I found this file while I was looking for something else. It is
obviously something I've posted somewhere, but I don't think that it
was here, because there is also a printable copy.
I'm rather surprised that it's a recent as 1994; it seems like forever
that I've spent all my time writing how-to and diaryzines, with my
only forays into fiction being explanations for odd things I have
seen.
Mostly, I'm curious as to whether I'm the only person still monitoring
this group.
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<begin quote>
Joy Beeson
R.R. 2, Box 461
Voorheesville, New York 12186
F
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ2 February 1994
R
Query: does this passage make sense? Can you tell what is going on?
What has gone before:
P-- Q L
It is late in the third millenium, long, long after the "Holmgren
Effect" enabled faster-than-light travel, time freezing, gravity
control, and one-way drive all in one fell swoop. "Holmgrens" are
machines which combine anti-gravity with one-way drive and are
ubiquitous in developed societies: furniture often has no legs,
things set down in mid-air are apt to stay put, and "control rings"
have replaced handcuffs and fetters. Except on Pollux and Angela,
even cop-show fans are only peripherally aware of control rings.
Six years ago,
Ivan Christofer
was kidnapped on Earth and sold on Anjela as a house pet. Last fall
(it is now spring)
Gaio Tophet
met a similar fate; the two meet when Ivan's owner,
Su Steelcor, invites Gaio's owner,
Mariska Tauranga,
to a party celebrating the coming-of-age of sixteen-year-old
Lissa Steelcor.
Mariska is conspicuously pregnant; to Gaio's extreme distress,
the child is a boy.
We see events through the eyes of
Chris Kilbuk,
Lissa's fifteen-year-old full brother. Chris and Lissa are the
oldest of twenty children on a kinderfarm owned by Su and run by
Adam Kilbuk, a trained "Daddy," with the aid of Mammy
Glo Bergson. Daddy was Su's first consort; she still owns him, and
leases him to Mammy.
Chris and three of his sisters are allowed to attend Lissa's party.
Mother and Daddy act as hosts, Mammy minds the "littles," and Ivan
sulks in a corner with Gaio. When Mammy brings in the littles to
observe the high point of the sixteen party, Jef and Dan fail to
return to the nursery-party with her. Before Daddy takes notice of
their disobedience, Chris sees Jef and Dan going into the kitchen with
Ivan and Gaio. He thinks nothing of it, because it is past teatime
and both "imports" were so upset by the presentation of
Frank Helder,
Lissa's sixteen gift, that their controls are set on "potential
suicide" and they cannot eat without help. Chris supposes that Jef
and Dan are taking them into the kitchen to feed them in private.
Chris is flattered by
Jessica Sorbonne,
a Zenobian who has come to Anjela to sell perfume. Mother orders him
to return to the party "before you get any vainer" and remains in the
hallway to converse privately with Jessica. Soon after his return an
agitated Mariska accosts Chris, desperate to find Mother Su. Upon
seeing Mariska, Su becomes equally agitated and asks Chris to escort
Jessica back to the party; both are aware that she is getting rid of
Chris; Jessica doesn't need to be accompanied by a family member to
get through the door from the private side.
Ye cats! I had no idea this situation was so complicated! You'd
think one could sum up eight pages in a single paragraph.
Cris said goodbye to Madam Sorbonne as quickly as he decently could,
and made a beeline for the door on the parlor side of the kitchen.
When it opened, he bumped his nose on the massive chest of his sire.
Daddy grabbed him and spoke over his shoulder: "Su, under the
circumstances, I think Cris should see this." What circumstances?
"That's your field. Let him in."
Ivan and Gaio were sitting on the floor and obviously ill.
"What's happened?"
"They tricked Jef and Dan into letting them into the kitchen. The
ingredients for the punch were sitting out and they got into the
brandy."
Ivan said, quite clearly, "It wasn't their fault. The kids didn't
know I couldn't open the door myself. It wasn't their fault."
Mother said, "We know it wasn't their fault."
"Don't hurt them. It wasn't their fault."
Daddy had been checking the level in the bottles and counting the
empties. "I don't think that there is enough missing to do them any
damage, but it wouldn't hurt to give them an emetic and put blood
meters on them."
"How did they contrive to drink it?" said Cris.
"They fed one another."
Ivan said, "It wasn't Jef's fault."
Mother said, "If he doesn't change his record pretty soon, I'm going
to gag him."
"It shows his heart is in the right place," Daddy said. "I didn't
know he was so fond of the boys."
Gaio laughed and waved his hands. "I cheated Maris'a. Brandy is
great stuff to open the door. If you are in Hell it gets you out and
if you are out..." he laughed again. "If you are out it puts you in!"
