Helix Wars by Eric Brown

Author:Eric Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781781080474
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2012-09-24T12:00:00+00:00

2

HE SHOULD HAVE known not to, but he made to kiss her as he slipped into the passenger seat. She turned her head, offering her cheek instead of her lips, a gesture she had taken to performing increasingly over the years. Like a fool he went through with the action, and kissed her cheek.

She pulled away from the A-frame and drove around the lake.

“Where are we going?” he asked, glancing at her. As ever, he was reminded of the woman he had married, ten years ago, a woman very different to this one.

“Like I said, into the country.”

He sat back, staring out at the passing domes and A-frames of this gardened residential area.

“I thought... When I found out about the crash, I feared you’d be badly injured.”

Before he could stop himself, he said, “Would you have cared?” and felt an immediate stab of regret.

From the corner of his eye he saw her long fingers tighten on the apex of the wheel. He imagined the compression of her lips, the anger in her brown eyes.

“As a matter of fact, yes. You might not believe it, but I still feel something for you.”

“You have a strange way of showing it.”

He glanced at her, and he was right: anger flared in her eyes. “Meaning?” she snapped.

“Meaning, why the hell are you running after that bastard Stewart if you feel anything at all for me?”

“Black and white,” she said.

He stared at her. “What?”

“That’s what everything is with you, isn’t it, Jeff? Black and white. Right and wrong. Nothing in between. No shades of grey. No moral ambiguity.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He squeezed his eyes shut in impotent frustration. Why was it that whenever they spoke she always twisted his words, or failed to comprehend his meaning?

“No,” she smiled. “No, you wouldn’t, would you? That’s one of the reasons I no longer feel for you what I did, back in the early days.”

His stomach turned. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve changed. You no longer talk, no longer discuss the... the meanings of things. Everything’s is so clear-cut in your world. Like I said, black and white.”

“I haven’t changed, Maria. I’m the same person. It’s your perception of me that’s changed.”

She sighed in exasperation and accelerated.

The silence simmered between them.

He said, “Where are we going?”

“The country.”

They were heading along the western highway towards Cartwright Park.

He felt a sudden welling of panic. “No. You can’t do this. Stop the fucking car and let me out!”

She turned to him, and what he saw in her eyes was shocking: not the hatred of earlier, but something very much like compassion.

“No, Jeff. I’m not stopping the car. You’re not getting out until we get there. You need to face this.”

He moaned and closed his eyes. He’d rather not see the passing countryside, the rolling hills of the parkland he found so painful. He’d not come this way for years; it was one of the ways he coped.

“Why are you doing this?” He still had his eyes tight shut, willing himself not to weep.

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