Chapter 2

I truly enjoyed anointing Pat and Julie with moisturizer. Tactilely, they were soft and pliant and warm - I suppose that stirred other memories. At this stage in their development, they were like babies, puppies, and kittens - they enjoyed physical contact and a soft, reassuring voice. Maybe some day they'd have a few words that they would recognize, but now the tone and volume were the important elements.

Jay had invited one of her friends, Elaine (with bronze Zander) to sleep over. Elaine was the first of her fire lizard-owning friends to visit since Impression (I capitalized the Day in my mind) and I couldn't help but attach some significance to that.

As usual Jay was showing off her domestic skills by doing something in the kitchen. Since her mother passed away, I've only insisted that she know how; most times we'd eat reheated frozen dinners or something from the burger joints in town. I always tried to hit the four basic food groups: Stouffer's, Banquet, Healthy Choice, and Fast.

Elaine sat on the couch, Zander on her shoulder. I sat at my computer, a FreeCell game ignored, while tending to my faire. I could feel her eyes on us, but other than my crooning to Pat and Julie, there was no conversation. Then she sighed. I watched surreptitiously as she soothed Zander, who stirred at her sigh, until he returned to his somnolence.

Pat and Julie were more vocal, softly harmonizing their pleasure at being caressed, as I worked Oil of Olay into their hides. One of the fire lizards, a blue, had gone between and not returned, possibly a victim to dry, cracked skin in the cold of between. Elaine from her vantage and I through Jay had managed to convince the remaining girls of the importance of this ritual.

Jay chose that moment to bring her first platter of cookies from the kitchen. With her mouth full (an unbreakable habit) she warned that they were still hot and we should be careful.

My hands were still covered with moisturizer. I cleared my throat to get Jay's attention and held up my slimy digits; Jay smiled and stuck a cookie between my teeth. I smiled a cookie-faced smile while inhaling air around the cookie to cool it. I winked at Jay.

Elaine took a cookie and held it with just her nails. She took a small bite and had to suck a little cooling air herself. I winked at her, too, eliciting a blush.

I finished my ablutions with Pat and Julie while somehow eating the cookie without dropping a crumb. I reached for a towelette from the dispenser I kept handy and wiped my hands. I then used the towelette to remove a crumb from the corner of my lips before disposing of it in a wastebasket. Pat and Julie both climbed my chest and crawled past the open top button of my shirt to nestle in the warmth between shirt and shoulder.

"Jay tells me you might be able to answer a few questions about fire lizard eggs," I said, without preamble.

Elaine's head whipped up, eyes wide, looking for Jay. But Jay was back in the kitchen, busy with the next tray of cookies. She looked at me. I looked back, eyebrows raised slightly. I did my best not to convey anger or accusation, just curiosity. She didn't know what to say. A silence grew while we looked at each other.

"Jay won't tell me anything herself." I broke the silence first. "She's honoring an oath, and I promised to respect that. But she did say she could introduce me to someone who could answer my questions, and you're the first she's invited over since the hatching. Am I guessing wrong?" I never raised my voice, but never broke eye contact.

Elaine wanted to tell someone. I could see it in her eyes. Perhaps she'd shared parts of the story with her friends, but none of them knew it all, just what they needed to known to get their promises of secrecy. Could she tell me? She had to trust someone. She sighed and looked away.

"I read a lot." It began as simply as that. She couldn't look at me. "I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, especially. When I read the Dragonrider trilogy, I fell in love with a place called Pern, and the people who lived there. Do you know the books?" She glanced at me and I nodded, smiling.

"Anyway, I read all the stories about Pern. I loved the ones with Menolly, like Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. I wanted to be Menolly, with her talent and her voice, and people loved her, and she had a fairof fire lizards...

"But I can't sing very well, and I can't write poems or music, so it wasn't a very realistic dream. But my dreams at night, they - I - it was, like, I could picture the fire lizards flying around. I could feel them in my dreams. I could feel... happiness, and... curiosity, and..." she blushed, looking at her sneakers "other things," she finished weakly. She looked at me again.

"I could make a fair guess about the 'other things'," I said with a trace of a smile, "but I wouldn't want to embarrass you."

She blushed again, but continued. "One night a while ago, I was having one of those dreams. One with 'other things' in it. And it suddenly turned into a nightmare. I felt afraid, more than afraid. It was like watching a horror movie when the bad guy jumps out, only even more intense. And I could feel heat and fear, and I guess my mind screamed 'Come to me' because I was where it was safe, you know? I don't think I yelled out loud because nobody woke up, not even me, right away.

