
Dichaan focused sharply on him. ?I haven?t wanted to follow him.?
?Don?t follow him. He isn?t doing any harm.?
?I?m his only same-sex parent. I should understand him better. I don?t because his Human inheritance makes him do things that I don?t expect.?
?What would a twenty-year-old Oankali be doing??
?Developing an affinity for one of the sexes. Beginning to know what it would become.?
?He knows that. He doesn?t know how he?ll look, but he knows he?ll become male.?
?Yes.?
?Well, a twenty-year-old Human male in a place like this would be exploring and hunting and chasing girls and showing off. He?d be trying to see to it that everyone knew he was a man and not a kid anymore. That?s what I was doing.?
?Akin is still a kid, as you say.?
?He doesn?t look like one, in spite of his small size. And he probably doesn?t feel like one. And whether he?s fertile or not, he?s damned interested in girls. And they don?t seem to mind.?
?Nikanj said he would go through a phase of quasi-Human sexuality.?
Tino laughed. ?This must be it, then.?
?Later he?ll want an ooloi.?
?Yeah. I can understand that, too.?
Dichaan hesitated. He had come to the question he most wanted to ask, and he knew Tino would not appreciate his asking. ?Does he go to the resisters, Tino? Are they the reason for his wandering??
Tino looked startled, then angry. ?If you knew, why did you ask??
?I didn?t know. I guessed. He must stop!?
?No.?
?They could kill him, Tino! They kill each other so easily!?
?They know him. They look after him. And he doesn?t go far.?
