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Wait a minute." She looked to see if either young tree were home to
colonies of stinging ants. "Yes, these are all right. Find two more of
this size or a little bigger and cut them. And cut aerial roots. Thin ones
to use as -rope. Be careful. If anything stings or bites you out here.. .
We're on our own. You could die. And don't go out of sight of this
area. It's easier to get lost than you think."
"But you're so good you can't get lost," Gabriel said.
"Good has nothing to do with it. I have an eidetic memory and I've had
more time to get used to the forest." She had never told them why she
had an eidetic memory. Every Oankali change she had told them
about had diminished her credibility with them.
"Too good to be true," Gabriel said softly.
They chose the highest ground they could find and built a shelter.
They believed they would be using it for a few days, at least. The
shelter was wall-less-no more than a frame with a roof. They could
hang hammocks from it or spread mats beneath it on mattresses of
leaves and branches. It was just large enough to keep everyone out of
the rain. They roofed it with the tarpaulins some of them had brought.
Then they used branches to sweep the ground beneath clean of leaves,
twigs, and fungi.
Wray managed to get a fire going with a bow Leah had brought along,
but he swore he would never do it again. "Too much work," he said.
Leah had brought corn from the garden. It was dark when they
roasted it along with some of Lilith's yams. They ate these along with
the last of the breadnuts. The meal was filling, though not satisfying.
"Tomorrow we can fish," Lilith told them.
"Without even a safety pin, a string, and a stick?" Wray said.
Lilith smiled. "Worse than that. The Oankali wouldn't teach me how
to kill anything, so the only fish I caught were the ones stranded in
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some of the little streams. I cut a slender, straight sapling pole,
sharpened one end, hardened it in the fire, and taught myself to spear
fish. I actually did it-speared several of them."
"Ever try it with bow and arrow?" Wray asked.
"Yes. I was better with the spear."
"I'll try it," he said. "Or maybe I can even put together a jungle version
of a safety pin and string. Tomorrow, while the rest of you look for the
others, I'll start learning to fish.
"We'll fish," Leah said.
He smiled and took her hand-then let it go in almost the same motion.
His smile faded and he stared into the fire. Leah looked away into the
darkness of the forest.
Lilith watched them, frowning. What was going on? Was it just
trouble between them-or was it something else?
It began to rain suddenly, and they sat dry and united by the darkness
and the noise outside. The rain poured down and the insects took
shelter with them, biting them and sometimes flying into the fire
which had been built up again for light and comfort once the cooking
was done.
Lilith tied her hammock to two crossbeams and lay down. Joseph
hung his hammock near her-too near for a third person to lie between
them. But he did not touch her. There was no privacy. She did not
expect to make love. But she was bothered by the care he took not to
touch her. She reached out and touched his face to make him turn
toward her.
Instead, he drew away. Worse, if he had not drawn away, she would
have. His flesh felt wrong somehow, oddly repellant. It had not been
this way when he came to her before Nikanj moved in between them.
Joseph's touch had been more than welcome. He had been water after
a very long drought. But then Nikanj had come to stay. It had created
for them the powerful threefold unity that was one of the most alien
features of Oankali life. Had that unity now become a necessary
feature of their human lives? If it had, what could they do? Would the
effect wear off?
An ooloi needed a male and female pair to be able to play its part in
reproduction, but it neither needed nor wanted two-way contact
between that male and female. Oankali males and females never
touched each other sexually. That worked fine for them. It could not
possibly work for human beings.
She reached out and took Joseph's hand. He tried to jerk away
reflexively, then he seemed to realize something was wrong. He held
her hand for a long, increasingly uncomfortable moment. Finally it
was she who drew away, shuddering with revulsion and relief.
6
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The next morning just after dawn, Curt and his people found the
shelter.
Lilith started awake, knowing that something was not right. She sat
up awkwardly in the hammock and put her feet on the ground. Near
Joseph, she saw Victor and Gregory. She turned toward them,
relieved. Now there would be no need to look for the others. They
could all get busy building the boat or raft they would need to cross
the river. Everyone would find out for certain whether the other side
was forest or illusion.
She looked around to see who else had arrived. That was when she
saw Curt. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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