He tugged at Madam Tauranga's skirt. "Hey, beautiful, get me another
drink and hold the mickey."
"Here you go." Madam Tauranga gave Gaio a glass a quarter full of
something Mother had gotten out of the drug cupboard. "Use both
hands, now."
"To doors!" Gaio drank half the stuff in the glass and made a face.
"Tas'e terrible."
"Bottoms up!"
"Here's mud in your eye." Gaio drained the glass. Madam Tauranga
made him get onto his hands and knees. Mother set a wide, shallow pan
under his face. Gaio threw up.
Mother offered another glass to Ivan. He shook his head. "Not unless
you swear it will kill me."
"Easy way or hard way, you are going to drink it. Which will it be?"
"Swear it will kill me."
Mother produced more control rings than Cris knew she possessed and
put them all on Ivan.
"Drink."
"Swear."
Mother sighed, put the gag on him, and poured the drink into the gag.
Ivan tried to choke. He was forced to swallow instead.
When Ivan was vomiting over his own pan, Mother said to Daddy, "What
have we got to carry them?"
"I think the easiest way would be to stand them up and make them
walk."
Madam Tauranga said, "Don't swallow, love, rinse your mouth and spit."
The delivery port ejected a package. Madam Tauranga took it, and
controlled Gaio as thoroughly as Mother had controlled Ivan. She
said, "I think he is fit for the trip home now."
"Cris, you and I must get him up on his feet. Mariska is too far
along for this kind of work."
"Yes, mam."
Gaio allowed Cris and Mother to help him when he saw that Madam
Tauranga would drag him by the controls if he didn't. When they got
to the door that opened into that part of the party room that had been
the hall in front of the transit room, Madam Tauranga tightened her
control of Gaio and forced him to walk in a reasonably steady manner
to the transit door. She packed him into the waiting capsule and
punched his destination. Then she said to Mother, "Please make my
apologies to young Madam Steelcor."
"Of course," Mother said. "Mariska, can you forgive me?"
"If you can forgive me; it couldn't have happened if I'd kept an eye
on Gaio."
Mother said, "You mustn't leave him alone."
Madam Tauranga got into her own capsule.
Mother elected to return to the kitchen through the party room,
pausing along the way to speak to her guests and act the part of a
perfect hostess. If anyone noticed that Cris was nervous, she would
put it down to his youth and the novelty of the occasion.
The party was proceeding nicely. About half the guests had taken
chairs and were engaged in quiet conversation. A constantly-changing
group clustered around Lissa and Frank. In the middle of the floor, a
group of young people and young studs and a few ripe boys were singing
and clapping their way through the intricate steps of a play-party
game. Many of the boys and underage people were busy justifying
Daddy's assertion that feeding a controlled diet trained a child to
eat everything in sight. Some had already been sent home with
bellyaches. Outside on the lawn, the rest of the children could be
seen forgetting their unnatural dignity, with due respect for their
fancy clothes.
Madame Sorbonne was waiting for them at the kitchen door.
"How are the boys?"
"They drank some alcohol, but not enough to do them any harm. Mariska
took Gaio home and I'm going to put Ivan to bed now."
When they entered the kitchen, Ivan was standing up, seemingly steady
on his feet. He smiled when he saw Mother, and said, "Ah, there you
are my dear. Forget that nonsense about putting me to bed; I used to
drink four times that much and still dance all night. Let us return
to the party." Ivan held out his arm in the charming way that Earthly
studs signaled their willingness to be escorted.
It was the first time that Cris had ever seen his mother taken aback.
Daddy was finding it so difficult not to laugh that for a moment he
couldn't speak. He said, "Oh, Su, you ought to take advantage of his condition!"
Mother took a moment to consult the reading that her neckband relayed
from Ivan's controls. "Don't think I won't! If I can get a little
food into him, he can stand it. Darling Ivan! If your liver could
take it, I'd let you drink brandy." She patted Ivan and he kissed her
warmly. The effect was somewhat spoiled by his difficulty in finding
her face.
Daddy removed Ivan's nanny's neckband from his neck and threw it into
the nearest laundry. Cris blinked and decided that he hadn't really
seen one stud controlling another. The dark-blue band must have been
something else altogether.
Mother straightened Ivan's decorations, freshened his mascara, combed
his hair, and took off the extra control rings. Just as they were
about to go through the door, he stopped her. "Su, there is something
I think you should know."
"What is that, Ivan?"
"Jef and Dan didn't know I didn't belong in the kitchen."
<end quote>
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This passage is part of a story that was snipped off the beginning of
a story that did see "publication":
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/LINKS/TEXT/A_SPRING.HTM
--
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/
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