"And it was, like, gone. Just stopped all of a sudden, and I woke up. And I'm all covered with sweat and confused and still shaking, and it was all so real I don't know what to think." She looked at me. "Does any of this make sense to you?"

"Actually, it does," I nodded. "You may not be able to compose or sing, but if you were born on Pern during the ninth pass, I think you'd be able to talk to dragons. You'd be 'Searched', and you would impress a queen. I think you've been linked with fire lizards on a planet far away, centuries before the first humans will arrive there. What happened next? Or should I tell you my guesses?"

Elaine could only stare, mouth open, for the moment. She had figured out that she was linked to fire lizards, if only in her dreams. But talk with dragons? I thought she would be able to talk with dragons? That idea had never occurred to her. She wanted to be like Menolly; I compared her to Lessa and Brekke. Her mind boggled.

Seeing she was unable for the moment to continue, I did. "You lost the link because the fire lizard you were linked to obeyed you. She went between, coming to you. It sounds like she had completed a mating flight when a volcano erupted, and she panicked, and you provided an image, a destination, she could escape to. You were her lifeline to safety."

Elaine nodded. "I think that was it." She shuddered at the memory. "After what seemed like forever, sitting up in my bed scared out of my wits, she just appeared out of thin air, and dropped on me. That scared me almost as much as the dream." She paused to swallow. "I had had these vivid dreams, and I knew what a fire lizard looked like, and it wasn't exactly the image artists have put on the web, but close. But to have one drop on you?" She shuddered again.

"And she was so cold, and still, and I could barely feel her. She was afraid, more than anything, but so weak." Elaine paused again. Her eyes had misted over, and she needed to wipe them before she could continue.

I got up from the computer desk and moved carefully, mindful of the fire lizards, to join her on the couch. I put my arms around her shoulders to comfort her. Elaine was grateful. She needed that, just now, and put her head against my chest. She would have used a shoulder, but those were occupied.

"She had traveled an unimaginable distance between, which McCaffrey describes as cold. She must have arrived in hypothermia, and possibly in shock," I said softly. "You couldn't know, when you called out to her, how dangerous the trip would be. Remember Lessa's ride to bring the old timers forward?"

Elaine sniffed, then spoke into my chest; "She was so cold, and tired, and scared. I carried her to the bathroom and ran a sink full of warm water. My mom put my feet in a bucket of warm water when I played outside too long and my lips turned blue. And I held her head above water and rubbed her and talked to her, and she was trembling and twitching and I was so scared..."

"You did good. You did the right thing. You felt her fear, and she felt yours, but you acted; you didn't give up, and neither did she. That's important, too." Elaine rocked in my arms as I spoke softly. Jay handed her a soda, and she drank deeply. Jay sat on the ottoman - she had never heard these parts, and was fascinated.

"Thank you. I didn't know how much I needed to tell someone." And she had needed to tell someone. I could almost feel the fear became a more distant memory as she sat cradled in my comforting arms. Finally, she could continue.

"When she seemed warm enough, and stopped shaking, I wrapped her in a towel and put her in my bed. I got the heating pad from the bathroom closet and plugged it in and put the towel on it. It got too warm for me, but I wanted her to be warm, so I stayed with her.

"She never left my bed. She never flew again. Her wings might have been damaged from the cold - I didn't know how to check. I snuck scraps of food from the kitchen to feed her, and I kept the door to my room closed all the time. At least my family respected my privacy that much. Nobody bothered us.

"I came home from school one day and there they were, she'd laid her eggs on the heating pad. I guess she knew she couldn't return to her hatching grounds, could hardly move, but she laid her eggs just the same. Oh, Mr. B, she was so weak! Laying the eggs must have taken all her strength. I hoped she would last to see them hatch, like that queen who lost her rider, but she disappeared that night." Elaine was openly sobbing now.

I hugged her tighter, murmuring softly. Pat raised her head with a querulous chirrup, and began nuzzling Elaine's hair gently. Julie joined in as well. When Zander awoke on her shoulder and began to stroke his knobby head against her chin, she felt the warmth and comfort like a tangible cloak, and her tears began to ebb. I know, because I felt it, too. When Jay waggled a cookie under her nose, she managed a chuckle.

Enveloped in sympathy and understanding, which was magnified by her link with Zander and even sensed from Pat and Julie, Elaine felt better than she had in months. She felt she could remain cocooned in this feeling forever. The links told me as much. Of course, other priorities intervened. I noticed the shift in the color of those swirling eyes first. Someone was getting hungry.

