B’Oag gulped, breathed heavily, gulped again, and said no more. By evening’s end, he was showing G’lil how to tally up the day’s receipts.
I spent two more days at the oasthouse, feeding the chitterlain and sleeping, mostly. On the third day, a strange machine came out of the western sky, hovered over the mill at Vaccy for some time, then went away again. Those of us who ventured into the mill the next day found a great many dead mice, rats, spiders, and other vermin, along with a scattering of strange-looking creatures the others could not name. Like squid, I thought, recalling pictures I had seen as a child. A pulpy and bulbous thing with tentacles and suckers on it. I named them and kept talking until everyone knew the name and the danger.
The following morning, when I woke, I found Ferni waiting for me in the oasthall. Wordlessly, he took my pack and tool kit, tucked the chitterlain into the collar of my shirt, where it would stay warm, and led me out of the place to be half blinded by the sun on the snow.
“Where are we going?” I asked him, as I put on my goggles.
“Someplace south and safe,” he replied, then, seeing my skeptical look, “Well, someplace safer than this, where your chitterlain will find its kindred. Then…a little later, we’re going on to Thairy.”
“To see your old friends at the academy?” I asked.
“To see old friends,” he agreed. “And perhaps new ones.”
I Am Margaret/on Tercis
Glory and I were sitting on my porch, mending underwear.
She said, “Bamber told me his mama left a note when she went away. He couldn’t read yet, but Abe read it to him.”
“I didn’t know that. I thought she just disappeared.”
“His mother said she was in danger, and so was he, so don’t attract attention.”
“Could she have been an escaped bondswoman?” I asked.
“Bamber honestly doesn’t know, but Abe kept the note, and when Bamber learned to read, he read it for himself.”
“I remember you two helping one another learn to read in first grade. Does he know you tell me about him?”
“I wouldn’t tell you unless he thought it was all right. Bamber doesn’t mind your knowing, Grandma. He says he thinks you’re a lot like his mother.”
“I hope not,” I snorted. “Leaving a child like that!”
“Bamber says she must have had reasons, and Abe isn’t mean to him or anything.” Glory knotted her thread and bit it off. “Bamber’s funny about a lot of things. He’s just as smart as I am. In school, he knows all the answers, but he just gives enough right ones to get by, then he puts down wrong answers for the rest.”
“Why does he do that?”
“What the note said. He doesn’t want to attract attention.”
“I suppose his mother might have had reasons for wanting him to be unnoticed,” I admitted grudgingly.
“Abe Johnson’s still a peculiar choice. I wish we could adopt Bamber,” Glory said.
“We’ve already half adopted him,” I replied with some indignation. “We see that he has clothes, even if some of them are hand-me-downs. We pay for his school supplies. And between your mother and me, we feed him about five times a week. Considering everything, I think we’re being very helpful.”
The conversation stuck in my mind, though. There weren’t many diversions in The Valley. Any little irregularity was food for surmise, so why had I ignored the mystery of Bamber Joy’s abandonment? Whatever the reason, it wasn’t the boy’s fault!
A day or so later, I recruited the two of them to help me pick up chicken feed and groceries. At the store, I treated the young ones to the bottles of sweetberry drink they liked, and they sat down on the steps while I went inside. I was barely through the door when a car came booming across the bridge like a thunderstorm on wheels, more noise than you’d ever hear in Crossroads, and of a particularly irritating kind. The only vehicles we see in Rueful are driven by sedate officials on Dominion business, so the minute I heard the sound, I thought of the men who had asked about the cat.
The machine slid sideways into the turn, kicking up a cloud of dust as it kept right on coming, a danger to every child and chicken in the neighborhood. It didn’t slow down until it was almost on top of the store. The two men got out, looking like they were headed to a hanging.
I got over by the potato bin just as they banged their way in. One of them said loudly to Ms. McCollum, “Have you found out anything about a new cat yet?”
Ms. McCollum came right back at them. “What’s its scientific name? One of the people here in The Valley wanted to look it up. She wanted to know was it Earthian? Maybe an ocelot?”
The taller one said to the other, “Did the people at the office tell you the scientific name of the cat, Walter?”
Walter said, “No, Ned, they did not. We will have to get that information.”
The taller one continued, “So, you have not heard of anybody with a strange sort of cat, ma’am?”
“Most everybody has one or two ordinary, everyday cats.”
“Has anyone been buying unusual amounts of cat food, ma’am?”
“Only Ma Bailey, because her mama cat had kittens that’re starting on solid food.”
“You have seen those kittens yourself, ma’am?”
“Everbody in town has seen ’em. Just step down the street to Ma’s Kitchen, and she’ll try to give you one, and another to keep it company.”
The two men turned to go out, and I followed them to the door. On the porch, Walter stopped and glared at Glory. “Little girl, do you know anyone around here who has a strange cat?”
“First off,” Glory said, “I’m not a little girl. Little girls are younger than ten, and I’m considerable older than that. And no, I don’t know anybody who has a strange cat.”
The man stared through her as though
