“Yes,” Sutter said, “but those things happenedbecause of the population and neurological problems.”
“O, I’m just glad I didn’t live then!” Ned said, shuddering. “It must have been terrible, especially in the cities.”
Juli said, “But, doctor, aren’t you from a city?”
Sutter looked into the flames. The wolf howled again. “Some cities fared much better than others. Welost most of the East Coast, you know, to various terrorist wars, and-”
“Everybody knows that,” Tam said witheringly.
Sutter was undeterred, “-and California to rioting and looting. But St. Paul came through, eventually.
And a basic core of knowledge and skills persisted, even if only in the urban areas. Science, medicine, engineering. We don’t have the skilled population, or even a neurologically functional population, but we haven’t really gone pre-industrial. There are even pockets of research, especially in biology. We’ll beat this, someday.”
“I know we will!” Juli said, her eyes shining. She was always so optimistic. Like a child, not a grown woman.
Tam said, “And meanwhile, the civilized types like you graciously go around to the poor country villages that feed you and bless them with your important skills.”
Sutter looked at him across the fire. “That’s right, Tam.”
Uncle Seddie said, “Enough arguing. Go to bed, everybody.”
Seddie was the ranking elder; there was no choice but to obey. Tam pulled Juli up with him, and in their bedroll he copulated with her so hard that she had to tell him to be more gentle, he was hurting her.
They reached the egg, by the direct route Tam had mapped out, in less than a week. Another family already camped beside it.
The two approached each other warily, guns and precious ammunition prominently displayed. But the other family, the Janeways, turned out to be a lot like the Wilkinsons, a goat-and-farm clan whose herdsmen had discovered the egg and brought others back to see the God-given miracle.
Tam, standing behind Seddie and Ned, said, “There’s some that don’t think it is from God.”
The ranking Janeway, a tough old woman lean as Gran had been, said sharply, “Where else could it come from, way out here? No city tech left this here.”
“That’s what we say,” Seddie answered. He lowered his rifle. “You people willing to trade provisions?
We got maple syrup, corn mush, some good pepper.”
“Pepper?” The old woman’s eyes brightened. “You got pepper?”
“We trade with a family that trades in St. Paul,” Ned said proudly. “Twice a year, spring and fall.”
“We got sugar and an extra radio.”
Tam’s chin jerked up. A radio! But that was worth more than any amount of provisions. Nobody would casually trade a radio.
“Our family runs to boys, nearly all boys,” the old woman said, by way of explanation. She looked past Tam, at Juli and Calie and Suze and Nan, hanging back with the mule and backpacks. “They’re having trouble finding fertile wives. If any of your girls…and if the young people liked each other…”
“Juli, the blond, she’s married to Tam here,” Seddie said. “And the other girls, they aren’t fertile…yet.”
“‘Yet?’ What do you mean, ‘yet’?”
Seddie pointed with his rifle at the egg. “Don’t you know what that is?”
“A gift from God,” the woman said.
“Yes. But don’t you know about the princess and her twins? Tell her, Tam.”
Tam told the story, feeling himself thrill to it as he did so. The woman listened intently, then squinted again at the girls. Seddie said quickly, “Nan is loose-brained, I have to tell you. And Suze is riding because her foot is crippled, although she’s got the sweetest, meekest nature you could ever find. But Calie there, even though she’s got a withered arm, is quick and smart and can do almost anything. And after she touches the egg… but, ma’am, Wilkinsons don’t force marriages on our women. Never. Calie’d have to like one of your sons, and want to go with you.”
“O, we can see what happens,” the woman said, and winked, and for a second Tam saw what she must have been once, long ago, on a sweet summer night like this one when she was young.
He said suddenly, “The girls have to touch the egg at dawn.”
Seddie and Ned turned to him. “Dawn? Why dawn?”
Tam didn’t know why he’d said that, but now he had to see it through. “I don’t know. God just made that idea come to me.”
Seddie said to Mrs. Janeway, “Tam’s our smartest person. Always has been.”
“All right, then. Dawn.”
In the chill morning light, the girls lined up, shivering. Mrs. Janeway, Dr. Sutter, and the men from both families made an awkward semicircle around them, shuffling their feet a little, not looking at each other.
The five Janeway boys, a tangle of uncles and cousins, all looked a bit stooped, but they could all walk, and none were loose-brained. Tam had spent the previous evening at the communal campfire, saying little, watching and listening to see which Janeways might be good to his sisters. He’d already decided that Cal had a temper, and if he asked Uncle Seddie for Calie or Suze, Tam would advise against it.
Dr. Sutter had said nothing at the campfire, listening to the others become more and more excited about the egg-touching, about the fertility from God. Even when Mrs. Janeway had asked him questions, his replies had been short and evasive. She’d kept watching him, clearly suspicious. Tam had liked her more and more as the long evening progressed.
Followed by a longer night. Tam and Juli had argued.
“I want to touch it, too, Tam.”
“No. You have your certificate from that doctor two years ago. She tested you, and you’re already fertile.”
“Then why haven’t I started no baby? Maybe the fertility went away.”
“It doesn’t do that.”
“How do you know? I asked Dr. Sutter and he said-”
“You told Dr. Sutter about your body?” Rage swamped Tam.
Juli’s voice grew smaller. “O, heis a doctor! Tam, he says it’s hard to be sure about fertility testing for women, the test is…is some word I don’t remember. But he says about one certificate in four is wrong.
He says we should do away with the certificates. He says-”
“I don’t care what he says!” Tam had all but shouted. “I don’t want you talking to him again! If I see you are, Juli, I’ll take it up with Uncle Seddie. And you are not touching the egg!”
Juli had raised herself on one elbow to stare at him in the starlight, then had turned her back and pretended to sleep until dawn.
Now she led Nan, the oldest sister, toward the egg. Nan crooned, drooling a little, and smiled at Juli. Juli was always tender with Nan. She smiled back, wiped Nan’s chin, and guided her hand toward the silvery oval. Tam watched carefully to see that Juli didn’t touch the egg herself. She didn’t, and neither did Nan, technically, since her hand stopped at whatever unseen wall protected the object. But everyone let out a sharp breath, and Nan laughed suddenly, one of her clear high giggles, and Tam felt suddenly happier.
Seddie said, “Now Suze.”
Juli led Nan away. Suze, carried by Uncle Ned, reached out and touched the egg. She, too, laughed aloud, her sweet face alight, and Tam saw Vic Janeway lean forward a little, watching her. Suze couldn’t plow or plant, but she was the best cook in the family if everything were put in arm’s reach. And she could sew and weave and read and carve.
Next Calie, pretty if Juli hadn’t been there for comparison, and the other four Janeway men watched.
Calie’s one hand, dirt under the small fingernails, stayed on the egg a long time, trembling.
No one spoke.
“O, then,” Mrs. Janeway said, “we should pray.”
They did, each family waiting courteously while the other said their special prayers, all joining in the “Our Father.” Tam caught Sutter looking at him somberly, and he glared back. Nothing Sutter’s “medicine” had ever done had helped Tam’s sisters, and anyway, it was none of Sutter’s business what the Wilkinsons and Janeways did. Let him go back to St. Paul with his heathen beliefs.
“I want to touch the egg,” Juli said. “I won’t get no other chance. We leave in the morning.”