Jay noticed, too, and fetched a prepared platter from the refrigerator via the microwave "Just to take the chill off," she said. Everyone was soon busy, keeping hungry fire lizards from awakening the neighbors.

Awakening. Sometime during Elaine's revelations and comforting, the summer sun had gone down. That meant it was probably quite late. A wall clock confirmed it was approaching 10 PM. Where had the time gone?

"Do you have to work tonight, Dad?" Jay asked. It was my normal wake-up time on work nights.

"Not tonight. The Friday Night to Saturday morning shift is the only one where two people are scheduled, and I requested time off."

To Elaine I explained, "We have five people working four ten-hour shifts each. Two work from 11 PM to 9 AM. One of those works Tuesday, through Friday, the other Friday through Monday - that's me. The evening shift works from 3 PM to 1 AM, Saturday through Tuesday and Wednesday through Saturday. A day shift guy works 7 AM to 5 PM Saturday through Tuesday. The Superintendent works Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 4:30 PM, and covers the odd day shifts."

Elaine listened politely, not really caring but I could tell she was glad I was here tonight, and glad I was available to talk to, and easy to talk to. She told me so.

I smiled. "It's really easy to listen, when you have empathic amplifiers in each ear. Jay can tell you I haven't always been easy to get along with. Particularly when we first moved here."

"You had a lotta reasons for being a bear back then, Dad," she defended. "You're a lot easier to live with now."

I laughed. "That's true, and you were some of them. You've gotten easier to live with, too."

Elaine said, "It's hard to picture you as a grouchy old bear, even though Jay has told me some things. I see you now, and I can't picture it."

"I have trouble picturing it, and I lived it," I said, softly. "You know the one about the frog and the scorpion?" Elaine shook her head. "The river is rising and a frog and a scorpion are on a little island that's about to be underwater. The frog, of course, can easily escape. The scorpion pleads, 'Let me ride to safety on your back.' The frog says 'How do I know you won't sting me to death?' The scorpion points out 'If I did that, we'd both drown.' So the frog agrees. Being helpful is in his nature. The scorpion climbs on his back and they start across. Halfway there, the scorpion stings the frog, and they both drown, because that's in his nature."

Elaine just looked at me. What was the point here?

"Being happy and easy to get along with is in my nature," I said. "People have remarked on it most of my life. When things happen to change the way you are, sooner or later, you return to your nature. Even the scorpion could only make it half-way against his nature."

"Enough of this. Time for you girls to pretend to get ready to sleep. Try not to stay awake past two - if you do, Jay wakes up grumpy. It's her nature."

Jay used the bathroom first, emerging in a size XXL Chocoholics Tee shirt. On the front it said "Chocoholics 12 Step Program"; on the back, "Never be more than 12 steps from chocolate". Elaine thought it was cute. When Elaine was brushing her teeth, I performed my own ablutions in the master bath, which shared a wall. A toilet flushed. A sink ran. She left the bathroom as I was coming down the hallway in the opposite direction. I ostentatiously covered my eyes as she went past, causing Elaine to smile.

I almost stumbled when I felt the emotional relay from our fire lizards. Elaine was checking me out! But I continued by without a backward glance. She watched me seat myself in front of the computer. Shortly I heard the familiar sounds of the modem, followed by "Welcome" and "You've got mail." I still felt a tinge of what I guessed was interest, as she continued to Jay's room.

Elaine and Jay talked for hours. They talked about the usual things, boys, driver's licenses, boys, clothes, boys, makeup and jewelry, boys...

Some time after midnight, Elaine casually asked, "So, does your Dad, like date a lot?"

"No," Jay yawned. "He says he's waiting 'til I move out, 'cause two women under one roof is trouble. That's like a Chinese idiot-gram or something."

"Maybe he's seeing someone and not telling you," Elaine probed.

"I'd know. He's always home. A couple of times he went out to the bar down the street with some people from work, but they were all guys."

"Does your Dad drink a lot?"

"No. The times he went out, his friends teased him about getting fucked up on three beers. He kept a six-pack of beer in the fridge for, like, a year. We used to have hard stuff around, but he got rid of it 'cause we kept drinking it and he caught on."

"Did you get in a lot of trouble?"

"No, he just dumped it all down the kitchen sink."

"Cool. My Dad would've whipped my ass and grounded me forever. Like when he caught me smoking."

"I didn't know you smoked."

"I don't - now. My ol' man like to tore me a new asshole. Grounded me for three months. Checked my room every day, sniffing for smoke. So I quit. What did your Dad do when he caught you?"