第36节
you
over. You were trying to shut me out!" 'Roz, it's not true!"
exclaimed Steve. 'I didn't shut you out - not deliberately, anyway.
This wasn't something I could have shared with you. Nothing like this
has ever happened to me before. I - I didn't even know the word for
it!" 'You mean "love" - the way I feel about you?" Roz laughed
brokenly. 'What do you think it was that brought us so close to each
other? What do you think it was you felt when we -?"
Steve cut in. 'It's not the same thing, Roz."
'It is!" she cried. 'Can't you see? The only difference is you've
always tried to deny the feeling we have for each other. I understood
why. It hurt but it didn't worry me because I knew you could never
destroy it. But -' She grabbed the collar of his coveralls, '- how,
after all you've said, how can you say you love a Mute?! How could you
even bear to touch one?!" Steve dragged her hand away and held it
tightly. 'Roz!
Listen! I didn't know about the Plainfolk then. They're not animals
and they're not poisonous. If they were I wouldn't be here. They are
people, Roz! Okay, most of them look pretty awful, but they're not
dumb! And some of them - like Clearwater - are very special people.
She's a Mute, yes, but she's not a lumphead like the others."
'What is she then - a yearling?"
'No. According to the Manual, the straights traded in as twelve-month
old babies by the Southern Mutes are supposed to be straight-boned and
smooth-skinned but they've always had-multi-coloured bodies - right? I
mean, that's how you're supposed to be able to tell the difference
between them and us."
Roz nodded.
'Well, Clearwater is something else again. She's a super-straight!
Her body is absolutely perfect. Her skin is almost the same colour as
yours. All over! She's been raised to think of herself as a Mute but
there's nothing wrong with her brain. If she was dressed in a jump
suit she'd look just like us!" 'Not like us,' muttered Roz. 'We're
special, Steve."
'So is she, believe me." Steve put his hands on Roz's shoulders. 'And
that's not all. Cadillac - this other Mute who helped save me after I
crashed - is the same. They've both got skins and bodies like
Trackers, their minds are like our minds - maybe even better than
ours!
I tried to tell the Assessors about how intelligent the Mutes were but
-' Steve broke off with a laugh, '- they wouldn't listen to me!" He
ran a hand down his kin-sister's face. 'I'll tell you something
else.
There is such a thing as Mute magic. I saw 'em use it, Roz. It was
fantastic..."
Roz puffed on the reaf then leaned forward and gently blew smoke into
Steve's face. He held out for a brief moment then drew it in through
his nostrils. Roz put her open lips on his and passed the rest of the
smoke from her mouth into his.
Steve drew it down into his lungs. 'Men-mmm... that feels good.
Forgive me?"
'Not yet,' said Roz. She placed the reaf between Steve's lips. 'Your
turn."
Steve burned off a good half inch of grass, passed some of the smoke
back into her mouth then swallowed the rest.
'Mmmmm ... things are beginning to look a lot better,' Roz took charge
of the reaf, lay back on the bunk and wriggled across to the other side
to make room for Steve. 'You'll find another one in the box..."
Steve used the coil to light up and lay down beside his kin-sister.
'Hope they haven't got some kind of shit detector fixed to the
ventilation system."
Roz giggled. 'If they have, I don't think it's working."
She turned onto her side and lay against him, head up on one elbow.
'Does this take you back?"
Steve exhaled slowly and watched the smoke drift to the ceiling.
'Yeah... Funny isn't it? Five months ago, the idea that an intelligent
human being would voluntarily inhale smoke from burning grass would
have seemed absolutely insane. And yet ' 'You now find everybody's
doing it."
'So you tell me."
'How was it out there?"
'Good and bad. They're an amazing people. Totally different to what I
would ever have imagined - and to what we've been raised to believe.
Most of the stuff we've been fed by the First Family isn't true,
Roz."